The primary thrust of the proposed volume is to provide information for higher education minority serving institutions (MSIs) and other institutions and individuals interested in providing and/or improving mentoring programs and services to a variety of target groups. The editors are interested in how mentorship can produce beneficial outcomes for the mentor that may be similar to or different from outcomes in other educational contexts. Thus, the purpose of this volume is to showcase, through case studies and other forms of empirical research, how successful mentoring programs and relationships at MSIs have been designed and implemented. Additionally, we will examine the various definitions and slight variations of the meaning of the construct of mentoring within the MSI context. It is our intent to share aspects of mentoring programs and relationships as well as their outcomes that have heretofore been underrepresented and underreported in the research literature.

Higher education is undergoing profound change at an unprecedented pace in today's academic marketplace. This accelerating and precipitating change has motivated these distinguished authors - passionate observers of academe - to read well-chosen publications about meeting demands and responding to needs among our nation's historically Black universities and colleges (HBCUs). We have captured the essence of expediting the critical analysis to confront the challenges of academic administration, finance, student life, technology, and other areas in the academic enterprise. Today's administrators and academicians must be able to make balanced decisions based on a methodology that is compendious, intelligible, unambiguous, clear, and credible. The authors have provided this methodology based on their collective experiences in perhaps the toughest sector of the marketplace - the HBCU sector. The timing of this savvy book could not be better. Given recent media coverage of controversial and debatable decision-making at institutions of higher learning, this book can serve as a resource for meeting institutional challenges, approaching them with sequential structure, involving stakeholders in analytics (patterns) & informatics (processes) and formulating recommendations for future arbitration. The active research process for making these tough decisions provides a collaborative convergence to advance the process from a collegial examination of facts and issues. This process supports widespread advocacy in higher education for fostering organizational learning, leveraging human capital, institutionalizing human empowerment, and growing learning communities of practice for success.

Undergraduate Research (UGR) is any creative effort undertaken by an undergraduate that advances the knowledge of the student in an academic discipline and leads to new scholarly insights or the creation of new knowledge that adds to the wealth of the discipline. Undergraduate research is valued and encouraged at several HBCUs; however, the history, implementation, nor progress has not been sufficiently published and disseminated nationally. Importantly, a great deal of learning occurs when undergraduate students conduct research and, of course, much of this learning does not happen during the traditional coursework. Research leads to better understanding of and deeper appreciation for the discipline. Further, it is contended that students' career goals and academic expectations are enhanced as a result of research participation. Extensive undergraduate research can increase access to PhD programs. From the voices of faculty mentors, student mentees and UGR program directors and program coordinators this volume describes the successes of programs across HBCUs and discusses how retention and graduation rates have been increased as a result of participation.

The primary thrust of the proposed volume is to provide information for higher education minority serving institutions (MSIs) and other institutions and individuals interested in providing and/or improving mentoring programs and services to a variety of target groups. The editors are interested in how mentorship can produce beneficial outcomes for the mentor that may be similar to or different from outcomes in other educational contexts. Thus, the purpose of this volume is to showcase, through case studies and other forms of empirical research, how successful mentoring programs and relationships at MSIs have been designed and implemented. Additionally, we will examine the various definitions and slight variations of the meaning of the construct of mentoring within the MSI context. It is our intent to share aspects of mentoring programs and relationships as well as their outcomes that have heretofore been underrepresented and underreported in the research literature.