Transportation workshop for minority institution faculty

A summer workshop to train faculty from minority institutions in various aspects of transportation research was held in the summers of 1980 and 1981. The purpose of the workshop was to generate a greater response from transportation faculty in such institutions to UMTA research programs. Faculty at minority institutions have a number of institutional constraints that hinder full participation in research programs. The workshop was designed to help faculty deal with those constraints and also approach the complexities of grant and contract research. A rigorous selection process culminated in the choice of 15 participants in 1980 and 12 in 1981. The majority of the participants were from historically black colleges. Seven weeks of the workshop were spent in carrying out the various phases of a research project-from a grant application through a final report. One week of the workshop was held in New York City, where the participants had extensive lectures on and tours of New York's complex transit system. The success of the workshop was measured by both postworkshop evaluation and the continuing transportation work of the participants. The workshop was influential in the establishment of a new working network.