Western Michigan University has won a large grant to help draw more students to science and technology. University officials say the $1.4 million comes from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. They say the five-year project will focus on classes in biology.
The Institute says it wants to increase the number of undergraduates to stick with science and technology courses. Nationally, only four of every ten first-year students who start out in math, engineering, and the sciences ends up getting a degree in those fields. And it says only 20 percent of minority freshmen stay with "STEM" majors after their first year.