In 2006, the Division of Social Sciences was honored by the generous gift of $500,000 from Sara Miller McCune and SAGE Publications to endow the position of Dean of Social Sciences in the College of Letters and Science. Dean Melvin L. Oliver, the first SAGE Sara Miller McCune Dean of Social Sciences, announced in spring 2007 that the proceeds from the endowment will be used to provide fellowships for outstanding underrepresented graduate students in doctoral programs in the social sciences. To date, the SAGE Sara Miller McCune fellows program has selected two cohorts of exceptional students. Each fellow chose UC Santa Barbara from an array of highly ranked graduate programs. They bring to our division a demonstrated commitment to teaching and the application of research to solving social problems. We celebrate their accomplishments and look forward to their contributions as graduate students and future scholars.

The funds are granted to departments and used to increase the competitiveness of UCSB central fellowship and departmental awards to recruit the most talented underrepresented students into Ph.D. programs in the social sciences. Fellows are identified and nominated by departmental faculty admission committees. Thus, the criteria for each fellow’s nomination are based in the faculty’s overall assessment of the student's outstanding academic background and ability to persist and complete doctoral studies. It is anticipated that fellows will;

• Actively seek out and select a team of faculty advisors with whom they will work to advance their research agendas;
• Pursue discipline-specific student leadership opportunities and become involved in academic associations and organizations;
• Maintain departmental normative time and time-to-degree standards as communicated by Graduate Division;
• Seek out and utilize institutional resources in an effort to promote their personal, professional, and academic development;
• Reserve a portion of their SAGE awards for involvement in summer research programs;
• Participate in professional and social activities;
• Apply for national fellowship competitions such as the Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowship, National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellows Program, and the UC President’s Postdoctoral Program.