The Status of Students, Faculty, and Leadership Diversities in US Pharmacy Schools/Colleges.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this research is to address knowledge gaps on diversity in the United States (US) population, pharmacy students, faculty, and school/college leadership. METHOD: The population data were collected from the US Census Bureau. The pharmacy student and faculty data were collected from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy enrollment and faculty profiles to compute Diversity Indices (DIs). To delve further into observed DI values, different ratios were calculated by dividing the total number of people in a racial/ethnic group of a particular category (eg, students) by the total number of people in the same racial/ethnic group in a different category (eg, faculty). Two factors (ratios among racial groups and changes in ratios over time) ANOVA without replication was conducted using Excel. RESULTS: The students are the most diverse category (average DI = 69%), followed by the US population (average DI = 58%), faculty diversity (average DI = 54%), assistant/associate dean (average DI = 42%) and dean (average DI = 31%). The ratio analyses among student, faculty, and leadership categories reveal a disproportionately high representation of White individuals in faculty and leadership roles when compared to other racial groups, resulting in low DI values in these categories. CONCLUSION: A significant ratio difference was found among various racial groups each year. However, there was no significant change observed in ratios over time. The academic community must develop hiring practices that increase the DI values among faculty and leadership categories to reduce the gap and promote student success.

Colonization by Biological Control Agents on Post-Fire Regrowth of Invasive Lygodium microphyllum (Lygodiaceae).

Integration of biological control with other management tactics such as prescribed burning is often important for successful invasive weed control. A critical step in this integration is determining whether the agent can colonize postburn growth of the weed. Here, we investigated postburn colonization by biological control agents on regrowth of the invasive vine Lygodium microphyllum (Cav.) R. Br. (Lygodiaceae, Old World climbing fern) in Florida. We monitored regrowth and subsequent colonization of two agents already established in Florida-the gall-inducing mite Floracarus perrepae Knihinicki and Boczek (Acariformes: Eriophyidae) and the foliage-feeding moth Neomusotima conspurcatalis Warren (Lepidoptera: Crambidae)-following three prescribed burns. We provide the first report of natural colonization by the F. perrepae mite and N. conspurcatalis moth on postburn L. microphyllum regrowth, and this colonization typically began 5-9 mo postburn. Furthermore, we report that L. microphyllum can recover to prefire levels of percent cover in as little as 5 mo. Our findings indicate that biological control of L. microphyllum has the potential to be integrated with prescribed burns.