and Hélène Volat-Shapiro Assistant Head, Bibliographic Services SUNY Stony Brook Institutional commitment to the general problem o f underrepresentation o f minorities in academia.TP he M inority Internship/Scholarship in JK. L ib ra ry a n d In fo rm a tio n S cien ces (M ILIS)1 program is designed for minority2 under graduate students at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook who have dem on strated leadership potential and are interested in pursuing a career in librarianship. Students ac cepted into the M ILIS program participate in a paid internship in the library during their senior year and receive a full scholarship from SUNY at lrſh e name and acronym for this program were developed by D anna Bell, formerly special collec tions librarian at SUNY Stony Brook, Why MILIS is necessary W ithin the United States the minority popula tion is growing at a faster rate than the population as a whole. Projections indicate a significant growth through the first quarter of the next century in the percentage of the college age population compris ing minorities.3