This article features the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program at the University of Memphis. The McNair program is named after Ronald E. McNair, the second African-American in space, who died in the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion in 1986. Approximately 200 campuses across the nation host the program. Whereas the program received $46.2 million in federal funds in fiscal 2011, in fiscal 2012 funding dropped to $36.1 million but may be even lower at $30.5 million, according to a U.S. Department of Education document that calls for applications for McNair grants by June 8. Fiscal 2013 looks the same as 2012. Program administrators and advocates say the decrease represents a step in the wrong direction. At a time when more minorities populate the landscape of higher education, proponents say the McNair program provides mentorship, motivation, and role modeling for students who may not otherwise matriculate into graduate school. Overall, since 1986, the McNair program has helped approximately 2,500 alumni earn doctoral degrees and secure positions in the academy, according to the Council for Opportunity in Education, or COE. Numbers aside, proponents say McNair helps diversify and replace an aging professoriate, which makes it more likely for more diverse students to enter graduate school in the future. Defunding McNair, they say, hurts those objectives. The author discusses how McNair program cuts could hamper efforts to boost the number of minorities holding doctoral degrees.