{"id":135195,"date":"2023-10-10T00:02:52","date_gmt":"2023-10-10T04:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/?p=135195"},"modified":"2023-10-09T18:24:10","modified_gmt":"2023-10-09T22:24:10","slug":"scholars-to-study-why-365m-dei-investment-into-stem-failed-to-diversify-engineering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/scholars-to-study-why-365m-dei-investment-into-stem-failed-to-diversify-engineering\/","title":{"rendered":"Scholars to study why $365M DEI investment into STEM failed to diversify engineering"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite 20 years of investment, women make up only 20 percent of engineering students and tenure-track faculty<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The National Science Foundation has tapped a set of scholars to study one of its programs that funneled $365 million into diversifying STEM, but appears to have had little effect in the field of engineering.<\/p>\n

The $300,000 grant doled out by the National Science Foundation will investigate factors influencing Broadening Participation Initiatives, or BPIs, which aim to increase the participation of women and other underrepresented groups in STEM.<\/p>\n

The grant was recently awarded<\/a> to the University at Buffalo\u2019s Matilde S\u00e1nchez-Pe\u00f1a, an assistant professor of engineering education.<\/p>\n

An article published by the University at Buffalo\u2019s news center highlights<\/a> how S\u00e1nchez-Pe\u00f1a and her colleagues will use their recently awarded NSF grant to \u201cstudy why, despite 20 years of investment, woman [sic] make up only 20% of engineering students and tenure-track faculty.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the leader of the Diversity Assessment Research in Engineering to Catalyze the Advancement of Respect and Equity, or DAREtoCARE lab, at the University at Buffalo, S\u00e1nchez-Pe\u00f1a strives to \u201cprogress engineering as a more diverse field through rigorous research on the advancement of women and other minorities at all levels of engineering.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other members of the team include S\u00e1nchez-Pe\u00f1a\u2019s fellow University at Buffalo engineering education professor, Corey Schimpf, and Juan Cruz, an assistant professor from Rowan University\u2019s College of Engineering.<\/p>\n

The award abstract for the project states<\/a> S\u00e1nchez-Pe\u00f1a and her colleagues plan to focus on efforts tied to the NSF\u2019s ADVANCE program, a BPI they describe as \u201cexemplary\u201d and \u201cwell-established.\u201d<\/p>\n

The goal of ADVANCE, according<\/a> to the NSF website, \u201cis to increase the representation and advancement of women in academic science and engineering careers, thereby contributing to the development of a more diverse science and engineering workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cADVANCE encourages institutions of higher education and the broader science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) community \u2026 to address various aspects of STEM academic culture and institutional structure that may differentially affect women faculty and academic administrators,\u201d the site states.<\/p>\n

At the time of the program\u2019s twentieth anniversary in 2021, the NSF reported<\/a> it had invested over $365 million in the program and had distributed funds to \u201c217 different institutions of higher education in 48 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.\u201d<\/p>\n

The College Fix<\/em> reached out to S\u00e1nchez-Pe\u00f1a and her colleagues regarding whether they viewed the $365 million ADVANCE program as a success or failure given the numbers reported in the University at Buffalo news center article, but did not receive a response.<\/p>\n

One of the beneficiaries of the NSF\u2019s ADVANCE program highlighted<\/a> in a 2021 newsletter from the Division of Human Resource Development is the American Association for the Advancement of Science\u2019s STEM Equity Achievement, or SEA Change initiative, which \u201cincentivizes institutions to collect and report demographic data on students and faculty, as well as equity policies and programs\u201d through a tiered bronze, silver, and gold recognition and reward system.<\/p>\n

Other recipients noted in the document include the University of California at Irvine, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, all of which received ADVANCE grants to develop or further various DEI goals on their campuses.<\/p>\n

In their award abstract, S\u00e1nchez-Pe\u00f1a and her colleagues state that through their project they intend to \u201ccreate a comprehensive theoretical model of the complex dynamics and distinct configurations of factors that lead to the outcomes targeted by a BPI\u201d and \u201crefine the theory of drivers and barriers to the BPI goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

The aims of their research, they state, include testing the capabilities of different analytical and modeling techniques in \u201crefining theories for institutional change\u201d and \u201cinnovat[ing] in the translation of qualitative evidence into quantitative performance measures\u201d that could aid in modeling the impact of Broadening Participation Initiatives.<\/p>\n

To do this, S\u00e1nchez-Pe\u00f1a and her colleagues state<\/a> they will divide their project into two phases.<\/p>\n

In the first phase, they state, they intend to collect publicly available data from 15 top-tier research institutions that were early recipients of ADVANCE grants from the NSF and 15 comparable institutions that did not receive such grants, then attempt to identify \u201cdifferent theoretical paths leading to outcomes related to the recruitment and retention of women, particularly women of color.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the second phase of the project, they state, they plan to conduct focus groups and analyze data from \u201cinterviews with women faculty and administrators from a subset of the selected institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe research outcomes of this project,\u201d they state, \u201cwill include (1) refined theories of institutional change for the advancement of women faculty in engineering, including potentially new and confirmed causal relationships, as well as identification of persisting barriers and points of leverage for women[\u2019]s success, (2) methodological innovations in translating qualitative data to quantitative performance measures, and the use of complex systems methods to study institutional change.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE: \u2018Too rock heavy,\u2019 too ableist, too white: Geoscience students identify concerns in field<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

IMAGE: National Science Foundation<\/a><\/p>\n

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