Responses of Universities to Crisis- Impact and Implications on Underrepresented Minority Engineering Faculty

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, social unrest, financial and other crises, it is important to understand the impacts of such events on higher education. In particular, close attention must be paid to the impact these events have on underrepresented minority (URM) faculty representation in engineering, already of grave concern before the pandemic. This work aims to ensure that their voices are heard and reflected in policy change impacting their career trajectories. This project will utilize a holistic approach to gathering data from URM engineering faculty, especially women, from a variety of institution types, (e.g. Hispanic Serving Institutions, Predominately White Institutions, and Historically Black Colleges & Universities). The voices of these faculty will be used to inform policy makers in academia of multiple aspects of the convergence of multiple crises on the professional outcomes for URM engineering faculty.

This work will be at the forefront of research investigating policy development and implementation related to URM engineering faculty sustainability and advancement. It aims to inform systematic, long-term and doable plans addressing potential further disruption and/or lasting change in the Academy. This project will be accomplished by (1) collecting data of the lived experiences during these crises and sharing URM engineering faculty insights about the impact to their personal lives and professional careers; (2) building a dataset of interim and current university policies related to themes determined from data collection/analysis; (3) using the data to inform policy change and to energize current initiatives to support retention of URM engineering faculty and (4) hosting a virtual colloquium for collaboration and sharing of best practices among university faculty and leaders for supporting and strengthening efforts for broadening participation in engineering. This research will reveal how interim and/or new policies and practices during and after a crisis can impact the career trajectories of URM engineering faculty. This work is urgent given the fact that the number of URMs seeking terminal degrees in engineering and the number of URM engineering faculty has flat-lined. This study will provide recommendations for procedure and policy revisions/augmentation for universities aimed at ensuring faculty success during and after current and emergent crises.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.