1. How are the resources (expertise, finances, people and structures) in these engineering schools used to support Black engineering undergraduates?
Institutional viability and vitality at the school level is essential to create an environment that supports the retention and graduation of Black engineering undergraduates. Therefore, the leaders of engineering schools with a goal of supporting Black students indicate that commitment in their strategic plan and operations. They also provide adequate financial resources and expertise to executive the activities related to the goal (Smith, 2009). However, this study illustrates that the resources expended to demonstrate a school’s commitment to this goal vary from institution to institution.
At East Coast University, the engineering dean demonstrates intention and courage regarding diversity and inclusion and appears to have the support of executive leadership at the school. The dean is familiar with the history of the school regarding the experiences of Black students and can talk a great deal about the historical challenges of the engineering school and the entire University. In recent years, the school responded to the racial incidents and student protests in Missouri by taking an inventory of the engineering community. This initiative started with a day of diversity and inclusion that included a faculty panel, a student panel, a keynote presentation and a community discussion among administrators, faculty, staff and students to talk about inclusivity. After the event, the school leadership formed diversity and inclusion committees and eventually those committees helped to form a new diversity strategic plan. This approach to identifying disparities that exist in the community and revising the mission to address the disparities while including the entire community in the process provides an example of the dean’s intentionality as a leader (Barber, 2015; Harper, 2010b, 2017)
The engineering dean at East Coast University is intentional about recruiting a diverse group of faculty members, graduate students and undergraduates and is motivated to obtain a first-place ranking in diversity. The dean regularly engages faculty in conversations about how to expand the diversity of the engineering faculty and graduate student population and is willing
to provide the necessary incentives to support these efforts. The dean also participates in recruitment events for prospective undergraduates. This focus on transforming the school to increase the number of individuals from underrepresented groups is admirable and a key part of true institutional change (Baber, 2015; Kezar & Eckel, 2002a).
East Coast is also very generous with funding to support diversity outreach efforts. The dean’s office provides funds for academic and college preparation programming for local and out of area pre-college students. The dean supports diversity engineering student organizations and provides funds to make the East Coast University chapters of organizations such as the National Society of Black Engineers and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers visible participants on the regional and national levels.
The engineering school of East Coast University uses its faculty and staff expertise to support all students, including Black and other marginalized students. For all students, the school provides expert faculty to teach first- and second- year engineering classes. The structure of the engineering curriculum incorporates this expertise because the professors who teach within the program are distinguished faculty who receive additional administrative support. The MEP director serves as an expert to the school and some faculty consult the director on issues regarding the academic well-being of ethnically underrepresented students.
Uptown University has an inspiring historical mission to create access and opportunity, but not everyone celebrates the mission. In fact, recent changes in administration and the school’s relatively new commitment to “inclusive excellence”, as defined by the institution, seems to have moved the school away from its core values of diversity and inclusion. Many of the faculty members talked about the struggles of open enrollment and pointed out the flaws they viewed in this open access model. Based on my interview of former administrators, it seems that discussions about the open enrollment policy are common on campus. Furthermore, the
resources available to support students, Black engineering undergraduates and others, at Uptown University are very limited, resulting in overcrowded classrooms and overextended staff members.
The Uptown engineering school has a diverse group of administrators and faculty members that include Black engineers in leadership roles who serve as examples of success to the students. The engineering administrators and faculty members seem to speak the same language regarding the concept of inclusive excellence, but their approach seems to be a one- size-fits-all model that is ineffective in caring for the needs of all students, particularly individuals who deviate from the norm (Harper, 2010b). However, the shared message that “we see all students as the same” appears to be a part of the mission or vision of the engineering school and the University. This colorblind approach negatively affects student success because it hinders the ability to monitor their academic or social needs in a disaggregated manner and hides structural inequities (Lopez, 2003). This approach also prevents the school from intentionally supporting the needs of diversity student organizations, such as the National Society of Black Engineers.
Engineering faculty members from Uptown University mentioned the existence of a strategic planning diversity committee for the University and for the engineering school. However, data collected on Uptown University does not demonstrate an engineering school commitment to Black students because the school does not provide any additional socialization or academic support to Black engineering undergraduates.
The Uptown University engineering faculty and administrators include experts in diversity and inclusion. For example, the Uptown University engineering dean is a well-known advocate of issues of college access and academic success in STEM, but I was unable to meet with the dean until after the formal study interviews. Instead, two former deans who currently
serve on the faculty made themselves available for interviews. Based on the comments from the faculty and administrators, the dean has been actively working to establish more of a community within the engineering school. However, it appears that the unrest in the executive leadership of the University is having an adverse impact on the engineering school.