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

鉴于COVID-19疫情、社会动荡、金融及其他危机，了解该等事件对高等教育的影响至关重要。特别是，必须密切关注这些事件对工程学中代表性不足的少数民族（URM）教师代表性的影响，这在大流行之前已经引起了严重关注。这项工作旨在确保他们的声音得到倾听，并反映在影响其职业轨迹的政策变化中。该项目将采用一种整体方法，从各种机构类型（如西班牙裔服务机构、主要是白色机构和历史上的黑人学院大学）的URM工程学院，特别是妇女那里收集数据。&这些教师的声音将被用来告知政策制定者在学术界的多个方面的融合的多重危机的专业成果为URM工程学院。这项工作将在调查政策的制定和实施相关的URM工程学院的可持续性和进步的研究的前沿。它旨在为系统的，长期的和可行的计划提供信息，以解决学院潜在的进一步破坏和/或持久的变化。该项目将通过以下方式完成：（1）收集这些危机期间的生活经历数据，并分享URM工程教师对其个人生活和职业生涯影响的见解;（2）建立与数据收集/分析确定的主题相关的临时和当前大学政策数据集;（3）使用数据来告知政策变化，并激励当前的举措，以支持URM工程学院的保留和（4）举办一次虚拟座谈会，促进大学教师和领导人之间的合作和分享最佳做法，以支持和加强扩大工程参与的努力。这项研究将揭示如何临时和/或新的政策和做法期间和危机后可以影响URM工程教师的职业轨迹。 这项工作是紧迫的，因为寻求工程学终端学位的URM数量和URM工程学院的数量已经持平。 这项研究将为大学提供程序和政策修订/增强的建议，旨在确保教师在当前和紧急危机期间和之后的成功。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

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.