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

鉴于新冠肺炎大流行、社会动荡、金融和其他危机，了解这些事件对高等教育的影响非常重要。特别是，必须密切关注这些事件对工程学中代表不足的少数族裔(URM)教职员工的影响，在大流行之前就已经引起了严重关注。这项工作旨在确保他们的声音在影响他们职业发展轨迹的政策变化中得到倾听和反映。该项目将利用一种全面的方法，从不同类型的机构(如西班牙裔服务机构，主要是白人机构，以及历史上以黑人为主的学院和大学)收集URM工程学教师，特别是女性的数据。这些教师的声音将被用来向学术界的政策制定者提供关于城市轨道交通工程学院专业成果的多重危机汇聚的多个方面的信息。这项工作将处于研究的前沿，调查与城市轨道交通工程学院可持续发展和进步相关的政策制定和实施。它旨在为学院提供系统、长期和可行的计划，以应对学院可能出现的进一步破坏和/或持久变化。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验数据，并就危机对他们个人生活和职业生涯的影响分享URM工程学教员的见解；(2)建立与根据数据收集/分析确定的主题相关的临时和当前大学政策的数据集；(3)利用这些数据为政策变化提供信息，并激励当前支持留住URM工程学教员的举措；以及(4)主办一个虚拟座谈会，以便大学教职员工和领导者合作和分享最佳做法，以支持和加强努力扩大对工程学的参与。这项研究将揭示危机期间和之后的临时和/或新政策和做法如何影响URM工程学教师的职业发展轨迹。这项工作迫在眉睫，因为寻求工程学终极学位的城市管理机构的数量和城市管理工程学院的数量持平。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取得成功。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.