Adaptation: Empower through Inclusivity: Developing Pathways to Success

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An NSF ADVANCE adaptation award will allow the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDM) to initiate new programs and improve upon existing data collection and personnel policy to enhance gender, racial, and ethnic diversity. SDM is a PhD granting engineering science and technology university that is geographically isolated, surrounded by counties in the region considered frontier and remote (FAR) areas having populations of less than 7 people per square mile. Its size (2700 students, 145 faculty), location, and STEM focus provide challenges with respect to retention of a diverse faculty. Our intent for this project will be to empower SDM faculty and research staff by shifting from a culture of attrition to a culture of development and engaging the majority populations of faculty at SDM to increase awareness of implicit biases, promote pathways to success for all faculty, and improve campus culture and climate. Through careful curation and adaptation of successful ADVANCE initiatives, the project aims to enable a change in institutional culture. The project design is rooted in an understanding of the current climate and needs of the SDM faculty, including instructors and research professionals. The merit of the project is that it engages top-down support for programs that will have a marked impact on campus climate allowing for a transition from a culture of attrition to a culture of development. To improve retention of underrepresented groups, the project intends to include adaptation of three proven programs: Advocates and Allies (NDSU), facilitated mentoring circles (Murray State), and Mutual Mentoring (UMass). These programs are structured to include feedback to improve policy, involve expert advisors and evaluators, and are rooted in an enhanced plan for data collection and analysis. This project aims to directly address the need to improve the participation of women in STEM fields by providing programs to increase retention and career advancement at a Science and Engineering Specialty School in an EPSCoR state that serves a FAR region. Planned activities will not only benefit women tenure-track faculty but will be made available to individuals in other career paths (instructional and research staff), to all genders, and to all ethnicities/races represented on campus. These efforts also will lead to improved educational opportunities for students to learn with a diverse faculty with members fully engaged in campus culture. Best practices from SDM efforts will be made available to other institutions in the state, including the other five institutions in the Board of Regents system, three tribal colleges/universities, and two private universities. The NSF ADVANCE program is designed to foster gender equity through a focus on the identification and elimination of organizational barriers that impede the full participation and advancement of diverse faculty in academic institutions. Organizational barriers that inhibit equity may exist in policies, processes, practices, and the organizational culture and climate. ADVANCE "Adaptation" awards provide support for the adaptation and adoption of evidence-based strategies to academic, non-profit institutions of higher education as well as non-academic, non-profit organizations.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.