Center: Track 4: Learning to Serve: A Center for Equity in Engineering at an Emerging MSI

该奖项全部或部分由《2021年美国救援计划法案》（公法117-2）资助。该项目支持德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校（UT-Austin）建立工程公平中心的初步步骤，该中心的核心愿景是多样性、公平和包容是大学工程社区每个人的责任。作为该项目的一部分，该中心的工作重点是招收和支持西班牙裔/拉丁裔和黑人/非洲裔美国本科生和研究生，为该中心奠定了基础。这项努力不是建立一个新项目目录，而是寻求从合作的少数族裔服务机构那里学习，建立基础设施，最终支持学生、教职员工为建立包容性文化做出贡献，为学生提供发展和磨练技术和专业技能的机会，同时确立他们作为专业工程师的身份。资助这项在UT-Austin建立工程公平中心的努力将通过为所有学生提供公平的途径来加强工程劳动力，特别注重增加西班牙裔/拉丁裔和黑人/非洲裔美国本科生和研究生的包容性。为了支持我们的愿景，该中心将支持UT-Austin工程学院的教职员工和学生将DEI的工作作为他们常规工作和参与社区的一部分。该中心的目标是通过利用服务性学习组织框架来招募、支持、培养和录取多元化的学生群体，从而促进UT-Austin Engineering的文化变革。一个重要的衡量标准是将西班牙裔/拉丁裔和黑人/非裔美国人工程本科和研究生的代表人数与德克萨斯州18 - 22岁人口的代表人数更紧密地结合起来。我们的努力围绕三个支柱进行组织：(1)围绕将公平和包容融入工程专业实践，教学和个人在机构中的角色，新的和扩大的学生，员工和教师学习机会；(2)有意识地设计支持结构，承认机构及其个人的优先事项，在创造参与外展和招聘活动的机会时考虑这些优先事项，并为UT-Austin工程社区成员设想的新举措提供支持（包括资金）；(3)改善和扩大对UT-Austin工程社区所有成员的期望和责任，包括修订学生学习成果，教师审查流程，员工工作描述，以及对超越努力的认可。从这个项目中学到的信息将通过介绍、讲习班和出版物传播给其他人，以便从这个项目中学到的最佳做法可以在其他地方使用。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).This project supports the initial steps to create a Center for Equity in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin) with a centering vision that diversity, equity, and inclusion are the responsibility of everyone within the university’s engineering community. The efforts as part of this project lay the groundwork for the center by focusing on recruiting and supporting Hispanic/Latino and Black/African American undergraduate and graduate students. Rather than establishing a catalog of new programs, this effort seeks to learn from partner minority-serving institutions to establish the infrastructure to ultimately support students, staff, and faculty in contributing to building an inclusive culture that provides students opportunities to develop and hone technical and professional skills while also establishing their identities as professional engineers. Funding this effort to establish a Center for Equity in Engineering at UT-Austin will strengthen the engineering workforce by providing equitable pathways for all students, with a particular focus on increasing inclusion of Hispanic/Latino and Black/African American undergraduate and graduate students.To support our vision, the center will support UT-Austin Engineering faculty, staff, and students in doing the work of DEI as part of their regular jobs and engagement in our community. The objective of the Center is to catalyze a culture change in UT-Austin Engineering by leveraging a servingness learning organization framework to recruit, support, nurture, and matriculate a diverse community of students. An important metric will be to more closely align the representation of Hispanic/Latino and Black/African American engineering undergraduate and graduate students with that of the State of Texas population of 18–22-year-olds. Our efforts are organized around three pillars: (1) new and expanded student, staff, and faculty learning opportunities around integrating equity and inclusion into engineering professional practice, teaching, and an individual’s role in the institution; (2) intentionally designed support structures that acknowledge the priorities of the institution and its individuals, consider these priorities in creating opportunities for participation in outreach and recruiting events, and provide support (including funding) for new initiatives envisioned by members of the UT-Austin Engineering community; and (3) improved and expanded expectations and accountability for all members of the UT-Austin Engineering community, including revisions to student learning outcomes, faculty review processes, staff job descriptions, and recognitions for efforts above and beyond. The information learned from this project will be disseminated to others via presentations, workshops and publications so that the best practices learned from this project can be used elsewhere.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.