Abstract
Two challenges to the logical shift in the nation's engineering faculty demographics may actually become merged as a symbiotic pair of solutions. Underrepresented minorities (URMs) in STEM recently accounted for 6.3% of engineering faculty (National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, 2014), despite approaching nearly a third of the nation's population (2010 Census). A central reason for the disproportionate representation is the continued need for effective mentorship and advocacy for these historically marginalized groups into and through the professoriate. Another sensitivity in the requisite shift in engineering faculty composition pertains to the effective transition of senior faculty who are of retirement age yet have the skillsets and desire to continue to be "active". These two perceived "bottlenecks" in the engineering professoriate are simultaneously addressed by strategically matching retired (with emphasis upon "emeriti") faculty as advocates-mentors for appropriately matched URM faculty. Synergistically, a transformative outcome could be more engineering faculty positions opening to an increasingly diversified pool of talent, wherein a generation of retired/retiring faculty advocate for their empowered successors. A pilot program, Increasing Minority Presence within Academia through Continuous Training (IMPACT), was accordingly implemented wherein seven emeriti faculty from a large engineering college were matched with ten URM engineering faculty and one URM postdoctoral associate (i.e., some emeriti faculty had multiple one-on-one assignments). The younger faculty stakeholders were from different engineering colleges, and each had near-term aspirations regarding their progression through academia. Protocols used for recruiting-matching and proactive intervention were key implementation measures. Both sets of participants have generally had positive outcomes from, and sentiments toward, this initiative; yet there have been some "lessons learned" (e.g., establishing a minimal frequency of contact between emeriti and engineering faculty to which both are more rigorously held accountable).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings |
| Volume | 2017-June |
| State | Published - Jun 24 2017 |
| Event | 124th ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition - Columbus, United States Duration: Jun 25 2017 → Jun 28 2017 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© American Society for Engineering Education, 2017.
Funding
Comas Lamar Haynes is a Principal Research Engineer / faculty member of the Georgia Tech Research Institute and Joint Faculty Appointee at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. His research includes modeling steady state and transient behavior of advanced energy systems, inclusive of their thermal management, and the characterization and optimization of novel cycles. He has advised graduate and undergraduate research assistants and has received multi-agency funding for energy systems analysis and development. Sponsor examples include the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy and NASA. Dr. Haynes also develops fuel cells and alternative energy systems curricula for public and college courses and experimental laboratories. Additionally, he is the co-developer of the outreach initiative, Educators Leading Energy Conservation and Training Researchers of Diverse Ethnicities (ELECTRoDE). He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Florida A&M University and his graduate degrees (culminating in a Ph.D.) from Georgia Tech; and all of the degrees are in the discipline of Mechanical Engineering. The authors wish to thank the National Science Foundation for its present support of the research depicted in the preceding paper (NSF Awards #1542728, #1542524).
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| National Science Foundation Arctic Social Science Program | 1542524, 1542728 |
| U.S. Department of Energy EPSCoR | |
| National Aeronautics and Space Administration |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Engineering