An exploratory study of the impacts of diversity leadership on department chairs perceptions of social change in engineering and computer in education

This is a slight change in direction for me. It will mean that I cover some background of racial incidents on college campuses, I will spend more time speaking to how student to faculty/staff relationships in terms of leadership are crucial to the retention of African American STEM majors. The outcomes from the data hopefully will show that when diversity is impacting campus climate – AA STEM students could be significantly impacted by how administrators respond.

 

  • Using an instrument called the Student Perceptions of the Campus Climate (Brown, Morning, Watkins, 2004) to measure 1) faculty-staff relationships, 2) institutions support services, and 3) racism and discrimination.
  • Utilizing secondary data from previous SPCC survey of 846 subjects, representing 114 institutions of various types across the nation as the sample population.
  • Thesis: Diversity leadership in schools/colleges of engineering and computing streamline the efforts of department chairs to implement initiatives that positively support the Student Perceptions of Campus Climate among African American STEM majors at Predominantly White Institutions in the United States.
  • Sources:
    • Brown, A. R., Morning, C., & Watkins, C. B. (2004, October). Implications of African American engineering student perceptions of campus climate factors. In 34th Annual Frontiers in Education, 2004. FIE 2004.(pp. S1G-20). IEEE.
    • Cabrera, A. F., Nora, A., Terenzini, P. T., Pascarella, E., & Hagedorn, L. S. (1999). Campus racial climate and the adjustment of students to college: A comparison between White students and African-American students. The Journal of Higher Education, 70(2), 134-160.

 

Paper is speaking from the Administrators voice – upon seeing the data around campus climate and African Americans in STEM, what is the response by Faculty Administrators in the Schools/Colleges of Engineering?

  • The interview script should include themes from the SPCC
  • Interview script should look through the Social Change Leaderships lens
  • Need responses from 5-10 Department Chairs from US Schools/Colleges of Engineering

 

Social Change Leadership Lens – How are you leading/not leading the pack around this topic?

  • What initiatives are Department Chairs utilizing to impact campus climate around diversity
    • Hiring?
    • Curricula?
    • Promotion & Tenure?
  • What support do they receive from the School/College of Engineering
    • Resources?
    • Training?
    • Pushback?
  • What are the efforts across the School/College of Engineering
    • Are peers invested?
    • Is this part of your evaluation?
    • Are these efforts coordinated?

 

Assignment:

  • Rewrite Chapter 1 from the Administrators Voice, bringing in the use of the SPCC and other sources.
  • Provide a half-page outline of Chapter 2 (including SPCC and other resources)

 

Chapter Two Content

 

  • Overview of the SPCC Data (10-20 pages summarizing and charts)
  • Other sources that provide broad themes (There should be 4 or 5 themes)
    • Under each theme, summarize the articles cited (1-2 page summary)
      • What is the synopsis of the article?
      • What does the article conclude?
      • What lead them to write the article / Why is it interesting?
      • How does it impact the future of research around this topic?
      • How does it tie into my research?

 

Interview 10 Department Chairs (5 at universities with no CDO at college level – 5 at universities with CDO at college level) – should we be doing this with deans? Will the be honest? Interview protocol exceptionally important (absolutely can’t identify institution).

 

What are the perceptions of department charts as it relates to diversity efforts at colleges of engineering.

 

 

Schools w/ Diversity Leadership:

  1. Virginia Tech
  2. Georgia Tech
  3. Ohio State
  4. UPitt
  5. UC-Boulder
  6. University of Delaware
  7. University of South Carolina
  8. Florida Atlantic University
  9. University of Missouri
  10. University of Kansas
  11. UMass Amherst
  12. New Jersey Institute of Tech

Schools w/o Diversity Leadership:

  1. University of North Texas
  2. Marshal University (WV)
  3. Oregon Tech
  4. University of Wisconsin – Platteville
  5. Kent State
  6. University of Louisiana, Lafayette
  7. Weber State
  8. Northern Arizona University
  9. University of Missouri-Kansas City
  10. Central Connecticut State University
  11. SUNY – Canton
  12. University of South Alabama