ADVANCE Partnership: Building Relationships to Increase Diversity and Gender Equity in Hawaii's Two Year College System

University Of Hawaii, Honolulu

Investigators

Abstract

The project, which is a partnership between the University of Hawaii Community College (UHCC) system and the University of Hawaii Hilo (UHH), will identify and address unique obstacles to the retention and career progress of STEM women faculty of different race and ethnic groups in the context of seven remote community college campuses. The project will use virtual tools to connect these remote campus locations in mentoring and coaching trainings for administrators and senior faculty, and will implement a mentoring and coaching program for women STEM faculty of diverse race/ethnic backgrounds. This project will provide a model for addressing the challenges STEM women faculty face in two-year colleges and in remote locations.  The project will generate systemic change for gender equity in the context of community colleges through a multi-stage process involving: institution-specific assessments of barriers to equity; implementation of proven strategies for change developed at the University of Hawaii Hilo and other previous ADVANCE institutions; and coaching and mentoring programs involving over 400 men and women in STEM fields on the seven University of Hawaii Community College campuses. These strategies will involve the use and evaluation of virtual tools for multi-institutional participation across remote island locations, and the training of up to 60 mentors (senior STEM men and women faculty) and 32 coaches (STEM women faculty), who will in turn serve a minimum of 75-100 unique participants, and be sustainable and scalable to other fields and to other UHCC system and University of Hawaii campuses. Coaching and mentoring programs are designed with the unique circumstances of smaller institutions in mind and will be further informed by the institutional assessments. The approach implemented with this project will be disseminated as a model for other 2-year college campuses and campus systems nationally.  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 women faculty in academic institutions.  Organizational barriers that inhibit equity may exist in policies, processes, practices, and the organizational culture and climate.