Collaborative Research: The AGEP Massachusetts State University System Equity-Minded Model for Recruiting and Advancing Early Career Faculty in the STEM Professoriate

Framingham State University, Framingham

Investigators

Abstract

Three collaborating institutions in the Massachusetts Public Higher Education System, Framingham State University, Bridgewater State University and Worcester State University, are working together to develop and implement an equity-minded model for advancing early career STEM faculty who are members of AGEP populations: African Americans, Hispanic Americans, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Native Pacific Islanders. This AGEP Faculty Career Pathways Alliance Model’s (FCPAM) goal is to develop, implement, evaluate and institutionalize a FCPAM for transforming institutions to be more supportive and culturally sensitive such that the faculty successfully advance through recruitment and retention along early career pathways to tenure in teaching intensive comprehensive universities. This FCPAM is improving the success of early-career faculty such that faculty demographics will mirror student demographics at the three collaborating institutions. This change in faculty demographics will ultimately result in graduating more STEM students from diverse populations and increasing diversity in the STEM workforce. Enhancing diversity within the STEM workforce will contribute to mitigating systemic racism, boosting innovation in the workplace, and enhancing the economy and prosperity within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and our Nation. Improving equity and inclusion is critical to advancing STEM faculty, educating America’s future STEM workforce, fostering individual opportunity and contributing to a thriving U.S. economy. The NSF AGEP program, therefore, funds grants that advance and enhance the systemic factors that support equity and inclusion and, consequently, mitigate the systemic inequities in the academic profession and workplace. FCPAM awards are intended to support the development, implementation, evaluation, and institutionalization of Alliance models that will advance AGEP populations, within similar institutions of higher education. FCPAM collaborators also study how socio-cultural, economic, structural, leadership and institutional variables affect the formation of the FCPAM, and the strategies or interventions the collaborators implement to advance AGEP populations. The foundation of this FCPAM includes a cluster hiring strategy to recruit diverse faculty who will have a shared learning experience and support system across the universities, including a joint faculty development initiative, a faculty mentorship program, common events and shared resources. In addition, the Alliance has a collaborative plan focusing on equity to examine, change, and align institutional policies and procedures in support of a welcoming and supportive academic climate for a diverse faculty. The Alliance will use formative and summative evaluations to document results and evaluate strengths and weaknesses of the model throughout the life of the project. The self-study of the FCPAM development and activities will advance knowledge concerning how socio-cultural, economic, structural, and institutional variables impact the development and success of the Alliance model and the institutional culture changes. An intersectional lens will be used to examine the impact of the FCPAM activities on the success of recruited faculty in relation to their identities, including race, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity, immigration status or national origin, abilities, and being a caregiver or a parent. 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.