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

University Of Texas At Austin, Austin TX

Investigators

Abstract

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.