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Longitudinal analysis of nationwide single and multi-institutional data shows the positive relationship between student educational outcomes and a diverse student population. Various position papers and empirical studies have raised awareness about the importance of diversity in higher education within the academic community and policy makers over the past half century. However, lack of participation by underrepresented students in higher education remains a chronic and multidimensional problem. Mitigating any particular factor and expecting broad based impact has not worked and will not work. The U.S. Department of education suggested some proven, over-arching principles for institutions of higher education to increase diversity, viz.: institutional commitment, diversity at all levels, outreach and recruitment, support services for students, and an inclusive campus environment. While some of these principles can only be addressed at the institutional level, a department or college can adopt scaled versions of these principles and influence the policies at the institutional level. This paper discusses the journey of a school of engineering towards developing strategies for improving equity, inclusion, and diversity in the graduate programs in engineering. In the process, this group of researchers articulated some critical issues that prevent diverse and economically disadvantaged undergraduate students from seeking a graduate degree in engineering. The authors have identified the following major reasons hindering students from pursuing a graduate degree: lack of financial support and resources, fear of the unknown, imposter syndrome, and family pressure to start earning as soon as possible. Each of these areas requires a targeted approach to help diversify the graduate engineering programs. A GVSU team comprised of administrators and faculty members sought to build a comprehensive program that incorporates all of the aforementioned structures and others. This paper describes the development strategy of such a program that culminated with an NSF (National Science Foundation) award.
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Shifting the Paradigm: Cultivating Socially Responsible Atmospheric Scientists through Leadership and Action
The geosciences have the lowest racial and ethnic diversity of all STEM fields at all levels of higher education, and atmospheric science is emblematic of this discrepancy. Despite a growing awareness of the problem, Black, Indigenous, people of color, persons with disabilities, women, and LGBTQIA+ persons continue to be largely absent in academic programs and in the geoscience workforce. There is a desire and need for new approaches, new entry points, and higher levels of engagement to foster a diverse community of researchers, scholars, and practitioners in atmospheric science. One challenge among many is that diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts are often siloed from many aspects of the scientific process, technical training, and scientific community. We have worked toward bridging this gap through the development of a new atmospheric science course designed to break down traditional barriers for entry into diversity, equity, and inclusion engagement by graduate students, so they emerge better prepared to address issues of participation, representation, and inclusion. This article provides an overview of our new course, focused on social responsibility in atmospheric science. This course was piloted during Fall 2021 with the primary objective to educate and empower graduate students to be “diversity champions” in our field. We describe 1) the rationale for a course of this nature within a graduate program, 2) course design and content, 3) service-learning projects, 4) impact of the course on students, and 5) scalability to other atmospheric science graduate programs.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2039480
- PAR ID:
- 10477378
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Meteorological Society
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
- Volume:
- 104
- Issue:
- 9
- ISSN:
- 0003-0007
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- E1552 to E1563
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-22-0077.1
