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This full empirical research paper addresses how engineering faculty perceive their roles and responsibility in creating an equitable environment within academia, an understudied but important area to address in organizational change efforts. To begin to fill this gap, we developed a survey to understand the ways that faculty take up responsibility for driving diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) changes. The instrument included 7 scales measuring faculty perceptions of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belongingness (DEIB) policies and practices, professional development and support for faculty of Color, and efforts to recruit and retain faculty of Color, as well as their perceptions of personal responsibility and self-efficacy to enact DEIB change. We collected data from 179 engineering faculty at three private engineering institutions in the Northeast region of which 137 provided race/ethnicity data and make up our analytical sample - Asian faculty (n=29, 16.2%), Black, Latiné, Indigenous (BLI), and multiracial BLI faculty (BLI(M)) (n=18, 10.1%), and white faculty (n=90, 50.3%). Mean standardized factor scores were created for each scale and pairwise comparisons using t-tests with a Bonferroni correction were used to examine differences between groups. The results highlight differences and trends among Asian, White, and BLI(M) faculty in DEIB readiness and responsibility. The findings of this study have implications for understanding how faculty assess their environments and how they view their responsibility and readiness to engage in enacting equity-based initiatives. 

A growing body of research explores the experiences of students in graduate education and more-particularly, students of color pursuing advanced degrees. However, little research provides information about Black students' aspirations to pursue graduate education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Even less is known about Black males' aspirations to pursue graduate education in STEM. Knowing why Black males aspire to pursue graduate education would assist stakeholders (e.g., administrators, faculty, advisors, family members, and peers) in better supporting and motivating students while they are in graduate school, or earlier in their educational trajectories. This retrospective study of 50 Black males' aspirations for graduate school aimed tobetter understand the factors that influenced their aspirations to pursue graduate degrees in engineering.Four themes were most influential: (a) Black male students received messages implying that a bachelor's degree was insufficient, (b) earning a graduate degree in engineering was regarded as a sign of community influence and respect, (c) students' professorial career goals necessitated anadvanced degree, and (d) mothers functioned as support systems and role models for earning an advanced degree. Finally, we offer implications for future research and practice. These new findings about aspirations regarding graduate education will assist stakeholders in identifying critical moments and experiences necessary to encourage talented individuals to pursue advanced degrees in STEM fields. 

Despite significant efforts to broaden participation in postsecondary science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, students from historically minoritized populations continue to face systemic barriers related to access, departmental climate, and institutional practices. Previous research suggests that campus-level STEM diversity programs often serve as a valuable resource for persistence and completion among students from underrepresented populations. However, more knowledge is needed to better understand how students experience STEM diversity programs and identify with their specific practices and activities, how those practices and activities shape students’ experiences, and how the practices, activities, and participation influence how students view themselves as members of the STEM community. Increases in the number of underrepresented students completing STEM degrees would result in new innovations to address world problems, more varied representations of scientists, and more individuals who could mentor future generations of learners. This study of 20 underrepresented students, all of whom participated in the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program, describes the programmatic influences of LSAMP that support students’ successful progress within STEM disciplines. Data reveal that: (a) students entered the LSAMP program with self-defined strengths; (b) the LSAMP program provided formal academic support; and (c) students experienced evolving forms of scientific and identity development. This study centers students’ voices to inform educational practices, policies, and future research focused on the persistent need to broaden participation in STEM careers.