2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Introduction: In 2023, several states enacted restrictions on diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, and the Supreme Court ended the use of affirmative action in college admissions. These changes require higher education faculty and staff (HEFS) who want to work to end disproportionate representation in engineering programs to carefully reconsider how they will move forward in their work. The rapidity and recency of these changes mean that little is known about how these changes are understood by HEFS.

Objective: The primary purpose of this paper is to answer the question: How do HEFS, especially those in engineering, perceive the new legal landscape?

Methods: We gathered data from HEFS who chose to participate (n = 46) in a community of practice designed to help participants understand and negotiate the new legal landscape. This data included a survey, written artifacts from community activities, meeting transcripts, and plans for action. We performed a content analysis on this data using the framework developed by Kania et al. for understanding systems change that considers structural, relational, and transformative factors in order to determine how participants perceive the recent changes to the law.

Results: Our analysis found that participants had a variety of concerns related to the new legal reality, including those related to structural, relational, and transformative change. They expressed various concerns and sentiments about the changes, largely focused on the likely impact on underrepresented students and their own ability to serve these students. We also uncovered some misconceptions about the nature and extent of recent changes, such as the people and contexts to whom the new regulations apply.

Conclusion: This paper makes an important contribution to understanding how engineering HEFS understand and perceive the new legal landscape. This understanding is an important precursor to appreciating how those who want to work to improve representation in higher education might continue to do so within the constraints of recent changes to the law. The paper includes suggestions for serving all students in a manner that comports with the new legal landscape.