2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Many educators feel a moral imperative to support students from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. However, students may have different perceptions of the culture of their department or university as welcoming or belonging. For instance, perceptions of hidden curriculum (the attitudes as to who belongs in engineering) vary based on race; people of color are more likely to classify hidden curriculum as active rather than passive, as compared to their white peers. Furthermore, students’ perceptions of belonging are linked to their academic success and mental well-being. Literature reports that the major causes for success, intent to persist in college, personal growth, motivation, and degree plans are faculty-student interaction outside of the classroom, involvement with campus activities, cultural and ethnicity representation, and building strong connections with peers. Furthermore, department caring and pride were shown to be negatively correlated with stress, anxiety, and depression of engineering students, while department diversity is negatively correlated with anxiety and depression for female engineering students but not for male engineering students. Supporting individual members requires an understanding of organizational culture, as leadership theory links the norms of a group to individual behavior.

This project investigates students’ perceptions of belonging in two engineering departments at a large research institution. Both authors have developed seminars on personal wellness and academic strategies to support students. These seminars are offered exclusively to undergraduate students in the instructor’s engineering department to promote student well-being and inter-department interactions. We surveyed students in both departments using the Engineering Department Inclusion Level Survey (EDIL), which includes information on department caring, diversity, and pride. There were no significant differences between the departments on the composite scores, but the responses to individual questions provide insight into students’ perceptions of the programs. Additionally, we found no significant effect of the seminars on students’ belonging, although the significance of those results is limited due to possible confounding factors. The results of these findings are shared, along with a discussion of future work among the entire College of Engineering.