2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Do DEI Efforts Count in Tenure Evaluations? An Experiment in Two STEM fields

In light of broader recognition of systemic racism in and outside academe, universities are urgently investing in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts. Many STEM fields have called for reform to tenure policies and practices to include DEI as part of promotion and tenure decisions (NASEM, 2020; Segarra et al., 2020). Yet faculty consistently report that when it comes to tenure and promotion, DEI does not “count,” or they are not sure how DEI efforts counted in decisions made (Griffin et al, 2013; Jimenez et al, 2019). In this study, we use behavioral design techniques (e.g., Bohnet, 2016) to understand which “nudges” (Thaler & Sunstein, 2009) are most effective in influencing tenure decisions, and whether any of these interventions shape the weight of DEI in recommendations for tenure. Our study was guided by the following research questions:

RQ1: Can certain “nudges” result in strong DEI efforts compensating for slightly-below average research accomplishments?
RQ2: Do the race and gender of the candidates influence the effect of any nudges?

Methods
To examine our research questions, we conducted a 4 (CV qualification manipulations: (1) control CV with no DEI information, (2) CV with above-average DEI scattered throughout, (3) CV with above-average DEI concentrated in specific section in the CV, and (4) CV with above-average DEI scattered evaluated with a rubric intervention) x 2 (candidate gender manipulation: female vs. male) x 2 (candidate race manipulation: Black vs. white) between-subjects experimental study. Our study uses an experimental vignette methodology (EVM) known as “paper people” study (Aguinis & Bradley, 2014) in which participants make an explicit decision about a fictional candidate. We created a base CV for two fields (mechanical engineering, and ecological and evolutionary biology [EEB]), with each CV including the candidate’s name, chosen to signal the race and gender of the applicant, as guided by past studies (Butler & Homola, 2017).

Analyses
We aim to collect 2000 participants who are currently tenure-track/tenured professors in the two fields at research universities. We currently have responses from 815 EEB participants and 468 mechanical engineering participants. We conducted preliminary analyses to approach our research questions using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) with a 4 X 2 X 2 factorial design on all evaluation variables. For significant main effects, we use post-hoc Tukey tests to probe which specific conditions are significantly different from one another.

Results and Discussion
Preliminary evidence reveals that DEI efforts do count in some decisions about tenure recommendations and that interventions aimed at highlighting DEI efforts were effective for some evaluations related to the candidate’s specific institution. There were no statistically significant differences in the interventions based on the race and gender characteristics of the faculty, but we may find more evidence of these differences with a larger sample size as we continue to collect data. We also plan to expand our findings on participants’ decision-making process with qualitative data analysis of open-ended responses that is currently in progress.