2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This work-in-progress submission is a follow on to a work-in-progress paper presented at ASEE 2023 [citation redacted], supported under an NSF ADVANCE Catalyst grant. Our Catalyst grant team is comprised of a multi-disciplinary group of researchers leveraging expertise in quantitative and qualitative assessment in the social sciences, engineering, policy, and academic leadership. Our comprehensive data gathering effort seeks to assess equity in recruitment, hiring, renewal, promotion, and tenure activities at a large R1 institution for both tenue-line and term (contingent) faculty. Emphasis is placed on how institutional practices affect faculty with intersectional identities.

The prior ASEE paper [citation redacted] focused on the data gathering effort for startup packages and defining who, specifically, constitute “STEM” faculty. In this paper, we provide an update on the holistic data gathering effort, in which we sought to acquire and assimilate twelve data sets in an effort to assess institutional culture, recruitment and hiring, retention, and equity. Furthermore, the assembled quantitative data lays the framework for planned qualitative study through interviews to extend quantitative findings.

We intend to leverage that data in an effort to discern (1) if there are racial and gender disparities in recruitment, hiring, retention, and promotion of STEM faculty at our institution, (2) what institutional practices, policies, and cultural norms create and/or reinforce these disparities, and (3) what effective practices should be implemented to address identified disparities. This paper summarizes the data sets used, analysis to date, provides insight into the critical role of stakeholder engagement in acquiring and working with disparate data sources for this type of intersectional analysis, and outlines intended next steps, including qualitative interviews and development of a data-informed five-year faculty equity strategic plan.