Retention of Underrepresented Minority Students in STEM Fields at EMU

By: Vernnaliz Carrasquillo, Associate Professor in the Product Design Engineering Technology on September 19th, 2022

Recruiting BIPOC and women in STEM fields has always been a challenge. Pew Research estimates that Black and Hispanic people make up approximately 11% and 16% of the US workforce, respectively, but only represent 7% and 6% of STEM workers holding a bachelor’s degree or higher. This underrepresentation is particularly conspicuous in engineering.

The lack of representation of these groups in positions of power in STEM fields is not only a moral problem related to access but one that has real-life implications. Although the era of unethical research targeting Black and Latino people (e.g. syphilis studies in Tuskegee and Guatemala, contraception pill studies with Puerto Rican women) may be considered largely behind us, the lack of diversity in research and engineering decision-making teams still harms minority communities. It leads, for example, to biased software that does not recognize the faces of dark-skinned people well and to pulse oximeters that cannot correctly read their oxygen concentration. The best way to reduce the incidence of these poorly developed products is to increase the number of BIPOC in these STEM fields. Diverse teams, in which emotional safety is present, produce innovative products that can satisfy the needs of more customers. In other words, society as a whole would benefit from an increased representation of minority populations in STEM fields.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the underrepresentation of BIPOC in STEM fields, EMU is no exception. Currently, very few of our students graduate within 5 years. Although numbers are difficult to pinpoint, at the Game Above College of Engineering and Technology for example, I estimate, using enrollment and graduation data, that Black students graduate at half the rate of White students. I still remember a female Black student I met 6 years ago. She worked and studied full-time. During an advising session, I had to tell her she needed to take College Algebra for a 3^rd time because a C- would not be sufficient. I NEVER SAW HER AGAIN.

Two of the main factors that decrease the graduation rates of college students are: financial concerns and a lack of a sense of belonging. Even though EMU provides services intended to help students succeed, like the Holman Success Center and The Center of Race and Ethnicity, graduation rates are clearly still low and indicate that we need to invest more funding and resources for these programs to address our students’ needs. At this moment, for too many STEM students, where we aim to provide degrees, all we produce is debt. They get student loans to attend our university but leave without a degree that would enable them to pay them back.

Some possible solutions can be found in programs instituted by other universities. For example, in 2014 at Florida Atlantic University, designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution, fewer than 20% of the students were graduating within 4 years. They were additionally confronted with the nationwide trend of reduced enrollment. After instituting innovative programs such as doubling the number of on-campus student jobs and assigning each student a personal “success network”, among other changes, graduation rates improved by 50%.

While EMU has the personnel responsible for doing the tasks associated with this success network, proper advising is a major struggle for many of our students. Faculty can be assigned dozens of students to advise academically and general academic advisers can be booked for months, leaving students in limbo. In primarily white institutions, providing underrepresented students with a science identity, and allowing them to feel a sense of belonging, is equally important. At Rutgers, with a high Black student graduation rate, counselors set up “listening tables” at common gathering spots around campus. And at Old Dominion University, with a similar graduation rate between Black and White students, there are associations where Black and Latino students can interact directly with Black and Latino faculty and staff members for mentoring and advising that goes beyond academics.

In contrast, EMU has very few faculty members who belong to these underrepresented populations, particularly in the STEM fields. While these programs cost money upfront, there is a tangible return on investment by the number of students who remain enrolled. In an era of reduced student enrollment, ensuring that the students we do have graduate helps everyone.

While faculty alone can’t solve this issue, we can all contribute to this by making EMU a more welcoming place for students. Thankfully, we have departments that are actively working towards this end. For example, the biology department instituted curricular changes to enhance the retention of BIPOC students. Specifically, they added a BIO 101 course with a focus on increasing the scientific identity and sense of belonging, and strengthening the academic skills of their students. They also revised their DED to reflect the values of DEI, among others. Another example comes from the math department. It created a Developing and Equitable Teaching Fellows program to support course revisions that use equitable teaching practices. These departments and others presented their work at the DEI in STEM workshop facilitated by the Faculty Senate Committee for Action on Intersectionality, Anti-Racism and Equity and by the FDC. Additionally, Drs. Dyann Logwood and Sadaf Ali developed a mentoring training seminar for faculty interested in becoming better mentors.

In summary, there’s much to be done. Our students and society would greatly benefit from faculty and administration providing the services and mentoring necessary to help our underrepresented students succeed in STEM disciplines. The question remains: who is going to drive a change in our collective culture? We can’t rely only on BIPOC and female faculty to take on this; we are already overburdened with service. Every faculty member needs to act. And more importantly, we need the administration to provide the resources and compensation to achieve this.