Interdisciplinary Team to Present on the NSF ADVANCE IT Program

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From left to right: Joseph Rencis, Valerie Hunt, Shauna Morimoto, Anna Zajicek

In 2001, the National Science Foundation initiated the ADVANCE Institutional Transformation program with the primary goal to increase the representation of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines. Since 2001, 37 U.S. institutions of higher education have received the NSF ADVANCE IT awards totaling more than $137 million.

Using data from the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE), an interdisciplinary team of faculty from the University of Arkansas made up of Anna Zajicek (sociology and criminal justice), Joseph Rencis (mechanical engineering), Shauna Morimoto (sociology and criminal justice) and Valerie Hunt (public policy doctoral program) is assessing changes in the representation of full-time tenure-track women faculty in engineering colleges.

On June 20, Rencis will present the findings from the team's initial phase at the society's Annual Conference and Exposition in Louisville, Ky. This research represents the first assessment of the ADVANCE IT program across engineering colleges associated with ADVANCE institutions and the only comparison of changes at ADVANCE institutions to the trends exhibited by their university peers.

The presentation title is "Transforming the Academic Workplace: An Evaluation of the ADVANCE Program in Colleges of Engineering (2001-2008)." The session also includes speakers from North Dakota State University, Iowa State University and Purdue University, all of which were awarded the ADVANCE grant in recent years. In the subsequent projects, the Arkansas team will explore the outcomes of institutional transformation during a longer time horizon, using both qualitative and quantitative indicators of change.