Faculty support for minority engineering programs

Document Type

Conference Presentation

Conference Title

Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association

Organization

American Educational Research Association

Location

Chicago, IL

Conference Dates

March 24-28, 1997

Date of Presentation

3-24-1997

Abstract

A survey was developed and mailed to a random sample of engineering professors at schools across the country with ABET-accredited (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) programs, asking them to assess the “value and appropriateness” of the existence of a formal, structured, general Minority Engineering Program in their School of Engineering, along with the following seven MEP-specific components: MEP student associations, scholarships, study centers, summer bridge programs, special tutoring programs, career fairs, and awards banquets. On a scale of 1–10 (1 = Very low, should not exist at all; 10 = Very high, critical), the engineering professors tended to express general endorsement of MEP's considering the middle of the scale (5.5) represents a neutral position and the sample average was 6.51. However, there was considerable variability (SD=3.13). Greatest support was found for financial and academic forms of assistance, with less support given to clustering-types of activities. In addition, attitudinal differences between types of institutions (public vs. private; research vs. non-research), size, and location of schools were explored. State schools yielded higher scores than private; regionally, the Midwest was the highest and the East was the lowest; and in terms of size, we found that the larger the school, the higher the score. Finally, open-ended comments were analyzed as a qualitative component to shed light on the numerical results.

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