WORCESTER, Mass., Dec. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- A team of
researchers at Worcester Polytechnic
Institute (WPI) has received a $1
million ADVANCE grant from the National Science Foundation
(NSF) to examine the university's faculty promotion processes,
identify areas of bias that may be impacting female faculty, and
implement more equitable policies and practices. The grant, part of
an NSF program to increase the participation and advancement of
women in academic science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
(STEM) careers, comes as universities nationwide are striving to
recruit, develop, and retain a more diverse and gender-balanced
faculty that better reflects their student bodies and the
population as a whole.
"As a data-driven institution, WPI is constantly looking at
opportunities for improvement," said Jeanine Skorinko, associate professor of
Psychology and director of the Psychological Science Program, and
principal investigator on the three-year grant. "Prior in-depth
surveys of faculty found that WPI's associate-to-full promotion
process is unclear and may have a particular impact on the career
trajectory of midcareer female faculty. In 2017 the faculty
approved a promising new promotion policy, an important first step.
With this grant, we aim to support high-quality implementation of
the policy and foster a fully inclusive and supportive environment
for all faculty."
"This work is absolutely critical – not just for WPI's campus,
but the world beyond," said WPI President Laurie Leshin. "At WPI we seek to address
significant global challenges, and we strive to include and support
all perspectives and all voices as we work together toward
solutions.
"At its core, diversity is an enabler of innovative thinking,
and like all STEM-focused universities, WPI often must compete
aggressively to recruit and retain top talent—especially women and
underrepresented minorities. A diverse, excellent faculty helps WPI
attract the very best students from all backgrounds."
Brought together by determination to see more women in higher
ranks on campus, the multidisciplinary ADVANCE team includes
Skorinko; Chrysanthe Demetry,
associate professor of Mechanical Engineering and director of WPI's
Morgan Teaching and Learning Center; Natalie Farny, associate teaching professor of
Biology & Biotechnology and associate director of the Morgan
Teaching and Learning Center; Elizabeth
Long Lingo, assistant professor in the Foisie Business
School; and Susan Roberts, professor
and head of Chemical Engineering.
The grant, "ADVANCE Adaptation: Advancing Toward 'FULL'
Representation of Women in STEM at WPI," will focus on three key
areas: clarifying the new promotion criteria; reducing gender
biases in faculty evaluation and workload distribution; and
piloting a system of coaches to guide associate professors toward
promotion. The grant will fund an external consultant to audit
WPI's current promotion policies and develop workshops to help
faculty better understand how to document and evaluate multiple
forms of scholarship. Working groups of faculty and academic
leadership will be supported to develop resources that will make
expectations for promotion clearer and more transparent. The
research team will also adapt and implement bias training for
faculty and administrators at WPI, using a model that's been
successful elsewhere. Finally, the research team will engage a
combined internal/external advisory board to give feedback on
proposed improvement plans, engage university leadership, and
communicate those best practices to other higher education
institutions.
An important feature of the grant activity will be attention to
clarifying promotion policy and strengthening mid-career mentoring
and advancement for non-tenure track faculty, particularly
associate teaching professors, who play a significant role in
delivering and improving WPI's distinctive undergraduate
curriculum. "Forty-three percent of women faculty in STEM fields at
WPI are in non-tenure track positions," said Farny. "Because these
positions have long held lower status in higher education, we want
to ensure that those faculty members benefit from the grant as much
as tenured faculty."
WPI's new promotion policy explicitly defines and welcomes
multiple forms of scholarship, such as the scholarship of teaching
and learning and the scholarship of engagement, which research
shows many women especially value. "The new policy is a much better
fit for WPI's strengths in both research and project-based
education," said Demetry. "It should now be possible for teaching-
and service-related initiatives to be shaped and recognized as
scholarship with significant impact." The new policy also directly
asks reviewers to be aware of implicit bias in promotion
evaluation.
The ADVANCE grant work was sparked by the results of a
Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE)
survey WPI conducted in 2014 and 2017 to quantify job satisfaction
among faculty. Associate professors, and especially women, reported
dissatisfaction with the associate-to-full promotion system. After
analyzing both survey and focus group data, the ADVANCE team
characterized the problem as a "foggy climate" that included
ambiguity within the criteria, mixed messages about what is valued,
and lack of clarity regarding whether and how faculty should be
guided toward promotion.
The grant further extends the institution's ongoing work to
increase gender parity and diversity among students, faculty, and
staff, and to address the national need for more diversity in STEM.
In recent years, WPI has increased the percentage of female
undergraduates and is among STEM institutions with the highest
percentage of female students. Most recently, the university has
recruited high-profile female administrators and department
leaders, including Jean King, dean
of Arts & Sciences; Michelle
Jones-Johnson, vice president for Talent & Inclusion and
chief diversity officer; Donna
Levin, executive director of Innovation and
Entrepreneurship.
The ADVANCE team hopes to share the work with other higher
education institutions through publication of their research and
through other venues such as the Center for Project-Based Learning,
which supports other universities working to incorporate
high-quality project experiences into their curricula. "With the
NSF award, we see the opportunity for WPI to develop a national
model for advancing more equitable promotion policies for all
faculty. This is especially relevant for other STEM-focused
institutions and colleges embracing innovative, project-based
curricula where similar challenges likely exist," said Lingo.
Roberts notes, "The work of this grant is essential for
innovation in higher education and STEM. Equal representation of
women of all identities among the senior ranks of faculty will
enhance the quality of students' education, the impact of
university research, engagement with communities, and the
leadership of institutions. We can't wait to get started."
About Worcester Polytechnic
Institute
WPI, a global leader in project-based learning, is a distinctive,
top-tier technological university founded in 1865 on the principle
that students learn most effectively by applying the theory learned
in the classroom to the practice of solving real-world problems.
Recognized by the National Academy of Engineering with the 2016
Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and
Technology Education, WPI's pioneering project-based curriculum
engages undergraduates in solving important scientific,
technological, and societal problems throughout their education and
at more than 45 project centers around the world. WPI offers more
than 50 bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree programs across
14 academic departments in science, engineering, technology,
business, the social sciences, and the humanities and arts. Its
faculty and students pursue groundbreaking research to meet ongoing
challenges in health and biotechnology; robotics and the internet
of things; advanced materials and manufacturing; cyber, data, and
security systems; learning science; and more.
http://www.wpi.edu
Contact:
Jessica Messier
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Worcester, Massachusetts
jmmessier@wpi.edu; 508-831-5937
SOURCE Worcester Polytechnic
Institute