Engineering student and faculty populations have historically been, and in many case still are, predominantly white male. Opening up participation to groups underrepresented in engineering has both moral and practical implications, when we consider both the opportunities associated with an engineering education and the fact that greater diversity is correlated with better results. Engineering programs often conceptualize diversity simply in terms of increasing the numbers of traditionally underrepresented social groups, such as women and/or students of color, without necessarily considering in depth how to best support the academic success of these students through equitable and inclusive teaching practices as well as an understanding of how issues of access, privilege, individual and institutional bias, discrimination, and marginalization affect differently underrepresented students. Understanding and supporting engineering diversity therefore requires being knowledgeable about these social justice issues.  Yet, these are not topics many engineering faculty have spent time thinking about, much less written about in scholarly journals. Engineering faculty are credentialed experts, and often global authorities, who produce scholarly work within their technical research areas, and they bring this credibility and knowledge into their teaching to good effect. Yet, engineering students are increasingly looking for understanding and support for diversity both within the engineering learning community and through their general education coursework, and this presents a dilemma: engineering faculty teach in areas where they are expert, and there are not many engineering professors with expertise in social justice. Success in increasing diversity may mean that it is no longer enough to be an expert in one’s field but that there is a need for engineering faculty to look outside the boundaries of their areas of expertise so that they can develop a better understanding of the academic experiences of their increasingly diverse students and learn to support them in more effective ways.  This paper and presentation, prepared in the form of a first person self-reflective narrative, describes one individual engineering professor’s approach to bridging the gap – starting as an expert in the sub-discipline of radar and working to get to the point of being able to support and have meaningful, credible discussions with students about diversity-related topics.  The elements of this approach include the following:

• Crafting diversity strategic plans that, among other things, pay close attention to numbers;
• Building a new seminar course, “Queer Lights,” in collaboration a social scientist expert in LGBTQ+ topics;
• Participating with a dozen other instructors in a year-long project called TIDE (Teaching for Inclusiveness, Diversity and Equity) Ambassadors,  that aims to infuse inclusion topics into teaching;
• Hosting a Diversity Dialog with engineering students.

Through these experiences, the author is developing an understanding about the differences between thinking about diversity in terms of numbers versus thinking of diversity in terms of issues of inclusion and equity.

Corresponding Author: David J. McLaughlin, dmclaugh@umass.edu

Acknowledgement and opportunity: The author would like to acknowledge the support and guidance of Dr. Kirsten Helmer of the Center for Teaching and Faculty Development at UMass Amherst and the collaboration of Dr. Genny Beemyn, who directs the Stonewall Center at UMass Amherst. 

Dr. Helmer is the initiator and leader of the of TIDE project.  If ASEE UMass Lowell is interested and finds it useful, another approach to this presentation would be to involve both the author and Dr. Helmer in a diversity dialog session during or following this presentation.