Where we Stand: The College of Geosciences Annual Assessment Report to the Associate Provost for Diversity
At all
levels across the university Texas A&M is increasingly being driven by
accountability and assessment data in decision making. Activities and progress related to diversity
and student and faculty recruitment are no exception. In recent weeks we have completed data
gathering efforts in the Dean's office to understand quantitatively where we
stand relative to our peers on undergraduate and graduate enrollment trends and
faculty and staff diversity. We have
also - with your help - taken a first cut at documenting aspects of our current
workplace climate with respect to collegiality, freedom to express ideas and
raise difficult issues, diversity, rank, gender, and job function. All of this serves as only a starting point,
and significant additional analysis is required, but we do now have a set of
valuable benchmarks against which we can judge the effectiveness of our ongoing
efforts.
We asked
for comparison data from the University of Texas, Austin Jackson School of Geosciences,
Penn State University College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, Arizona State
University School of Earth and Space Exploration, and Oregon State University
College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. None of these comparisons is perfect nor are
the data sets complete, but we believe that structurally these are comparable
equivalents by size, stature, and range of disciplines. The detailed numerical data we gathered are
presented graphically,
available at the bottom this page. Below we present
the main highlights of this comparative analysis.
Undergraduate students
The most
complete data we have make a comparison possible between our College, UT Austin
Jackson School and Penn State EMS. As
major competing institutions for undergraduates and graduate students in our
fields, these comparisons are particularly useful. We find TAMU and UT to be virtually identical
in terms of gender balance in the geosciences, at 37.7% and 39.3% women
enrolled respectively. Recent
undergraduate degree completions at TAMU Geosciences show 41% female
graduates. The national average for
geoscience degrees granted runs at approximately 40%, so TAMU and UT Austin are
effectively at the national norm.
Comparing
minority enrollments, particularly under-represented minorities, TAMU
Geosciences compares very favorably with national statistics and continues to
improve, and also has caught up and will probably soon pass UT Austin in
attracting especially Hispanic students.
Our current enrollment stands at 15.5% Hispanic, 2.6% Black, and 0.3 % American
Indian (18% under-represented students overall), and our Freshman enrollees for
Fall 2012 show a sharp increase in diversity, with 28% under-represented
minority (URM) students enrolled.
National averages (and Penn State’s figures) are generally
around 4% for Hispanic, 1.5% Black, and
0.7% American Indian, so we compare very well nationally, but clearly there is
room for improvement to reach parity with our surrounding region and state (22%
Hispanic locally, 38% statewide; ~13% Black and ~1% American Indian both
locally and statewide). UT Austin shows
enrollments very close to ours, at 18.6% overall URM, but the growth trends for
our enrollments far outstrip theirs. We
ascribe this to the efforts of our coordinated recruiting efforts both on and
off campus.
Graduate students
The other
student comparison possible with our current data set is in combined MS and
PhDs – graduate enrollments in
general. Aggregating MS and PhD enrollments show that 42.1% of the graduate
students in TAMU Geosciences are women, which compares favorably to the
national average 41.6% for graduate degrees granted to women in the geosciences
according to National Science Foundation data.
UT Austin and Penn State both have slightly lower female enrollments of
36.8% and 37.1% respectively, which suggests that the graduate environment for
women at TAMU Geosciences is slightly more attractive or welcoming than these
peers. At the MS level, TAMU Geosciences is especially successful at attracting
and graduating women, with over 55% of recent degrees at this level across the
College being awarded to women.
Minority
enrollment at the graduate level is also above or at national averages for
Hispanic, Black and American Indian graduate students, and TAMU Geosciences is
consistently above UT Austin for all of these ethnicities, but again far from
where we would like to be – i.e. closer to parity with
the population. Penn State does a better
job at attracting Black graduate students than we do (10 enrolled as opposed to
6), so sustained effort in recruiting is needed. College-wide we have had some recent success
in attracting minority graduate students with targeted efforts, so I am
optimistic this trend will continue.
Faculty
Faculty
headcount data for all four of our peer institutions shows that TAMU
Geosciences is in more or less in the middle of the pack with respect to both
women and under-represented minorities on the faculty. If we wish to become a leading institution,
we need to be doing better on this front.
This has motivated current and planned efforts to ramp up our recruiting
and retention of women and minority faculty, especially in the upcoming busy
search season. The national average in
the geosciences is 14.3% women faculty, and we are only slightly better than
that at 16.1%. Penn State and UT Austin
are better still at 18.5% and 19.0% respectively and the best among our peers
is Oregon State at 25% women faculty members.
Arizona State lags our performance with only 13% female faculty. With regard to under-represented minorities,
Penn State is the clear leader with 7.3% faculty being URM. Arizona State has 5.6% URM faculty (all
Hispanic in this category), TAMU Geosciences at 4.3%, and Oregon State trails
us at 1.8% URM (98.1% white faculty).
