FAYETTEVILLE -- The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville is among 20 public research institutions to recently join a National Science Foundation-funded effort to increase diversity among faculty members in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines.
UA has similar numbers of women and minority engineering faculty members compared with other large public universities in the region, according to data compiled by the American Society for Engineering Education.
But the numbers show big disparities that the recently-3formed Aspire Alliance seeks to tackle by helping the schools improve recruitment, hiring and retention efforts.
Last year, women made up 16 out of 119 tenured and tenure-track engineering faculty members at UA, according to data compiled by the American Society for Engineering Education.
Women made up 13.4% of the total at UA, while the percentage of women engineering faculty members nationally was 17.6% in the same 2018 time period, according to the engineering association. The national percentage is based on 27,412 tenured and tenure-track faculty members counted by the group.
The University of Kansas had women making up 16% of its total engineering tenured and tenure-track faculty members in 2018; schools including Mississippi State University, the University of Missouri and the University of Oklahoma had lower percentages of female engineering faculty members.
The percentages appear lower for some minority groups, both at UA and nationally.
Data included some faculty members listed as not having their race or ethnicity known. But the 2018 numbers for engineering included three black tenure-track faculty members at UA -- two men and one woman -- or 2.5% of the faculty. Nationally, black engineering faculty members made up 2.4% out of the 27,412 U.S. total counted by the American Society for Engineering Education.
UA had one Hispanic engineering faculty member in 2018, less than 1% of the faculty, according to 2018 data from the engineering education group. Nationally, for the same time period, Hispanic engineering faculty members made up 3.8% of 27,412 tenure-track total.
Among other minority groups, UA had 17 Asian engineering faculty members, or 14.3% of the faculty. Nationally, Asian engineering faculty members made up 28.3% of the 27,412 tenure-track total, according to the engineering education group.
The STEM initiative extends beyond engineering to include other disciplines. UA's top diversity officer, Yvette Murphy-Erby, in a statement said the "alliance will be transformative."
"The action plan we will form through 'Aspire' will have ripple effects across our entire campus, helping us identify additional strengths and opportunities while validating strategies that we can implement across all our campus units," Murphy-Erby said.
Nationally, the Aspire Alliance is being led by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning at the University of Wisconsin.
UA is among the second grouping to join in the initiative, which now has 35 schools participating. UA is the only university in Arkansas taking part so far.
Metro on 12/26/2019