Diversity Forum focuses on engineering education

Mary James Legatski
Center for Leadership and Diversity

ORLANDO, Fla. — A special diversity forum here at last month's 2005 Congress examined the topic, "The Future of Engineering: The Role of Diversity in Engineering Education."
The forum, sponsored by ASME's Center for Leadership and Diversity, the National Society of Black Engineers, and the Society of Women Engineers, marked the third Congress diversity forum in as many years.

Clark G. McCarrell, Jr., vice president of the Center for Leadership and Diversity, in his opening remarks, observed that organizations must recognize the importance of diversity in maintaining leadership in today's global marketplace. He emphasized that embracing strategic diversity and inclusiveness is as important to engineering education as it is to the engineering workforce.

Tom Price of the National Action Council for Minority Engineers, and the session moderator, noted that his council's goal was to make engineering graduates in the United States reflect the country's actual cultural makeup. Because fewer than 4 percent of minority high school students have the prerequisite math and science credits to be eligible to pursue engineering education, NACME is focusing on providing scholarships for engineering educations to 25,000 minority students.

The forum panelists at the session were: Linda Blevins of the National Science Foundation; Arthur Bond of Alabama A&M University; and ASME Past President Win Phillips of the University of Florida.

Blevins likened engineering education to a long tunnel with great opportunities on the other side, posing the question, "Is that tunnel good for females and non-whites?" Blevins noted that there is a conflict between what girls want in terms of career choices and how engineering is described. Hearing that engineering is a "tough" academic choice and that one must excel in math and science to be an engineer discourages many girls from considering engineering as a career choice, she said.

Bond, the original co-founder of NSBE, spoke of the success that his and other historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have had in graduating black engineers. HBCUs now award more than 30 percent of all engineering degrees earned by black Americans, he said.

Bond cited the many organizations that currently promote engineering education among minorities, including Advancing Minorities' Interest in Engineering, National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities, and Minority Introduction to Engineering.

Phillips termed engineering "the loneliest profession in the U.S." because females and minorities are not encouraged to become engineers. This, he noted, is bad for the U.S. economy. Unlike China, which graduates five times the number of engineers in one month that the U.S. does in one year, the U.S. engineering graduation rate is flat. Phillips believes part of the problem is that the engineering profession has not done a good job of persuading students to go into engineering.

In closing remarks, Klod Kokini, co-organizer of the forum, reminded attendees that it is imperative for the future of the United States that every student has the opportunity to pursue engineering education. Educators and engineers have an obligation to make sure that all students are prepared for the workplace of the future, he said.

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