Arkansas symposium addresses needs of women and minorities

Melissa Murray
ASME Government Relations

A one-day symposium, held last month at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, focused on how to encourage women and minorities in the Delta region to pursue careers in engineering, science and technology.

The program, "Educating Tomorrow's Engineers," was sponsored by the Board on Government Relations' State Action Program, the ASME Board on Minorities and Women, and the Arkansas Science and Technology Authority. It drew representatives from government, industry and academia. Monica Moman-Saunders, ASME Board on Minorities and Women vice president, moderated the event.

The keynote speaker, Howard Adams, a former Executive Director of the National Graduate Consortium on Minority Engineering, challenged participants to "find the spider, not just keep dealing with the cobwebs to address the Delta region's science and technology pipeline issues." Other speakers included: Martha Cyr, Director of Engineering Educational Outreach, Tufts University; Robert Pangborn, Associate Dean of Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, and Richard Hanson, Dean of the Graduate School, University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The attendees participated in a brainstorming session, and an outline was developed for a model state law.

The May 29 meeting was a follow-up to the U.S. Department of Commerce's 2001 Team Delta conference, of which ASME was a co-sponsor. While the focus of that meeting was promotion of technology-based economic development in the Delta region, a recurrent underlying theme was the shortage of women and minorities in the region's education and career pipelines.

For more information on this event, contact Melissa Murray at murraym@asme.org or at (202) 785-3756.

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