Influential factors affecting the attraction and retention of minority faculty in engineering and technology programs

Abstract

This paper highlights research that explores the key factors that affect the attraction and retention of minority faculty in engineering and technology programs in rural communities, in particular southern rural communities. It is well known that the pool of minority applicants, specifically black applicants, for faculty positions in engineering and technology programs is very small. Furthermore, the attraction and retention of qualified minority faculty to teach in engineering and technology programs in rural communities (that is, communities with a population of less than 30,000) is even more limited. There are several factors that contribute to this phenomenon, including university classification, department culture, student demographics, and geographical location. We focus on the attraction and retention problem of minority engineering faculty at a comprehensive university in a rural community in southeast Georgia. The target institution has successfully recruited and retained minority faculty members at a steady rate over the last five years. Approximately, 16% of its total faculty are minorities. These observations initiated the basis of this study. We began to question the nature of this phenomenon and ponder the unique characteristics of this university that fueled these results. Appropriate data was collected, analyzed and used to identify contributing factors that lead to the attraction and retention of minority more specifically, black Engineering and Technology faculty members at this institution. Using several data analysis techniques, we show that there is a high correlation between diversity (in terms of students, faculty and the academic learning environment) and the attraction and retention of black engineering and technology faculty members. These data indicate that the diversity model implemented at this university is successful in attracting and retaining minority faculty members. Consequently as a result of this work, similar faculty diversity models can be developed and used to increase faculty diversity at other academic institutions. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2007.