MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE COMMITTEE ON
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

June 1-2, 2000

National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22230

Thursday, June 1, 2000

Welcome, Introduction and Opening Remarks

The Chair, Dr. Emi Ito, opened the meeting at 8:40 a.m. in room 1295 and welcomed the Committee members. After members introduced themselves, Dr. Ito reviewed the agenda, highlighted materials in the briefing book, and reported on her May 31, 2000, meeting with Dr. Joseph Bordogna, Deputy Director of NSF.

Report of Executive Council Liaison

Dr. Wanda E. Ward, Executive Liaison, commended all CEOSE members for their commitment and service. She shared that the Foundation is participating in the AAA Science and Technology Policy Fellowship Program. The Program received 89 applicants from early to mid-career scientists and engineers. Five individuals were interviewed for placement at NSF and four (3 females and one male) will be working at the Foundation; the fifth candidate accepted a fellowship at another agency. She underscored that the Fellows are premier scientists interested in science education, science policy, and workforce issues related to underrepresented groups. She also informed the members about NSF’s Summer Internship Program that targets undergraduate and graduate students, primarily from underrepresented groups (via Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities and Quality Education for Minorities) and students with disabilities (via AAAS Entry Point).

Dr. Ward informed the Committee about an upcoming trip to Africa in August 2000. A team from the Foundation, headed by Dr. Bordogna, will be working with the Vice President of South Africa’s National Research Foundation to forge mutually beneficial collaborations, particularly in the area of social and behavioral science. She also noted that for several years the Directorates for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) and Education and Human Resources (EHR) have been involved in joint activities with South Africa in the areas of math and physical sciences and systemic reform.

Dr. Ward recently attended a meeting at the British Embassy. Increased involvement of women and underrepresented minorities was an area of considerable importance. She emphasized that maximally developing human resources is critical to globalization issues/discussions.

Inclusion of Underrepresented Groups in Global Engagement

Dr. Eduardo L. Feller, Senior Staff Associate in the Division of International Programs (INT), described the challenges of enhancing diverse participation in international programs. INT supports three kinds of activities: 1) collaborative research of one to three years, 2) program development activities that would lead to a collaborative research, and 3) workshops or seminars which are bilateral where a limited number of people from the US and another country or other countries focus on a limited topic to explore the frontiers of that topic with the intention of establishing logical research bonds. Dr. Feller and his colleague Ms. Thomasina Edwards, briefly commented on outreach efforts to diversify INT stakeholders: applicant pool, awardees, members of advisory committees, pool of reviewers, and other community contacts. Outreach efforts to developing countries/regions and institutions that predominantly serve minority groups and were highlighted.

Systemic Reform and Higher Education Diversity Continuum

Dr. Judith Sunley, Interim Assistant Director for the EHR Directorate, focused on equal opportunity issues in the context of the systemic initiative programs and EHR’s Higher Education Diversity Continuum. She commented that EHR has major responsibility for K-12 education and a shared division of responsibilities in the undergraduate area. At the graduate and professional level, the responsibilities are largely disciplinary in the other directorates rather than in EHR. She engaged CEOSE in a discussion of the immediacy versus the long-range strategies (e.g., Scholarships for Service, Initiative for Tribal Colleges, 21st Century Workforce Initiative) for the development of the diverse, globally competitive and internationally engaged workforce of scientists and engineers and well-educated citizens. In addition to describing specific programs and initiatives in EHR, she provided specific examples of coordination across NSF-funded programs within a state and among institutions of higher education to demonstrate the contributions of rich interactions between the different kinds of programs at different levels as coherent strategies for dealing with broadening participation. She also identified areas needing attention such as undergraduate programs for Hispanic-serving institutions; education research on barriers and enablers for minority participation in science, math, engineering and technology; and the identification of appropriate quantitative performance indicators and appropriate qualitative methods. CEOSE members raised issues about the K-12 performance gap, higher education disparities and teacher quality.

Embedding Diversity and Broadening Participation

GEO and Diversity. Dr. Jewel Prendeville, Program Coordinator in the Division of Atmospheric Sciences, focused CEOSE’s attention to the efforts of the Geosciences Directorate in trying to understand why minorities avoid Geosciences or are not attracted to it. After soliciting input from the minority communities, conducting two diversity workshops and sharing findings and suggestions with the Advisory Committee to the GEO Directorate, a new program will be established.

CAREER. Dr. Allison Flatau, Program Director in the Division of Civil and Mechanical Structures and Chair of the CAREER Coordinating Committee, provided background data for CAREER competitions in 1995, 1996, and 1997, noting that the traditionally underrepresented groups represented approximately eight to ten percent of the CAREER awardees. Focusing on engineering data for 1999 and 2000 competitions, she stated the success rates were 12 and 13 percent for minorities and 20 and 30 percent for women. She described two workshops sponsored by the Civil Mechanical Systems Division for promoting the retention and advancement of underrepresented faculty and an awareness of funding opportunities. She shared that approximately 40 individuals attended the first workshop. Three of 12 African American participants, one of the five Hispanic participants and four of 17 white female participants have gotten CAREER awards.

Overarching Institutional Concerns/Challenges

Dr. Shirley McBay, President of Quality Education for Minorities (QEM) Network in Washington, DC, made a presentation on the institutional and overarching concerns and challenges that minorities confront on the pathway toward earning doctoral degrees mathematics, science, and engineering.

Dr. McBay discussed the lack of research infrastructure to support research activities as a barrier related to the scholarly productivity by faculty on various campuses, especially at minority serving institutions. Scholarly productivity was defined as getting published in referred journals, joining professional societies and taking leadership roles, and using the internet for research and networking purposes. She also stated that the math, science and engineering faculty on many campuses is increasingly less reflective of the student body of the campuses. Many of the faculty members are unable to communicate well with the students and are less likely to engage African American students in meaningful research activities.

QEM has also identified states with significant minority populations and examined their production of underrepresented minority SMET graduates at the undergraduate and graduate levels. In each of the states, the top ten institutions were identified and QEM surveyed the leadership of these institutions regarding contributing factors to their success. Results revealed that these colleges and universities had community outreach programs, special recruitment efforts, summer bridge programs, accessible faculty, and support services for minority students. The survey of students at these institutions revealed similar results. Additionally, students made specific mention of involvement in MSE organizations, undergraduate research opportunities, and summer internships and corporate work experiences.

Embedding Diversity and Broadening Participation (Cont’d)

REU. Dr. Karolyn Eisenstein, Senior Staff Associate in the Division of Undergraduate Education, described the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program, a Foundation-wide program designed to involve talented undergraduate students in a meaningful way in ongoing research programs or in research projects specially designed for the purpose of engaging undergraduate students. She emphasized that REU is an effort to use the research opportunity to build human capacity. The REU student population must be citizens or permanent residents of the US or its possessions; projects are strongly encouraged to involve students who are women, underrepresented minorities, or persons with disabilities and to involve students who might not otherwise have a research opportunity.

ADVANCE. Dr. Alice Hogan, Senior Program Manager in the Division of International Programs, outlined the development of a new program, ADVANCE. This program will have the challenging goal of transforming the institutional climate at academic institutions to improve the likelihood that women will enter, advance, and attain senior positions in the faculty ranks. Data were shared to illuminate the longstanding problem that women don’t enter, advance, or attain senior positions in the same proportionate to their representation in the population or even in their field. It is anticipated that a program announcement will be available by November 2000.

Assistive Technologies

Dr. Gilbert Devey, Program Director in the Division of Bioengineering and Environmental Systems, discussed the biomedical engineering and research to aid persons with disabilities. The discussion highlighted specific assistive technology projects, including the retinal prosthesis project at John Hopkins University and North Carolina State University and the undergraduate design projects in which student engineers design custom devices and software for disabled individuals. In approximately 24 undergraduate design projects, the engineering student must directly interact with the client (disabled individual) and with the third party agency that represents that client. The completion of the design requirement for an engineering student also results in an assistive device for a disabled person.

Commission of the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering, and Technology Development (CAWMSET): Status Report

A brochure and a report are being prepared; the report will be on the Web. The Commission will release their recommendations at a press briefing that is scheduled to take place on Capitol Hill on July 13, 2000. Dr. Gary May was commended for serving as CEOSE Liaison to CAWMSET. Dr. May asked Dr. Beatriz Clewell, Executive Director of CAWMSET, to share her experience in preparing/writing the CAWMSET report. Dr. Clewell also thanked CEOSE members for reviewing the commissioned papers. CEOSE members expressed their concerns regarding teacher quality, the magnitude of the problems regarding the pipeline issue, and shortage of manpower in the workforce as it related to the under-utilization of women, minorities and persons with disabilities.

2000 Report to Congress

Dr. May reviewed the writing assignments. CEOSE members provided a status report of where they were in collecting empirical data, gathering stories, and/or writing designated sections. The review of the draft report is planned for the October 2000 meeting.

Meeting with NSF Deputy Director

Dr. Joseph Bordogna briefed CEOSE on budget issues and GPRA-related activities (e.g. FY 1999 Performance Goals and Results; the new plan that focuses on people, ideas, and tools; the inclusion of a statement in every program announcement/solicitation encouraging proposers to address improving the participation of underrepresented groups in science and engineering in the course of their research and education activities). He encouraged CEOSE to identify and give advice on diversity issues related to the workforce initiative and the technology research initiative. He also emphasized that the leadership of NSF wants both of the merit review criteria to be addressed, and CEOSE offered suggestions such as informing the Principal Investigator that the proposal is incomplete if criterion 2 is not addressed and gathering data by Division about the proportion of proposals addressing criterion 2.

Dr. Bordogna gave special recognition to the following CEOSE members: Benjamin Hart for service as a member from 1997 to 2000, Arturo Bronson for service as a member from 1997 to 2001 and Chair from 1998 to 1999, Emi Ito for service as a member from 1997 to 2000 and Chair from 1999 to 2000.

Embedding Diversity and Broadening Participation (Cont’d)

IGERT. Dr. Paul Jennings, Program Director in the Division of Graduate Education, described the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training Program (IGERT). This multidisciplinary program is designed to change the culture of graduate education. He pointed out that every proposal must include a history of the university's diversity education gains with regard to women and minorities. He stated that 8 review panels had been held; of the 131 reviewers, there were 14 African American, five Hispanics, one Native American, and about 30 percent female. He also commented that a database system is in place to collect both monitoring and impact data.

Directorate Advisory Committee Liaison Reports

CEOSE Liaisons to Advisory Committees (AC) provided highlights of the following Spring AC meetings: Engineering (Dr. May), Education and Human Resources (Dr. Suzanne Brainard), Geosciences (Dr. Ito), and Mathematical and Physical Sciences (Dr. Bronson). During these presentations the following topics were highlighted: budget increases, new programs/initiatives, collaborative activities among the directorates, staffing needs and recommendations for vacancies, the commitment of program officers toward diversity, and accountability measures for efforts embedding diversity.

Before adjourning for the day, members began identifying areas of major focus. Suggestions were use of merit review criteria, programmatic efforts in K-12, workforce issues, NSF’s model program/projects that “breakthrough” programs and accountability issues. Additionally, the Chair announced that CEOSE would have a liaison to the Advisory Committee on Environmental Research and Education.

Friday, June 2, 2000

Young Achievers

CEOSE member Dr. Bruce Jackson provided a brief presentation about the Young Achievers Science and Mathematics Pilot School, an innovative citywide Boston public school with a research-based education. Students are taught science in the form of research projects from K-12. He highlighted the unique features of this effort, including the non-traditional approach to teaching science, professional development activities for teachers, collaboration with higher education (community colleges), and multiple measures for accountability.

Trends and Production Rates by Disciplines

Dr. Mary Frase, Deputy Division Director for the Division of Science Resource Studies, provided data that reflected degree production and employment in science and engineering fields for underrepresented groups, with limited data for persons with disability status. She reported that at the bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate levels, the number and percent of science engineering degrees awarded to underrepresented minorities and women have been increasing over the last decade. For underrepresented minorities, the increases were 10 to 15 percent at the bachelor’s level, 6 to 11 percent at the master’s level, and about 5 to 8 percent at the doctorate level. For women, the increases were 42 to 48 percent at the bachelor’s level, 35 to 43 percent at the master’s level, and 34 to 39 percent at the doctorate level. For all the groups, with the exceptions of American Indians and Alaska Natives, the overall trend was a decreasing proportion of science and in engineering degrees awarded with increasing level of degree. Data revealed very little variation across the fields within science and engineering for underrepresented minorities earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees; substantial variations across the fields were found for women. At the doctoral level, underrepresented minorities and women accounted for a much higher proportion of degrees in social sciences, compared to other fields in science. At the faculty level, the proportion of women decreased by rank; both women and minorities were more prevalent among social science faculty than the other science and engineering fields. In terms of the SMET workforce, women and underrepresented minorities had low representation, compared to their representation in the general workforce. As surveys are being redesign, CEOSE emphasized the need to get better data for persons with disabilities.

Awards and Recognition Systems

Dr. J. Arthur Jones, Senior Associate at QEM, discussed the organization’s awards to institutions and individuals. Based on data collected from 1990 through 1997, 27 institutions were recognized for their production of underrepresented minority PhDs in mathematics, physical sciences and engineering. These institutions produced 20 or more underrepresented minority doctoral graduates over the eight-year period). Dr. Jones commented that the numbers for these institutions were not great but they were better relative to other institutions. The University of California at Berkeley was the leading institution and the only one Historically Black College among the 27 institutions was Howard University. Engineering was the leading field for minority doctorates, followed by the physical sciences.

QEM also sent questionnaires to these institutions to gather information about effective practices. Some of the findings were: 1) these institutions had special efforts to target institutions with high minority undergraduate enrollments; 2) these institutions provided sufficient financial aid with many offering minority-focused assistantships and fellowships to support graduate study in science and engineering; 3) the leading producers had offices on campus that focus on the retention of minority students in science and engineering fields; 4) many of the leading institutions had a faculty member with special interest in and reputation for advising minority graduate students in the mathematical, physical science and engineering fields.

In another recognition program, QEM examined the undergraduate production of bachelor’s degrees in mathematics, physical sciences, and engineering. Nineteen states were identified where underrepresented minorities represented 25 percent of the high school graduates. Then institutions within each of these 19 states were rank-ordered based on the number of underrepresented minority graduates awarded baccalaureate degrees in mathematics, physical science and engineering. Up to 10 top institutions in these states were identified in a widely disseminated publication and the top institution in each of these states was invited to Washington DC to get an award.

Dr. Althea Burns of QEM shared information about the annual awards for recognizing individual achievement in the area of promoting math, science and engineering, particularly for underrepresented minorities. A series of individual awards have been created to recognize achievement at various points along the pipeline, ranging from elementary students to K-12 teachers to undergraduate faculty. Awards are given each year to five outstanding minority scientists and they are called “Giants in Science.”

Media Options for the 2000 Report

Mr. Jim Crawford from the Office of the Director discussed and demonstrated several media options for the biennial report. He demonstrated some enhancements for publishing the report on CD-ROM, like inserting video, audio, images, and links to web pages. He also addressed concerns about accessibility, security of data, production time, copyright issues, and the capacity of the CD-ROM.

Committee Business

Dr. May reminded members of their writing assignments for CEOSE 2000 Biennial Report and stressed the importance of having a draft copy of the report by October 2000. Dr. Ito led the discussion in identifying areas of major focus/interest during the two-day meeting and members pinpointed three broad themes to future meeting: embedding diversity, pipeline issues, and accountability issues. Suggested agenda items for the next meeting included: a report from a representative of the Glenn Commission, a presentation on the NSF Workforce Initiative, two directorate-level presentations, review and discussion of the Draft 2000 Biennial Report. Members will be re-contracted about their availability for meeting dates in October 2000. Members approved the minutes of the last meeting.

Best Practice Findings of Programs Promoting Participants of Underrepresented Undergraduate Students in SMET Fields: A Multi-Agency Study

Dr. Joy Frechtling of Westat described a study of federally funded programs that targeted underserved minorities in math and science. Then she focused primarily on the analysis of the NSF’s Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation. Some of features found to be characteristic of best practices were: summer bridge program to facilitate transition from the secondary level to the postsecondary level, deep and meaningful research experiences embedded in the program of study to provide early exposure to scientific research, a supportive environment in which there was a lot of caring and assistance of one to the other, and instituting curriculum changes in order to better serve minority students (and often helpful for all students). CEOSE members and Dr. Frechtling also discussed mentoring, high expectations of and for underrepresented minorities, and program evaluation issues.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:30 p.m.

	Bernice Anderson
	Executive Secretary

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