A New Paradigm For Diversity In Engineering

Many universities are making efforts to become increasingly diverse, and with this increasing diversity there comes the need to manage such diversity effectively to maximize the potential of faculty, staff, and students, alike.1 Challenges that women and minorities face in academia often relate to their sense of isolation, the lack of collegiality, and covert sexism and racism on university campuses.2 One approach to diversity management is to create programs, such as Purdue’s highly recognized Minority Engineering Program and Women in Engineering Program, that are designed to support, as well as to improve the recruitment, retention, and graduation, of underrepresented populations.