The establishment of a minority engineering program (MEP) in the
College of Engineering represents a milestone in Auburn's efforts to attract
and retain a significant talent pool that will
play an increasingly important part of a future more and more diversified
in terms of its demographics.
"We are already seeing the ratio of white males,
who have traditionally made up the bulk of engineering
graduates, diminish as more women and minorities enter the work force,"
explains Larry Benefield, the associate dean for academics who has done much of
the legwork in making this program a reality at Auburn.
"We don't want to be left behind the curve as this
demographic shift gains momentum," he adds. "In fact,
we want to involve ourselves as leaders and become
a model for minority recruitment and retention not just
in the Southeast, but nationally."
The groundwork for the college's MEP initiative
began in 1993 when Dean William F. Walker called for
an in-depth assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of
Auburn engineering students, the curriculum, and its future direction.
"Even then we were concerned about the question of retention, since we knew that about 50 percent of our students left engineering before attaining the undergraduate degree," Benefield notes.
"We felt that a large number of these students were leaving for reasons other
than a lack of an ability to succeed in the engineering curriculum; however,
most of our information was anecdotal."
With the dean's emphasis on the collection of hard data within the
structure of a continuous quality improvement framework, college
administrators undertook a comprehensive
evaluation program utilizing both standard and custom testing instruments
developed under the guidance of Glennelle and Gerald Halpin, the former an
educational psychologist and the latter a
statistician in the College of Education.
"We began to accumulate an extensive data base on our students,
and through the testing of incoming freshmen identified a number of
characteristics that they possessed in common when they entered Auburn," Benefield
notes. "As part of this process we also
identified students who were at a high potential for dropping out of engineering."
In fact, some of the hard numbers gathered in 1993 showed that 53
percent of the student body entering in 1991 left the college before the end of
pre-engineering studies.
"We are currently showing a retention rate for minorities that is
significantly lower than for the student body in general, at 33 percent compared to
55 percent overall," Benefield states.
"This alone led us to the feeling that we
needed to develop strategies that could help more minorities be successful in
attaining their engineering degree."
Arguably one of the most proven methods has been the
implementation of a minority engineering program, which has proven successful at other institutions.
"I believe one of the most
significant innovations of our MEP program was that we did not rely on informed
guesses, hunches or anecdotal data in its implementation," Benefield comments.
"We built ours on hard data, and as we test and develop the concepts that
underpin these efforts over the next five years,
we have a good chance of coming out with a national model that others will
look to."
One of the first realizations to come out of Auburn's MEP efforts will be
the establishment of a summer bridge program next summer, Benefield notes.
"One of the most important points we began to understand was that
many minorities who come to Auburn with an extremely high potential for success
find themselves compromised through inadequate preparation," he explains.
"The reasons for that are complex and quite frankly beyond the scope
of our program," he adds. "But we do
know what to do to bring them into the engineering curriculum's mainstream,
which begins with courses that are based on the fundamental concepts of science
and mathematics in a framework of problem-solving and skills development."
In addition to the development of a bridge program, engineering
administrators led by Dennis Weatherby, who heads the minority engineering
program, are looking to foster an ambience that makes the college more attractive to
minorities.
"On one level this includes academic enhancement and tutorial programs,
but in a much greater sense it involves mentoring these students in the
fullest sense of the term not just in the class, but beyond it," Benefield adds. "We need to develop a sense of community that addresses some of the pressures
that these students encounter in what is fundamentally a large, white institution."
As the college makes progress in this arena, Benefield is preparing for the next step, which he terms the question of student retention in general.
"We are going to proceed on the basis of careful research and continuous assessment," he explains. "Ultimately what we want to do is apply these concepts to a quality environment that does not
tolerate the loss of half of its product, to put it in terms industry understands.
"At the same time, we not only refuse to compromise the level of quality that has come to be expected of Auburn, we anticipate moving toward a higher level as we embrace new and tougher ABET standards."
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