Inclusive Excellence
The University of Nebraska – Lincoln (UNL) College of Engineering (COE) is committed to increasing diversity and inclusion amongst our faculty, staff and student body. Our goal is to increase the percentage of faculty and students from underrepresented groups in science and engineering, with the long-term goal of reaching the same percentages found in the greater community.
Having more diverse faculty and staff strengthens our ability to educate and develop the future workforce of Nebraska, by providing role models for diverse students and a place at the table for diverse opinions to be considered as we move the College forward. Educating a more diverse student body provides all students with greater opportunities to learn how to listen, consider, and respect diverse viewpoints, empowering them to be positive citizens for the future.
The college is among the inaugural group of institutions to receive the ASEE Diversity Recognition Program’s Bronze Award in 2019. The award recognizes our college as participating in the following activities:
ASEE Dean's Diversity Pledge
Dean Lance C. Pérez has signed the ASEE Dean’s Diversity Pledge.
UNL College of Engineering Diversity and Inclusion Plan
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Engineering has developed a Diversity and Inclusion Plan.
K-12 pipeline activities
We are pursuing the following K-12 pipeline activities to increase racial, ethnic, and gender diversity of our students and increase access to our programs and resources.
- Deploy engineering engagement and recruitment programs with specific schools in Nebraska that have greater than 70% of students receiving free or reduced price lunches, to create a pipeline for recruitment of underrepresented groups.
- Host events focused on introducing females to engineering (e.g. ‘Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day’, Girl Scout events, Tech Savvy Girls, Girls Inc. Eureka! Summer program, etc.).
- Host ‘Engineering Exploration Day’ for potential diverse and first-generation college students with industry partners and other community members.
- Promote Multicultural Engineering Program (MEP) and Women in Engineering (WIE) to prospective students and parents.
- Creating customized college diversity print recruitment materials.
Measures of accountability will include increasing (i) numbers of students reached at these events; (ii) numbers of students attending these events who then are recruited to UNL COE; and (iii) percentages of students from underrepresented groups in the undergraduate student body. Please see our ‘Diversity and Inclusion Plan’ for more details.
Partnership with a non-PhD granting engineering school
The College of Engineering has developed a strong partnership with a non-PhD granting engineering school, Navajo Technical University (NTU) in New Mexico that serves the Navajo nation.
Diversifying our faculty
The College of Engineering is implementing the following proactive strategies to increase the representation of diverse groups in our faculty:
- Educating department chairs and all search committees annually on the importance of diversity and awareness of implicit bias.
- Increasing the pool of under-represented applicants by encouraging search committees to use their networks to identify diverse applications, and by posting coordinated ads to outlets aimed at underrepresented groups.
- Holding search committees accountable, by requiring them to report on the outcomes of their efforts to identify diverse applicants and reduce implicit bias in search committee discussion, when submitting preliminary short lists to the Dean for approval.
- Requiring diversity statements of all faculty applicants, beginning in fall 2019, and training faculty on how to assess diversity statements.
- Deploying a new College Faculty Development Program, focused on ‘Diversity-Inclusion-Citizenship’
- Charging a Task Force of faculty and students to identify best practices towards becoming a more diverse and inclusive community, in terms of faculty and students.
For more information on our commitment to inclusive excellence, please contact the Associate Dean for Faculty and Inclusion.