A More ‘Diverse’ Approach to Diversity in STEM Education

Attracting more students into STEM education has long been a challenge for colleges and universities.

For example, African-Americans make up only 5 percent of undergraduate engineering degrees, as compared with 13 percent of overall undergraduate enrollment. Latinos fare similarly, and many schools wrestle with gross imbalances from a gender perspective.

Mark SomervilleOne reason is that many high school students have the impression that STEM programs are welcoming only to a limited range of the population. To deal with this, many schools have created a variety of programs—scholarships, summer programs and so forth—intended to attract more diverse applicants to STEM. We hear about the “STEM pipeline” all the time.

This effort is admirable, but it’s much like a car company offering rebates to buyers of an unpopular model: the emphasis is on getting the customer in the door, as opposed to really responding to the customer’s needs. Redesigning the car to appeal to more people would be a better option.

Likewise, to attract more students into STEM programs, colleges and universities need not only change their approach to recruiting, they also need to redesign their programs to appeal to a more diverse range of students.

As a result, a wider range of students are more likely to tell their younger siblings and friends, “I feel at home in this place because there are other people who look and act like me—and it’ll be welcoming for you too.” Recommendations like this have an effect on applications that outweighs the effect of any number of campus tours.

David E. GoldbergThe idea of “diversity” in education has typically focused on having a good blend of male and female students and more variety in ethnic origin. Those are admirable goals, because students of all types need to feel that there are other people in the program with whom they can identify.