Engineering deans at many minority-serving institutions are among those calling for a new national initiative to help MSIs and urban public universities increase the number of engineers of color, whom they say are critical to the nation’s future economic growth.
“Without diversity, we will not be able to reach our goals and targets,” said Amir Mirmiran, engineering dean at Florida International University, a Hispanic-serving institution based in Miami. Through their innovations, he told Diverse, engineers are critical “job multipliers” whose work can create more high-paying jobs in the nation’s economy.
Among other ideas, Mirmiran called for a “GI Bill for STEM” that would provide scholarships, low-interest loans and other financial aid to increase enrollment in higher education science, technology, engineering and math programs. The idea was among several outlined in a new report outlined at a Capitol Hill briefing on Wednesday by stakeholders who convened earlier this year at a National Science Foundation-supported meeting in Florida.
In addition to a GI Bill for STEM, engineering deans, business leaders and other education experts called for several new strategies such as:
n Increasing cooperation between minority-serving colleges and major research universities on engineering and STEM topics.
n Creating a “Peace Corps of Engineers in K-12” that would bring retired engineers into public schools to promote engineering and work with K-12 students so that they have the skills to succeed in college engineering programs.
n Redesigning engineering education with a greater emphasis on active learning, internships and experiential and project-based learning in mathematics.
