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COVID-19 Pandemic Response and Faculty Career Equity

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Conference

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Location

Virtual Conference

Publication Date

July 26, 2021

Start Date

July 26, 2021

End Date

July 19, 2022

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 6

Tagged Division

Women in Engineering

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

11

DOI

10.18260/1-2--36859

Permanent URL

https://strategy.asee.org/36859

Download Count

480

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Paper Authors

biography

Shawna Vican University of Delaware

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Shawna Vican is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Harvard University. An organizational sociologist, Dr. Vican investigates the adoption and implementation of new employment practices and corporate social behaviors. Across her research, Dr. Vican explores how organizational policies and practices, managerial behavior, and workplace culture shape individual career outcomes as well as broader patterns of labor market inequality. Her current research includes a qualitative study of corporate diversity management strategies and a series of mixed-methods projects on diversity in the academic workforce.

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Robin Andreasen University of Delaware

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Robin O. Andreasen (Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Madison) is Professor of Cognitive Science. She earned her PhD in philosophy and specializes in philosophy of science, philosophy of social science, and in science and policy. A race and gender scholar, Dr. Andreasen is research director and co-PI for UD’s ADVANCE-IT grant.

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Heather Doty University of Delaware

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Heather Doty is an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Delaware (UD). Dr. Doty teaches undergraduate courses in thermodynamics, statics, and dynamics, and conducts research on gender in the academic STEM workforce. She is co-PI on UD's NSF ADVANCE Institutional Transformation grant, which aims to recruit, retain, and advance women STEM faculty at UD. Dr. Doty is faculty advisor to UD's Women in Engineering Graduate Student steering committee.

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L. Pamela Cook University of Delaware

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Pam Cook is Unidel Professor of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Delaware (UD). Her research interest is in applied mathematics modeling and simulation, particularly of complex, viscoelastic, fluids. She is PI on the University of Delaware NSF ADVANCE IT grant to improve the representation and leadership opportunities of women among the STEM faculty at UD.

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Abstract

This evidence-based practice paper will address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on faculty careers, offering a range of strategies higher education institutions, including engineering schools and departments, may adopt to support faculty and promote equity. Emergent research has documented immediate impacts of the pandemic across all elements of faculty work, including research (e.g. loss of access to labs and field sites), teaching (e.g. shifts to remote or hybrid instruction), and service (e.g. increased student mentoring). At the same time, faculty are differentially impacted by these challenges, with the pandemic expected to amplify longstanding inequities in career progression for women and faculty of color. In this paper, we connect the broader literature on bias and inequity in faculty career progression to more recent work specific to the pandemic, describing how these literatures informed our initial steps to respond to COVID-19 at University of X. After describing our response to-date, we outline emergent challenges and strategies to improve policy implementation. We conclude by suggesting ways in which universities can continue to support faculty career development over the coming years, ensuring that pandemic impacts do not undermine progress towards gender and racial equity in faculty careers. Our preference is for this paper be presented in a traditional lecture format.

Vican, S., & Andreasen, R., & Doty, H., & Cook, L. P. (2021, July), COVID-19 Pandemic Response and Faculty Career Equity Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--36859

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