Conference: Series on Institutional Change to Support STEM Underrepresented Faculty Success

Systemic change in higher education is of critical and continuing national importance in efforts to promote the recruitment, retention, and advancement of STEM faculty from all populations. Higher education institutions, however, have been historically slow to change. Built on centuries-old practices, many colleges and universities are driven by missions that are explicitly centered around concepts of excellence, prestige, and advancement of knowledge. Implicit in many institutional policies and practices, however, are long-standing and systemic inequities that do not support a diverse student body, nor the faculty who instruct, mentor, and train this next generation of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals. The scope of the Conference Series on Institutional Change to Support STEM Faculty Success includes exploring the opportunities for and potential barriers to changing institutional policies and practices to support the STEM faculty from all populations. Bringing together researchers, practitioners, administrators, and individual faculty, this series will consider how research and theory of institutional and organizational change can more effectively support the hiring, development, and advancement of these faculty. Specifically, the discussions, presentations, and conversations will examine different layers and levels of operational influence within higher education systems and structures, elements of effective change processes, and factors that can ensure all people have an opportunity to achieve success in STEM. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.