Presentations: Session I

The NSF Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES Aspire Alliance (NSF #1834518, 1834522, 1834510, 1834513, 1834526, 1834521), one of the inaugural INCLUDES alliances funded in 2018, aims to build a more inclusive and diverse STEM faculty across 2 and 4-year institutions. The Aspire Alliance is a large and diverse alliance, composed of 6 collaborating institutions, 6 cross-functional teams (3 support, 3 action-orientated/change-focused), 120+ 2 and 4-year institutional partners, and 39 organizational partners. This presentation will focus on the experiences of the backbone organization (Turner, S., Merchant, K., Kania, J., & Martin, E., 2012), one of the 3 support teams, which is led through the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU). In this presentation, we will examine the use of a collaborative infrastructure model in a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)-focused project as required by the NSF INCLUDES project, as well as share our emerging lessons learned and advice to nascent backbone organizations. Our insights will focus on navigating the challenge of integrating three elements of our alliance: collaborative infrastructure and shared decision-making model, needs for accountability and hierarchical structure in NSF, and implementing the values of DEI in our work. We will briefly discuss how these elements have changed over the evolution of our project.

The Advancing Equity and Excellence in Science (AEES) initiative at Western Washington University (WWU), funded through an HHMI Inclusive Excellence grant, works at multiple levels to make science majors more attractive and inclusive to undergraduates, especially those who are from minoritized groups. As part of the AEES initiative, faculty and staff at WWU created an interdisciplinary, two-quarter seminar sequence for science-interested first-year and transfer students of minoritized backgrounds that includes faculty and peer mentoring. To understand the impacts of AEES seminars and embedded mentoring, we used an untreated control group design with dependent pretest and posttest samples to examine how AEES students differed from non-AEES students in their perceptions of belongingness, science identity, and motivation. We found AEES Cohorts 1 (starting in 2017) and 3 (starting in 2019) had higher self-determination and goal orientation on posttests, controlling for pretest responses. These cohorts also reported higher perceived peer support than the non-AEES group. For belongingness, AEES students reported significantly higher comfort in STEM classrooms and greater belongingness at WWU than did non-AEES students. To understand the degree to which science identity, science motivations, and belongingness contributed to ultimate outcomes, we ran a series of regressions with STEM and overall GPA, whether students graduated, and whether students changed majors to a non-STEM major post year one. We found that less intrinsically motivated students were most likely to change majors, albeit most commonly to another STEM major and that belongingness to WWU was predictive of both STEM and overall GPA. Along with summarizing these findings, the presentation will summarize aspects of the seminars' curricula, including major revisions enacted between cohorts 2 and 3.

The AAAS's Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM) Equity Achievement (SEA) Change initiative uses research-informed strategies including a self-assessment process to build capacity for sustainable transformation. The goal is to make diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEMM normative and tied to excellence. UCLA joined this initiative and convened a Change Leadership Team (CLT) to collaboratively design, plan and implement change efforts across the Divisions of Life Sciences and Physical Sciences, Samueli School of Engineering and David Geffen School of Medicine.

The SEA Change theory of change uses a collaborative organizational learning approach (Borden & Kezar 2012), based on the principle that institutional research (IR) and data are used as tools to promote learning, and knowledge is created through collaboration and communication. This iterative process occurs through guiding interactions using an equity minded sensemaking approach through three cyclical phases; 1) template guided self assessment 2) meaning making 3) implementation and evaluation.

The CLT began the work of Phase 1 by populating the self-assessment template using a dashboard with compositional diversity data developed by IR. The CLT decided to identify the status of equity gaps in five domains: 1) Undergraduate "achievement" 2) Undergraduate persistence 3) Graduate persistence 4) Faculty diversity, retention, and promotion 5) Climate. Sources of institutional data were identified for indicators across these domains. Undergraduate achievement became the focus because STEMM course performance is one determinant of persistence, particularly in lower division courses. Representatives from the divisions and IR collaborated to revise dashboards to provide functionality, and identify course-level equity gaps in grades and DFW rates by student characteristics. Next, the CLT works with divisions and departments to review local data on equity gaps, generate hypotheses that may explain observed equity gaps, and identify data "close to practice" to test these hypotheses, collect in-depth qualitative data and design interventions.

The University of Wisconsin - Madison's HHMI Inclusive Excellence project aims to increase the number and diversity of students graduating with STEM bachelor's degrees in the state of Wisconsin by transforming policies and practices to support transfer from the state's 16 two-year technical colleges to its 14 four-year universities. Across the nation and in Wisconsin approximately 39% of students start their journey to a bachelor's degree at a community college (NCES, 2015) and these students are more likely to be first-generation, identify with a minoritized racial-ethnic group, and come from low income households (Crisp, 2017).

The two public higher education systems in Wisconsin are governed independently and each institution is in a unique context. To make connections and facilitate collaboration between the two systems and between individual institutions, we developed a novel framework of shared values and a four-part process (connect, reflect, learn, and act) to establish and align our project goals and priorities. We based our framework on the literature on transfer student success (Aspen, 2016; CCRC, 2021) and customized it with input from partners across the state to build ownership and collaborative relationships.

Our original project proposal included specific aims to support STEM students and the faculty and advisors who work with them and to change transfer policies and procedures to address known barriers. Our project leadership group operates as an Adaptive Network of individuals that does not necessarily have positional power but is aware of transfer needs. This group interacts with Hierarchical Networks at the system and institutional levels to integrate change into existing structures. Through forensic mapping we are documenting what is actually happening in our work and we are using Idea Flow Theory (Sharp, 2019) to identify and understand the skills and strategies being used that have led to setbacks and successes to guide future planning.