STEM diversity: Why Towson is doing better than most
By: Brendan Straub, Lurene Heyl, Maria Asimopoulos
Before Faith Weeks started teaching biological sciences at Towson University, she was a Ph.D. student in entomology in a department where only three out of the 40 faculty members were women. She was president of the entomology graduate organization, took the lead in community festivals, presented research and had a 4.0 grade point average. But her experience wasn't all positive. Weeks said she experienced discrimination and sexual harassment.
“When the department head introduced his ‘best students’ to alums, all were males,” Weeks said. “The males won the awards. The females were asked to run bake sales and art contests. The sexual harassment by faculty was pretty bad, too, but all our complaints lead to no change.”
At Towson, where she is an assistant professor, Weeks said the environment is better. But she said women are still treated differently than men.
“There are still male colleagues who don’t think my research is good enough or that I should have an opinion in faculty meetings,” Weeks said. “There are male faculty who only started talking to me after I helped get a big grant.”
Weeks said it would be helpful to have more gender diversity in her department and others at Towson because it could help encourage minority students to go into science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, which have historically struggled with student and faculty diversity.
“While I know it can be difficult to attract [minority] applicants, it might help minority students see someone like them as their teacher,” Weeks said. “It might also help to have students have a group on campus to rely on that are in similar situations.”
“When the department head introduced his ‘best students’ to alums, all were males,” Weeks said. “The males won the awards. The females were asked to run bake sales and art contests. The sexual harassment by faculty was pretty bad, too, but all our complaints lead to no change.”
At Towson, where she is an assistant professor, Weeks said the environment is better. But she said women are still treated differently than men.
“There are still male colleagues who don’t think my research is good enough or that I should have an opinion in faculty meetings,” Weeks said. “There are male faculty who only started talking to me after I helped get a big grant.”
Weeks said it would be helpful to have more gender diversity in her department and others at Towson because it could help encourage minority students to go into science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, which have historically struggled with student and faculty diversity.
“While I know it can be difficult to attract [minority] applicants, it might help minority students see someone like them as their teacher,” Weeks said. “It might also help to have students have a group on campus to rely on that are in similar situations.”
Towson STEM departments are more diverse than the national average
In a national study conducted using data from schools in the Association of American Universities, statistics from as recently as 2012 show that women are underrepresented among STEM faculty. They comprise 44.4 percent of non-STEM disciplines and just 22.5 percent of STEM program faculty.
Towson’s STEM faculty, by contrast, is split almost 50/50 between men and women, with the number of female professors lagging behind by only a few percentage points.
In a national study conducted using data from schools in the Association of American Universities, statistics from as recently as 2012 show that women are underrepresented among STEM faculty. They comprise 44.4 percent of non-STEM disciplines and just 22.5 percent of STEM program faculty.
Towson’s STEM faculty, by contrast, is split almost 50/50 between men and women, with the number of female professors lagging behind by only a few percentage points.
Caryn Musil, senior scholar and director of civic learning and democracy initiatives at the Association of American Colleges & Universities, said Towson has made impressive efforts to diversify its faculty since the ‘80s and ‘90s.
“It had a wonderful women’s studies program," said Musil, who has spent most of her career researching gender diversity in higher education. "They were among the first to do gender across the curriculum...and then got grants to do institutes and help other schools do that. Towson was ahead of the curve in terms of national leadership on what it means to think about gender across the curriculum.”
Fisher College of Science and Mathematics might have such a diverse faculty because of its diversity committee. The committee is comprised of the FCSM associate dean and a faculty member from each of the five disciplines in the college (physics, astronomy, and geosciences; chemistry; biological sciences; mathematics; and computer & information Sciences).
Thanks to this committee, an action plan is in place to increase diversity in the college and in faculty and student recruitment and retention. Steps that impact faculty diversity include encouraging faculty members to join professional societies for minority groups and recruiting from diverse outlets.
“There’s a record, particularly of men and women of color, of not staying at an institution, not getting the same kind of mentoring that would help them to progress both in their field and progress at the institution up the promotional ladder,” Musil said.
One of the action plan’s goals is to provide mentoring for professors from underrepresented groups.
“Once you hire the women, you have to keep the women, or you don’t change the culture of the department,” she said. “Not surprisingly, the more you increase the number of women, the more likely you are to increase the number of women in the future.”
“It had a wonderful women’s studies program," said Musil, who has spent most of her career researching gender diversity in higher education. "They were among the first to do gender across the curriculum...and then got grants to do institutes and help other schools do that. Towson was ahead of the curve in terms of national leadership on what it means to think about gender across the curriculum.”
Fisher College of Science and Mathematics might have such a diverse faculty because of its diversity committee. The committee is comprised of the FCSM associate dean and a faculty member from each of the five disciplines in the college (physics, astronomy, and geosciences; chemistry; biological sciences; mathematics; and computer & information Sciences).
Thanks to this committee, an action plan is in place to increase diversity in the college and in faculty and student recruitment and retention. Steps that impact faculty diversity include encouraging faculty members to join professional societies for minority groups and recruiting from diverse outlets.
“There’s a record, particularly of men and women of color, of not staying at an institution, not getting the same kind of mentoring that would help them to progress both in their field and progress at the institution up the promotional ladder,” Musil said.
One of the action plan’s goals is to provide mentoring for professors from underrepresented groups.
“Once you hire the women, you have to keep the women, or you don’t change the culture of the department,” she said. “Not surprisingly, the more you increase the number of women, the more likely you are to increase the number of women in the future.”
Towson's female faculty outnumber men in several STEM departments
Out of the seven STEM departments at Towson, women outnumber men in four of them: biological sciences, chemistry, mathematics and MB3. Chemistry has the highest difference between the female and male faculty ratio. This counters the stigma of how STEM is known for being male-dominated.
Out of the seven STEM departments at Towson, women outnumber men in four of them: biological sciences, chemistry, mathematics and MB3. Chemistry has the highest difference between the female and male faculty ratio. This counters the stigma of how STEM is known for being male-dominated.
By comparison, at the University of Maryland-College Park, male faculty outnumber female faculty in all seven STEM departments (biological sciences, chemistry, computer and information sciences, mathematics, physics, astronomy and geosciences, MB3 and environmental sciences).
Shannon Stitzel, the general chemistry coordinator and an associate professor at Towson University, said she is used to having women be strongly represented among TU's STEM faculty and student body.
“There are more female than male students in my classes, anywhere from 40 to 60,” Stitzel said. “I feel that this is the cusp of the generation shifting towards more women being in science.”
Stitzel said that in her experience in graduate school, her program consisted of a large amount of females and a good mix between men and women overall in the STEM majors.
“We are finally getting more women with a higher graduate degree,” Stitzel said.
Laura Gough, a biology professor at Towson, can also attest to these findings accurately representing her department by having more female than male faculty.
“Unlike at my last institution, Towson STEM faculty and the college-level administration are actively committed to diversifying the faculty and ensuring equal representation of female faculty,” Gough said. “Most of our lecturers are female, so if you look at all full-time faculty, the numbers skew even more towards women.”
For female professors in STEM, there have been a range of roadblocks. Stitzel said she experienced harassment at international conferences in Australia, as well as in Las Vegas, when presenting projects on STEM.
“There have been some men who don’t think that women should be in science,” Stitzel said. “They [men] feel like they can get away with what they’re saying at these conferences as it is not a part of their daily job.”
Stitzel said increasing diversity within STEM should begin with early education and allowing opportunities for students to explore their options. Some students get turned off to math and sciences after bad experiences in high school.
“Let their natural talents take them where they want to go, but also offer opportunities and less harming exposure,” she said. “Having a positive experience early on is important.”
In a report from American Association of University Women, researchers have found that the low number of women in science and engineering at a graduate level reflects the transition of the their numbers in the workplace steadily decreasing.
“Often we find, still, that female students are retracted away from math early in their educational careers and this keeps them out of physics, engineering, and computer science careers,” Gough said.
Data from the National Science Foundation shows biological sciences, chemistry and mathematics are the three highest STEM majors of doctorate degrees earned by females.
As far as promoting gender equality within STEM, Gough believes that female empowerment, as well as having a strong support system, can encourage more role models and women to rise to leadership positions, which can help increase female involvement within STEM.
“We have to keep working to support female students with mentors and role models and make math relevant to all students to bring more women into these careers,” Gough said. “As a mother, I know that balancing work and family in STEM is challenging, but it can be done.”
Gough also said there are great models for universities to draw on such as the NSF’S ADVANCE program, which is designed to help increase the representation of women in STEM careers.
Shannon Stitzel, the general chemistry coordinator and an associate professor at Towson University, said she is used to having women be strongly represented among TU's STEM faculty and student body.
“There are more female than male students in my classes, anywhere from 40 to 60,” Stitzel said. “I feel that this is the cusp of the generation shifting towards more women being in science.”
Stitzel said that in her experience in graduate school, her program consisted of a large amount of females and a good mix between men and women overall in the STEM majors.
“We are finally getting more women with a higher graduate degree,” Stitzel said.
Laura Gough, a biology professor at Towson, can also attest to these findings accurately representing her department by having more female than male faculty.
“Unlike at my last institution, Towson STEM faculty and the college-level administration are actively committed to diversifying the faculty and ensuring equal representation of female faculty,” Gough said. “Most of our lecturers are female, so if you look at all full-time faculty, the numbers skew even more towards women.”
For female professors in STEM, there have been a range of roadblocks. Stitzel said she experienced harassment at international conferences in Australia, as well as in Las Vegas, when presenting projects on STEM.
“There have been some men who don’t think that women should be in science,” Stitzel said. “They [men] feel like they can get away with what they’re saying at these conferences as it is not a part of their daily job.”
Stitzel said increasing diversity within STEM should begin with early education and allowing opportunities for students to explore their options. Some students get turned off to math and sciences after bad experiences in high school.
“Let their natural talents take them where they want to go, but also offer opportunities and less harming exposure,” she said. “Having a positive experience early on is important.”
In a report from American Association of University Women, researchers have found that the low number of women in science and engineering at a graduate level reflects the transition of the their numbers in the workplace steadily decreasing.
“Often we find, still, that female students are retracted away from math early in their educational careers and this keeps them out of physics, engineering, and computer science careers,” Gough said.
Data from the National Science Foundation shows biological sciences, chemistry and mathematics are the three highest STEM majors of doctorate degrees earned by females.
As far as promoting gender equality within STEM, Gough believes that female empowerment, as well as having a strong support system, can encourage more role models and women to rise to leadership positions, which can help increase female involvement within STEM.
“We have to keep working to support female students with mentors and role models and make math relevant to all students to bring more women into these careers,” Gough said. “As a mother, I know that balancing work and family in STEM is challenging, but it can be done.”
Gough also said there are great models for universities to draw on such as the NSF’S ADVANCE program, which is designed to help increase the representation of women in STEM careers.
Black STEM majors on the rise at Towson
Using IPEDS National Center for Education Statistics, we accessed and compared student diversity in STEM programs at Towson from 2010-2016, as well as 10 other public institutions: Bowie State University, Coppin State University, Frostburg State University, Penn State University, Salisbury University, Temple University, University of Delaware, University of Maryland, University of Virginia and University of Maryland-Eastern Shore.
From 2014 to 2016, Towson had a larger increase in black students in STEM—nearly 6 percent over that span—than any other school in the USM system.
Black students made up of 25.19 percent of undergraduate STEM programs but only 18 percent of overall enrollment in fall 2016. This shows that Towson is making an effort to incorporate diverse backgrounds into its STEM programs.
Using IPEDS National Center for Education Statistics, we accessed and compared student diversity in STEM programs at Towson from 2010-2016, as well as 10 other public institutions: Bowie State University, Coppin State University, Frostburg State University, Penn State University, Salisbury University, Temple University, University of Delaware, University of Maryland, University of Virginia and University of Maryland-Eastern Shore.
From 2014 to 2016, Towson had a larger increase in black students in STEM—nearly 6 percent over that span—than any other school in the USM system.
Black students made up of 25.19 percent of undergraduate STEM programs but only 18 percent of overall enrollment in fall 2016. This shows that Towson is making an effort to incorporate diverse backgrounds into its STEM programs.
Weeks said black students sometimes make up one-third of her biology class enrollment.
The challenge at Towson is not recruiting diverse students into biological science, Gough said, but more so keeping them in STEM and helping them prepare for successful STEM careers.
As far as efforts that are being taken by Towson towards minority student enrollment in STEM, there are several programs within their department including Towson’s Research Enhancement program and the Bridges program that are geared towards helping and exposing minority students to STEM careers outside of medicine.
“As part of TU REP, we are engaging faculty in professional development to incorporate inclusive teaching techniques in their courses,” Gough said. “We are definitely heading in the right direction, but all of this takes time and money.”
Aside from finding ways to actively engage and support minority students, Gough explains how it is important that the faculty in STEM must represent diversity.
“We need to better diversify our faculty so that students see people who look like them can be scientists too,” Gough said. “There’s a classic exercise asking students to describe what a scientist looks like, and students of all ages tend to describe Einstein. We need to break that conception that science is only done by old white men in lab coats..”
The challenge at Towson is not recruiting diverse students into biological science, Gough said, but more so keeping them in STEM and helping them prepare for successful STEM careers.
As far as efforts that are being taken by Towson towards minority student enrollment in STEM, there are several programs within their department including Towson’s Research Enhancement program and the Bridges program that are geared towards helping and exposing minority students to STEM careers outside of medicine.
“As part of TU REP, we are engaging faculty in professional development to incorporate inclusive teaching techniques in their courses,” Gough said. “We are definitely heading in the right direction, but all of this takes time and money.”
Aside from finding ways to actively engage and support minority students, Gough explains how it is important that the faculty in STEM must represent diversity.
“We need to better diversify our faculty so that students see people who look like them can be scientists too,” Gough said. “There’s a classic exercise asking students to describe what a scientist looks like, and students of all ages tend to describe Einstein. We need to break that conception that science is only done by old white men in lab coats..”
Towson's STEM programs are less white than other USM programs and national averages
Across the East Coast, STEM diversity varies when it comes to the percentage of non-white students attending public universities. Non-white students are noted as students who identify as African-American, Latino, Asian or Pacific Islander, American Indian and Native Hawaiian.
Across the East Coast, STEM diversity varies when it comes to the percentage of non-white students attending public universities. Non-white students are noted as students who identify as African-American, Latino, Asian or Pacific Islander, American Indian and Native Hawaiian.
there are more white students than minority students IN THE FOLLOWING SCHOOLS except for the HistoricAlly Black Colleges/Universities (HCBU).
According to national data, Towson has one of the higher percentages of non-white STEM students (46.62 percent) By comparison, Salisbury University has 30.41 percent. University of Maryland leads the way among USM institutions with 47.46 percent of non-white students in STEM programs.
Towson University has a higher non-white population than schools like the University of Delaware and Penn State University. Each of these schools has less than 40 percent non-white students enrolled.
Still, information technology major Marlene Tubera feels there could be more done to make the department more inclusive.
“I feel like the odds are more against me,” Tubera said. “I wouldn’t really see many people of color in my classes or even females to be more precise.”
Tubera, who identifies as Filipino, is part of a demographic at Towson University that only represented .02 percent of the STEM population in fall 2016. She has observed this lack of diversity since transferring from Temple University to Towson in fall 2017.
“I definitely do see a lack of Asian-American students,” Tubera said. “Also, most of the class is males which can be intimidating when all of the males answer all of the questions and you don’t really get a chance to speak.”
In Fall 2018, there were 45 percent white students in the College of Science and Math with smaller percentages of black and other ethnicities coming in at 28 percent and 23 percent, respectively.
Latino, Asian and mixed-descent STEM majors on the rise at Towson
Percentages of Latino, Asian and other mixed descent STEM majors have increased over time from the year 2010 to 2016. The highest percentage increase came from 2010 to 2012 when students of two or more races increased almost 2 percent.
The number of Native Hawaiian students has stayed consistently low with less than 1 percent. The American Indian population has also seen decreases over time, as the number dropped from over 2 percent to less than .5 percent between 2010 and 2016.
Percentages of Latino, Asian and other mixed descent STEM majors have increased over time from the year 2010 to 2016. The highest percentage increase came from 2010 to 2012 when students of two or more races increased almost 2 percent.
The number of Native Hawaiian students has stayed consistently low with less than 1 percent. The American Indian population has also seen decreases over time, as the number dropped from over 2 percent to less than .5 percent between 2010 and 2016.
Musil said part of the effort in increasing diversity in STEM must be geared toward changing STEM curricula. One of the issues she discovered as the years went on was that educational fields like the humanities were much more conscious of the social impact of what they were studying than those of STEM fields.
“I think there probably still isn’t enough work to look at the curriculum and the methodology… across the content of science,” Musil said. “There was a great tension in many of the sciences, some even more than others, that science should be removed from world questions, that it had nothing to do with society, and if you brought social questions in you were no longer doing science.”
According to Musil, among the general population of women and people of color, “there was a strong predilection… that they wanted their professional lives to make a difference and a contribution to the larger good.” Without incorporating these “world questions” into STEM fields as they had been incorporated into other fields like Communications and Social Sciences, people of minority groups might not stay in STEM.
Towson seems to be ahead of the curve on increasing diversity in STEM programs, both in its faculty and its student body.
“It’s a huge success,” Musil said. “It really means Towson has figured out some things that the rest of the country hasn’t.”
“I think there probably still isn’t enough work to look at the curriculum and the methodology… across the content of science,” Musil said. “There was a great tension in many of the sciences, some even more than others, that science should be removed from world questions, that it had nothing to do with society, and if you brought social questions in you were no longer doing science.”
According to Musil, among the general population of women and people of color, “there was a strong predilection… that they wanted their professional lives to make a difference and a contribution to the larger good.” Without incorporating these “world questions” into STEM fields as they had been incorporated into other fields like Communications and Social Sciences, people of minority groups might not stay in STEM.
Towson seems to be ahead of the curve on increasing diversity in STEM programs, both in its faculty and its student body.
“It’s a huge success,” Musil said. “It really means Towson has figured out some things that the rest of the country hasn’t.”