NSF grant to boost women and minority representation at OSU

Friday, January 30, 2009

(January 30, 2009   Stillwater, OK) - Oklahoma State University has received a $499,372, three-year grant from the National Science Foundation to bolster its existing campus-wide initiative to promote the representation of women and minorities in the STEM disciplines - science, technology, engineering and mathematics - as well as agriculture.

OSU seeks to achieve these aims by providing support for female faculty at all levels, and through research, workshops, and training seminars to broaden the participation of women in science.

“With this grant, OSU will evaluate and implement programs to increase the recruitment and advancement of women in science,” said Dr. Jean Van Delinder, Associate Professor of Sociology and core faculty in Gender and Women’s Studies.  She is the principal investigator for the three-year grant.

“The programs are designed to replace impediments to women’s progress in science with a climate that provides greater support and that facilitates advancement at all levels,” she said. “These include mentoring and providing greater opportunities for networking and visibility.”

The award is an NSF ADVANCE-PAID grant. The goal of the NSF ADVANCE program is to increase the representation and advancement of women in academic science and engineering careers. PAID stands for Partnerships for Adaptation, Implementation, and Dissemination.

Joining Van Delinder as principal investigators are Provost Marlene Strathe; Dr. Robert V. Miller, Professor and Head, Microbiology; Dr. James Wicksted, Professor and Head, Physics; and Dr. John Veenstra, Professor and Head, Civil Engineering.  Senior Investigators are Dr. Lu Bailey, Assistant Professor of Social Foundations in the College of Education (qualitative methods) and Dr. Melanie Page, Associate Professor of Psychology (evaluation).

As part of this effort, OSU will partner with the University of Missouri, which has its own ADVANCE-PAID program, to strengthen each another’s initiatives through collaboration, coordination, and joint programs.

OSU also will share its programs with area colleges, including Langston University, a Historically Black College and University, and three tribal colleges, the College of the Muscogee Nation, Comanche Nation College and Pawnee Nation College.

“A significant part of this research is to empower women and other underrepresented groups to pursue academic careers in STEM fields,” Van Delinder said. “OSU is taking a leadership role in partnering with Langston and these area tribal colleges.”

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, women make up 45 percent of the U.S. work force. But in business and industry, they are employed in only 12 percent of the science and engineering positions and 20 percent of the information technology positions.

At research universities in the United States, women have made progress but are still underrepresented. At OSU, women make up 11 percent of the faculty in STEM disciplines.