Changes in undergraduate engineering college climate and predictors of major commitment
Mary E Fitzpatrick, Manuela Romero, Jennifer Sheridan
2016
Abstract-
This paper presents results of two cross-sectional investigations of educational and interpersonal climate in a college of engineering at a large mid-western university. In 2008 and in 2015 we deployed a survey ("Project to Assess Climate in Engineering”) to undergraduate engineering students. In each survey year, just over 1000 eligible students participated and responded to questions about their professors, teaching assistants, college resources, interpersonal experiences, perceptions of engineering, and commitment to their major. Participants were also asked about experiences of being singled-out based on race or gender, hearing gender or racial stereotypes expressed by faculty or students, sexual harassment and racial harassment. The survey instrument was designed to contain items forming six scale factors. Scale means and some individual items were analyzed for differences by demographic group, and were compared to data collected by the same institution in 2008. Results revealed significant differences in attitudes and experiences from 2008 to 2015 for the entire sample and within demographic groups. Experiences of stereotyping and harassment were reported at higher rates across all groups in 2015 compared to 2008. To investigate the influence of demographic and scale factors on commitment to major, we formed a combined regression equation using survey year as a predictor and performed a stepped regression with demographic variables, scale factors and stereotyping/harassment items as predictors. Results revealed a significant predictor effect of survey year. Thus, individual regression analysis of each year was performed. Results suggest factors influencing engineering students’ commitment to their major may have evolved substantially since 2008. Among other findings, while underrepresented minority and international status negatively influenced commitment to major in 2008, neither underrepresented minority nor international status had a significant influence on commitment to major in our 2015 sample.