According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics1, 3.2 million Engineers or Architects were employed in the United States in 2017, but only 16.2% were women. The percentage drops to 14.3% for Black / African-Americans and Hispanic / Latina / Latino workers. The Francis College of Engineering is committed to increasing the representation of women and minorities in our profession.
We first made this commitment to ourselves. While only 16.9% of tenured or tenure-track faculty in Colleges of Engineering in the United States are women2, they represent 26.5% of the tenured or tenure-track faculty in the Francis College of Engineering. In the past five years, the number of women holding tenured or tenure-track faculty positions in Engineering at UMass Lowell has increased 85.7%. We have also increased the representation of underrepresented minorities in our College.
We are equally committed to increasing representation in our student body. In 2013, a total of 271 women were enrolled in our undergraduate program. By 2017, that number had grown to 463, representing 15.7% of our undergraduate population. Over the same time, our Hispanic/Latino/Latina and Black/African-American population grew from 270 students to 415, or 14.1% of our undergraduates. As the national averages are 22.8% women and 16.8% underrepresented (according to ASEE2), we know we have work to do.
With the goal of exceeding the national averages, we have designed and implemented a number of initiatives to recruit more underrepresented faculty and students into our College and support them while on campus. These efforts, from recruiting and preparatory programs to on-campus support, include: