Facing the problem

ASEE Prism, Oct 2002 by Mannix, Margaret

But networking isn't what you would call, ahem, an engineer's strong suit. 'This is all about relationship-building, and it is an area that engineers tend not to focus on," says Denton. In fact, engineers "are just not out of the quadrant of extrovert. To ask a big group of people like that to become people-oriented and fuzzy and warm, that's a stretch. We have people that do rocket science. If they can do rocket science, they can do this."

TRICKS OF THE TRADE

Indeed, many engineering deans have developed their own recruiting methods. While no single method works like magic, all-with the future of engineering at stake-are worth a try. In total, these methods should help keep the push toward diversity at full speed. Here's some advice from the trenches:

Grow your own. "We need to reach out more," says James Johnson, dean of Howard University's College of Engineering, Architecture & Computer Sciences. "Faculty in majority institutions need to look at minority students and identify them and encourage them" to choose a career in academia. In his civil engineering department, for example, he boasts three female minority professors-one a Ph.D. from the University of California-Berkeley, another from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the third from Johns Hopkins. But guess what? "All went to Howard undergrad," says Johnson.

Consider your own graduates. The culture of not hiring a school's own graduates has got to go, says Davidson. "One of the things we are starting to look at very strongly is our own minority graduates, because we graduate some of the best. We will look at our own graduates more closely."

Poach. It's the old supply and demand thing. Engineering departments are not shy about raiding each other's ranks. `We are playing musical chairs. We are stealing from each other," says Roland Haden, the just retired dean of the Dwight Look College of Engineering at Texas A&M University. Howard University, for example, recently hired minority professors from Cornell University, North Carolina State University, and Florida State. "It goes both ways," says Johnson, "and we hope to keep the positive net on our side."

Reach out. That Florida State prof now at Howard? "I saw him at an NSBE conference," says Johnson. "There should be people courting him much more than I did," says Johnson, pointing to his new hire's credentials from a top 10 institution in computer engineering. "If you are not where they [minority candidates] are, you cannot interface with them to find out who is out there and what kinds of things they are looking to do. You have to go where they come together."

Go private. Given the dot.com bust, layoff mania, and the ever-expanding group of flailing corporations, engineers in the private sector might be ripe for wooing. Yes, it's tough to compete on salary, but some universities are finding that other factors can trump the money issue. DeLoatch, for example, says he recently hired an African-American engineer from a major corporation who jumped ship for one simple reason: to help increase the number of minorities in engineering.