Mark Roehling - US grants

The goals of the institutional transformation initiative at Michigan State University (MSU), Advancing Diversity through Alignment of Policies and Procedures (ADAPP), are to increase the number of women recruited in the Colleges of Natural Science, Social Science and Engineering, improve their retention and advancement, and improve the climate for women in these three Colleges. These goals address issues that have been identified as barriers for women in STEM disciplines both nationally and by women at MSU. We will accomplish these goals by implementing specific structures and practices that are components of a strategic human resource management (SHRM) methodology. The initiatives will focus on aligning strategic goals of units and colleges with the university-wide value of diversity and on implementing objective evaluation criteria for recruitment, advancement and retention in order to reduce bias related to informal and subjective processes. Practically, this involves integrating goals, policies and practices so that critical behaviors, attitudes, and outcomes that promote diversity are consistently reinforced and rewarded. Research supports the effectiveness of the SHRM approach, and it is widely viewed as a "best practice" for promoting desired behavior and attitudes, increasing accountability, and reducing bias in faculty employment decisions. Yet, no previous NSF Institutional Transformation ADVANCE grant has adopted a SHRM model as the operational framework to advance project goals. Thus, MSU will adopt this approach for implementing initiatives designed to advance women in STEM disciplines. The overall goals will be achieved by integrating the following policies and practices:

- developing and clearly communicating strategic goals at the department- and college-levels in recruiting and supporting a diverse faculty;
- defining and clearly communicating objective criteria to be used during recruitment, annual reviews, promotion and tenure processes and retention negotiations that reflect these strategic goals;
- providing workshops to assist faculty and department chairs in developing and implementing goals and objective criteria;
- monitoring and evaluating the application of these criteria to the processes of faculty recruitment and advancement, in part by implementing an electronic human resource information system and by appointing trained diversity officers to monitor progress;
- providing assistance to units in designing mentoring programs that reflect such criteria;
- determining the overall impact of these processes on the stated goals by measuring the level of recruitment, retention and advancement of women faculty and by surveying faculty in STEM disciplines to determine the perceived impact of these processes on faculty recruitment and advancement and on faculty climate; and finally
- recognizing and acknowledging successful units in tangible ways, such as supporting nominations for the annual MSU Excellence in Diversity award.

Intellectual Merit: Our project will implement and test a unique conceptual model addressing how increased structure of employment practices and their alignment with the diversity value, will effect change in the recruitment, retention and advancement of women and create a sustainable positive for women. The project outcomes will indicate if specific increases in structure will bring about changes in the work environment and perceived climate by improving communication, increasing transparency, providing consistency and adding measures of accountability in the employment processes. The methods are novel, and such an ADVANCE project has not been carried out at a large research university.

The Broader Impact can occur when these improved structures and policies are applied to all steps in the STEM academic career ladder, to other academic positions and to other disciplinary areas. This model is proposed to result in an improved climate for women at all levels and, if successful, will be disseminated for adoption by other institutions.