Annual Assessment Report

Reporting Unit College of Architecture Reporting Date: September 3, 2012

Report Contact Name Cecilia Giusti Contact email:

From the last December 2011report, the College of Architecture (COA) has worked hard on cementing a Diversity and Outreach appointment at the College level to lead and coordinate diversity initiatives. This position was strengthened with the creation of the first ever COA Diversity Council (DC). This consulting AND working council is composed by faculty (4), staff (2), and students (2). The position of Associate Dean for Outreach and Diversity was created from September 2012, signaling the unquestionable support from the Dean and the COA to the emerging work enhancing diversity in the College. The next step is to add to this effort the advice from an external board, including but not limited to former students and industry representatives. One of the first initiatives of the COA DC was making 1212-1213 THE YEAR OF DIVERSITY, a highly publicized one-year event designed to raise awareness within the College about diversity issues and ways to initiative meaningful dialogs about difficult themes. To enthusiastically and unequivocally start the YEAR OF DIVERSITY, a kickoff event was held on August 29th. About 200 people including students, faculty, and staff attended the ceremony and the Dean of the College expressed his commitment to diversity and his support to the initiatives of the DC. The TAMU Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, the VP for Diversity, and a representative of the Council of Climate and Diversity Chair made presentations in this event, which also included Q&A from attendees

1)  Engaging the Data

The College of Architecture at TAMU houses four academic departments (ARCH, COSC, LAUP & VIZ), five undergraduate and nine graduate degree programs, and six research and outreach centers The peer institutions data comparison for report were selected considering schools of architecture that offer similar programs. The peer institutions are the University of Florida School of Architecture (UF); Auburn University College of Architecture, Design and Construction (AU); Georgia Institute of Technology College of Architecture (GTU); and the University of California – Berkeley College of Environmental Design (UCB).

While the COA is small in comparison with other colleges within TAMU, it is relatively large compared with its peers. It has more students and more faculty than its peers[1]. This report will focus on two variables: ethnicity and sex. First, GTU has the “most equal” distribution of female and male students and UCB is the only one with more female (56%) than males (Graphic #1). Then, AU and TAMU show similar numbers with about one third of females. The lowest percentage of female students is found in the UF with only 25% of females. In order to better assess ethnic diversity, for the purpose of this report we focus only on African American and Hispanics as they are the “largest” minorities, which will be called “Underrepresented Minorities.” Observing the ethnic composition of students (Graphic #2), both TAMU and UF have about 18% of underrepresented minorities, closely followed by UCB with 17%, while GTU shows 14% and Auburn only 10%. However, the composition within this category varies among them: for example, 7% of the students both in GTU and AU are African Americans, more than double than TAMU (2%) and also higher than UF (4%). Both GTU and AU have, as communities, more African Americans than Texas. TAMU COA, on the other side, has the largest percentage of Hispanics (16%) in this group of universities and this signals a positive trend; however, it also shows the lowest percentage of African Americans (2%) and this should worry us and should be the focus of attention in the years to come.

In terms of faculty, the largest female faculty percentage is clearly in UCB (39%); TAMU females represent 33% of all faculty, a very similar percentage than UF (32%), and much higher than Auburn (18%) and GTU (13%). In terms of ethnicity, all schools show very low numbers as the highest percentage of underrepresented minorities (African American and Hispanics) is only 11% (UCB) followed by 9% (TAMU) of all faculties. TAMU COA faculty is 2% African American and 7% Hispanics, while UCB is 3% African American and 8% Hispanic. As stated before, Auburn and Georgia have larger African American populations, but this is not showed in their faculty participation. None of the schools has a high number of African Americans and Hispanics, and this is to be discussed within these disciplines.

It is more likely to find less underrepresented minorities among faculties thank among students as this is more the reflection of past practices, when less women and underrepresented ethnic groups had access to higher education (Graphic #3). In all cases the percentage of African American is really low among faculty and shows the need to address this issue in the short run (Graphic #4). One way to connect (or project future trends) is to observe that in all schools but TAMU the percentage of African American students is more than double that of faculty. This means that more African Americans have access to higher education, and the gap has potential to decrease. Nevertheless, percentages -while higher- are still low. TAMU COA has a very low 2% of African Americans in both among faculty and the student body and this is not a good sign. Again, this demographic group needs immediate attention.

At the administrator’s level, the Dean of the COA is a Hispanic male and the executive leadership consists of 5 assistant/associated deans, four of whom are white males and one Hispanic female. Out of the six centers three are headed by white non-Hispanic female, and the four department heads are males and one is African American.

We also searched census data in order to better contextualize our TAMU COA numbers[2]. For this report we use as a reference the Brazos Valley (five counties), the State of Texas, and the US (Graphics #5 & #6). In terms of gender, female and male ratio is about 50% at all these levels; however at TAMU COA women only represent 33% and 35% of the faculty and students. While focus should be on both groups, especial care should be given at students as they will define the trend to be observed in the future. Looking at ethnicity there are also some challenging trends. At the student level 16% of Hispanics is relatively close to the national levels, but is much lower than the State of Texas and is higher than the Brazos Valley; however, the 7% of Hispanic faculty represents a much lower percentage at all geographic levels. Also in this case the worst problem is observed with percentages of African Americans both at the student and faculty levels.

2)  Recent Efforts

There are several initiatives at the college and department levels to increase diversity at all levels. First, one recruiting tool for incoming freshman is Camp Arch, designed to bring high school students for a one-week long interdisciplinary experience designed to acquaint students with the study of and potential careers in professions utilizing architecture, visualization, construction science, landscape architecture, and urban planning. In an effort to diversify attendants, the COA worked hard to ensure scholarships to cover camp tuition, while securing funding for traveling for underrepresented minorities. A total of 10 students from underrepresented groups (9 African Americans and 1 Hispanic) were recruited under this effort and attended CampArch 2012 resulting in a significant increase of underrepresented minorities. This effort will continue for next year.

Also in Summer 2012 the VIZ Dpt. offered VizKids Camp, hosting 23 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th graders. The annual week long camp focuses academics on activities involving creative application of design and technology. To increase participation from low-income families, the department secured a $5,000 grant from the Texas Film Commission funding 5 students. Also, the COSC Depart. secured 6 scholarships for underrepresented minority students that attended the Camp ARCH Construction Management on Summer 2012. Further, faculty from this the COSC Depart. visited 5 predominantly Hispanic high schools and made presentations on careers in the construction industry.

Several efforts were also done to increase recruitment of minority students in all programs, especially from historically underrepresented communities. A series of presentations were done in Bryan, Houston in Texas, and in Mississippi Valley State University, Alcorn State University, Tougaloo College, Georgia, Maryland and New Jersey.

On top of these efforts, funding to increase diversity among new students have come from the Lechner/Strategic Diversity Scholarships. For the year 2011-2012 the COA gave 3 $3,000, 2 $2,500 and 12 $1,500 for graduate students that diversify our graduate student composition. Besides, the COSC Depart. gave out 13 $1,000 scholarships to incoming freshmen who were first generation college students from their family. These individuals are typically from underrepresented populations. For the upcoming 2012-2013 the COA gave 6 $10,000 Lechner/Strategic Diversity Scholarships to incoming graduate students, and each of them also received a matching top off scholarship of $4,000. At the undergraduate level COSC gave out 10 - $3,000 scholarships to incoming freshmen who were first generation college students. Further, the VIZ Depart. gave out 2 - $5,500 scholarships to incoming freshmen who were first generation college students.

At the faculty level, there were few new faculty positions opened in the COA. The VIZ Depart. conducted a search during the 2011-2012 academic year in an effort to fill a tenure track assistant professor position. Three candidates were invited to campus, including an Asian female and an African American male along with a Caucasian male. The search was declared failed when both the top and second choices, the African American male and Caucasian male, respectively, did not accept offers. The Asian female was deemed a poor academic fit following on campus presentations. The next academic year another search will be open and special attention will be put on attracting candidates from underrepresented groups. Last year the department also hired nine adjunct and visiting lecturers from which three females.

The LAUP Depart. had 4 new hires (not tenured positions): two female part-time faculties, one female graduate instructor; and one African American male. This last appointment will also serve as CHUD’s Associate Director of Outreach and was supported with funding from the COA.

In terms of retention the COA is working on enhancing the climate in order to make sure all students, faculty and staff feel welcomed, appreciated, and respected in the College. At the student level, the COA organized supporting activities for the Regent Scholars that included orientation series, social gatherings, and designated coordination to ensure new and continuing undergraduates in this group optimize their graduation and success rates. More effort is needed on increasing retention at all levels, and this will be discussed in our future efforts.

On this front, in summer 2012 a proposal for the National Science Foundation’s S-STEM program was submitted. The joint effort between PI (VIS Depart. Head) and Co-PI (Computer Science and Engineering Depart.), is focused on increasing the enrollment and graduation rate of African American and Hispanic females in these computer graphics oriented programs. If successful, the program will provide 13 scholarships of up to $10,000 per year for five years beginning in Fall 2013. Outreach and recruiting efforts focus on East and South Texas that, respectively, have high percentages of the population that are both underrepresented in computer science fields and have high rates of households under the U.S. poverty level.

The Dean of the COA is a CO-PI of a major initiative called Research Coordination Network’s (RCN) -- Climate, Energy, Environment and Engagement in Semi-Arid Regions (CE3SAR) with the objective to develop an innovative and comprehensive collaboration among researchers aligned to advance the understanding of science, engineering and education for sustainability (SEES) in South Texas. This geographical area has historically been neglected and needs special focus.

Last year, the COA Center for Housing and Urban Development (CHUD) supported the creation of the Social, Economic, and Environmental Design Student Organization (SEED SO) with the objective to engage students in inclusionary design. The SEED SO is the first student group of its kind in the nation, and has received national attention and recognition. The SEED SO undertook its first public interest design (PID) project, an outdoor classroom for College Station ISD’s Early Head Start program. Students engaged parents, children, and caregivers in a design charrette, created a design, and just received a $20,000 grant to install the classroom. SEED SO will also be supported by the COA-DC in the form of partnering with CHUD to ensure a more inclusive learning and outreach environment in the COA.

3)  Future Efforts

Efforts are planned to continue the process of diversifying the recruitment of students and to strengthened coordination with TAMU recruitment units. One specific example is a more close cooperation with the Corps of Cadets.

In terms of retention, efforts are to be focused on climate and enhancement of the climate in the COA. Several activities are being planned to address the improvement of the College climate (see #6). One of the proposals being discussed at the COA-DC is the establishment of a Diversity Certificate: initial discussions have started with the Department of Multicultural Services. The coordination with the four Department Heads is being done, with support from the COA Dean and the executive leadership team.