Demographic Impact in the College of Engineering
Hector Aranda and Victor Elizondo
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
RHET 105-C3

Hector Aranda
Victor Elizondo
Rhet 105-C3
5.4.11
2
Abstract
In the college of engineering at the University of Illinois it is apparent that the majority of the students are male and either Asian or Caucasian. To balance this demographic gap, the university participates in Affirmative Action (Campus
Administrative manual, Personnel Policies IX-B). UIUC has done a much better job than in previous years of reaching out to women and minorities in high school to stimulate engineering interest even earlier than junior year. There are also student organizations such as SWE (Society of Women in Engineering), SHPE (Society of Hispanic
Professional Engineers), and NSBE (National Society of Black Engineers) to promote the growth of students in the field. With these groups, the minorities have a core of students with whom they can build a strong relationship and network with. We surveyed several minority groups and determined whether or not they feel discriminated against, inferior, out of place or challenged in their major. With these questions we were able to better understand how female and minority students feel as they study in a place where White and Asian males dominate.
Plan
Our plan was to survey engineering students. We did so by giving surveys at the weekly meetings of engineering organizations, via Facebook, and handing polls out to students near the engineering quad. Questions in the survey dealt with how students felt about their presence in the college, if they felt they fit in, if and how the university attracted them, and what race they fell under. From the results (See Appendix) we hoped

Hector Aranda
Victor Elizondo
Rhet 105-C3
5.4.11
3 to see that minorities (African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, etc.) and women do feel small in numbers compared to White and Asian males. We also hoped we would be able to determine how students feel the university needs to improve to fix this issue, if an issue at all. In addition, we interviewed an international student and female student in order to see their perspectives on the issue. For our research, we looked up the demographic information the university posts online, as well as that of other universities to see how it compared with them.
Initial Assumptions
There is no question that the engineering program at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) is one of the most prestigious in the country. The college of engineering is a perennial top 6 program in the country according to rankings by US
News, Student Review, Newsweek, and other sources. Students can expect rigorous course schedules and top quality education, hence why it’s so highly selective. But by being selective, does the college hinder the growth of gender and racial diversity in the engineering field?
Generally speaking, although the rate has been growing since 1976, the presence of minorities among total population in post-high school education decreases further than in previous schooling (Fast Facts). The number of women attending compared to that of men is still about 1:1, however, in the renowned UIUC college of engineering the number is skewed drastically- a drop of 29% in population (About Us/Facts & Figures). In fact, female population is so low that the National EEO says “they [women] are considered as

Hector Aranda
Victor Elizondo
Rhet 105-C3
5.4.11
4 having “minority status” as far as the law is concerned.” The question that arises from these statistics is whether or not this affects the academic performance and/or social belonging of female and minority students in the engineering college. With such large gaps in population, concern stems on the above mentioned groups and if there is enough of a support system provided by the university to guide them along academically and perhaps even socially.
Discussion
Racial diversity is an aspect UIUC prides itself upon. On its Admissions web page for the 2010-2011 school year, the university boasts various demographic statistics including its 47% women enrollment, 26.5% minority composition, and how students represent the 50 states and 118 countries. In fact, within the Big 10 conference (Kraus, 5),
UIUC has the largest percentage of minorities in total enrollment, as well as largest percentage of international students (Enrollment by Curriculum). Contrary to many of the students’ initial beliefs, the University’s statistics are very impressive and clearly show a much more diverse undergraduate environment than do any of the other conference schools.
In the survey we conducted on campus over the past month, about 75% of minority and female students felt out of place in the college of engineering. Also interesting is that of those surveyed, 100% responded that along with the Caucasian males, Asian males definitely make up the majority of students in their engineering classes.

Hector Aranda
Victor Elizondo
Rhet 105-C3
5.4.11
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UIUC made it a much tougher job to locate demographic information for specific colleges however. When this data was finally found, the variation from the overall demographics was eye opening. Of the 8,094 graduate and undergraduate students in the college of engineering for the ’09-’10 academic year, 18.3% are minority (Enrollment by
Curriculum). Women in engineering comprise between 18% of total enrollment
(Engineering School Overview). This corresponded very closely to the results of our survey. When asked students thought the population of women in their engineering classes was, all but 2 students replied with choice A of 0-19%. This is a huge drop from the 47% in the University overall.
Even more impressive is that international students account for a whopping 29.3% of the students in the engineering college (Enrollment by Curriculum). The statistics of the international and women populations are a very strong indicator that Asian and
Caucasian males do account for the majority in the college of engineering and back up the results of the responses in the survey.
Below is the percentage make up of minority and international students for the various colleges at UIUC.
Colleges:
Percent
Minority
Percent
International
Total
Students
11%
2,852
Agricultural,
Environmental, &
Consumer
Science
14.8%
Applied
Health
Science
26%
3.8%
2,096
Business
25.2%
20%
3,905
Education
22.9%
11%
1,449
Engineering
18.3%
29.3%
8,094
Law Fine
&
Applied
Arts
Liberal
Arts &
Sciences
Media
General
Studies
Veterinary
Medicine
18.4% 28.1% 24.2% 30.5% 6.6% 20%
16.4% 13.2% 13% 7.3% 7% 6.1%
707 2,768 14,390 1,043 3,055 527
*Source: Enrollment by Curriculum

Hector Aranda
Victor Elizondo
Rhet 105-C3
5.4.11
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With such low representation in numbers in women and minorities, it’s natural to blame UIUC for lack of reaching out to these groups, providing support for them, or even going out to high schools to promote interest in the engineering field. According to our survey results, half of the students responded that UIUC encouraged them to enroll in the college of engineering, whether through informational brochures and pamphlets sent by mail/email or high school visitations by other minority engineering students. Interestingly enough however, through the Women in Engineering and Morrill Engineering programs
(MEP), UIUC provides an astounding amount of help for these groups. The Women in
Engineering Program provides a strong networking base and support system, where students are shown effective time management and study skills, direct access to tutors, resources, etc. MEP does the same as well as plenty of academic guidance for African-
American, Latino, and Native-American students.
The college of engineering also has the International Programs in Engineering
Office (IPENG), where international students can go to access foreign resources or resources in their language and discover international engineering projects. American students can also look for study abroad opportunities, and can in turn reach out to students outside of the country.
Most of the students interviewed felt that UIUC helped them enough in the transition from high school to the college lifestyle. They also felt that it provided enough resources in order for them to succeed independently. We asked these questions to see how effective UIUC was in helping minority and female students once they were enrolled in the college of engineering. These positive responses from the students may have been

Hector Aranda
Victor Elizondo
Rhet 105-C3
5.4.11
7 due to the numerous student-run organizations that provide more social and even further academic support for underrepresented students in engineering including the National
Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers
(SHPE), and the Society of Women Engineers (SWE).
Samantha Victor, the social director of SWE told us how the organization helps female students academically and how it helped the transition from high school to college.
“It [SWE] has been really helpful because older members give so much advice on classes that they’ve taken and projects that they have done well on. If you ever need a quick question on a certain subject, there are so many girls who you can go to for an explanation. It also helped me meet other female engineering students and become friends with them, with mentoring, and with our buddy system.”
In our survey, when asked if students felt out of place in the college of engineering, about 71% responded that they did indeed feel out of place. Reasons for this answer were that students felt like it was difficult to meet other engineering students or feel comfortable with them, there weren’t many other students of their ethnic group
(Black, Latino, Native-American, etc.), or for female students that there weren’t other women in their classes. Of the students who were involved in some of the previously mentioned student organizations, the response to this question was more positive.
With these programs
,
UIUC tries very hard to support racial and gender diversity and promotes the presence of minority and female students. Despite the low numbers in the demographic information, the college’s diversity in race stands strong; it is important to understand that historically, fewer amounts of minorities and women go into the math,

Hector Aranda
Victor Elizondo
Rhet 105-C3
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8 science, technology, and engineering fields, so we expect that universities have low numbers in the same range as UIUC’s. Compared to the other Big 10 engineering colleges, UIUC excels in racial and international population (Kraus, 5). Although the numbers may be small, the University of Illinois strives to provide the most diverse environment for the college of engineering and university as a whole.
We thought it would be important to ask students what they would like to the
UIUC to facilitate or enhance their college experience to understand how the diversity may be able increase in the future and to see more success in minority and female engineering students. The overwhelming response was interaction with the whole engineering college, whether through some sort of meeting or activity. This response was very discomforting- to know that the minority and female students want to interact with the rest of students in the college, but feel like they’re not able to do so.
Recommendations
We weren’t able to collect as much information on international engineering students as we had hoped. However, we did learn that they felt the same way as the minority and female students. To understand the interest behind international students in the college of engineering we interviewed Muhammad Fuzeel, a foreign exchange student here at UIUC. Some of the questions we asked included why he thinks they are attracted to engineering, how they fit in, and what they want to see improved.
“You see many international students in engineering, especially Asian, because in the Far East, engineering is viewed as prestigious. The social standing of an engineer is

Hector Aranda
Victor Elizondo
Rhet 105-C3
5.4.11
9 greater than that of doctors or lawyers. The financial stability that comes from this career is immense because the demand for them is so high; the job prospects are unbelievably large. Many of the international students associate themselves with students of their own nationality just because they feel more comfortable with them. I think improvements they want to see is strictly improvements in education, if any. For international students, college here in the US is ultimately for education; they don’t worry about the social aspects.”
The presence of international students at UIUC’s college of engineering is so strong that we hoped to mention more about them and how they feel about social life and their social and academic performances due to the diversity, or lack thereof in the engineering college.
We recommend reading Race, Ethnicity, and Admissions at UIUC , because it provided us with a great deal of useful data regarding the Big 10 schools. Other subjects we recommend to research further are the make ups of each individual discipline in the college of engineering (since we could not find this information) to see if maybe minority, female, or international students make up the biggest percentage.
Other topics for further research include the progress of diversity and predictions for the future, how universities target minorities and women in high schools, and more information overall on the international student’s perspective of the diversity in the college of engineering.

Hector Aranda
Victor Elizondo
Rhet 105-C3
5.4.11
10
Conclusion
Our initial assumptions of UIUC and the college of engineering promoting diversity and helping out the minority, female, and international students were negative.
Like many of our fellow students, we just needed to look deeper into what they really provide and research other programs to compare the statistics.
Over the last two months with the research and data we’ve gathered, along with interviews and surveys we have conducted, we are now certain that the racial and gender diversity at UIUC’s college of engineering does indeed have an impact on female, minority, and international students. These three groups all mentioned that they didn’t feel like they belong at times in the college, according to our survey.
With the programs the university provides, it supports racial and gender diversity, and with high school outreaching, it promotes the future growth of this diversity in the college of engineering. This definitely has an impact on the decisions of high school students. As one student said our survey, “I thought about applying here, and I was often invited to attend admitted student visits. I also spoke to recruiters at my high school. I received mail about once a month and spoke to recruiters about twice a semester. All that really pushed me to attend, since I felt wanted. Not to mention the engineering program is one of the best in the US.”
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign does boast about the racial and gender diversity in its college of engineering, and it has the programs and support for these groups to back it up. Although numbers may seem fairly low at first glance, in comparison to other engineering colleges, we can honestly say that UIUC in the college

Hector Aranda
Victor Elizondo
Rhet 105-C3
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11 of engineering really does care about supporting the underrepresented groups (Minorities, women, internationals) and providing as diverse of an environment on its campus as it can today and for the future.
Appendix
Survey Questions:
1.
What ethnicity/race would you classify yourself under?
2.
What sex are you?
3. Would you say white and Asian males make up the largest population in the College of
Engineering?
Yes No
4. What percentage of your total class size do you think are women in your engineering classes?
[0-20%] [21-40%] [41-60%] [61-80%] [81-100%]
5. Did the university encourage you to come to this institution while still in high school? In what ways? How often?
6. Do you feel the university helped you transition into the college lifestyle?
Yes No
7. Has the university provided resources to help you succeed independently?
Yes No
8. Have you joined any clubs/organizations since coming here? If so, which ones?
9. Do you feel out of place in the college of engineering? If so, why?
10. What would you like the university to do to facilitate/enhance your college experience?

Hector Aranda
Victor Elizondo
Rhet 105-C3
5.4.11
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Interview with Muhammad Fuzeel:
As an international student, why do you think international students are so attracted to the college of engineering here at UIUC? Do you think they feel like they fit in the college? What improvements, if any, would you like to see the university implement?
Interview with Samantha Ashley Victor:
How many members are there in SWE?
What activities does SWE provide for members?
Does the organization outreach to high schools?
How does SWE help students transition from high school to college and how does it help them academically?

Hector Aranda
Victor Elizondo
Rhet 105-C3
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13
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