Communications Strategies to Increase Recruitment of Women to Engineering

Sandra Woods; Kathleen Baumgardner; Lahoma Jayne Howard

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Conference: 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Publication Date: June 10, 2012
Start Date: June 10, 2012
End Date: June 13, 2012
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Undergraduate Recruitment
Tagged Division: Women in Engineering
Page Count: 10
Page Numbers: 25.327.1 - 25.327.10
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--21085
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/21085
Download Count: 398

Paper Authors

biography

Sandra Woods Colorado State University

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Sandra Woods has served as Dean of the College of Engineering at Colorado State University since 2005. She received her B.S. in civil engineering from Michigan State University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in civil engineering from the University of Washington.

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biography

Kathleen Baumgardner Colorado State University

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Kathleen Baumgardner is the Director of Strategic Communications for the College of Engineering at Colorado State University. The communications unit is charged with developing strategic messaging for specific audiences via web, print, and social media, as well as one-on-one recruitment contacts.

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biography

Lahoma Jayne Howard Colorado State University

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Graduate student, Department of Sociology

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Abstract

Communications Strategies to Increase Recruitment of Women to Engineering Authors: Kathleen Baumgardner and Sandra Woods College of Engineering Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado 80526 Sandra.Woods@colostate.eduSix years ago, the College of Engineering at Colorado State launched a program to attractwomen to its undergraduate engineering programs. The initiative included extensive surveying,reworking the College website, a communications plan that included gender-segmentedcommunications, and a student ambassador program focused on quality contacts withprospective female students.The goal was simple – increase the number of women in our engineering programs. In Fall 2006,we had 218 female students, 15.8% of our undergraduate enrollments. The number of incomingwomen freshman had remained flat for several years – about 50 women. At the time, theAmerican Society for Engineering Education reported that women represented 17.5% of allundergraduate engineering enrollments in the U.S. (ASEE, 2006), putting us below the nationalaverage.We modified our communications with female students based on information obtained fromthree surveys: freshman, midpoint, and senior. These surveys, which we continue to use, armedus with information that we used to modify our communications with students. We segmentedprint communications, developing separate communications for male and female students.Letters to women focused on key factors such as academic quality, engineering as a meaningfulprofession, our friendly campus, and possibilities for graduate study. In 2010, we segmentedcommunications further by in-state and out-of-state residency and academic interest areas. Werewrote and redesigned the College’s website based on our research, incorporating language andimages that targeted women directly.The College of Engineering also created a College Ambassador Program. These students provideone-on-one college tours, write personalized letters and e-mails responding to questions, sit onstudent panels for visit events, and phone prospective students. The majority of our ambassadorsare females. We try to connect every prospective female student with a current female student.We also use Facebook extensively to communicate with prospective students. Typically a largerpercentage of women join our Facebook page than the percentage of women in our admittedstudent pool, making this an attractive communication tool.The program has been very successful. In six years we have seen our undergraduate enrollmentgrow from 1,378 to 1,866 (35.4% increase). The fraction of female undergraduate students hasincreased substantially (15.8% to 19.8%), bringing us above the most recent national average.iNumbers of incoming freshmen women have more than doubled, with about 50 women enteringin fall 2006 compared to 122 women (22.2%) entering the engineering program in fall 2011.i ASEE reported that women represented 18.2% of undergraduate engineering enrollments in the U.S. (ASEE,2010) up from 17.5% (ASEE, 2006).

Citation
Format

Woods, S., & Baumgardner, K., & Howard, L. J. (2012, June), Communications Strategies to Increase Recruitment of Women to Engineering Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--21085

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -       Communications Strategies to Increase Recruitment of Women to Engineering                    Authors: Kathleen Baumgardner and Sandra Woods                                    College of Engineering                                  Colorado State University                                Fort Collins, Colorado 80526                                Sandra.Woods@colostate.eduSix years ago, the College of Engineering at Colorado State launched a program to attractwomen to its undergraduate engineering programs. The initiative included extensive surveying,reworking the College website, a communications plan that included gender-segmentedcommunications, and a student ambassador program focused on quality contacts withprospective female students.The goal was simple – increase the number of women in our engineering programs. In Fall 2006,we had 218 female students, 15.8% of our undergraduate enrollments. The number of incomingwomen freshman had remained flat for several years – about 50 women. At the time, theAmerican Society for Engineering Education reported that women represented 17.5% of allundergraduate engineering enrollments in the U.S. (ASEE, 2006), putting us below the nationalaverage.We modified our communications with female students based on information obtained fromthree surveys: freshman, midpoint, and senior. These surveys, which we continue to use, armedus with information that we used to modify our communications with students. We segmentedprint communications, developing separate communications for male and female students.Letters to women focused on key factors such as academic quality, engineering as a meaningfulprofession, our friendly campus, and possibilities for graduate study. In 2010, we segmentedcommunications further by in-state and out-of-state residency and academic interest areas. Werewrote and redesigned the College’s website based on our research, incorporating language andimages that targeted women directly.The College of Engineering also created a College Ambassador Program. These students provideone-on-one college tours, write personalized letters and e-mails responding to questions, sit onstudent panels for visit events, and phone prospective students. The majority of our ambassadorsare females. We try to connect every prospective female student with a current female student.We also use Facebook extensively to communicate with prospective students. Typically a largerpercentage of women join our Facebook page than the percentage of women in our admittedstudent pool, making this an attractive communication tool.The program has been very successful. In six years we have seen our undergraduate enrollmentgrow from 1,378 to 1,866 (35.4% increase). The fraction of female undergraduate students hasincreased substantially (15.8% to 19.8%), bringing us above the most recent national average.iNumbers of incoming freshmen women have more than doubled, with about 50 women enteringin fall 2006 compared to 122 women (22.2%) entering the engineering program in fall 2011.i ASEE reported that women represented 18.2% of undergraduate engineering enrollments in the U.S. (ASEE,2010) up from 17.5% (ASEE, 2006).
AU  - Sandra Woods
AU  - Kathleen Baumgardner
AU  - Lahoma Jayne Howard
CY  - San Antonio, Texas
DA  - 2012/06/10
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Communications Strategies to Increase Recruitment of Women to Engineering
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/21085
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--21085
ER  -