Contact: Joe Cecchi, 277-5522 Michael Padilla, 277-1816

Feb. 21, 2003 UNM School of Engineering participates in gender equity conference The University of New Mexico School of Engineering (SOE) was one of 27 colleges and universities to participate in a gender equity conference in Washington, D.C. recently at the National Academy of Engineering. The conference, “Leveraging Experience to Accelerate Progress (LEAP): Moving Towards Gender Equity in Engineering Education Conference,” focused on faculty, undergraduate and graduate recruitment and retention and institutional change. Tufts University organized the conference in collaboration with the Intel Foundation. Among the 27 universities attending the conference included Arizona State University, Carnegie Mellon University, Duke University, Johns Hopkins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Princeton University, Purdue University, University of Texas at Austin, and University of Michigan. The overall goal of the conference was to provide a venue for the exchange of information, highlight cutting edge research about and programs addressing gender issue in engineering and to give participating teams the opportunity to synthesize information into a plan of action to accelerate gender equity at their institution. Joe Cecchi, dean of SOE, led a team of four from UNM, which included Julia Fulghum, chair of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering, Chuck Fleddermann, SOE associate dean, and Nancy Uscher, associate provost for Academic Affairs. “The conference examined many aspects of increasing diversity in the engineering field,” Cecchi said. “Embracing diversity and monitoring progress are key in instituting change in moving towards gender equity in engineering education.” Fulghum said one of the most important aspects of the LEAP conference was that representatives from UNM were there. She said by attending the conference, and participating in roundtable discussions, UNM representatives were able to inform others about some of the successful programs at SOE. “I think we all came away from the conference not only with some new ideas and contacts, but feeling like the SOE is heading in the right direction,” Fulghum said. “Many of the ideas being discussed as ‘best practices’ are things we currently do, either formally or informally, and we were able to let a lot of engineering schools, funding agencies and industrial representatives know that.” ###

The University of New Mexico
Public Affairs Department
Hodgin Hall, 2nd floor
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0011
Telephone: (505) 277-5813
Fax: (505) 277-1981