Interdisciplinary – Page 38 – UROP Spring Symposium 2021

Interdisciplinary

The Promise of Free Tuition: The Case of Chile

During the last decade, different free-tuition initiatives have been discussed and implemented around the world. Although empirical research on this topic is emerging, little is known about the formation of such initiatives, and its impact on student’s access and persistence and on institutional outcomes. This study contributes to the literature about free college by analyzing the case of Chile, a country that implemented such a policy in 2016. This case study will be a valuable contribution to the international comparative discussion of free college. This study analyzes the formation of the free-tuition program in Chile through newspaper articles and policy documents. It analyzes the effect on institutions, by reviewing changes in institutional revenues and student composition. By examining these trends, we are able to evaluate whether the free-tuition program is able to diversify the student body in participating institutions and examine how these universities have adapted to this new policy. Preliminary results are presented and implications are discussed.

The Promise of Free Tuition: The Case of Chile Read More »

The Promise of Free Tuition: The Case of Chile

During the last decade, different free-tuition initiatives have been discussed and implemented around the world. Although empirical research on this topic is emerging, little is known about the formation of such initiatives, and its impact on student’s access and persistence and on institutional outcomes. This study contributes to the literature about free college by analyzing the case of Chile, a country that implemented such a policy in 2016. This case study will be a valuable contribution to the international comparative discussion of free college. This study analyzes the formation of the free-tuition program in Chile through newspaper articles and policy documents. It analyzes the effect on institutions, by reviewing changes in institutional revenues and student composition. By examining these trends, we are able to evaluate whether the free-tuition program is able to diversify the student body in participating institutions and examine how these universities have adapted to this new policy. Preliminary results are presented and implications are discussed.

The Promise of Free Tuition: The Case of Chile Read More »

Multicultural Content Areas Faculty Feel Least Confident Teaching

Faculty in Schools of Social Work has the important task of educating graduate students for future Social Work practice and/or future research in the field. There are limited studies investigating faculty’s confidence in their teaching abilities surrounding Social Work content. This study will investigate faculty’s attitudes towards content that they reported feeling the least confident teaching and whether this has any association with their sex, race, and academic rank. Therefore I propose to examine whether faculty’s teaching confidence of Social Work content varies from differing sex, race, and academic rank. Two-hundred fifty-eight faculty members from across the United States in Schools of Social Work participated in the Faculty Attitudes Survey, an online survey that examined faculty’s attitudes towards content in School of Social Work programs. Specifically, the question we will thoroughly examine is the responses to, “In which areas regarding diversity, human rights, or social and economic justice content do you feel the least confident teaching?”. Participants responded to this open-ended question with teaching content they felt the least confident in teaching. Using qualitative content-coding of responses to open-ended questions and cross-tabulations with chi-square tests, we will be able to examine this question and how it may vary within the different race, sex, and academic status of the participants. This study suggests that the Areas of Multicultural Content MSW faculty feel the least confident teaching does not vary by their sex, race, or academic rank. Also, the results revealed a specific area in MSW multicultural content that faculty felt the least confident teaching. Specifically, findings revealed that content surrounding Other forms of Systemic Oppression (Not race) is an area in which many faculty of different sex, race, and academic rank felt the least confident teaching. Another content area that was most commonly identified by faculty was Critical Social Theories & Frameworks.

Multicultural Content Areas Faculty Feel Least Confident Teaching Read More »

Teaching Social Justice Content: Faculty Teaching Methods and Confidence

Diversity content in the School of Social work has become more incorporated into schools and curriculum as time has gone on, and in a study conducted by researchers from the Praxis Lab at the University of Michigan, the attitudes of faculty towards teaching this diversity content was observed in the form of a survey. One aspect of this survey was looking at what topics social work instructors felt least and most confident teaching in relation to social justice content as well as questions about how these instructors teach social justice content. Based on this, a question can be raised about whether there is a correlation between methods used for teaching social justice content and the confidence faculty in the school of social work possess about teaching this content. In order to answer this question qualitative content-coding was used and the open-ended responses provided from these instructors were what was focused on. The data is still in the process of being evaluated, but based on trends that have been visible so far it can be hypothesized that there will be a significant relationship found between methods used for teaching social justice content and the confidence faculty in the school of social work possess about teaching this content.

Teaching Social Justice Content: Faculty Teaching Methods and Confidence Read More »

Impact of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives on Faculty Mentoring and Black Women’s Persistence in STEM

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives are increasingly implemented in academia to promote an inclusive learning environment, but particularly fall short in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, which are commonly perceived as cold and unwelcoming (Ceglie, 2020). DEI initiatives affect how faculty members act as mentors and how minority students experience education, especially those with intersecting underrepresented identities like Black women. However, there is a gap in the literature about how DEI and faculty mentoring practices converge to impact Black women in STEM. This literature review was conducted utilizing 3 academic databases. Abstract reviews and Zotero citation manager narrowed the results from 207 sources to 43 useful scientific articles which examine how DEI initiatives impact faculty mentoring and consequently encourage Black women to pursue a career in STEM. After extracting information from the literature using virtual annotations, the results were organized in the literature review. The findings indicate that multidimensional, purposeful DEI initiatives encourage multicultural mentoring styles, allow faculty members to recognize the biases they hold, and develop mentors who can professionally and emotionally support the unique experiences of Black women. A mix of formal and informal mentoring, when guided by DEI values, best helps Black women feel more comfortable and persist in the STEM environment. The fundamental takeaway is that universities must actively implement DEI initiatives, rather than passively utilizing colorblind values, to more effectively train faculty mentors who can better encourage Black women to pursue a career in STEM.

Impact of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives on Faculty Mentoring and Black Women’s Persistence in STEM Read More »

Wicked Solutions Domain – Obesity

Obesity is a complex issue that has been prominent throughout the world for the past few decades. It affects all ages and is a system with multiple levels, feedback loops, and other aspects that make it difficult with which to manage. Various design interventions within local contexts globally exist, however, there is lack of access to all of these context-specific existing solutions. Technologically mediating access to existing solutions, particularly by underserved populations, can contribute to what design researcher Audrey Bennett calls a “wicked solution.” The first step to providing access is compiling information of existing design interventions derived through creative or empirical inquiry. The following review of literature discusses the general topic of design thinking and making towards addressing obesity, the many ways obesity has been addressed in the past, and, also how it is being looked at now.

Wicked Solutions Domain – Obesity Read More »

Percolation modeling

Under Professor Ziff, our research group devised various methods of modeling types of percolation. These models were initially based in C and were unoptimized for large-scale run times. We rewrote these programs in C++ and implemented various algorithms and memory structures which helped reduce the runtime of the simulation algorithms. These small improvements yielded a boost in productivity as percolation models have to be run for hours on end to yield large enough outputs to provide viable research data. These small improvements are very important, as improvements in program runtime compounded over hours can have a huge impact and allow researchers to get more done in less time.

Percolation modeling Read More »

Vision Zero implementation and how to improve its effectiveness in underserved communities

The Center for Health Disparities Innovation and Studies (CHDIS) team at EMU has begun working with the city of Hamtramck, a predominately ethnic and minority city on the outskirts of Detroit, in a mission to address public health deficiencies and disparities in underserved communities through policy change, community outreach/education, and general health promotion.  A core part of their proposal to the city is the implementation of a Vision Zero (VZ) strategy to combat the growing numbers of traffic accidents that has disproportionately affected the pedestrians/civilians of Hamtramck. VZ requires a complete overhaul on the relationship shared between road/transportation infrastructure and pedestrians/.

Vision Zero implementation and how to improve its effectiveness in underserved communities Read More »

Wicked Solutions Domain

Rohan Agrawal Pronouns: he/him/his Research Mentor(s): Audrey Bennett, Professor Research Mentor School/College/Department: Stamps School of Art & Design, Presentation Date: Thursday, April 22, 2021 Session: Session 2 (11am – 11:50am) Breakout Room: Room 19 Presenter: 2 Event Link Abstract Authors: Rohan Agrawal, Tawsif Habib, Audrey Bennett Research Method: Survey Research

Wicked Solutions Domain Read More »

Wicked Solutions Domain: Building a Data Modeling and Visualization Tool

The solutions to the problems that plague our society today arguably are rooted in data. This research will go through the development of a platform that allows for the collection, analysis, and interactive display of data as it relates to societal issues, similar to the Hopkins Medicine COVID-19 platform. To do this, scholarly articles relating to similar projects were assessed to understand what frameworks to use/what functionalities were important and then replicated to match the problems being focused on by the WISDOM research team, which are sustainability, obesity, and poverty. As a result of this, a website-based platform was created where users could interact with data collected about these issues with the intent that it would inform users about the problem and provide insights to enable change. This allows for smarter problem-solving for issues that impact large groups of people and will be accessible to the masses. This will likely help make huge strides in solving problems because it will provide evidence to inform the methodology upon which users can act. The main purpose of the research project is to help users find interventions to wicked societal problems and in return enable them to add their interventions. A digital platform that enables participants to find the solution to their problem will also help designers refine the solution to wicked problems and implement it in the digital platform.

Wicked Solutions Domain: Building a Data Modeling and Visualization Tool Read More »

lsa logoum logo