Diversity Plan

The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) declared 2014-15 a “year of action in diversity,” and challenged the Deans of U.S. Schools of Engineering to take affirmative and meaningful steps to increase opportunity for women and underrepresented students. ASEE recognized, as does the University at Buffalo, that we still have work to do to significantly increase the participation of women, African-American, Latino/a and Native American students in engineering. UB SEAS Dean Liesl Folks enthusiastically, and without hesitation, signed the Engineering Deans Council Diversity Initiative Letter and we aim to develop strategies to increase diversity among underrepresented groups by increasing enrollment among talented students from a multitude of backgrounds.

Our vision in UB SEAS is to create an inclusive and diverse community that allows our students, faculty and staff to create, discover and disseminate knowledge within our discipline, that benefits our region, our state, our nation and the world.  

• Recruit talented and diverse student applicants (Undergraduate and Graduate)
• Support and nurture current students, including students who fall within our diversity categories (Undergraduate and Graduate)
• Foster an alumni community that values diversity
• Support diversity in faculty and staff hiring, promotion and tenure
• Engage the Buffalo-Niagara community through research, scholarship and service
• Publicly celebrate diversity

Our diversity plan will make use of institutional data and measure the school’s progress annually. UB SEAS is committed to improving diversity in all forms to achieve a minimum of 30 percent female students and 12 percent underrepresented minorities of the incoming freshman class by 2020. 

We will continue to develop our plan with input from national organizations that are committed to diversity in engineering and measure our success by an increase in the matriculation, retention and graduation of underrepresented students.