How did the RISE Program challenge perceptions of underrepresented students in engineering?
By: Alan Parkes and Pamela Ahern | Posted: 5-1-2024
Originally published as part of the RISE program’s 50th year celebration.
Since 1972, the Resources to Inspire Successful Engineers (RISE) Program has empowered students to succeed at the University of Delaware, and has represented a large part of the best of the UD’s history. The story of RISE is made by students who found, and continue to find, community-centered academic success, self-improvement, and advances in engineering at UD and beyond. While the program has undergone a number of changes, the interests of students and their long-term success have stood at the heart of RISE for the past fifty years. And the community formed by those students, faculty, and directors always gives RISE purpose. As a model for forming a community out of rigor, RISE not only presents a compelling history, but offers a promising future. Understanding RISE requires recognizing the larger history at the University of Delaware in which it is embedded.
For much of the University’s history, the school denied admission to Black students. While the Delaware General Assembly established Delaware State University in 1891 as the state’s college for Black students, growing legal contestation of unequal educational opportunities required that the University of Delaware address its failure to accept Black students. Years before Brown v. Board of Education (1954), The Supreme Court’s decision in Sipuel v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma (1948) ruled that in states with segregated public colleges and universities, if white colleges offered courses and degrees that Black colleges did not, Black students must be permitted to apply to and enroll at these institutions. In January of 1948, the same month the Supreme Court decided the Sipuel case, the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees held a meeting about Black students enrolling at UD. The trustees adopted a resolution to permit the matriculation of Black Delawareans “to pursue a course of study … leading to a certain degree for which a course of study leading to the same degree is not furnished in any educational institution provided by this State within this State ….”[1] The decision made news well beyond Delaware. According to Dr. William S. Carlson, UD’s President at the time, university trustees “arrived at their own ruling independently.”[2]
While such a declaration suggested voluntary action to increase opportunities for Black students, the Supreme Court’s decision in Siquel likely helped spur the change at UD. As a result, the University’s School of Engineering opened its doors to Black students. The first Black student, Elbert C. Wisner, graduated from UD with a degree in Electrical Engineering in 1952. Wisner’s groundbreaking place as UD’s first Black student and first Black engineering student signaled changes to come. By the time Wisner graduated, Louis Redding, the first Black person to be admitted to the Delaware Bar, had successfully argued for the admission of Black students at the University of Delaware in front of the Court of Chancery of Delaware in New Castle, in Parker v. University of Delaware (1950). Judge Collins Seitz, recognizing that the disparities between the University of Delaware and Delaware State University violated the “separate but equal” clause of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), consequently ordered UD to admit Black students in all programs, not merely those that Delaware State did not offer. Seitz agreed with Redding’s charge on behalf of ten Delaware State students that Delaware State did not provide equal facilities in comparison to those available at UD. However, Seitz fell short of questioning, and dismantling, segregation as a practice in his ruling, instead focusing solely on the question of whether Delaware State was equal to UD. Nonetheless, Redding’s efforts and Seitz’s decision helped upend segregated schooling mandates within the state constitution.[3]
In the following years, the number of Black students at UD began growing at a steady, if slow, rate. Elbert C. Wisner’s enrollment and graduation from UD marked a unique responsibility for the School of Engineering two and a half decades before the Minority Engineering program began. However, as the university integrated, the engineering school fell short of recruiting students who were representative of the state and nation’s population. The problem was not at UD alone. By the 1970s, it became clear that recruitment of Black students into engineering programs throughout the US, and thus Black representation in the engineering profession, required the attention of the profession on a national level.
Minority Engineering Program (MEP): The Early Years of RISE
In July of 1972, J. Stanford Smith of the General Electric Company addressed the Engineering Education Conference with concerning statistics about the field. In 1970, Black Americans made up approximately 11-12 percent of the US population.[4] Yet, only 1.2 percent of the engineering profession was Black.[5] By December 1972, the Engineering Council for Professional Development created a task force known as the Minority Engineering Education Effort (ME3) to address the lack of diversity in engineering, aiming for a “10 to 15-fold increase in minority engineering graduates” and a 100% increase by 1974.[6] While the number of engineering students recruited from underrepresented groups fell short of ME3’s goal, such efforts, exemplified by MEP at UD, helped bolster underrepresented students in engineering. In 1974, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation published “Minorities in Engineering: A Blueprint for Action,” which highlighted the challenges in expanding representation of underrepresented people in engineering programs, including the lack of financial support, inadequate pre-college STEM preparation, and low enrollment and retention of underrepresented students at the graduate level [which reinforced and was reinforced by few nonwhite professors].[7] The report further drove efforts to address the issue of low enrollment numbers of nonwhite and non-Asian students.
By the end of the decade, the ME3 merged with the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Inc. At the same time, the National Association of Precollege Directors and the National Association of Minority Engineering Program Administrators sought ways of expanding enrollment that addressed one of the chief concerns, insufficient STEM education at the pre-college level. At the University of Delaware, Dean of the College of Engineering Dr. Edward Comings took charge and announced a cooperative program between UD and Delaware State University to increase the number of Black engineers. UD’s Minority Engineer Program (now RISE), under Faculty Director Jon Olson, became part of the National Association of Minority Engineering Program Administrators (NAMEPA), a networking system to help minority students.
But Jon Olson understood that addressing the issue of underrepresentation in the field required more than support for students already in engineering programs. Rather, it required active recruitment and even support for prospective engineering students at UD.[8] A review of high school records from students at UD with a declared engineering major highlighted three groups: “a) a very small number of students who are well prepared to study engineering, b) a larger number of students who have less than B work in the academic high school science and mathematics courses required for entering into engineering, and c) the largest group of students who have not completed the necessary high school courses and, therefore, must spend at least an additional year in college.”[9] To help close the gaps between students with different levels of preparedness, in 1974, MEP instituted the Summer Academy Program, a pre-freshman, intensive 5-week academy that prepared incoming students for the rigors of engineering study. The program aimed to ensure equal opportunities for success without questioning the academic abilities of underrepresented students studying engineering at UD. In that same year RISE graduated its first student.[10] The foundation for a lasting and impactful program that would become RISE was well established by the end of the 1970s.
From MEP to RISE, 1980-2000
While at the start of the 1980s, the number of underrepresented students in engineering programs across the US began declining despite the progress of the 1970s, UD’s school of engineering doubled down on efforts to recruit engineering students of color. In 1983, the school hired the first full-time director for MEP. Between 1983 and 1987, the leadership of Terry Whittaker helped ensure MEP’s and then RISE’s place as a nationally recognized program. 1984 marked the first Annual Achievement Banquet to celebrate student achievements. In 1985, the name of the Minority Engineering program was changed to Resources to Insure Successful Engineers (RISE) to highlight that the program was not a remedial program.”[11]
RISE continued to grow in influence and size, and the 1987-1988 enrollment of 113 students from underrepresented groups in the College of Engineering accounted for nearly twenty percent of such students schoolwide. The majority (80) of that year’s RISE students were also awarded tuition and room and board scholarships. Reports from the 1980s spell out the aims of the RISE Program beyond academic success: “The primary purpose of the RISE program is to provide academic and career-related assistance, and psycho/social motivation for minority students.”[12] Despite a decline in efforts to bring underrepresented students into engineering programs at the start of the decade, by the end of the 1980s RISE was consistently increasing the number of students it supported under the leadership of Frank Wells, who took over in 1987, and by 1989, 116 students were enrolled in RISE.[13] RISE offered an invaluable resource to the university community. Beyond engineering, RISE students helped strengthen multicultural awareness at UD, a contribution the university desperately needed. By the 1990s, RISE had established itself as a necessary and lasting part of the College of Engineering and UD. RISE directors and partners understood that the program signified more than representation for students of color at the University of Delaware. The program stood to offer long-term and material benefits for its students and graduates. The 1990-1991 RISE report addressed the question of why the engineering profession should be “concerned about the participation of minorities.” It noted that, in part, “it is a matter of social equity.” It went on to say that “we cannot strengthen the social and economic status of minorities and ethnic groups when full participation in the professional and economic life of the country is impeded or denied.”[14]
More than that, RISE students became models not only for other students who were entering the program, but for all engineering students at UD. Of the 19 students who graduated from RISE in 1990, 11 of those students went on to pursue graduate degrees. Acting Director Ron Whittington saw RISE as a “program that would support minority students and then bring them back as faculty.”[15] Such aims confirmed not only benefits to RISE graduates, but to the broader field of engineering which lacked diversity. Still, Mr. Whittington described the moment he took over as RISE Acting Director in 1991 as “a time of crisis.”[16] The program needed strong leadership that would guarantee its continued success. Despite the accomplishments of the program and its graduates up to that point, Mr. Whittington recognized that “some faculty questioned whether RISE students would succeed.”[17] Such sentiments better represented the shortcomings of the field of engineering and the people who expressed them than that of RISE students.
The program continued to face the challenge of overcoming negative perceptions while nevertheless ensuring the success of its no-less capable students. Accordingly, in 1992, Dr. Michael Vaughan became RISE’s Program Director at a critical moment for the program. Dr. Vaughan recognized that the strength of the program required multifaceted approaches to recruitment, but he also saw his role as “working himself out of a job.”[18] He saw his role as ensuring lasting equity that would erase the need for a program like RISE. To Vaughan, RISE fostered an equity-first perspective and approach “before we knew what to call it.” Beyond a focus on academics, the program, under the leadership of Dr. Vaughan, sought and brought on students who possessed “strong interpersonal and leadership skills, are highly motivated, have strong parental support, and demonstrate resiliency.”[19] While recruitment for the program largely pursued students from the Mid-Atlantic region, by the start of the 1990s, it had successfully attracted students nationwide.[20] It grew with a broader aim to “introduce African American and Hispanic students to the rigors, pitfalls, and coping skills which critically impact retention.”[21] Moreover, RISE championed active parent involvement with the program through close collaboration. Dr. Vaughan’s leadership signified a holistic approach to educating young engineers that would propel RISE into the twenty-first century. As the new century approached, Dr. Vaughan found that getting students to believe in themselves should be the goal of the program. As he puts it when remembering his time as RISE Director “RISE gave students an opportunity to dream.”[22]
RISE in the 2000s
By the 2000s, RISE’s role in expanding opportunities for underrepresented students in engineering was clearly established as an important player in national trends. From 1974 to 2011, the percentage of Black graduates in US engineering programs grew dramatically, rising 365% (743 to 3,457) at the bachelor’s level, 714% (153 to 1,246) at the master’s level, and 1308% at the doctoral level. In that same time, the percentage increase for all races and ethnicities was 104%, 187%, and 200%, respectively. [23] The numbers were promising despite some declining college enrollments for Black men. [24] By 2000, Black representation among engineering bachelor’s degree earners reached 5.6%. [25] While the nationwide percentage dipped below 5% again in 2013, the success of RISE nonetheless continued.
The current and longest serving RISE leader Marianne Johnson took on the role in 2006, having previously served as the Program’s Coordinator. Overcoming any uncertainty about the position that stemmed from lacking a background in engineering, Ms. Johnson realized that the RISE Program was principally about providing students with broad support necessary for their success by working directly with them. When Ms. Johnson began as Program Coordinator her goal was to “make sure that if students didn’t feel like they could go anywhere else, at least they felt like they could come to me.”[26]Like her predecessors, Ms. Johnson also wanted to ensure that RISE was not seen as a remedial program. By 2006, RISE students made up more than 11% of the college. With retention rates about the same as the entire student body and over 400 bachelor’s degrees having been awarded to RISE students, Ms. Johnson began overcoming a deficit mindset sometimes associated with RISE. Ms. Johnson’s student-centered leadership quickly proved to be indispensable to the program and its students, who have recognized her contributions. As Mechanical Engineering graduate Ariel Roach (‘11) put it, “Ms. Johnson was like a mom who always knew how to bring out the best in a child. She was always on hand to encourage and advise me on how to live up to my full potential and how to get the maximum benefit out of my college experience at UD.”[27] By 2012, and the Twentieth Annual RISE Student Achievement Convocation, the program had graduated over 500 students. It was clear that Ms. Johnson’s student-centered approach shaped positive experiences for UD engineering students. Manuela Tchouateu (C.E. ‘13) found that “After [her] first meeting with Ms. Johnson, I felt that I had found the right place and the people to help me get the support I needed to succeed.”[28]
RISE Today
Today, Ms. Johnson’s leadership continues to provide a necessary ingredient to the aims of RISE. More than helping students achieve academic success, the program presents an opportunity for students to feel like they can be themselves and a part of something beyond their individual studies. Amid the rigors of earning a biomedical engineering degree, Faith Skinner finds that “RISE has assured me that there are people that look like me in my desired field. In my classes, I do not typically see diversity, but during the RISE Saturday workshops, I feel seen.”[29] Faith brings to light the fact that RISE can offer more than promising assistance in academics. With being seen comes growth and empowerment. Ms. Johnson finds that the most rewarding part of overseeing the RISE Program is seeing the growth of students beyond academics. “Thoughts about students who I’ve seen grow hit me every day,” she says, and in reflection, she recognizes that she learns as much from students as they learn from her. As a current student, Faith is starting the journey that brings Ms. Johnson pride in the program. “Through RISE, I have become more of a leader on campus,” Faith says. “I am excited to assist underclassmen, especially incoming freshmen that have an interest in my major, biomedical engineering. Not to mention, I am in the RISE Student Advisory Council. This means that I have the opportunity to hold group meetings with RISE participants, lead a community group, assist with the RISE newsletter, plan our study breaks each semester, and/or speak during our annual convocation.”[30] Freshman Onyinyechi Okafor finds that RISE helps foster “good relationships with fellow peers” early on in students’ college careers, especially through the RISE Summer Academy.[31] Those relationships and seeing the leadership of other RISE students amplifies the possibilities that come with being part of such a program. Ms. Johnson knows the challenges students face and that she has faced with students, but, as the history of the RISE Program itself shows, despite adversity RISE and its students, past and present, continue to thrive.
Conclusion
The successes of RISE have come with challenges that stem from beyond the University of Delaware. Nonetheless, all those involved in directing the program and working with its students have lived up to its current mission: “To inspire our undergraduate students from historically underrepresented backgrounds to succeed at the highest levels within our programs and beyond in their careers as engineers and computer scientists.” But the history of RISE signifies more than that of a student resource program in the College of Engineering. As UD’s current Vice Provost for Equity Michael Vaughan put it in 2010 while serving as Senior Assistant Dean of Engineering, “Far too many young people in our country are caught in a knowledge wasteland. Some of them have access to tools and resources but they have no context with which to apply these tools. This is where a program like RISE can help.”[32] But those tools extend to life outside of RISE or even engineering. RISE takes its place as an important part of a much larger history driven by efforts to make education more equitable.
Alan Parkes is a 5th-year PhD candidate in history at the University of Delaware. His dissertation research focuses on music, youth culture, and the politics of Washington DC in the late twentieth century. He is the Graduate Student Government President at the University of Delaware and teaches at Germanna Community College in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Pamela Ahern is a 5th-year PhD candidate in history at the University of Delaware. Her research focuses on 18th-century Scottish print culture, book history, and historical memory. She is a Senator for the Graduate Student Government and teaches courses on World History and an Honors College Colloquium titled Banned Books: Print, Print Censorship, and Memory.
[1] “The Only Black Undergraduate on Campus,” University Archives and Records Management, September 29, 2021. https://sites.udel.edu/uarm/the-only-black-undergraduate-on-campus.
[2] “Delaware University Lifts Ban on Negroes,” New York Times, Feb 01, 1948.
[3] “Desegregation in Delaware,” Udaily, September 21, 2021. https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2021/september/desegregation-delaware-soles-lecture-constitution/.
[4] “Race of the Population of the United States, by States: 1970,” United States Census Bureau, February 1972.
[5] R. Byron Pipes, Frank A. Wells, and Terry Whittaker, “Minority Engineering at the University of Delaware,” Newark; University of Delaware, 1990. Pg. 1. University of Delaware Archives. Box 42512. Folder Minority Engineering at the University of Delaware (Undated).
[6] Ibid. “Minority” in this report refers to Black, Hispanic, and American Indian students. It excludes Asian students because of their “high participation rates in engineering and science study and employment.”
[7] Ibid. [8] RISE “Academic Report,” 1990-1991, University of Delaware Archives. Box 42514. Minority Engineering at the University of Delaware.
[9] RISE “Annual Report,” 1967-1977, University of Delaware Archives. Box 42512. Minority Engineering at the University of Delaware.
[10] RISE “Annual Report” 1987-1988 – Box 42946. University of Delaware Archives. Box 42514. Minority Engineering at the University of Delaware.
[11] RISE “Academic Report,” 1990-1991, University of Delaware Archives. Box 42514. Folder Minority Engineering at the University of Delaware. The “I” in RISE has since been changed to “Inspire.”
[12] RISE “Annual Report” 1987-1988 – Box 42514 University of Delaware Archives. Box 42514. Folder Minority Engineering at the University of Delaware.
[13] RISE “Annual Report” 1988-1989 – Box 42946. University of Delaware Archives. Box 42514. Minority Engineering at the University of Delaware.
[14] RISE “Academic Report,” 1990-1991, University of Delaware Archives. Box 42514. Folder Minority Engineering at the University of Delaware.
[15] Conversation between Ron Whittington and the author, March 30, 2023.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Conversation between Michael Vaughan and the author, March 8, 2023.
[19] RISE “Academic Report,” 1990-1991, University of Delaware Archives. Box 42514. Folder Minority Engineering at the University of Delaware.
[20] Ibid.
[21] Ibid.
[22] Conversation between Michael Vaughan and the author, March 8, 2023.
[23] Slaughter, John Brooks, Yu Tao, and Willie Pearson Jr, eds. Changing the face of engineering: The African American experience (Baltimore: JHU Press, 2015), 13-14.
[24] Slaughter, 152. Black male enrollment dropped from 18.7% to 17.7% between 2008 and 2010.
[25] Sybrina Y. Atwaters, John D Leonard II, and Willie Pearson, Jr., “Beyond the Black-White Minority Experience: Undergraduate Engineering trends among African Americans,” in Slaughter, John Brooks, Yu Tao, and Willie Pearson Jr, eds. Changing the face of engineering: The African American experience (Baltimore: JHU Press, 2015), 156.
[26] Conversation between Marianna Johnson and the author, March 15, 2023.
[27] RISE Newsletter, 2011.
[28] RISE Newsletter, 2013.
[29] Conversation between Marianne Johnson and the author, April 18, 2023.
[30] Ibid.
[31] Conversation between Marianne Johnson and the author, April 18, 2023. [32] RISE Newsletter, 2010.