University of Texas El Paso Geological Sciences Department

https://www.utep.edu/science/geology/index.html

Project Leader: Aaron Velasco

Program Description

The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), a Hispanic-Serving Institution, serves the El Paso border region and has an 80% Hispanic student population. HSIs enroll almost half of all Hispanic college students and a disproportionate number of Hispanic students enrolled in graduate STEM programs. (Conrad and Gasman, 2015). For example, according to a 2015 report from Excelencia in Education, UTEP was among the top three leading producers (after Stanford and U.C. Berkeley) of STEM PhD graduates in the 50 states. The current demographics of the region are poised to become the future demographics of the southwestern U.S.: more than 80% of school children are Hispanic, more than 60% of teachers are Hispanic, over 75% of undergraduate students at UTEP are Hispanic, and many graduate student population at UTEP are Hispanic. In the Department of Geological Sciences, approximately 50% of the tenure-track faculty are from 'traditionally underrepresented groups in STEM'. UTEP is leading by example, not only by recruiting minorities and women to STEM fields, but also by providing faculty role models, a key to broadening the participation of groups underrepresented in STEM.