Why is the Underrepresentation of Diverse Tenured Track Engineering Faculty Stubbornly Persistent Despite Universities’ Clarion Call for Diversity? The Perspectives of a National Sample about the Tenure Process

This study examines how engineering faculty experience and perceive the tenure process at research intensive "R1" institutions, a critical factor for their representation and retention.Drawing on qualitative analysis of open-ended survey responses from 971 faculty, we explore how underrepresented faculty of color and their White colleagues respectively interpreted their journey through this pivotal career juncture.Drawing on the framework of diversity resistance, we investigate the tension between universities' public commitments to diversifying the professoriate and the persistent underrepresentation of faculty of color in tenure-track engineering ranks.Findings reveal three re-occurring themes that sustain this disparity:(1) attribution of the problem to a "pipeline" shortage, (2) inequitable service burdens that are often undervalued in tenure decisions, and (3) peer resistance to diversity and inclusion initiatives.Our results highlight the importance of how faculty perceive their workplace climate, as well as how structural and cultural dynamics can affect progress toward a more representative engineering professoriate operate to sustain that perception.