Demographic Impact in the College of Engineering

In the college of engineering at the University of Illinois it is apparent that the majority of the students are male and either Asian or Caucasian. To balance this demographic gap, the university participates in Affirmative Action . UIUC has done a much better job than in previous years of reaching out to women and minorities in high school to stimulate engineering interest even earlier than junior year. There are also student organizations such as SWE (Society of Women in Engineering), SHPE (Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers), and NSBE (National Society of Black Engineers) to promote the growth of students in the field. With these groups, the minorities have a core of students with whom they can build a strong relationship and network with. We surveyed several minority groups and determined whether or not they feel discriminated against, inferior, out of place or challenged in their major. With these questions we were able to better understand how female and minority students feel as they study in a place where White and Asian males dominate