Pitt first in Pennsylvania for black engineering grads

Pitt’s School of Engineering ranks first in the state for number of black engineering… Pitt’s School of Engineering ranks first in the state for number of black engineering graduates and third in the state for the number of women engineering graduates, according to an independent study conducted by the Engineering Workforce Commission of the American Association of Engineering Societies, Inc.

According to the study, the School of Engineering bestowed 39 out of 495 total engineering degrees to black students in 2001, first in the state and 24th out of the 600 schools examined in the study. Pitt’s engineering department also awarded four doctoral degrees to blacks, placing it first in the state and seventh in the nation. Pitt was ranked ahead of schools such as Drexel University and Penn State, which have larger overall engineering programs but conversely present fewer degrees, both in actual numbers and in percentages, to black students.

Pitt awarded 39 bachelor of science degrees to women, third in the state behind Penn State, which has nearly four times the number of B.S. degrees awarded, and the University of Pennsylvania, which has a program comparable in size to Pitt. Nationally, Pitt ranked 49th in number of degrees awarded to women and 36th in number of doctoral degrees awarded to women.

According to Dr. Sylvanus N. Nwosu, assistant dean for diversity and professor of mechanical engineering at the engineering school, Pitt’s success in graduating minority engineers “is the result of a commitment to allowing students to come to school when they otherwise couldn’t, and the availability of mentoring that helps to focus students and keep them in school. Not all engineering schools do these things and they are the key to Pitt’s high minority rates.”

Nwosu cited the Engineering Impact Program, which since 1971 has taken a fraction of students who otherwise wouldn’t be admitted into the university, and fostered them with an intensive six-week summer program to tutor them in physics, chemistry and other sciences.

After the summer program, the Impact program provides students with tutoring and pairs them with a faculty member who acts as a mentor and role model. The mentors also help students find internships and advise them about career paths.

“About 50 percent of the African-American students who graduate come in through the Impact program,” Nwosu said.

In the immediate future, Nwosu said Pitt is aiming to increase its access for minority students by opening the Pitt Engineering Academy, which will provide tutoring and other academic activities for students as young as the ninth grade, and will provide comprehensive mentoring once the students arrive at Pitt.

“If you raise your expectations of students,” Nwosu said, “you get more motivated and focused and you have a better chance of retaining them.”

Danielle Wright, a black junior in the School of Engineering, was dubious of the study’s findings. “I have yet to see that evidence,” she said.

“In my opinion, for Pitt to be first with only 39 students says something about the state. For the number to be this low anywhere is sad,” she added.

Wright, a civil engineering student, guessed that there are only three other black women in her program. She said she’s doubtful there will be many more than that when she graduates.

“The rank is good but I think the numbers could be bigger,” she said.