PAPER: From the Bottom Up: Amplifying Student Voices to Inspire Culture Change

This full paper shares the experience of empowering engineering students to help drive cultural change in an engineering department. A positive and supportive academic culture in engineering education is crucial to student success. Culture has been shown to impact identity development, sense of belonging, academic achievement, social relationships, diversity, and retention. The student viewpoint is an essential, yet often overlooked, component to understanding the depth and breadth of cultural issues. The authors, who include the students leading this work, describe the various strategies employed to amplify student voices and the impact it had on the department, specifically with regards to change. The methods used included focus groups, surveys, and feedback sessions which were initiated, led, and supported by student leaders in the department. The paper details how the student feedback was gathered, analyzed, and summarized, what was learned, and the methods used to share it with the administration. The findings indicate that students expect their academic environment to be professional and respectful. They want a culture that puts inclusion and equity at the forefront and expect faculty to be positive role models. When they experience a cultural climate that deviates from this expectation, it can lead to negative social/emotional experiences which may lead some to question their decision to pursue engineering as a career path. The students leading the work showed a deep commitment to sharing the student voice however, they also experienced an emotional impact due to the uncertain and challenging nature of the work. Overall, they reported this as a rewarding yet challenging experience through which they learned about the complexities involved in navigating change and advocating for an inclusive culture. The department benefited from hearing the student perspective as has inspired them to develop more comprehensive strategies and solutions to foster a positive, supportive, welcoming culture.