Nevada State College (NSC), a teaching-intensive, minority-serving institution, is one of six higher education institutions nationally that has been selected to receive a $1 million ADVANCE grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the 2022 funding cycle – a program designed to promote equity among STEM faculty and broaden the participation of women and other historically underrepresented groups in academia.
The PEER Project
With this funding, Nevada State College launches the Pursuing Equity to Enhance Retention (PEER) Project to address workload disparities among science faculty. By using an intersectional approach to address systemic inequities within the institution’s policies, practices, and organizational culture and climate, the PEER Project will:
- Create a new full-time position in the Office of the Provost – Director of Faculty Development
- Develop faculty workload dashboards that identify and monitor workload disparities
- Implement department equity plans to ensure fair distribution of teaching and service loads
- Implement policies that mitigate workload imbalance, recognize invisible service work, and create time to engage in scholarship
- Create faculty peer mentoring circles to combat social and professional isolation
- Enhance opportunities for professional development
- Expand support for scholarship among pre-tenured science faculty, women and underrepresented groups.
Benefitting the Campus Community
Dr. Laura Naumann, Associate Professor of Psychology, and her co-principal investigator, Dr. Samantha Jewell, Associate Professor of Biology, will oversee the ADVANCE Adaptation grant that began on August 15, 2022. The PEER Project activities will benefit the entire NSC campus community by expanding the lens at which faculty members are evaluated and redefining an inclusive culture. Any findings generated will contribute to campus-wide initiatives that support justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.
“Nevada State is honored to join the ADVANCE community as one of the few teaching-oriented, minority-serving institutions to receive funding,” said Laura Naumann. “This award will allow to us to address barriers to workload equity in order to improve faculty work satisfaction and retention, while also contributing to a growing body of research on faculty equity in STEM.”
Nevada State is the third Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) institution to receive an NSF ADVANCE award in the program’s 20-year history; putting this campus in the company of the Desert Research Institute ($279K) and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas ($340K).
For more information about the NSF ADVANCE grants, visit here or contact Dr. Naumann at laura.naumann@nsc.edu. For more information about Nevada State College, visit www.nsc.edu