The University of Wisconsin-Platteville will host Pathway to Progress: A Panel Discussion on the importance of Diversity in the Engineering, Construction, and Safety Industries on Wednesday, April 14, from 5:15-6:45 p.m. The virtual event is free and open to the public.
“This panel directly supports a UW-Platteville Strategic Plan goal of enhancing students’ diversity, equity, and inclusion competencies through the curriculum,” said Dr. Kristina Fields, professor of civil engineering at UW-Platteville and an organizer of the event. “The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Industrial Studies have been partnering this past year to develop curriculum in hopes of increasing students’ confidence in construction.”
UW-Platteville offers five construction specific degrees: civil engineering, environmental engineering, construction management, construction safety management, and occupational safety.
“These construction-focused programs are typically made up of white male majority students with some women and underrepresented minority students,” said Fields. “The construction industry itself is mostly made up of a similar mix. While the construction-focused programs are technically strong, the departments want to do a better job purposely talking about diversity, equity and inclusion in the construction/engineering-specific classroom settings in order to improve the confidence of all students. Our industry partners have played a key role in the development of this new initiative and volunteered to host this panel discussion to share their company’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.”
The event will consist of two panels. The first panel, made up of industry leaders, will address construction and engineering consulting companies’ value of diversity, equity and inclusion, and their efforts to encourage inclusivity. The second panel will consist of underrepresented industry professionals, who will discuss their experience in the construction and engineering industries.
“The hopeful outcome of the panel is that majority students will learn about the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion and bystander roles,” said Fields. “Underrepresented students will benefit from the role modeling aspects from these construction industry panelists. The technical programs will use panel discussions to help prioritize curriculum needs.”
For more information about the event and to register, visit www.uwplatt.edu/events/2021/04/pathway-progress-panel-discussion-importance-diversity-engineering-construction-and-safety.