Effective Dates: Dec. 2020 through Dec. 2025
Major Revision of Plan Begins: June 1, 2025
Contact: Jean Mohammadi-Aragh, jean@ece.msstate.edu, 662-325-2042
Founded in 1878, Mississippi State University (MSU) is a land-grant institution known as The People’s University. MSU has a strong connection to the local community. The mission of the MSU Bagley College of Engineering (BCOE) focuses on achieving excellence in engineering education, research, and outreach while ensuring graduates have both the knowledge, skills, and creativity requisite for success in the engineering workforce, and an understanding of the responsibilities that engineers bear to society and the environment in which we live. Within the MSU BCOE, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE@MSU) is the second largest department (700+ students).
Enrollment and graduation data below suggest a strong commitment to educating a diverse set of underrepresented minority students. For example, in Table 1 bold numbers highlight that ECE@MSU percent of total enrollment for some minority groups is at or higher than equivalent BCOE enrollment. However, the data also highlight areas that can be improved. For example, past data suggest that ECE African American enrollment could be higher. Moreover, ECE@MSU Women enrollment has failed to keep pace with BCOE women enrollment gains. Table 2 shows that ECE@MSU retention and graduation rates are low for all ECE@MSU students. Table 3 indicates that degrees are awarded to women at rates consistent with enrollment, but rates for degrees awarded to African American students are lower than enrollment rates.
Table 1. ECE@MSU Academic Year Enrollment (and as % of Total Enrollment) | |||||||||
2010 | 2014 | 2019 | |||||||
ECE | BCOE | MSU | ECE | BCOE | MSU | ECE | BCOE | MSU | |
African American | 84 (17%) | 325 (11%) | 3,893 (20%) | 101 (18%) | 398 (11%) | 3,871 (19%) | 99 (14%) | 529 (11%) | 3,725 (17%) |
Hispanic | 7 (1%) | 55 (2%) | 334 (2%) | 20 (4%) | 117 (3%) | 457 (2%) | 21 (3%) | 165 (3%) | 700 (3%) |
Women | 60 (12%) | 527 (18%) | 9,487 (48%) | 57 (10%) | 731 (19%) | 9,786 (49%) | 88 (12%) | 1,115 (23%) | 11,093 (50%) |
Total Enrolled | 499 | 2,983 | 19,644 | 563 | 3,780 | 20,138 | 715 | 4,900 | 22,226 |
Bold = ECE@MSU academic year enrollment as a percentage of total enrollment is at or higher than for BCOE |
Table 2. ECE@MSU Retention and Graduation Rates (ECE degrees) | |||||||||||||
2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | ||||||||
EE | CpE | EE | CpE | EE | CpE | EE | CpE | EE | CpE | EE | CpE | ||
Freshmen Retained | 47% | 33% | 51% | 23% | 46% | 32% | 67% | 27% | 57% | 41% | 61% | 66% | |
Freshmen Graduated | 42% | 29% | 49% | 19% | 17%1 | 13%1 | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
Transfers Retained | 48% | 21% | 61% | 28% | 52% | 56% | 69% | 33% | 72% | 53% | 72% | 50% | |
Transfers Graduated | 48% | 21% | 55% | 22% | 45% | 39% | 33% | 17% | 6%2 | —2 | — | — | |
Bold = retention >50%; 1Four-year grad. rate; 2Two-year grad. rate (CpE requires >2.5 years post-transfer) | |||||||||||||
Table 3. ECE@MSU Degrees Awarded (and as % of Total Degrees Awarded) | |||||||||
2010-2011 | 2014-2015 | 2019-2020 | |||||||
ECE | BCOE | MSU | ECE | BCOE | MSU | ECE | BCOE | MSU | |
African American | 7 (12%) | 25 (7%) | 432 (16%) | 7 (12%) | 41 (9%) | 527 (16%) | 10 (11%) | 62 (8%) | 673 (16%) |
Hispanic | 0 (0%) | 1 (0.3%) | 29 (1%) | 2 (4%) | 8 (2%) | 54 (2%) | 1 (1%) | 7 (1%) | 29 (1%) |
Women | 5 (9%) | 58 (17%) | 1,386 (50%) | 7 (12%) | 75 (16%) | 1,561 (49%) | 12 (13%) | 179 (24%) | 2,167 (53%) |
Total Degrees | 57 | 334 | 2,759 | 57 | 472 | 3,211 | 91 | 754 | 4,113 |
The data suggests a strong commitment from ECE@MSU and the BCOE; however, ECE@MSU can further strengthen its commitment by increasing the participation of the minority groups in the Electrical Engineering (EE) and Computer Engineering (CpE) degree programs with the following five-year goals:
For each strategy, we assess how well we implement activities consistent with the strategy and we evaluate the effectiveness of each strategy for improving datapoints related to our three goals. Example assessment data includes number of policies reviewed/developed, number of faculty/staff BP-ECE activities, number of faculty/staff/students in departmental leadership roles; counts of undergraduate women, African American, and Hispanic research assistants; number of press releases and counts of social media interaction (likes); and number of participants for outreach activities. To evaluate effectiveness, ECE@MSU will deploy surveys to measure changes in engineering identity, perceptions of the department (“chilly” versus supportive), sense of belonging, and awareness of ECE societal impact. Additionally, we will ask new students about past participation in ECE@MSU outreach activities, awareness of promotional material, etc. Further, along with collecting enrollment, retention, and graduation data, ECE@MSU will track participation in undergraduate research, co-op experiences, student competition teams, and leadership roles. Finally, we will ask affinity groups including SWE, NSBE, and SHPE to provide periodic evaluation of and recommendations for improving the perceived Departmental Mindset and increasing opportunities to participate in ECE@MSU.