Negative, unwelcoming experiences among queer students in engineering education contribute to the loss of talent in the innovation workforce. Yet, research on such experiences often relies on broad notions of “climate,” limiting its usefulness for identifying institutional levers for change. Based on organizational science, this study employs the integrative climate framework, which identifies domain-specific climates—diversity, authenticity, psychosocial safety, psychological safety, mastery, and performance climate—that shape student outcomes, promote in/equality, and may be especially relevant to students from diverse historically-excluded groups. Purpose: Centering the voices of queer students in engineering doctoral programs and applying the integrative climate framework, we explored how students interpreted signals of domain-specific climates associated with retention, commitment, and satisfaction students perceived in their departments. Approach: We conducted unstructured qualitative interviews with 11 queer students enrolled in engineering doctoral programs at universities throughout the U.S. Interviews elicited informants' descriptions of what they noticed happening or was permitted in their departments. We analyzed transcripts using a framework-guided, deductive thematic approach focused on psychological (i.e., individual-level) climate. Results: Informants' accounts revealed meaning-level themes across six domain-specific climates, in which departmental signals were interpreted as prioritizing productivity and competition over learning and wellbeing, normalizing distress, and rendering voice and vulnerability risky. For queer doctoral students, these interpretations often carried heightened consequences, shaping identity management, uncertainty about available support, and decisions around concealment or disclosure. Conclusions: By foregrounding students' psychological climate perceptions, this study demonstrates how a domain-specific climate approach illuminates institutional dynamics that may be obscured in broader climate framings. Centering queer students as informants highlights how students from historically-excluded groups can offer distinctive insight into how departmental signals around safety, authenticity, performance, and support are interpreted and navigated. Findings suggest that domain-specific climates provide actionable insight for improving equity, inclusion, and student persistence in engineering doctoral programs.

A growing volume of research shows college promise programs increase the likelihood that students enroll in and complete college. Place-based promise programs provide a guaranteed college scholarship for students who attend a specified school district. We examine the societal benefits and costs of a place-based scholarship program in rural Arkansas, the El Dorado Promise. Our cost framework treats tuition payments as a cash transfer that shifts the cost burden of higher education rather than causing new societal costs. Findings show the program provides societal benefits equal to $4.60 for each dollar invested. A break-even analysis shows the program produces benefits to society that exceed costs within an 81% confidence interval of effects, providing relatively high likelihood of positive returns.

Alkylamine structures represent one of the most functional and widely used in organic synthesis and drug design. However, the general methods for the functionalization of the shielded and deshielded alkyl radicals remain elusive. Here, we report a general deoxygenative amination protocol using alcohol-derived carbazates and nitrobenzene under electrochemical conditions. A range of primary, secondary, and tertiary alkylamines are obtained. This practical procedure can be scaled up through electrochemical continuous flow technique. Secondary arylalkylamines represent important building blocks for organic synthesis, and as such their straightforward synthesis from readily available chemicals remains a priority in organic chemistry. Here, the authors report a synthesis of arylalkylamines from nitroarenes and carbazates via paired electrolysis.

My background and research interests are in organizational change, innovation, and leadership.My strengths are ideation and transdisciplinary teamwork.My current

This research full paper describes engineering doctoral students' nonresponse patterns on a departmental climate survey. As the U.S. engineering workforce does not reflect the diversity of the U.S. population, the departmental climate can be one lever that higher education leaders can use to identify specific policies, practices, and procedures in doctoral programs to increase the retention and success of students from historically excluded groups. During the summer and fall of 2023, 355 engineering doctoral students from 28 institutions in the U.S. responded to a climate scale that we developed to assess multiple climate factors associated with organizational commitment or member retention. Items included a six-point Likert-type response option and “not sure.” While most students responded adequately to the climate scale items with the Likert scale, a significant number of students also responded to the “not sure” option. Based on the climate and survey research in the literature, we hypothesized that these item nonresponses may stem from (a) the contextual characteristics of climate constructs or items and/or (b) student characteristics. Descriptive and inferential statistical data analyses showed that “not sure” item nonresponse differed by climate constructs and items as well as student characteristics. Among the six climate factors, on average, authenticity climate had the highest item nonresponse rates, followed by performance climate and diversity climate. While the item nonresponse rates increased by student age, at the item level analysis, item nonresponse rates varied by residency, gender, and first-generation status. There were no significant differences in the item nonresponse rates on underrepresented minority (URM) status, student disability, and LGBTQIA+ status.

[No abstract available]