Forecasting the Effect of Affirmative Action Policies in Undergraduate College Admissions (2018)
Assessing affirmative action policies in undergraduate admissions procedures in the United States is important for ensuring educational equity. The goal of this thesis was to develop a method of predicting how the current (lack of) racial affirmative action policy at UC-Berkeley would effect the racial/ethnic representation of incoming classes over the next ten years. Our results suggest that African-American students, Hispanic/Latino students, and White/Caucasian students are underrepresented, while Asian-American students are overrepresented. Read more here.
Comparing Demographics of Signatories to Public Letters on Diversity in the Mathematical Sciences (2020)
In its December 2019 edition, the Notices of the American Mathematical Society published an essay critical of the use of diversity statements in academic hiring. The publication of this essay prompted many responses, including three public letters circulated within the mathematical sciences community. Each letter was signed by hundreds of people and was published online, also by the American Mathematical Society. We report on a study of the signatories’ demographics, which we infer using a crowdsourcing approach. Read more here,
Gender Representation on Journal Editorial Boards in the Mathematical Sciences (2016)
The degree of underrepresentation on mathematical sciences journal editorial boards is even more severe than in the field at large. Women are not represented in editorships in the same proportion that they are represented in the mathematics field. Why exactly women are not being represented? Are women faculty not being sufficiently considered for editorial boards? Are they being asked to serve but choosing not to? Mathematical sciences journals may benefit from paying more attention to these questions as each journal is unique. Read more here.
COVID-19, Social Justice, and Higher Education (PASS’20)
The Policies Analysis: Spring Semester 2020 (PASS’20) project seeks $10,000 to crowdsource the gathering of COVID-19 grading policies at approximately 1500 not-for-profit colleges and universities offering four-year degrees. The goal of this timely work is to shine a light on grading policies’ effects on inclusion, diversity, and equity. Different schemes for reading Spring 2020 transcripts could disenfranchise students from underrepresented groups. PASS’20 centers on understanding the distribution and magnitude of this disenfranchisement. Read more here.