The IEC Brief: November 24, 2021

The IEC Celebrates National Native American Heritage Month

The month is a time to celebrate rich and diverse cultures, traditions, and histories and to acknowledge the important contributions of Native people. To celebrate this month, we would like to highlight the history of our two sustaining member Tribal Colleges Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute and Navajo Technical university .

IEC TCU Member Spotlight

On September 16, 1971, the Institute officially opened its doors for classes.

By 1975, SIPI received accreditation status at the Certificate Level by the North Central Association of Schools and Colleges (NCA).

The beginning of 1982 saw SIPI threatened with closure because of the federal government's efforts to decrease spending.

The students and National Indian Community responded with a major movement of public support that resulted in Congressional action in March 1983 to mandate SIPI'S continuing operations. SIPI achieved community college status on August 6, 1993.

The College is continuing to develop additional post-secondary training programs that are specific to the needs of industry and the National Indian Community.

NTU began as the Navajo Skill Center in 1979 to meet the immediate needs of an unemployed population in the Navajo Nation.

Students enrolled to learn the rudiments of a trade, graduated, and joined the workforce; however, it soon became clear that the students wanted more.

In 1985 the Board of Directors changed the Skill Center’s name to Crownpoint Institute of Technology and in November 2006 the

Navajo Nation Council approved changing the name to Navajo Technical College.

In 2013, NTC became NTU - becoming the first university established in the Navajo Nation.

IEC Needs Assessment for Sustaining Members

The IEC is in the process of developing several grant proposals. We have developed a Needs Assessment survey to assist us in ensuring that we are addressing key issues, as identified by our membership, in these proposals.

In addition, results from this survey will provide general guidance for future IEC programs.

We encourage you to share this survey with your colleagues to complete as well.

If you wish to submit a single survey response on behalf of your institution, you are welcome to do so. Please just indicate this in the final comments on the survey.

The survey will close on November 29, 2021; please complete the survey below by this date.

Take the Survey

Broadening Participation in Engineering Solicitation - Register for Webinar on 12/1/21

We are pleased to announce a new funding opportunity in the Broadening Participation in Engineering realm. The details of the solicitation are found here:

https://beta.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/broadening-participation-engineering-bpe-1

Synopsis of Program: With this solicitation, the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Engineering Directorate (ENG) is continuing its support of broadening participation in engineering. The BPE program seeks to strengthen the future U.S. Engineering workforce and catalyze research innovation by enabling the participation of all citizens in STEM, thus reflecting the diversity and true intellectual capacity of the Nation's population. At its core, the BPE program aims to support innovative and convergent research, curriculum, collaborations, and strategies in broadening participation and equity as they relate to engineering and the engineering profession. Communities served by the BPE program (K-12, Higher Education, Non-Profit, and Industry) are intentionally broad. The BPE Program is not overly prescriptive by design – and supports projects at various levels of readiness and complexity through the following four pathways or tracks:

Track 1: Planning and Conference Grants,

Track 2: Research in Broadening Participation in Engineering,

Track 3: Inclusive Mentoring Hubs (IM Hubs), and

Track 4: Centers for Equity in Engineering (CEE).

Additional information on this solicitation can be found here: https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2022/nsf22514/nsf22514.htm

We highly recommend that you consider attending a virtual informational webinar on this solicitation on Wednesday, December 1, 2021, from 12-1 p.m.

The link to register is found on this website :

https://www.nsf.gov/events/event_summ.jsp?cntn_id=303929&org=NSF

Due to the anticipated level of interest in the program – we are directing questions/inquires to the webinar.

Thank you in advance for your consideration.

Regina Pope-Ford, PhD, PMP

Expert