2021 Annual Report

Diversity, Inclusion & Access

Mines Core Values

We, the Colorado School of Mines community, are united by our commitment to our timeless mission of educating and inspiring students from all backgrounds and advancing knowledge and innovations, with the aspiration that our graduates, ideas, actions and innovations will have a transformative impact on individuals and society, leading to shared prosperity and sustainable use of the Earth’s resources.

From the President

President Paul C. Johnson, Colorado School of Mines

Dear Colleagues,

The 2021 Diversity, Inclusion & Access (DI&A) Annual Report shows that our Oredigger community continues to make great strides in promoting diversity, enhancing inclusion and increasing access. Notably, in Fall 2021, Mines welcomed the largest and most diverse incoming first-year class in the university’s history.

As a STEM institution, Mines emphasizes data-driven and evidence-based approaches to track our progress and make course corrections. This report is the second of its kind published in the past two years. It reiterates our university-wide aspirations, and reviews the efforts, initiatives, and progress within the 24 DI&A Strategic Plan recommendations. I encourage you to take the time to read the report, review the data, and acknowledge the hard work that Orediggers are doing across campus.

There is still much work to do, but I believe that our community’s strong commitment and collaborative efforts will lead to continued progress toward our aspirational goals. In the meantime, thank-you for your contributions and efforts. Let’s remember to celebrate the successes we’ve achieved and stay focused on our MINES@150 DI&A goals. They are critical to Mines’ future and we all have a role to play in achieving them.

Go Orediggers!

Paul C. Johnson, President and Professor
Colorado School of Mines

DI&A is a central component of the MINES@150 strategic plan. To be a first-choice and top-of-mind institution, MINES@150 focuses on seven high-level goals, all of which can only be achieved with the support of diversity, inclusion and access

Mines@150 logoPer the MINES@150 playbook, in 2024, Mines will be:

  1. Accessible and attractive to qualified students from all backgrounds.
  2. A great community in which to learn, explore, live and work.
  3. A leader in educating STEM students and professionals.
  4. A preferred partner for talent, solutions and lifelong learning.
  5. A producer of differentiated and highly desired STEM-educated leaders.
  6. A go-to place for use-inspired research and innovation needed for industry and societal changes.
  7. The exemplar for alumni affinity, visibility and involvement.

Annual Report Overview

Colorado School of Mines is committed to cultivating a campus environment for community members that has diverse representation, is inclusive for all individuals and groups and promotes full accessibility, both in access to higher education and in Mines’ resources and facilities. A diverse and inclusive institution works to inspire innovation and creativity among its members, which is integral to science and engineering. Published in February 2019, the Strategic Plan for Diversity, Inclusion & Access (DI&A) outlined four goals:

Goal 1

Attract, retain and graduate a thriving and diverse student body.

Goal 2

Attract, retain, develop and promote a thriving and diverse employee community.

Goal 3

Cultivate a campus culture that promotes and celebrates inclusion and achievement.

Goal 4

Inspire a shared responsibility, participation and accountability for DI&A efforts across the entire Mines community.

To achieve these goals, the Strategic Plan presents 24 specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely (SMART) recommendations rooted in evidence-based best practices for DI&A in higher education. Accomplishing these goals is particularly salient as Mines prepares for its 150th anniversary in 2024. Mines DI&A is a vital component to the MINES@150 strategic plan. The recommendations provide opportunities for Mines to be a leader in educating science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) students through signature experiences designed to support students from all backgrounds and academic disciplines.

While there is still much to do, this report contains ample evidence that the Mines community is gaining traction on this important work.

2021 Mines Demographics

This report has a plethora of data to show how Mines is progressing toward the Mines DI&A Strategic Plan goals. To provide context, the following data present the overall demographic breakdowns of Mines’ community members: undergraduate and graduate degree-seeking students and employees – both academic faculty and staff. These data will set the stage for understanding trends at Mines over time, as found in subsequent sections of this report.

Please note: In the previous and current DI&A Annual Reports, Gender is defined as only either male or female due to limitations in data collection and reporting. Mines is currently working on developing new processes for collecting inclusive and accurate gender identity information. We acknowledge this definition of gender is limiting; work towards inclusive identity data collection is ongoing.

Undergraduate Students

This graph shows the total demographic makeup of undergraduate students at Mines in fall 2021 by gender. It includes the new, incoming class as well as all continuing undergraduate students at Mines who were enrolled at the time of census. There was a total of 5,491 students enrolled.  All Mines new and continuing undergraduate students' enrollments by gender. Male = 68.3% and Female = 31.7%. Click on graph image to view larger size
This graph shows the total demographic makeup of undergraduate students at Mines in fall 2021 by race and ethnicity. It includes the new, incoming class as well as all continuing undergraduate students at Mines who were enrolled at the time of census. There was a total of 5,491 students enrolled. Underrepresented groups are denoted by “URG” and include American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx, multiple races, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. All Mines new and continuing undergraduate students' enrollments by race and ethnicity. White = 68.3%, URG = 24.4%, International = 4.4% and Unknown = 2.8%.Click on graph image to view larger size

Graduate Students

This graph shows the total demographic makeup of graduate students at Mines in fall 2020 and fall 2021 by gender. It includes the new, incoming students as well as continuing students, in both residential and online programs who were enrolled at the time of census. We compare how enrollments have changed between fall 2020 and 2021 between each type of degree program. Master’s non-thesis include graduate certificates, postbaccalaureate certificates and Master’s non-thesis students.  All Mines new and continuing graduate students' enrollments by gender. Compares fall census 2020 to 2021. Compares graduate non-thesis, to Master's thesis, to PhD enrollments. Across the board, females are between 25% and 35% of the populations. Click on graph image to view larger size
This graph shows the total demographic makeup of graduate students at Mines in fall 2020 and fall 2021 by race and ethnicity. It includes the new, incoming students as well as continuing students, in both residential and online programs who were enrolled at the time of census. We compare how enrollments have changed between fall 2020 and 2021 between each type of degree program. Master’s non-thesis include graduate certificates, postbaccalaureate certificates and Master’s non-thesis students. Underrepresented groups are denoted by “URG” and include American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx, multiple races, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. All Mines new and continuing graduate students' enrollments by race and ethnicity. Compares fall census 2020 to 2021. Compares graduate non-thesis, to Master's thesis, to PhD enrollments. Across the board, URGs make up between 10% to over 16% of the populations. There are proportionally more international students in PhD programs. Click on graph image to view larger size

Employees

This graph shows the demographic makeup of Academic Faculty, including Research Faculty and Adjuncts at Mines, in September of 2021 by gender. There was a total of 628 employees of this employment class.  Academic faculty, research faculty and adjuncts by gender are in this pie graph. Females are 31.8% while males are 68.2% of the population. Click on graph image to view larger size
This graph shows the demographic makeup of Academic Faculty, including Research Faculty and Adjuncts at Mines, in September of 2021 by race and ethnicity. There was a total of 628 employees of this employment class. Underrepresented groups are denoted by “URG” and include American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx, multiple races and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. Academic faculty, research faculty and adjuncts by race and ethnicity are in this pie graph. URG = 16.2%, White = 68.0%, International = 10.5%, and Not Reported = 5.3%Click on graph image to view larger size
This graph shows the demographic makeup of Administrative Faculty and Classified Staff, in September of 2021 by gender. Employee classes represented here include Administrative Faculty, Classified Staff, Librarians, Project Hourly and Research Support. There was a total of 772 employees of these employment classes.  Administrative Faculty and Classified Staff by gender are in this pie chart. Females are 52.2% and Males are 47.8%.Click on graph image to view larger size
This graph shows the demographic makeup of Administrative Faculty and Classified Staff, in September of 2021 by race and ethnicity. Employee classes represented here include Administrative Faculty, Classified Staff, Librarians, Project Hourly and Research Support. There was a total of 772 employees of these employment classes. Underrepresented groups are denoted by “URG” and include American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx, multiple races and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander.  Administrative Faculty and Classified Staff by race and ethnicity are in this pie chart. White are 75.9%, URGs are 20.3%, International are 0.6% and Not Reported are 3.1%. Click on graph image to view larger size

Priority Focus Areas and Strategic Initiatives

Recruitment

  • Hiring Excellence minimizes bias in talent acquisition
  • Vanguard Scholars Program enhances recruitment of women undergraduate students
  • Admissions and Mines Foundation diversify their selection committees to broaden representation
  • Admissions counselors integrate strategies to reduce implicit bias in review of applications

Retention

  • Hiring Excellence minimizes bias in talent acquisition
  • Vanguard Scholars Program enhances recruitment of women undergraduate students
  • Admissions and Mines Foundation diversify their selection committees to broaden representation

Culture of Inclusion

  • Inclusive classroom checklist and workshops foster inclusion in the classroom
  • Implicit bias and microaggressions workshops build active bystander intervention skills throughout the Mines community
  • Campus climate surveys such as ModernThink, oSTEM, Trefny’s Student Survey and Viewfinder provide insights into students’ and employees experiences
  • Multiple efforts to increase DI&A-related knowledge and topics in the classroom, such as CSM 101 lesson plans, curriculum on facilitating difficult conversations and service-learning courses, help foster inclusion
  • Mines expanded access to technology for students in need through the “Raise your Hand” program  

      Shared Responsibility

      • Implementation plans and reports enable units to address their specific DI&A needs
      • DI&A in performance evaluations encourage employee engagement and continued learning
      • Advocates and Allies and Ambassador programs build DI&A expertise across campus
      • Mines DI&A supports Fellows to lead new and innovative projects that have large-scale impacts on the campus community

      Data & Metrics

      • DI&A Unit Reports increase transparency and enable tracking of progress made on unit implementation plans
      • DI&A Annual Report provides data and metrics to inform efforts
      • The Institutional Research and Strategic Analytics team provides data in real-time through Tableau visualization dashboards

      Foster Dialogue

      • Annual “Celebration of DI&A” event provides progress updates and learning and development opportunities to campus 
      • DI&A learning and development events held across campus create safe spaces to discuss difficult topics 
      • #OrediggersForEquity campaign encourages self-directed learning and dialogue 
      • DI&A Council meets monthly to foster dialogue 
      • MCAs host learning and development events to deepen DI&A knowledge and skills 

      Rewards and Recognition

      • DI&A-related Awards recognize contributions Orediggers made across campus, such as the Mines DI&A Awards, MLK Awards and MEP Awards.
      • The Mines DI&A Community Grants program funded $5,000 for new activities to bolster DI&A on campus
      • Over $20 million in external funding awarded that have key DI&A elements in the projects