The twenty-first century presents a major challenge for civil engineering. The magnitude and future importance of some of the problems perceived by society are directly related to the field of the civil engineer, implying an inescapable burden of responsibility for a group whose technical soundness, rational approach and efficiency is highly valued and respected by the citizen. However, the substantial changes in society and in the way it perceives the problems that it considers important call for a thorough review of (...) our structures, both professional and educational; so that our profession, with its undeniable historical prestige, may modernize certain approaches and attitudes in order to continue to be a reliable instrument in the service of society, giving priority from an ethical standpoint to its actions in pursuit of the public good . It possesses important tools to facilitate this work (new technologies, the development of communications, the transmission of scientific thought.···); but there is nevertheless a need for deep reflection on the very essence of civil engineering: what we want it to be in the future, and the ability and willingness to take the lead at a time when society needs disinterested messages, technically supported, reasonably presented and dispassionately transmitted. (shrink)

This paper seeks to explain the astonishing proliferation of diversity-related offices (DROs) in U.S. higher education over the past 50 years. We collected original archival data on the DRO adoption years for a nationally representative sample of 235 U.S. colleges and universities. Using event history models, we tested alternative theories for the organizational determinants of DRO adoptions from 1968 through 2020. We find that universities’ internal characteristics were influential earlier on (1968-1994), while the external organizational environment mattered more in the (...) later period (1995-2020). Selective universities are earlier DRO adopters throughout the analysis period, suggesting that the institutionalization of diversity in U.S. higher education has been, at least to some extent, a “follow-the-leader” process. We conclude by reflecting on the relationship between the persistent valorization of diversity in U.S. higher education, growing contestations, and current efforts to revitalize a more race-conscious and equity-focused agenda on American campuses. (shrink)

Editor's suggested further reading in BioEssays: Evolution in response to climate change: In pursuit of the missing evidence AbstractHow will fish that evolved at constant sub‐zero temperatures cope with global warming? Notothenioids as a case study Abstract.