Diversity and Departmental Rankings in Chemistry

Abstract

This work examines whether racial and gender diversity are related to the rankings of chemistry and chemical engineering programs at research universities. It uses data from the 2011 National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Rankings of U.S. Research Universities to examine the competing expectations of the “value-in-diversity perspective” and the “diversity as process-loss” perspective. The results are counter to the expectations of the diversity as process-loss perspective, which predicts that diversity (and efforts to achieve it) are harmful to organizations. The results are fully consistent with the value-in-diversity perspective, which predicts that as organizations become more diverse, they benefit relative to their competitors. The results show that, net of faculty publication rates, visibility of faculty publications, percentage of faculty with grants, percentage assistant professors, program faculty size, region, whether the institution is public or private, number of student activities, financial support for students, and number of PhD graduates, diversity is positively associated with departmental rankings of chemistry and chemical engineering programs in research universities. The implications of these findings for diversity in chemistry are discussed.