Meeting the Need for Water Resource Professionals: Recruiting More Women and Minorities

Abstract

I decided to write this article after the sixth or seventh time a student or colleague glanced at the cover of the June 2008 issue of the Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education (Issue 139, entitled: A Creative Critique of U.S. Water Education”) and asked me, “Why does this cover feature only elderly white men?” followed by, “aren’t there any distinguished women (or minorities) in this field?” Let me begin by saying that there is nothing wrong with honoring those whose photographs currently grace the cover of the JCWRE Issue 139. We just need another row or two to make room for engineers and scientists like Linda Abriola, Diane McKnight and Christine Shoemaker; or perhaps for Sylvia Bozeman, a professor at Spelman College and co-founder of the Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education (EDGE) program, or S. George Philander, professor of oceanic and atmospheric sciences and one of the few AfricanAmerican members of the National Academy of Sciences (Figure 1). We have made progress in becoming a more diverse community – we should let the world know! The need to include some discussion of diversity when we are exploring ways to address the problems facing U.S. Water Resources Education was reinforced as I read through the articles in the journal issue. While documenting the increasing demand for engineers, hydrologists, and water resource professionals, and concerns over the ability of the U.S. educational system to supply those needs, the articles neglected to discuss the great potential to increase that supply through recruitment of women and minorities. For example, in an article examining the reasons why the U.S. is not producing enough engineers at all levels, Rogers (2008) fails to mention that if more women and minorities pursued bachelor’s degrees and careers in engineering and physical sciences, we could greatly increase the number of U.S. engineers and water resources scientists. In addition, none of the articles in this issue mentioned the benefits of the new perspectives, research directions, and innovative approaches that could result from the recruitment of a more diverse cohort of students, and eventually colleagues, in the water resources professions. In this article I wish to make four points: