About the CBI

The PEERs CBI was held June 7, 2013 on the UW campus. Its overall purpose was to discuss the PEERs project's impact on diversity in engineering and identify collaborations, action items, and best practices to further support diversity in engineering. Participants included student services leaders, administrators, faculty, and students from the College of Engineering as well as other organizations on campus.

Participants included members of groups who are underrepresented in engineering—women, minorities, and people with disabilities—as well as practitioners with direct experience in serving underrepresented students. Broad issues that were discussed included:

• activities of the PEERs program
• experiences of PEERs leaders
• changes at the UW over the last four years, with respect to diversity
• future steps toward creating a more welcoming and equitable campus

In this CBI:

• all participants contributed to its success.
• experts in many topic areas were in the audience.
• although some predetermined material was presented, new content was delivered as the meeting unfolded and participant interests were expressed and expertise was made known.

The CBI included a presentation about PEERs, a panel discussion with PEERs Leaders, and small working group discussions. The presentation covered PEERs' goals, activities, climate survey, and evaluation data. The PEERs Leaders discussed their backgrounds and experiences with the project. In small working groups, participants responded to the following questions:

1. What has changed over the past four years related to diversity at UW?
2. What is the evidence of these changes?
3. What contributions/legacy has PEERs made to the diversity conversation and climate at the UW and within the UW College of Engineering?
4. What are the next steps to keep moving forward in creating a welcoming and equitable campus?