DEPARTMENTS
PROFESSIONAL GROWTH
ROGER LEWIS, PhD, CIH, FAIHA, is professor emeritus of environmental and occupational health at the Saint Louis University College for Public Health and Social Justice.
Acknowledgments: The author thanks David Sterling, Larry Whitehead, Michael Elliot, Leigh Ann Blunt, Adam Seery, Grace B. Sun, and Leslie P. Mitchell for their assistance with the 2016 survey.
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Toward a Sustainable EHS Academy
BY ROGER LEWIS
Prior to my retirement in 2021, I served on the EHS faculty for most of my 27 years at Saint Louis University. My experience includes four years as chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, a position that involved, among other duties, oversight of the departmental budget. This responsibility helped me develop a deeper understanding of the many pressures on our department in particular and on higher education in general and contributed to my growing concerns about the sustainability of the EHS academy.
To be sustainable, the EHS academy must meet several challenging goals. It must produce enough new doctoral graduates to replace retiring academicians who teach and conduct research. It must attract a wide number and diverse variety of students and address their funding needs. It must retain the best faculty by providing sufficient time for them to teach, conduct research, and recruit students. And it must increase both the enrollment in student-degree programs and the funding available for faculty research.
My concerns about the ability of the EHS academy to meet these goals informed my work on a survey of faculty with the late David Sterling from the University of North Texas. We distributed the survey in 2016 and shared our results at AIHce in 2018. Those results, together with information from a survey of EHS programs that AIHA conducted in 2021, provide benchmarks against which future research could measure sustainability.
TWO SURVEYS
Developed by the former AIHA Academic Special Interest Group, the 2016 survey was distributed online to faculty who belonged to one of the following associations: AIHA, the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP), the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH), and the National Environmental Health Science and Protection Accreditation Council (EHAC). A total of 102 surveys were sufficiently completed for a response rate of 24 percent. Key data from the survey include:
•Sixty-five percent of responses were completed by individuals within doctoral-granting universities that offer doctoral, master’s, and bachelor’s degrees.
•Seventy percent of respondents were male, and 86 percent were white.
•Twenty-nine percent of respondents were senior rank (that is, full professors).
•Half of respondents were over 50 years of age, and 32 percent were over 60.
•Sixty-one percent of respondents from master’s-level programs indicated that they had enrolled fewer than 11 new full-time equivalents (FTEs).
•Only 25 percent of respondents from traditional (that is, not online) programs said they had 41 or more FTEs.
These data suggest that at the time of the survey, EHS faculty comprised predominantly older white males, and that EHS master’s programs were struggling to attract new students. The responses from faculty affiliated with EHAC indicated greater diversity: historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are well represented within EHAC, and only 15 percent of respondents from EHAC were white, with the majority of either African American or Asian descent. In addition, 42 percent of respondents from EHAC-affiliated programs were women.
EHAC responses also indicated that bachelor’s programs at these schools experienced tremendous growth, each bringing in approximately 50 new FTEs per year while graduation rates remained steady. But EHAC master’s-level programs were reported to be similar in size to other programs, enrolling fewer than ten students per year. In addition, recent graduated data from EHAC shows that graduate students receiving their diplomas in EHAC programs declined by 55 percent from 2016 through 2021.
The 2016 survey also suggested, paradoxically, that EHS degree programs accredited by ABET and those supported by NIOSH funding did not attract more students than programs without this accreditation and type of funding. Respondents from programs that were either ABET accredited or NIOSH funded reported matriculating only 11 new FTEs per year.
The survey also asked EHS faculty to reveal the percentage of time they spend on research. Overall, a large majority of respondents indicated that funding had remained the same or decreased in the five years prior to the 2016 survey. The top research-related needs identified by respondents were release time, lab support, and pre-grant support. Approximately 30 percent of respondents from doctoral programs, where most research is conducted, reported that less than 25 percent of their time was spent on research, and half said that support for research at their universities was unacceptable. It’s possible that the experiences of EHS faculty regarding research are like those of faculty in other science departments or at research institutions in general.
To be sustainable, the EHS academy must produce enough new doctoral graduates to replace retiring academicians who teach and conduct research.
In 2021, AIHA surveyed academic programs that provide undergraduate- and graduate-level instruction in industrial hygiene. Out of 132 surveys, 56 were completed for a response rate of 42 percent. The survey had several goals; the data that are most relevant for comparison with the 2016 survey results include the following:
•Respondents reported that students were supported by scholarships (76 percent of responses), assistantships (62 percent), research grants (56 percent), NIOSH Education and Research Center grants (30 percent), and training program grants (18 percent).
•For master’s programs, the median annual enrollment reported by survey respondents was 10 students and the median number of graduates was less than 10 per year.
•For bachelor’s programs, the median annual enrollment reported by survey respondents was 25 students and the median number of graduates was 20 per year.
Unfortunately, the 2021 survey data suggest that student enrollment and graduation rates for master’s programs were almost identical to those in 2016. However, bachelor’s programs enrolled and graduated almost twice the number of students in 2021 that they did in 2016.
Both the 2016 and 2021 surveys asked respondents to suggest ways to improve instruction and research in EHS. These questions generated similar comments about the need for more faculty, increased student enrollment to justify specialized industrial hygiene courses, and improvements in resources such as laboratory equipment.
THE LIFEBLOOD OF EHS
The 2016 and 2021 surveys identified several questions that everyone invested in the future of the EHS academy should want to see answered. How can we address the funding needs of students? Are we doing enough to keep and retain the best faculty? What equipment does a robust EHS academic program need? How should we address the small enrollment in master’s programs? How can we advocate for more time for teaching, research, or recruiting?
The data from the 2016 and 2021 surveys can be used to help stakeholders—including practitioners, faculty members, and representatives from government agencies and accrediting bodies—develop criteria for a sustainable EHS academy. We then need to track the sustainability of these programs over time through focus group sessions, surveys, and collection of data that may complement what we learn from self-reported information. Finally, we need to recognize that the lifeblood of our profession, our EHS students, are recruited into the EHS academy, which continues to evolve as surely as our hazards change and mutate over the coming years.
RESOURCES
AIHA: “The Academic Climate in Today's Industrial Hygiene and Related Programs: 2016 Survey of the EHS Faculty,” AIHce EXP 2018 (presentation by Roger D. Lewis, David Sterling, and Lawrence Whitehead, May 2018).
AIHA: “IH/OEHS Program Benchmarking Survey Report” (December 2021).
American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education: “Response Rates and Responsiveness for Surveys, Standards, and the Journal” (September 2008).
American Society of Safety Professionals: “2018 SH&E Industry Salary Survey” (PDF, 2018).
Bain and Company: "The Financially Sustainable University" (2012).
The Chronicle of Higher Education: “Student Activists Tell Colleges: To Improve Racial Climate, Look Hard at Tenure” (May 2016).
The Chronicle of Higher Education: “It Matters a Lot Who Teaches Introductory Courses. Here's Why” (April 2018).
Inside Higher Education: “What You Teach Is What You Earn” (March 2016).
Johns Hopkins Press: “Challenges Facing Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century” in American Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century: Social, Political, and Economic Challenges (2005).
National Academies Press: Safe Work in the 21st Century: Education and Training Needs for the Next Decade's Occupational Safety and Health Personnel (2000).
National Bureau of Economic Research: “The Financial Crisis and College Enrollment: How Have Students and Their Families Responded?” in How the Financial Crisis and Great Recession Affected Higher Education (2014).
National Environmental Health Science and Protection Accreditation Council: “2017–2018 Update of Accredited Programs” (PDF, 2018).
National Environmental Health Science and Protection Accreditation Council: “2020–2021 Update of Accredited Programs” (PDF, 2021).
NIOSH: "A Nationwide Survey of the Occupational Safety and Health Work Force" (July 1978).
NIOSH: “National Assessment of the Occupational Safety and Health Workforce” (October 2011).
PE Magazine: “Survey: PE License Crucial in Academia but Not Always Encouraged” (December 2014).
Research Triangle Institute: “A Study of the Impact of Occupational Safety and Health Training and Education Programs on the Supply and Demand for Occupational Safety and Health Professionals” (1985).
The Synergist: “Stress Tests: Trends in OEHS Academic Programs” (September 2014).