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Unit Contributions to Equity, Diversity, Inclusion 6440

Wed, 08/23/2017 - 14:23 — cap
Academic Years: 
2017-2018
2018-2019
Department: 
Political Science
Division: 
Social Sciences
Academics
1. Faculty: 

We have continued strengthening and systematizing our priority on inclusion and diversity into 2018-19. We've taken the following recent steps:

1. Hiring

We added a new woman of color TTF this fall, Assistant Professor Yeling Tan. She is a specialist of Chinese and international political economy who was hired in 2017 and spent 2017-18 as a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University.

For our TTF search in 2018-19, we revamped every step in our search process from initial recruitment through each step of consideration to render more explicit and deliberate our priority on diversity. Not only did all search members undergo implicit bias training, but we have now asked all faculty and grad students who may encounter candidates during the search to undergo this training as well. Though unfortunately some aspects of our large applicant pool were somewhat disappointing in representation relative to availability in our discipline, careful construction of our long list and short list strengthened diverse representation at each step. We will select interviewees on October 18, 2018.

2. Organizational reforms

Our Equality and Inclusion Committee got up and running in its first year in 2017-18. Its members focused on information gathering and consultation with other such committees and relevant partners across campus to identify how to model our activities on best practices and connect to other resources and energy outside the department. Progress was made setting the lines of an annual climate survey; launching an across-the-board discussion of how the department responds to climate concerns from students or faculty; and formulating ideas for how to identify and promote students and faculty from underrepresented categories for support, awards and other recognition.

3. Other activities

With UMRP funds, we are organizing a substantial symposium on Race and Politics to be held in June 2018, under the leadership of Associate Profs. Debra Thompson and Joe Lowndes.

2. Staff: 

This year we onboarded and trained our first woman of color of our departmental staff. It has gone extremely well.

All classified and OA staff and roughly have of our TTF also participated in the DREAMer ally training this year.

3. Graduate Programs: 

As a result of very strong efforts to upgrade our identification and recruitment of underrepresented candidates this year for our PhD program, we have a remarkably diverse first-year cohort. Among the six students are five women and five people who identify as underrepresented minorities in either ethnic or racial terms.

4. Undergraduate Programs: 

Our newly reformed undergraduate major went live this fall. proposed and passed at the department level. Among other changes, it upgrades the existing class PS 106 Power, Politics and Inequality to be one of three "core" classes, and launches a new lower-division class that will substantially address diversity issues, PS 199 Ethics, Identity and Society.

5. Outreach and Partnerships: 

Our Equality and Inclusion committee is developing relationships with our departmental committees and relevant units and resources across campus.

Staff
1. University Service: 

Staff serve on search committees, where equity, diversity, and inclusion are high priority.

2. Departmental Contributions: 

Daily interaction with a diverse community of students, staff, faculty, and visitors. Recognizing diversity in a broad and inclusive manner, staff interact with each individual; assessing needs and offering service or direction to appropriate resources.

We serve faculty who are involved in research and teaching that are intrinsically immersed in questions of equity, diversity, and inclusion. Our media resources are utilized to highlight a diversity of faculty and student research. We are also involved in bringing guest speakers to campus, to offer a variety of world perspectives; many of these guest speakers research equity and diversity.

Staff are encouraged to participate in conversations with other staff, faculty, and guests; recognizing that those moments can bring valuable perspective and will contribute to a strong sense of inclusion. We strive to provide an atmosphere that balances professionalism with the realities of being human; recognizing that different perspectives and experiences enrich our understanding of this growing community.

4. Professional Development and Training: 
Staff have been introduced to implicit bias and will participate in training and conversations as they become available on campus. Additionally, staff participate in conversations about diversity, inclusion, equity, and bias. We encourage staff to seek professional development opportunities and training.