Skip to content
Home

Unit Contributions to Equity, Diversity, Inclusion 6547

Sun, 10/15/2017 - 13:32 — bmcgough
Academic Years: 
2017-2018
2018-2019
Department: 
Economics
Division: 
Social Sciences
Academics
1. Faculty: 

Service in this category is highlighted by the extensive contributions represented by the SAIL program, founded by economics colleagues Blonigen and Harbaugh and supported by broad volunteer contributions by many faculty in the department.

While we are not advertising this year, in general our efforts to reach and recruit diverse faculty are especially thorough given that essentially every academic economist position in the US (as well as most nonacademic and non-US economist positions) is advertised in the outlet Job Openings for Economists. Moreover, representatives from the hiring institutions travel to the annual meetings of the Allied Social Science Association so as to make it especially convenient and economical for the candidates themselves to interview with many prospective employers over a four day period.

The department has been diligent in its efforts to retain faculty from under-represented groups. This has manifested itself in a variety of ways including the provision of summer research grants as well as conference travel support.

In regards to scholarship, many of our faculty have been pursuing research programs that examine a wide range of issues relevant to equity, diversity, and inclusion, such as discrimination, the affects of cultural and socio-economic diversity on the political process, bullying, and more.

2. Staff: 

Our staff has participated in various relevant workshops held at the UO and have served on committees addressing the subject matter. We offer our staff many opportunities to receive additional training so that they may continue to progress in their careers, thereby making the positions more attractive to candidates, particularly those from underrepresented groups.

3. Graduate Programs: 

Focused efforts to attract under-represented students to our graduate program have met with considerable success, particularly regarding admission of female students.

4. Undergraduate Programs: 

We have several scholarships that target students from diverse backgrounds, including the Grace Miller Economics Scholarship and the Alanson Kleinsorge Economics Scholarship. These awards are given annually.

We also have The Career & Advising Services office to support economics majors and minors in their academic planning and career development needs. As many of our majors are international students, a huge portion of this initiative directs support to a diverse group of international students. Our director, Bill Sherman, has more than a decade of experience in workforce development, helping individuals prepare for thriving careers in labor markets around the world.

As noted in the graduate section, most if not all field in economics include explicit consideration of the socio-economic impact that stems from heterogeneity within and across populations. Nonetheless we are in the process of reexamining our curriculum with an eye toward making it even more relevant and valuable to our diverse set of majors.

5. Outreach and Partnerships: 

As noted earlier, the Department of Economics is the founder of the wildly successful SAIL, which reaches out to a diverse group of disadvantaged children, it spans multiple programs across the UO as well as multiple institutions across the state of Oregon. Guest seminar speakers frequently address diversity-oriented topics in their seminars. We also have a specially designed course sequence call The Economics of Community Issues, where teams of our honors students provide economic analysis of issues of interest to local nonprofit organizations and government agencies in the city, county, and state.

6. Other: 

Given how central diversity/heterogenity is to essentially all fields within economics, it is effectively impossible to provide a fully detailed accounting of all efforts that qualify as relevant to equity, diversity, and inclusion. Nonetheless, I would say that the lions share of such contributions can be viewed as falling into one or more of the categories listed above.

Staff
1. University Service: 

OAC Implicit Bias workshop

2. Departmental Contributions: 

All staff complete the implicit bias online training

3. Community Service and Outreach: 

Work with SAIL program, mentors and students