The School of Biological Sciences (SBS) is committed to a scholarly community where everyone feels welcomed and encouraged to contribute. We aim to foster excellence in life science education and research through a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and transparent departmental environment. Our faculty, students, and staff value diversity in race, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic status, ability, religion, age, and citizenship. We recognize and celebrate the unique intersectional identities that shape each person’s lived experience within our community.
The SBS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) ad hoc committee provides a structure to facilitate reflection and action related to these shared values. As faculty, staff, postdocs, and students, we aim to proactively drive SBS’s ongoing journey to build an anti-racist and anti-discriminatory community that welcomes all people and provides an atmosphere in which every person and every interaction matters. We do not take sole responsibility for reaching these objectives, rather we seek to provide a catalytic mechanism that enables SBS to leverage community resources and work together in pursuit of our goals.
Roles
This committee is uniquely positioned to take on:
Determining DEI priorities
Amidst many important needs, we work with the Director, Executive Committee, and other relevant committees and groups to help SBS identify the most critical directions each year.
Revising policies and practices
We work with other SBS committees and groups to reflect on the origins and impacts of current policies and practices, with a particular focus on understanding how extant processes have created barriers impeding participation and success within the biological sciences. We work to create processes that better align with our stated DEI values.
Listening to experiences within our community
We proactively listen to how people experience and engage with the SBS community, and we aim to cultivate forums in which community members can share their unique voices.
Connecting SBS with external support, training, and communities
Recognizing the abundance of local and national DEI resources and expertise, we actively connect the SBS community with existing programs, offices, communities, and networks.
Integrating learning opportunities within existing departmental structures
Working in partnership with the broader SBS community, we help SBS continually learn about and center DEI topics through formal and informal mechanisms.
Providing advisory support to committees and groups
We serve as a source of perspective and feedback for other SBS committees and groups, with a particular focus on issues related to the broad SBS community.