Strategic Plan Pillars: Diversity

Building a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible (DEIA) department

The Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences recognizes that our scientific and educational missions are strengthened by contributions from diverse backgrounds and perspectives, and that it is our responsibility to create a positive, inclusive, and supportive department culture that benefits everyone. Dimensions of this diversity can include sex, race, age, national origin, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, intellectual and physical ability, disability status, sexual orientation, income, faith and non-faith perspectives, socio-economic class, political ideology, education, primary language, family status, military experience, neurodiversity, and communication style.

We recognize that maintaining a diverse department requires supporting equity, inclusion, and accessibility for all community members. An equitable department enables equal access to opportunities and resources for people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized. An inclusive department builds a culture of belonging by actively inviting the contribution and participation of all people, and treats all members with respect, appreciation, and as valuable members of the community. As individuals we can support diversity and inclusion by electing diverse community members to leadership positions, considering equity in all decisions within the department, and ensuring that students can easily approach and engage positive role models, mentorship, and instruction in EAPS.

1. Increase Diversity

Creating a diverse and inclusive department is paramount to the long-term success of EAPS. The broad range of ideas and lived experiences available to a diverse group increases creativity, increases productivity, leads to better decision making, and increases overall success when compared to homogeneous groups. At all levels EAPS is less diverse than Indiana and the nation. There are a number of initiatives the department can embrace to increase our diversity:

1. Increase recruiting and promotion of underrepresented faculty through targeted diversity hiring of underrepresented groups and women, the identification of excellent underrepresented graduate students and postdocs in the field and the building early relationships, improving the interview process by committing to offering more interviews to diverse candidates, requiring diversity statements of all applicants and developing guidelines as to how such statements should be evaluated, and fostering the appointment of underrepresented groups to leadership positions and promotion to high faculty ranks.

2. Increase recruiting of graduate under-represented minorities (URMs) by expanding our involvement in national and Purdue-led URM recruitment programs, building relationships with faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, and Tribal Colleges, and providing more fellowships aimed at recruitment of URM graduate students. Maintain existing support and relationships with Purdue-based fellowships, e.g., the Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership Program. Continue to work with the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies to lessen the barriers for graduate students from underrepresented groups to complete applications. Continually work to achieve best practices in assessing graduate applications from a holistic perspective.

3. Increase recruitment of Purdue undergraduate URMs and first-generation students with undeclared majors and by encouraging transfers through improved visibility of EAPS at university culture centers and increasing the availability of URM undergraduate scholarships.

Goals/Metrics:

1. Increase to at least 20% members of underrepresented groups (non-gender) in all programs including graduate students and faculty. Strive for hiring underrepresented members in cohorts where possible, to facilitate community-building.

2. Increase to 50% women and other underrepresented genders in all programs, including graduate students and faculty.

3. Make two targeted faculty hires from underrepresented groups and commit to promoting and retaining women and underrepresented faculty.

2. Fostering an Inclusive Departmental Culture

Fostering a diverse and inclusive department is important for attracting and retaining talented students and faculty. Making EAPS more inclusive will enhance our reputation and increase productivity. There are a number of initiatives the department can embrace to make our department more inclusive.

1. Develop and implement a code of conduct that provides guidance and establishes expectations for how individual members of EAPS should conduct their day-to-day interactions with others, as well as key concerns for field and community-based work.

2. Develop resources and best practices for inclusive pedagogy, peer teaching, to be shared amongst faculty and teaching assistants and made publicly available on the department website.

3. Annual climate surveys and exit interviews to assess experience of underrepresented groups and determine whether the department is developing an inclusive culture and whether retention measures are effective. Analysis and discussion of climate surveys should be conducted at the departmental level to ensure transparency and allow for departmental response and follow-up to be revisited on an annual basis.

4. Offer DEIA training regularly with encouraged participation for all department members, with rotating topics including bystander intervention training, holistic graduate application review, and unconscious bias.

5. Bring in diverse seminar speakers and guest lecturers and provide additional opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to engage with the speakers.

Goals/Metrics:

1. Endorsement of the Code of Conduct by all department members.

2. 90% of faculty and staff to be safe zone and trans inclusion zone trained.

3. Annual climate surveys and exit interviews of faculty, graduate student, and staff.

4. At least one DEIA training session per semester facilitated by experts external to the department.

5. Commit to two to four underrepresented seminar speakers per semester.

 

View strategic plan diversity information (PDF).