Faculty Resources

You are a gatekeeper to your field. You have power. Quick tips that you can put into practice right now to help increase participation from underrepresented groups.

Recruiting:

1. Expand your pool: Move beyond your personal network — write up a nice ad that explicitly states that you and EAPS value diverse participation, then post it on your website and send it out to the admins at relevant programs (especially local and regional ones). You can send these to UG/MS programs for a grad position and to PhD programs for a postdoc position.
2. Increase the odds: Set up a short zoom chat to anyone who reaches out to you expressing interest from an underrepresented group and is potentially qualified for your position. This gives you a chance to find someone you might not have ranked highly on paper alone. This small step may also be enough to get someone who might not think they’re cut out for grad school to go ahead and apply —  and you may be at the top of their list. Even if in the end you decide they aren’t a good fit and you don’t recommend they apply, you can still offer advice and encouragement.
3. Quick primer on how to avoid bias in reviewing graduate applications.
4. Tips for expanding your recruitment pool and finding great students from underrepresented groups (it says for Masters program but is applicable for PhD too). 

Retention/Inclusion:

1. Faculty training
   1. Ten Simple Rules for Building an Anti-Racist Lab
   2. Ten Simple Rules Towards Healthier Research Labs

   3. A guide to becoming an anti-racist educator

   4. Quick Video trainings and Talking Points on Implicit Bias, First Impressions, Confrontation and Dialoguing, and Things People Say, from the Purdue Boiler Inclusion Project
   5. Percentage Faculty Trained as of 2024:
      
      • Safe Zone: 45%
      • Trans Inclusion: 29%
      • Green Zone: 42%
      • With many also having participated in: Anti-Asian/Asian-American Hate Bystander Intervention Training, Mental Health First Aid, “Speaking Up” Bystander Intervention Training and more
   6. ADVANCE - Purdue and the Center for Faculty Success
2. Inclusive messaging
   1. Put pronouns + link to Purdue LGBTQ Center Pronouns Guide in your intro at the outset
   2. Put pronouns / SafeZone trained in your email signature
   3. Put pronouns / SafeZone trained at top of your CV and website, social media
   4. Use inclusive icebreakers (e.g. not “tell the class 3 things about your classmate”, which could get awkward if e.g. someone outs their icebreaker partner)
   5. Include signs and symbols of inclusion (e.g. rainbow flag) — especially helpful when fully virtual
3. Mental health: see guidance here.