History of DEIC Activity

A summary of the history and the previous activities of the DEIC for AY 2019-2020, 2018-2019, 2017-2018

  • The DEI Committee (DEIC) consisted of the faculty diversity officer, 2 student allies as deemed by the Rackham Diversity Grant who will serve for 2 years, and other students. Students organized and planned a majority of the workshops and the entirety of the retreat. The DEI officer wrote the grant proposal for Rackham.
    • DEIC was created by Dr. Anuj Kumar. Dr. Kumar applied for a Rackham Student Ally grant designating Jenna Clem and Krystal Harrison as Student Allies. Jenna and Krystal served as the Student Allies for the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 academic years.  Membership was not formalized, other than the Student Ally designations.  All Student Ally designations were awarded through applications for a supplement to the Rackham Faculty Allies Award.  The first Rackham Diversity Grant was awarded for use in the academic year 2017-2018. Student Ally designations were passed down to Jessy Martinez and Bahaar Chawla for the 2019-20 academic year. Jessy and Bahaar were under the partial mentorship of Jenna and Krystal during the 2018-19 year to prepare for the change in designation and took lead for half of that year. 
    • The AY 2020-21 roster of the DEIC includes Dr. Monica Dus as faculty officer, Jessy Martinez and Bahaar Chawla as the Student Allies, Heather Gregg (Pathways Master), Cassandra Zuckerman (MCDB 1st year), Angelica Previero (MCDB 1st year) as students and Dr. Matthew Chapman and Dr. Pamela Raymond as a faculty member. Student and faculty involvement in DEIC is completely voluntary.
  • Monthly events are held from September through the summer, which ends with the graduate student and post-doc retreat in either June or July. December is usually skipped to leave time for end of semester work: grading, exams, and holiday-related travel. 
    • Workshops have included bystander awareness given by the Spectrum Center, a departmental diversity celebration organized by DEIC, disability awareness given by the office of Institutional Equity, a science communication career workshop with speakers from ASM and the American Journal Experts, career panel with former MCDB PhD alumni, microaggressions organized by DEIC, the Draw-A-Scientist event for biology week 2020 in collaboration with MCDB-GSC and GREEBS, CEW+ focus groups for how to effectively support women and URM in STEM, Black&STEM educational celebration for Black History Month organized by DEIC, and others.
  • Monthly event attendance* averages 30 attendees regularly, the majority being MCDB graduate students. 
  • In general, Fall 2019 had a higher attendance which we attribute to the presentations done by DEIC at orientation, bringing in first year students.
    • The February 2020 event Black&STEM had the highest attendance. We attribute this to better advertisement, such as individual flyers and cookies that DEIC members created and left on every single desk in an MCDB office space. There were also flyers in kitchen areas which helped bring in attendees from EEB.
  • DEIC has a Rackham Diversity Grant which covers costs for food at all monthly events, as well fees for speakers and other event expenditures. The retreat is also paid in full with the Rackham Diversity Grant.
    • The first 2 years were awarded $12000. The second two years are awarded $8000, with an agreement in the grant that the department must supplement the difference ($4000). For 2019-2020, unused funds* will be rolled-over until Dec 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic. 
  • The retreat is a weekend trip to a camp outside of Ann Arbor. It focuses on graduate student relationships outside of the lab. Team building exercises include volleyball, rowing, and other outdoor amenities offered at the camp. Post-docs and lab staff are also welcome. Junior lab staff have used this opportunity to learn about careers in academia, while post-docs have used this time to network outside of the lab. Significant others and families of attendees are welcome and have attended. Retreat is popular among attendees. 
  • 2018 retreat had 33 students RSVP but only a handful attended due to international travel plans that conflicted with the date.
  • 2019 did better because the date was chosen more democratically and heavily advertised, with emails to incoming students as well. We had 31 RSVP and 20 attended that year. 
  • DEIC has helped with recruit weekends, preview weekends, and orientation. DEIC hosted the preview weekend students entirely, which includes dinner on arrival and through the departmental retreat, as well as future communication. DEIC created and presented two orientation seminars for incoming Master’s and PhD students in Fall 2019 and Fall 2020. DEIC also presented an amended version of those seminars to recruits during breakfast at all recruitment weekends.
    • DEIC has also heard concerns from the community in lieu of the department climate form which is not completely anonymous. DEIC has worked with administration to resolve issues pertaining to departmental climate.