Winter 2023 DEI Townhall Minutes

16 March 2023, 4 pm in Straub Hall

 Things that we have done:

• DEI committee website
  • We added tabs on improving classroom accessibility and DEI literature. The website continues to be a work in progress. Any additions to the website or suggestions are welcome.
• Chemistry textbooks
  • We are working with the science library to help students borrow textbooks and other resources. Working with OER to reduce costs to students for general chemistry
  • Working on moving chemistry lab sequences to move away from hardcopy of lab notebooks.
  • Working to transition O-chem courses to a free online textbook.
• Training
  • Bringing in outside trainings as an event for students and faculty. How can we increase department participation in DEI trainings and events?
• Gender-neutral bathrooms
  • We put up signs around the science complex that direct people towards gender-neutral restrooms in the science complex. We will put up these signs on the website so that anyone can print a copy of these maps and post them on lab doors and other bulletin boards.
• In case of lab emergency
  • After hours: In case of small lab emergencies (non-life threatening), we should call UOPD, but these calls will be redirected to EHS. Even though we are calling the UOPD line, the calls will be responded to by EHS rather than UOPD.

Fall 2022 DEI Townhall Minutes

15 November 2022, 5pm in Willamette Atrium

 Things that we have done:

• DEI webpage
  1. We have created a DEI committee website with information on student groups, accessibility in classrooms, information on the committee etc.
• Classroom accessibility
  1. Zoom classes made an impact on students that have different learning styles
  2. Are large lecture classes accessible – do the instructors provide things like closed captioning for example?
  3. What we want to do: Provide resources on the DEI committee website that talks about classroom accessibility.
• Graduate Handbook
  1. We want to create a code of conduct that graduate students are held to. However, the DEI committee has no enforcement power or ability to determine who violated the code
  2. What we are doing: We want to work with CBGReAT to create a student conduct code that students will sign. The code will not be legally binding or enforceable but could set up standards of conduct that is put into the Green Book for students to reference.
• All-gender restrooms
  1. The University is trying to tackle the issue of all-gender restrooms campus wide
  2. What we are doing: Print out signs to direct students to all-gender restrooms in the science complex.
• Collective Bargaining for faculty
  1. Faculty are going to be evaluated on their efforts in diversity, equity, and inclusion in their performance reviews.
  2. Training to help faculty members become more aware with DEI issues. There has been a lack of consistent training in the recent past.
  3. What we are doing: Identifying relevant online trainings to post on the DEI website.
• Training
  1. Disability trainings to make classrooms accessible.
  2. What we are doing: Trying to identify relevant trainings that we can post on the DEI website and thinking of other ways to increase diversity training in the department.

Comments for the submission box:

• Is there any metrics or evaluations of the DEI committee?
  1. We don’t have any physical way to measure our progress, but it is difficult to quantify our success. Having more diverse groups of students may not be the best metric if we don’t have an inclusive department that retains students.

Audience Comments:

• Making Diversity Training Mandatory?
  1. Scott: Diversity training is not often enough and COVID has limited the diversity training that faculties receive.
  2. Audience Comment: Speaker Ayisha Elliott came to campus (biology department) to talk about diversity and white supremacy https://blackgirlfromeugene.org/ – bringing in speakers to talk at Chemistry sponsored events to get training on diversity issues
• CBGReAT Surveys
  1. Audience Comment: CBGReAT can include DEI committee information and get feedback from chemistry students on the progress of the committee on their yearly surveys. This is one way to get feedback from students on the efforts of the committee and any comments about other DEI efforts.
• Student Retention as a measure of DEI committee progress.
  1. Audience Comment: Is there any way to use retention statistics of students to track the
     1. The issue: Even anonymous information can be identifiable – can we get statistics without violating privacy laws? Can we use these numbers as a metric to evaluate DEI committee progress?

• Documenting DEI committee updates
  1. Audience Comment: Can there be some way to track the progress of the committee and update on in progress initiatives?
  2. What we are doing: The website has notes on all past town hall meetings to track the progress of the committee. We can use the website to update on initiatives that we are working on and any progress that is made.

Peak attendance at 36 people (via Zoom)

Intro from Ramesh: These town halls will happen every term. Goals of the town halls are to update the department on what we’ve been up to in the term and to also keep hearing ideas and comments from the audience. 

If you want to contact the DEI committee, you can either reach out to one of the members on the committee, or go the the DEI website and submit a comment using our anonymous suggestion box.

Slides that highlight our work thus-far:

• Repercussions for unprofessional behavior and conduct

• • • How does the Department handle/resolve acts of racism or sexual harassment involving graduate students? Personal comment made to the DEI suggestion box.
    • Proposed solutions(s): adding specific language to the Green Book that addresses consequences for such behavior. There isn’t anything that is explicitly written. There are detailed notes about academic conduct in the Green Book, but not ethical standards. 
    • Problem: the University has its own standards and processes that it wants to take in the case of these situations.
    • In Progress: Adding specific sections to the Green Book that allow separation between the PI and the student (for example). We are currently working with the University and the Title IX office to create standards and language that fit into University requirements and are legal, while also 
    • We also are trying to set up specialized training for faculty to take in the summer that provides information and skills on how to handle these types of situations.
    • Audience question: Can there be wording in the Green Book that puts pressure/responsibility of leaving/staying on the person who committed the action? Thus, it isn’t the responsibility or legal accountability of the University.

• Mark’s suggestion: Adapting a “Cohort Agreement” which is a set of standards created at the beginning of the year with the new group of graduate students. It isn’t a legal/binding agreement, but a set of rules or guidelines that can help guide behaviors. The Law School does something like this.

• Promoting inclusive practices and accommodations

• • • Previous problems/suggestions: Emphasize the usage of pronouns when introducing ourselves and add pronouns to all bios and introductory materials. Mentioning disabilities in terms of diversity has been lacking and is constantly ignored in the diversity conversations.
    • Solution: From now on, all GEs will receive a designated message when they get their TA assignment. This message outlines how to get accommodations and resources for TAs. 
      • We should also mention this verbally at GE training in the fall.
    • Additionally, we are creating a new DEI website that will help improve department culture and environment.
      • Namely, it outlines where to go and who to talk to regarding harassment and discrimination
      • How to turn on PowerPoint captioning during all lectures and meetings
      • Using pronouns in introductions, course syllabi, Zoom name, email sign-off, etc.

• Supporting our disabled and LGBTQ+ communities

• • • The science buildings should have more all-gender restrooms
    • Long-term solution: acquire funding or push for addition of more all-gender restrooms in specified buildings (it is very expensive to create all-gender restrooms within building compliance)
    • Short-term solution: create official UO signage containing maps locating nearest all-gender and ADA restrooms (to be posted at each binary-gendered restroom)
    • Another short-term solution: create official UO signage that indicates if a single-occupancy/ADA restroom is the only one in that area. 
    • We are currently working with the Office of Design and Construction- they are receiving a lot of these requests and thus they are working with admin to create consistent signage.
    • Ongoing: push for installation of more all-gender restrooms

• Audience suggestion: Can we change the signs of current restrooms to make them all-gendered shared bathrooms?

• • • • Can we do this with a more official looking sign so that we don’t have things taken down? Custodial staff are required to take down unofficial signage, and we don’t want to put them in a difficult position.
      • Specific example: the Willamette bathrooms alternate genders, and thus they would be good options for creating all-gendered restrooms.
        • We will also need to check in with other departments that share our building space. (ie. physics is also based in Willamette)

• Meeting the needs of underrepresented groups

• • • The department needs to breach out to former students who were from historically underrepresented and marginalized groups to get accounts of their experiences, find out what resources were missing, and see how well the department has done in fulfilling those needs
    • Proposed solutions: create and issue anonymous exit surveys for all graduate students once they leave the program
      • The graduate school sends and exit survey, but the Chemistry department doesn’t have a specific survey.
      • Who would be given the exit survey? (how do we ask questions without getting into legal issues ie. students leaving with mental health problems)
    • CBGReAT sends out an annual climate survey. The DEI committee could potentially spread the news about taking the survey (usually there are low numbers of participation) and could also be involved with interpreting the results.

• Diversity training

• • • Graduate students are required to complete CPR training every two years. What might be even more important is diversity training as part of the degree requirement.
    • Examples of trainings: reducing microagressions, implicit biases, non-overt discriminatory behaviors, etc. Also, de-escalation training for helping students in crises.
    • Faculty should also be involved with these training sessions.
    • Audience comment: The diversity trainings at the University are usually very booked.
      • Can we hire someone specifically to help our department? A designated DEI person?
      • Can we reach out to someone outside of Oregon to visit us via Zoom.
      • Should the trainings be optional? How can we make something optional but not get the same people coming over and over again?
    • Note: CPR training is required for teaching in the undergraduate lab courses. It’s not actually the CPR portion that is important, it’s really the first aid portion.
    • Could the first aid training also include mental health training? 
      • The counseling center does workshops on this

• Removal of outdated signage on the Klamath periodic table

• • • Mark is going to work on removing the signage on the element tin

• Highlighting and celebrating our underrepresented minority students

• • • Can we highlight and celebrate the journey of underrepresented minority students?
    • We’ve been meeting with one of the heads of UO communications to help identify unique students (both in the chemistry department and beyond) and create high-quality media that can share student journeys and written pieces. The pieces will be displayed in a rotation on the Willamette Atrium TV monitor and around campus. Thus, we can reach others beyond just chemistry.

• Audience note: Would just make sure that the solicitations for featured students isn’t too restrictive, there are different ways to diversify a department (eg. Not just race and sexuality but also class and educational background)

• • • We’ve changed the language since moving along in this project. We don’t want URM to be the poster child of our department. 
  • Could we do something to highlight our staff? Administration, custodial, lab prep, etc. 
    • We have posters of faculty and student body, but we don’t highlight all of the staff.
    • Annual class photo?!

General audience feedback:

• Creating a positive climate isn’t necessarily from creating a “action – discipline” rule. But, last year, the DEI committee did create a Shared Values document that outlines. Can we add that to our Green Book to create more of a culture of accountability and inclusion as opposed to discipline.
• Comment from suggestion box: Can we implement a post-rotation survey of PIs filled out by rotation students?
• Comment from suggestion box: “Tell our professors…” etc.
  • Mark has been made aware of some potentially inappropriate behavior of the last weekend and it is being addressed through the university channels.
  • Reporting link is on the front page of our department website. Shared values are also linked on that front page.
• Another suggestion: recruits receive an anonymous post-recruitment survey so that we can understand the impression that we are making

Peak attendance at 34 people (via Zoom)

Ramesh opening:

• Goals of quarterly town halls: to have a regular forum to share what the DEI committee is up to, while also giving a chance for the community to share what they want from the DEI committee
• What do we want to accomplish? Make a place where we can all succeed, and people from different backgrounds (beyond just ethnicity, race, gender, sexuality) are included. Making a successful workplace is not just for personal happiness, but helps improve productivity and work. It is a continuous process.
• The DEI committee also wants to be advocates for people and amplify their voices through policy changes. We can make recommendations to the department head, for example, that will help make the environment better for everyone.
• From looking at successfully diverse workplaces, you need a standing committee with broad representation from the whole organization. For us, we have staff, faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students. It’s also been proven that for a DEI committee to be successful, you need supportive higher powers. In our case, our department head Mark Lonergan is very supportive and responsive to the cause. Finally, transparency is really important and these regular town hall meetings will help create an open means of communication between the committee and community.
  • From now on out, the DEI bylaws now state that a DEI town hall meeting will happen every quarter (even beyond this years committee)
• What have we done so far (in this bit of a quarter):
  • Established the new membership, communication, meeting plans, etc.
  • Created a social event to help people feel like they belong (especially post COVID)
  • Fixed the regular town hall meetings
  • Advertised the DEI website and suggestion box

Comments from audience:

• There has been a lack of mentioning of disabilities in terms of diversity and it is a real problem that it is consistently ignored – especially since the problems that disabled people face is very intersectional with other diversity issues.
  • Inherently, we need to just be more aware and acknowledge the struggles that disable people face in terms of lack of resources, abilities, perception, etc.
  • Organizations on campus: Accessibility Student Union (only about 5 members), Disability Access Caucus (GTFF), Accessible Education Center 
  • Disabled communities need help interfacing with non-disabled people
  • What should we think about in terms of accessibility and disabilities beyond teaching/testing accommodations? 
  • It would help to get experts in these issues to help us understand how we can help the disabled community.
  • A notice: Palatable disabilities are easier to accommodate. Additionally, there is a lot of comparisons between people with disabilities across the department (ie. this person has the same thing but can deal with it, so you should too)
  • Another notice: It is difficult for students to get diagnoses and working with the AEC to get the right accommodation 
• We need general-neutral bathrooms across the chemistry department. This would be extremely helpful for a variety of people (including visiting students)
  • Generating a gender neutral bathroom could be as simple as changing a sign on a door. We can quickly agree as a department to actively make that change.
  • There was potentially a recent campus wide building-by-building evaluation of possible locations of gender neutral bathrooms. 
  • For employment-related topics, Employee & Labor Relations also has assistance with UO processes for accommodations: https://hr.uoregon.edu/employee-labor-relations/accommodations/interactive-disability-accommodation-process
  • For NSF-funded research/education efforts, NSF has a supplemental grant program for inclusion/access for persons with disabilities: https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2021/nsf21110/nsf21110.jsp 
• How have we thought about working with the greater Eugene community? How can we recruit people to move to Eugene despite having a good department. 
  • Our department recognizes this problem, we aren’t ignorant to it, and have to be brutally honest sometimes at recruiting
  • We can’t necessarily protect people outside the department, but we can speak up when we see problems
  • If there are challenges, we can show people what resources we have. Ie. Who do you reach out to? What communities are there?
  • Research suggests that there is better retention and performance when people are in a cohort
  • Ethics of recruiting people you do not have the resources to support: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41570-020-0214-z?utm_medium=social&utm_content=organic&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=Page:%20Springer%20Nature%20Library%20Link_&sf239319995=1 
• Does the DEI have any funding for hosting sensitivity/education workshops? (ie. Rehearsals for life) https://dos.uoregon.edu/rfl 
  • It could be a regular and required training – like CPR training
  • Topics include: sexual harrassment, racism (microagressions/ignorance), bystander training
  • Workshops can be more helpful than policy changes that are too specific. How can we set the tone for the social behaviors we expect?
  • CPR trainings can be very triggering and aren’t pedagogically accessible to everyone. We need to make sure these sensitivity workshops are also accessible.
• Can we change the English language requirements for the graduate admissions? It seems like we are not in-line with our competitors and our policies are racist. We need coordination between the DEI committees across multiple departments in order to bring this problem up to the greater University graduate studies division.
• We need to be more educated on some of the University specific policies. Here is one for example, on sexaul assault: https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/titleix-summary.pdf
• Suggestion from the box: highlight the experiences and journey of minority students in our department – we can do that on the tv screen down in Willamette
• Suggestion from box: periodic table down in Klamath “canned food is the housewives delight” – this is outdated and should be removed