In June 2020, following the #Strike4BlackLives and the #ShutDownSTEM action, the Institute of Neuroscience community launched an effort to overhaul our research and training practices to promote equity and inclusion and fight the systemic racism and discrimination at our institutions. To pursue these goals we formed an Equity and Inclusion Committee including representation from all member groups in ION – students, postdocs, faculty, and staff.

In our periodic ION Town Halls we identified a number of concrete and urgent actions along the following directions: Environment, Outreach, Recruitment, Training, Feedback. We leveraged the large and enthusiastic participation from the ION community to take concrete actions along each of these items thanks to the work of different groups, focussing on the following priorities:

  • Environment: Creation of a welcoming and inclusive environment for under-represented groups in ION, including trainees’ representation in faculty meetings and committee.
  • Training: Transforming our educational program to create a more inclusive and supportive learning environment for all students.
  • Outreach: Developing an outreach effort to engage students from underrepresented groups and first-generation background.
  • Recruitment: Overhaul our recruiting practices at all levels (trainees, faculty, staff) to build a more representative and inclusive ION community and to ensure meaningful and welcoming interactions with recruits and guests
  • Community feedback: providing assessments of ION diverse, inclusive, and equitable research environment and tracking progress in these areas as we implement changes.

After surveying current and previous trainees, we prepared a Welcoming Package to help incoming ION graduate students navigate the opportunities and challenges of life in Eugene and in graduate school:

ION Welcoming Letter Fall 2020

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