About / Diversity, Equity, & InclusionConclusions from Our Fall 2020 Climate Survey
The BME department conducted a Climate Survey late Fall 2020 in order to reflect on BME’s efforts on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. This was in response to continued racial injustice, culminated by the murder of George Floyd among countless others, which spurned civil rights demonstrations across the globe. The goal of this survey is to seek feedback on the state of inclusivity of our Department and help guide an action plan the committee will pursue in the coming years. The DEI Committee has reviewed the data and has put together the following executive summary. This summary represents the common themes we have found and are what the committee will be basing their action plan off of. We recognize that these themes will continue to grow and evolve with the department and its constituents. We will always be receptive to your feedback and concerns. The committee is finalizing a condensed data report and will be available upon request by emailing the DEI committee (we will update this web page when made available).
Common themes stemming from throughout the survey responses include:
Inclusion: Improving/expanding on department directives designed to foster an inclusive environment for all members of the BME community
Diverse Hiring: Making sure to continue hiring diversely and listening to colleagues in that effort.
Listening/Discussion: Offering more opportunities to listen to the concerns of BME community members and foster dialogue in multiple settings
Recruitment/Outreach: Developing a multi-layered plan to recruit more URM faculty, staff and students, and promote more URMs to leadership positions.
Shared Responsibilities: A continued highlight on the importance of DEI efforts and incentivizing all community members to engage with the work necessary.
Transparency: Making the actions of the department readily accessible to members of the BME community
Funding: Allocating funds to support the DEI effort
*Note: The DEI Committee is now included in BME’s annual budget.
We also would like to highlight one key observation we found from the survey. The purpose of the survey was to collect data and varying perspectives of our department. Approximately 20% of respondents were part of URM groups. Therefore, the results may not be reflective of the full URM experience within the BME department.
With all this information, the committee will continue to work on developing an action plan which can be accessible via this web page. Where able, we will work with university administrators to leverage university resources to meet our goals. As always, if you have any feedback, concerns, or would like to get involved please reach out to the DEI Committee. We appreciate any of your insight and we thank you for helping make BME diverse, equitable, and inclusive.