| A | B | C | D | ||
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1 | Ask from Towards Anti-Racist Change in SCS Letter Have we missed something? Have suggestions? Feel free to leave a comment directly in this doc, or email Victoria Dean (vdean@andrew.cmu.edu) or David Widder (dwidder@cmu.edu). | KEY: 1 🚫 Refused ask or reasonable alternative 0 ❓No response from Dean Hebert 40 🔶 Acknowledged by Dean Hebert, but missing parts or measurable goal/timeline 5 👍 On track to goal *or reasonable alternative*! Yay! 😃 4 ✅ Goal completed! Time to celebrate! 🎉 | |||
2 | 1 Student Recruitment and Pathways | SCS recruitment initiatives must build meaningful relationships with URM students in order to propel our DEI vision forward. Fostering student connections and partnerships with Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) is critical for effective DEI-aware recruitment. | |||
3 | 🔶 | 1. Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs) provide crucial opportunities to develop academic research interests and foster direct faculty connections. | 5.2 We plan to invest in pre-UG and pre-Ph.D. summer programs to provide additional academic preparation – Pledge in October 9 2020 SCS DEI Update email | 🔶 This is a general statement of intent, but not a specific measurable commitment aligned with any of the specific asks 1a-f | |
4 | ✅ | a. Right now, call for all faculty with active NSF grants to apply for the 2021 $8,000 NSF REU supplement, in an effort to provide scholarships for URM students. | "Faculty with active NSF grants should consider applying for the 2021 $8,000 NSF REU supplement, in an effort to provide scholarships for URM undergraduates. " SCS DEI Update: October 23, 2020 | ✅ Call has been made in SCS DEI Update. Josh Sunshine will remind faculty with NSF grants closer to deadline. "As part of NSF grant submissions, applications for REU supplements opened December 1. We sent messages to all faculty detailing the importance of these supplements and provided guidance using these supplemental funds to help broaden our Ph.D. demographics. Claire Le Goues and Josh Sunshine have written FAQs, provided a sample budget, budget justifications, and project descriptions, available here." --Dec 21, 2020 DEI update | |
5 | 🔶 | b. By 2022, establish one REU program in every SCS department with the “transformative experience” admissions standard, which seeks to admit students who are unlikely to have similar research opportunities. | 2.1 REUs (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) represent a key opportunity to expand the scope of applicants to our Master’s and Ph.D. programs. We have demonstrated success with REUs in our departments and plan to expand the program across SCS departments – Pledge in October 9 2020 SCS DEI Update email | 🔶 We celebrate the plan to expand REUs across SCS departments, but this needs a time goal. Also, to ensure that these REUs recruit diverse cohorts, the programs must use ISR’s REUSE “transformative experience”. | |
6 | 🔶 | c. Fund a full-time role to administer and fundraise for every REU program. | Verbal Commitment in October 20 SCS DEI Meeting (link to minutes) | 🔶 Intention to appoint an REU coordinator for each department. Needs timeline. Unclear where funding will come from? | |
7 | 🔶 | d. Provide teaching relief to 5 core REU-administering Faculty. | Yes to providing help to REU faculty with the caveat that it may take a different form than teaching release depending on the faculty and the situation. I have provided a little of support to REUSE, the plan is to increase support as we go back to normal operation. - Response in Jan 12, 2021 email to PhD Anti-racism working group | 🔶 Some support pledged to REUSE. Unclear what kind of support if not teaching release | |
8 | ✅ | e. Lobby to elevate SCS REU fundraising to that of a central CMU fundraising campaign. | ✅ Fund has been established at the school level: "We’ve also recently established a fund at the school level to raise more money for REUs across SCS. This fund will help us meet the needs of and grow our existing REU programs. We’ve already received some gifts to this fund, and we’ll be prioritizing it in our donor communications starting in early 2021. If you have questions about either of these funds, please contact Jenny Belardi." --Dec 4, 2020 DEI email update "In addition to the new fellowship and REU Funds detailed in the last update, the SCS advancement team has established a more general fund for school-wide DEI activities. This fund mainly will be administered by the Associate Dean for DEI when that position is filled. If you have questions about either of this fund or those mentioned in the previous update, please contact Jenny Belardi." --Dec 21, 2020 DEI email update (#6) | ||
9 | 🔶 | f. To help scale the REU program, recruit experienced SCS PhD student REU mentors to lead REU mentor training, and reward this service by counting this as a TA slot or by providing conference travel funding. | Similar here, yes in recruiting more active REU mentors (this is being addressed by the REU groups that presented at the DEI meeting last) and rewarding them, with the caveat that, here again, I don’t want to prescribe the exact form that it takes (funding, TA slot, etc.) to give flexibility. - Response in Jan 12, 2021 email to PhD Anti-racism working group | 🔶 Increasing REU mentors + rewarding them is approved, exact details left unclear. Instead of a prescription for this, can give an example or set an expectation by suggesting a TA slot/funding with the flexibility to choose the exact nature of this left to those involved | |
10 | 🔶 | 2. Collect and report racial demographics of SCS women's outreach programs, such as OurCS, TechNights, and Girls of Steel. Create goals (not quotas) for increasing diversity and provide funding to make it happen, such as scholarships and MSI partnerships. | 🔶 Data is collected, but Dean Hebert is revisiting the issue of reporting with legal so he can get more clarity on what can be reported. This has been brought up in SCS Council | ||
11 | 🔶 | 3. Support research talks and recruiting efforts for graduate and REU programs at 10 MSIs, universities with significant URM populations, and local universities. Recruit for undergraduate programs at local Pittsburgh high schools. | 3.2 We will be piloting a BIPOC virtual recruiting event in HCII – Pledge in October 9 2020 SCS DEI Update email. Professors Justine Sherry and Srini Seshan hosted an information session at Spelman College discussing SCS REU and grad programs on Thursday, November 5th – Pledge in November 6 2020 SCS DEI Update email. | 🔶 We must commit to forming long term, lasting partnerships with Minority Serving Institutions and local high schools, including funding research talks and recruiting events at their school. We are excited to see how the HCII BIPOC and Spelman College recruiting events go and hope lessons learned from it can be applied to form long term parternships. | |
12 | 👍 | 4. Partner with CIT and the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion (CSDI) on trips to URM-focused conferences like Tapia, NSBE, SHPE, and AISES and conduct on-the-spot MS and PhD interviews at these venues. | 3.1 We will continue our recruitment efforts internally with SCS4All and AIforAll; this year, we are expanding to include virtual mentoring at TAPIA and the Grace Hopper conferences. Tracking interactions with students at these events and how they affect our constituency – Pledge in October 9 2020 SCS DEI Update email Will also recruit at SHPE with coordination from CIT – October 20 SCS DEI Meeting (link to minutes) Oct 23 SCS DEI Update email: ACM Richard Tapia Conference - September 16 - 18: We increased our ability to connect directly with first-generation and underrepresented minority (URM) students to help demystify applying to graduate school. We put REU and internship information in front of approximately 2,000 attendees Grace Hopper - September 29 - October 3: Grace Hopper had technical issues that limited the expected capabilities. We were able to chat with attendees and direct them to our Gather Town and Zoom sessions. Registration was approximately 39,000. The followup career fair will take place November 17-18. SHPE National Convention - October 26 - 31: SCS will be participating at the SHPE conference next week, with many thanks to CIT for their help in allowing us to participate in their booth. From the DEI Update #12 (April 2, 2021): SCS will partner with CIT for the upcoming National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) 47th Annual Convention. There are two parts to our participation: The portion on April 7 provides an opportunity to interact with and recruit middle-school and high school students for our undergraduate programs (tentative time 3-6:00 p.m.). We’ll be recruiting for graduate programs during the annual career fair on April 8-9, from noon-5 p.m. | 👍 This is good! We should consider recruiting at NSBE and AISES and consider conducting on the spot MS and PhD interviews at these venues, as CIT does. | |
13 | 2. Admissions and Retention | Most universities lack URM representation, but we lag behind our peers. We must rectify this by admitting and retaining more URM students. | |||
14 | 🔶 | 1. Set concrete goals for diversity among undergraduate, Master’s, PhD students, and in the short-term (1-3 years), medium-term (5-7 years), and long term (10-15 years), making clear that these are goals, not quotas. | Will include diversity goals for admissions in an upcoming DEI update. --Dec 1 DEI meeting (minutes) | 🔶 Needs to be communicated. | |
15 | 🔶 | 2. Achieve 75 GEM fellows by 2022. Graduate Education for Minority (GEM) fellowships are a powerful tool for recruiting URM students. SCS is underusing this resource: CIT has 72 current Master’s and PhD GEM fellows, while SCS has 2. | GEM Workshop was held on Nov 21, 2020. 45 people attended for PhD programs, hosted by Bob Frederking (Jenn Landefeld set up gather.town). 26 GEM candidates attended a breakout room for SCS MS programs, hosted by David Garlan. (Dec 4, 2020 DEI email update) | 🔶 SCS will fund GEM fellows and work with CIT to expand this program. Needs measureable goals and timelines. | |
16 | 🔶 | 3. Survey all URM students to gauge attitudes toward personal history statements in PhD applications. With URM student support, add such a statement with clear messaging on how it will be used, similar to that of UC Berkeley. Use this statement to award fellowships to students who contribute to DEI, as UC Berkeley does. | 🔶 Dean Hebert is in favor, however, SCS needs to consider phrasing and discuss with PhD coordinators | ||
17 | ✅ | 4. By this application cycle, which has already begun, create a graduate application mentoring program for URM students, as MIT and Stanford do. | ✅ PhD students Shruti Palaskar, Anjalie Field and other PhD student departmental reps have now implemented this program, linked here. To ensure that this is sustainable, we encourage SCS AD for PhD Students Bob Frederking to ensure that volunteer student labor such as this is appropriately recognized so that such efforts are sustainable. | ||
18 | 🔶 | 5. By this application cycle, collect applicants’ country of origin and racial background as Stanford does, making clear that providing this information is optional and will only be used to compile statistics, not as a factor in admissions. | All departments are going through training (with affirmative action legal requirements) which allows them to access applicants country of origin and racial background. -- Nov 5 SCS DEI Meeting (minutes) "More than 50 staff and faculty who are members of graduate program admissions committees across SCS participated in sessions this week to learn about the legal boundaries associated with affirmative action in admissions. These sessions were offered through CMU's Office of General Counsel in advance of the application review process, which will begin in the next few weeks. " -- Dec 5, 2020 DEI email update | 🔶 This information is collected, but there are legal requirement in admissions committees accessing it. Also is there any requirement for all admissions committee members to take this training? | |
19 | 🔶 | 6. Publicize application fee waivers and automatically waive fees for REU alumni. | Verbal Commitment in October 20 SCS DEI Meeting (link to minutes) | 🔶 Dean's Office working on it, but needs tangible plan. Also, we should waive fees for SCS REU alumni. | |
20 | 🔶 | 7. Discontinue use of GRE in PhD admissions by 2022, as MIT, SCS-ISR, and SCS-CBD have done, and commission a study to evaluate the effects on application and admissions diversity after doing so. The GRE has been shown to predict race, gender, and socioeconomic status more than graduate school performance (see Appendix). Making it optional is not enough; the incentives for students to take it will still exist. This cycle, accept unofficial GRE scores, eliminating the $27 per-institution fee. | We did make the GRE optional this year and most departments have language saying that they won’t look at it (there is at least one that has stronger language). We are going to study the effects of that. I believe that we are going to move in that direction (e.g. abolishing it). We will do this study, we will revise how we deal with the GRE and I believe it will move in that direction, but it will be a step by step process. -- From Martial in 2020-12-18 meeting with SCS PhD Advisory Anti-racism Working Group | 🔶 A study of making it optional is fine, but we feel there is substantial evidence for its full removal. Keeping it optional still provides incentives for students to take it and admissions committees to use it. | |
21 | 🔶 | 8. Reinvest in pre-undergraduate and pre-PhD summer programs, including CMU SAMS and like those of Princeton and MIT, to provide additional academic preparation, easing the transition for students from a wider variety of backgrounds. | 🔶 Mentioned in DEI pledges, not concrete enough to compare. | ||
22 | 🔶 | 9. Update admissions criteria to “evaluate potential rather than prior opportunity.” | "We had this discussion with the last year’s admissions committee; it's definitely part of the direction of these committees. Not judging application solely on institution of origin or numbers of publications, which is inherently biased." -- Nov 5 SCS DEI meeting (minutes) "We are working on creating a uniform set of materials for the graduate application evaluations. " --Nov 17 SCS DEI meeting (minutes) | 🔶 Needs to be explicitly written in recommendations instead of just verbally discussed with this year's admissions committees. | |
23 | 3. Degree Requirements | SCS degree requirements must reflect the values that we want our graduates to uphold. SCS graduates must emerge aware of the structural inequities marginalized communities face and be able to think critically on the intersections of these topics with their work and community. | |||
24 | 🔶 | 1. By this cycle, add a “Broader Impact and Ethical Implications” requirement to semesterly PhD Doctoral Review forms as well as Master’s and PhD theses. | 🔶 Dean Hebert is not opposed, however, PhD programs would have to create clear guidelines of what is expected. Similar statements are required in some conferences and, in the absence of these guidelines it leads to confusion and statements not meeting the spirit of the request. | ||
25 | 🔶 | 2. Add a mini course for all first-year students covering anti-racism, situated among topics such as privilege, allyship, and social implications of research, following in the steps of the University of Pittsburgh. Develop course with input from students, faculty, and Pittsburgh community partners. | Response in Jan 12, 2021 email to PhD Anti-racism working group: "The University has defined/is defining the curriculum for such a mini so that there will be a consistent approach across campus. We will offer that course in SCS as well " | 🔶Does not talk about when this course will be ready. Also needs to talk more specifically about social implications of CS research | |
26 | 🔶 | 3. Add an ethics core course area in all programs, as the AI Major has done. Representative courses include 14-820, 10-712, 17-684, 94-878, 94-890, 94-883. | 🔶 SCS is aiming at having ethics content in all the programs. May not be a separate full course, but a distributed approach could be used. For example, RI has experimented with ethics modules in individual classes. | ||
27 | 4. Hiring and Promotion | Faculty and staff hiring is an important way to increase institution diversity and inclusion. In SCS, 1.4% of tenure-track faculty are URM, while faculty among our peers are ~4-7% URM (see Appendix). | |||
28 | ✅ | 1. Mandate BiasBusters training, or a more comprehensive alternative, for all members of faculty hiring committees. | Requirement as discussed in Nov 17, 2020 SCS DEI Meeting (minutes) | ✅ Commitment to mandate enhanced BiasBusters for all members of faculty hiring commitees before Spring 2021 cycle, working with Dr. Carol Frieze and Prof. Geoff Kaufmann to develop this. | |
29 | 🔶 | 2. Hire 5 CMU Presidential Postdocs per year across SCS. | Martial has been reminding department heads about the applications; they are hoping to increase the number of SCS applications this year. --November 5, 2020, SCS DEI meeting (minutes) DEI email updates with reminders about the application on November 6 and November 20 | 🔶 Communication of the deadlines is good. What are specific roadblocks that can be overcome in getting more participation in this program? (Explicitly tying faculty offers to the program to be more competitive, for example?) | |
30 | 🔶 | 3. Collect and report racial demographics of all SCS seminar speakers and provide travel funding for URM speakers to these seminars. | 🔶Dean Hebert is revisiting the issue of reporting with legal so he can get more clarity on what can be reported and whether funding can be earmarked for URM. Travel funding is normally provided to outside speakers to departmental and school seminars. In addition, the School-level DEI seminar series is on the way with a committee, funding, and potential invites on the way. | ||
31 | 👍 | 4. Expand the “SCS Rooney Rule,” which historically has asked for at least 1 woman to be interviewed on SCS hiring committees, to encompass URMs: interview 1 URM for every 2 non-URM candidates on all faculty hiring committees. | 4.2 We are revising and implementing hiring processes, including committee selection, training, and evaluation – Pledge in October 9 2020 SCS DEI Update email 25% or 50% ideal participation of women and URM (together) in faculty hiring shortlist (https://scsdean.cs.cmu.edu/faculty-hiring/search-committee-guidelines.html) | 👍 This is good progress to include this in the faculty hiring guidelines. However, combining women and URM in that percentage is not ideal. | |
32 | 🔶 | 5. Include 1 student per 2 non-students as members of all faculty hiring committees. | Hiring committees have been asked to involve students; the exact involvment of students varies by dept. (Response in Jan 12, 2021 email to PhD Anti-racism working group) | 🔶 An ask to involve students is a good start, but not all committees have student members. The CSD, MLD and CBD hiring committees do not have student members for the 2020-2021 hiring cycle. | |
33 | 🔶 | 6. Update faculty tenure and evaluation criteria to include DEI and anti-racism service as forms of scholarship on par with traditional academic research activities. | 🔶 This is not specific enough to see if we’re on track. Diversity statements for hiring is good, but what about consideration of DEI and anti-racist service for faculty evaluation? Who is revising the hiring process and faculty evaluation criteria? What are their plans? How can SCS community members provide input? | ||
34 | 🔶 | 7. Follow the recommendations prescribed by the Babcock-Chow report on diversifying CMU faculty, including: | 4.2 We are revising and implementing hiring processes, including committee selection, training, and evaluation – Pledge in October 9 2020 SCS DEI Update email | 🔶 This is not specific enough to see if we’re on track. Who is revising the hiring process? What are their plans? How can SCS community members provide input? | |
35 | 🔶 | a. Create and adhere to a uniform hiring-procedure checklist for all SCS hiring by this cycle. MCS, CIT, and Dietrich currently use such a checklist; SCS should follow their lead. | 4.2 We are revising and implementing hiring processes, including committee selection, training, and evaluation – Pledge in October 9 2020 SCS DEI Update email Martial commits to intermediate check-ins with hiring committees to ensure compliance to SCS guidelines -- Pledge in Nov 5, 2020 SCS DEI meeting (minutes) Martial commits to checking the checklist agains the Vice Provost's list and against the Babcock-Chow report -- Nov 5, 2020 SCS DEI meeting (minutes), email communication with SCS PhD Advisory committee members | 🔶 Important things missing from the SCS hiring checklist that are recommended in the Vice Provost's for Faculty checklist: 1. Require candidates to submit a diversity statement as part of their application. Right now there is only a "broader impact" statement that is required. 2. As with creating the short list, faculty should use defined criterion to rank the candidates rather than simply voting their preferences. | |
36 | 🔶 | b. Hire 10 faculty members as part of a cluster program by 2023, whose research or service will contribute to diversity and inclusion in SCS. | Yes to the emphasis on hiring research/service in DEI (this has been communicated to the committees and we are working now on material for the Faculty Opportunity Fund), but I cannot commit to the number 10. (Response in Jan 12, 2021 email to PhD Anti-racism working group) | 🔶 We encourage this usage of the Faculty Opportunity Fund but would still like to see a commitment to cluster hiring. | |
37 | 🔶 | c. Set objective, aspirational goals for faculty and staff diversity in the short-term (2-3 years), medium-term (5-7 years), and long term (10-15 years), making clear that these are aspirational goals, not quotas. | Dean Hebert will bring up numeric goals with department heads in their next meeting. --Nov 5 SCS DEI Meeting (minutes) | 🔶 Has this happened yet? | |
38 | 🔶 | d. On every search committee, designate a diversity advocate who, in addition to the search chair, is responsible for ensuring adherence to the checklist. This individual should not be a female or URM faculty member. | Dean Hebert will address this with chairs of departments in early January (Jan 12, 2021 email to PhD Anti-racism Working Group) | 🔶 This needs to be mandated early in the process so someone in each committee is thinking about DEI at every step. We'd also like a public listing of who the diversity advocates are for each committee. | |
39 | 🔶 | 8. Expand and standardize where Faculty hiring announcements are posted | 4.2 We are revising and implementing hiring processes, including committee selection, training, and evaluation – Pledge in October 9 2020 SCS DEI Update email | 🔶 This is not specific enough to see if we’re on track. Who is revising the hiring process? What are their plans? How can SCS community members provide input? | |
40 | 5. Culture | We must commit to making SCS culture welcoming for all its members. This culture should emphasize its belief in DEI through intentional, well-resourced steps. | |||
41 | 👍 | 1. Create a full-time SCS Executive Director for DEI role, similar to roles in CIT and Dietrich College, complementary to the Associate Dean for DEI. The person filling this role should have a proven track record in creating and enacting DEI policy in large STEM institutions. Run a national search for this position and fill it by Spring 2021. | Commitment from Martial to searching for this position once Associate Dean for DEI starts (early 2020) --Dec 18, 2020 meeting with SCS PhD Advisory Working Group on Anti-racism | 👍 We feel there needs to be a national search for such an important role. We have a verbal commitment to Spring 2021, but a firm timeline for the hiring process is lacking. | |
42 | 🔶 | 2. Fund an annual DEI discretionary budget of $50 per SCS student ($123,000 for the current 2,460 students) for the Associate Dean and Executive Director to give them sufficient resources to enact meaningful policy and programming. | Response from Dean Hebert in Jan 12, 2021 email to PhD Anti-racism Working Group: "The DEI office will have funds to support programming." | 🔶 We would like to make sure this office has sufficient funding, and discretionary funding that allows it to start initiatives. | |
43 | 🔶 | 3. Appoint as SCS Council members: the Associate Dean for DEI, Executive Director for DEI, and one additional member of the to-be-formed SCS DEI Committee. | 🔶 The Job Posting for the Associate Dean for DEI contains “The Associate Dean for DEI will serve along with other associate deans as a member of SCS Council”. The Executive Director for DEI must also be given a seat on council, and a member of the DEI committee. | ||
44 | 🔶 | 4. Increase TA training by requiring Eberly Student Instructor Orientation attendance or a more comprehensive alternative. | Verbal Commitment in October 20, November 5 and November 17, 2020 SCS DEI Meetings (Oct 20 minutes, Nov 5 minutes, Nov 17 minutes). Is already in place for CSD and ISR, but planning to have this throughout the school. | 🔶 Working with Eberly Center for increased TA training. Specifics needed; will this be in place for the 2020-2021 fall semester? | |
45 | 🔶 | 5. Measure and report on classroom climate by adding the following question to Faculty Course Evaluations: “Provide a numerical ranking, on a scale from one to five, and an explanation for whether the instructor fosters an environment where all students, including yourself, were treated with respect and their questions and perspectives welcomed. How did the instructor accomplish this?”, or refined wording. | Response in Jan 12, 2021 email to PhD Anti-racism working group: 'Not done yet but note that SCS does not control the FCEs, which is at the university level. That said, I do think that it is a reasonable question but I wonder how it compares with the existing “Instructor treats students with respect”.' | 🔶 A question that more specifically addresses creating an environment of respect is needed. | |
46 | 🚫 | 6. Run a semesterly all-SCS speaker series on diversity, justice, and harms in CS, including optional breakout conversations. Create a group of students, staff, and faculty to select paid, expert speakers with input from the SCS community and CSDI. | 9.2 We will host a special diversity speaker series in the next academic year with the goal of expanding our collective thinking on these issues – Pledge in October 9 2020 SCS DEI Update email "Brad Myers, who has coordinated a diverse and exciting HCII seminar series for the spring, has stepped up to lead the efforts for an SCS-wide seminar series focusing on issues such as diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, bias, access and ethics in computer science." --Dec 18, 2020 SCS DEI update email (#6) | 🚫 Brad Myers, who has been appointed to lead the DEI Seminar Series, states that honorariums will not be offered: "However, as I said in my email (copied below) of January 6, we will not be paying any speakers in the DEI Seminar series this year. We are confident that we can attract high-quality and interesting DEI speakers for this spring’s series without paying honorariums or speaker fees, but the DEI Seminar Series committee will reconsider the issue of speaker fees for future years." | |
47 | 🔶 | 7. Create opt-in URM affinity groups, including individual groups for Black and Hispanic students, mirroring Women@SCS, including mailing lists, funding, and staff support, with presence at admitted student days. | Verbal Commitment in October 20 SCS DEI Meeting (link to minutes) | 🔶 Professor Patrick Carrington, HCII, starting one for Black students, unclear what funding or staff support provided. Need a similar affinity group for Hispanic students. | |
48 | 🔶 | 8. Stop inviting police to SCS or Departmental events, except where law or CMU policy requires their presence. Publish a clear standard for cases when they must be invited, recognizing that police, especially when armed, make some people feel less safe, not safer. Lobby for CMU alcohol policy to not require a police presence. | Dean Hebert acknowledged that there are cases where police are required to be invited by law or policy, though there is currently not a list of these cases. Some other cases are controlled at the university level. (Jan 12, 2021 email to PhD Anti-racism Working Group) | 🔶 Acknowledged by Dean Hebert. PhD Working Group on Anti-Racism will follow up with a meeting on this. | |
49 | 🔶 | 9. Provide an avenue for students to report bias or abuse by formalizing the duties of departmental ombudspeople and training those who serve in it. | 6.2 We are making sure that people know where to go if they have experienced or witnessed behaviors in our community that reveal bias and unequal treatment – Pledge in October 9 2020 SCS DEI Update email | 🔶 This is good! But we must expand this to include specifically formalizing the duties of departmental ombudspeople. | |
50 | 👍 | 10. Create a SCS DEI fund to allow donations to be used in service of our SCS DEI goals in the discretion of the SCS DEI Associate Dean and Executive Director | Verbal Commitment in October 20 SCS DEI Meeting (link to minutes) | 👍 listing DEI as major funding goal when talking to donors. Hopefully there can be a separate "SCS DEI" fund that anyone can contribute to. (see also commitment in response to Ask 1.1e) | |
51 | 6. Transparency | To make progress towards racial equity, SCS needs transparency and accountability on goals, as well as current status with respect to these goals. Understanding the current status provides a baseline, allowing us to track how certain asks make a difference. | |||
52 | 👍 | 1. Publish annual statistics with racial demographics on the number of students who apply, are admitted, attend, and graduate, as UC Berkeley does, in consultation with CMU Counsel. Report quarterly on all DEI-related positions and spending. | 7.1 We are developing the tools for tracking and publishing data on our outreach, admissions, and hiring programs – Pledge in October 9 2020 SCS DEI Update email | 👍 This is good! This must include reporting on DEI spending, and the activities of DEI related personnel. Is there a timeline for when this will be available? | |
53 | 🔶 | 2. Publish action items from town halls: what will be done in a month, by the end of the semester, and in a year? Report publicly on progress, including a semesterly town hall. | 9.1 We will continue to work with and communicate with the SCS community on our DEI efforts – Pledge in October 9 2020 SCS DEI Update email | 🔶 This is not specific enough to compare. | |
54 | 🔶 | 3. Develop and run an annual climate survey for all students with the option to declare specific identities. Interview representative subsamples for in-depth accounts. Share public summary reports with identity breakdowns, including Black and Hispanic students. The survey should be developed and run in conjunction with CSDI and student groups including the SCS Student Advisory Committees. | Verbal Commitment in October 20 SCS DEI Meeting (link to minutes) | 🔶 Mention of climate surveys and need to work with CMU VP DEI. No concrete plans announced. | |
55 | 🔶 | 4. Conduct exit interviews for faculty, staff, and students; share findings and integrate into the above recommendations for improving culture. | Jodi Forlizzi has been (over the past year) conducting interviews with faculty above the associate level who have left in the past 5 years. The goal is to conduct this for everyone (who will answer) -- Nov 5, 2020 SCS DEI meeting (minutes) | 🔶 Good start to this from Jodi Forlizzi, though more resources may be needed. Is there a plan for exit interviews with staff and students, too? This is also lacking a timeline. | |
56 | 7. Community Impact | SCS should be intentional about the impact it has on the community and continuously work to be a better citizen of Pittsburgh. We should recognize that Pittsburgh is by many metrics the least livable city for Black people in the US, particularly Black women and examine how we can empower and collaborate with Pittsburgh residents. | |||
57 | 🔶 | 1. Implement Community Engagement Requirements that include and partner with Pittsburgh community members in active and meaningful participation in SCS research implemented in their community, in addition to existing Institutional Review Board review which protects individual research participants rather than larger communities. Provide pathways for community members to pursue research assistantships, internships, and degree-granting programs at CMU. | Response in Jan 12, 2021 email to PhD Anti-racism Working Group: "We have programs with the local community, through pathways for example, but not of the type described here. I would like further discussion of these points as we do need much further involvement in the community. (in particular, I’d like to understand the statement “protects individual research participants rather than larger communities”)." | 🔶 Acknowledged. The PhD Anti-Racism Working Group will follow up on this. | |
58 | 🔶 | 2. Match student, staff, and faculty donations to national, regional, and local social justice causes, using this curated list of Pittsburgh causes as a starting point for the creation of a more concise list more relevant to our SCS context. | Response in Jan 12, 2021 email to PhD Anti-racism Working Group: "We have programs with the local community, through pathways for example, but not of the type described here. I would like further discussion of these points as we do need much further involvement in the community. (in particular, I’d like to understand the statement “protects individual research participants rather than larger communities”)." | 🔶 Acknowledged. The PhD Anti-Racism Working Group will follow up on this. | |
59 | X. Other | Other SCS commitments which do not directly align with those in the Towards Anti-Racist Change Letter, but are still good! | |||
60 | 1.1 We are currently conducting meetings to coordinate DEI efforts across all SCS working groups. Pledge in October 9 2020 SCS DEI Update email | ||||
61 | 1.2 Development of an SCS Communications Plan is underway. Pledge in October 9 2020 SCS DEI Update email | ||||
62 | 6.1 DEI committees have been formed in all SCS units; the Dean's Advisory Committees created. Pledge in October 9 2020 SCS DEI Update email 5. This week, representatives from each of the Dean’s Advisory Committees, departmental DEI committees, and at-large representatives met to discuss ongoing and upcoming efforts in SCS, as we continue our work to embed DEI in all of our goals and activities. -- October 20, 2020 SCS DEI update | ||||
63 | 8.1 We are currently implementing community engagement programs. Example: HCII’s 30-day racism challenge allowed people to engage with content to educate themselves every day for 30 days. Pledge in October 9 2020 SCS DEI Update email | ||||