Page 6 - UMN Chemnews December 2020

Departmentcontinues its work on diversity, equity, and inclusion... continued from page 5
D&I Committee
Faculty:
Edgar Arriaga, Michael Bowser, Erin Carlson (chair), Aaron Massari (director of Graduate Studies), and Angela Perkins
Graduate students:
Brianna Collins, Serena DiLiberti, Conrad Fihn, Marianne Meyersohn, Rebeca Rodriguez, Eleni Spanolios, and Alexander Umanzor
Postdoctoral researchers:
Nameera Baig, Roman Belli, Jeffrey Buenaflor, Ramya Kumar, Christopher Rich, and Caitlin Sample
Staff:
Chellina Angok, Miriam Krause, and Hannah Leopold
Undergraduates:
Meghan Cahill, Tiffany Cardoza, Gerrit Christenson, Jane Michaelson, Yukino Nakamura, Natalie Pfann, Deborah Rodiguez, and Nicole Wills
Chemistry at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Two of the ways it is creatively doing that is by specifically recruiting from institu- tions that often serve students from underrep- resented groups and using online tools such as Slack and Zoom.
When the Covid-19 global pandemic closed the University of Minnesota campus last March just days before a graduate recruitment weekend, the department pivoted and created a virtual experience using Slack and Zoom. In less than four days and with lots of hard work, creativity and imagination, plus the can-do attitude of more than 300 people, a compre- hensive plan for an immersive recruitment weekend was developed and successfully executed that included presentations by stu- dents and faculty, videos, and meetings with professors.
“As we get to know our first-year class, I think we are becoming more aware of the immense success that our Slack/Zoom virtual recruit- ment had,” said Professor Courtney Roberts who was instrumental in creating last March’s event.
Along with support from the Student Recruiting Working Group, Roberts and other members of the Graduate Admissions and Recruiting Committee leveraged the momentum and success of the virtual re- cruitment experience to create cheMNext, a preview weekend of the department’s graduate program. The day-long event, scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 14, included a virtual poster session, keynote speaker, student panels, and opportunities to meet with faculty. This event was open to all prospective graduate student applicants; however, to increase the pool of applicants coming from diverse and non-tra- ditional backgrounds and underrepresented groups such as LBGTQ+, race and ethnicity, gender identity, socioeconomic status and disability status, marketing was specifically targeted to students from historically black colleges and universities (HBCU), Hispanic- serving institutions (HIS), and women’s colleges.
The Inclusive Classroom Working Group, led by undergraduate Yukino Nakamura and Professor Edgar Arriaga, is generating materials and strategies to improve equity and inclusion in classrooms, which includes the creation of short diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) moments that
“We would like to advance the climate of inclusion in which equity prevails and results in voices from diverse communities.”
—Professor Edgar Arriaga
can be shown at the beginning of classes and as preludes before seminars, meetings, and workshops.
“We would like to advance the climate of inclusion in which equity prevails and results in voices from diverse communities,” said Professor Arriaga. Topics may encompass diversity and inclusion news or cultural prac- tices. They could also be scenarios, prompts for personal reflections with open-ended questions or moments of silence, and oppor- tunities to practice being an ally.
The three additional working groups in the committee are:
Graduate Training Working Group, led by graduate student Eleni Spanolios and Professor Aaron Massari, director of Graduate Studies, will organize and implement addi- tional training for incoming students around anti-racism, social justice, and mentorship. The goal is to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion literacy.
Community Building Working Group, led by undergraduate Deborah Rodriguez and staff member Chellina Angok, will plan ac- tivities enabling the free exchange of concerns and ideas related to diversity and inclusion and building community.
Faculty Hiring Working Group, led
by graduate student Brianna Collins and Professor Michael Bowser, will strive to add transparency to the faculty hiring process, which includes sharing demographic informa- tion about candidates and developing options for graduate student and post-doctoral researcher participation and input.
Graduate Admissions and Recruiting Committee
Professor Aaron Massari, director of Graduate Studies, Professor Ambika Bhagi-Damodaran, Professor Christopher Douglas, Professor Nicholas Race, Professor Courtney Roberts, Professor Andreas Stein, and Stephanie Stathopoulos, assistant to the director of Graduate Studies
6 Chemnews December 2020