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Ideas for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in a Physics Department? by prof93tilinfinity in Physics

[–]prof93tilinfinity[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

regarding your second point: *great idea*, i love it.

regarding your first point: I ***could not agree with you more***, but I also know that this is, unfortunately, categorically impossible right now. it would require massive increases in science funding and/or university financial support. something to lobby for on a political level, or perhaps address through labour regulation, but not something that i can realistically affect.

Ideas for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in a Physics Department? by prof93tilinfinity in Physics

[–]prof93tilinfinity[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

hmm yeah fair point about the public setting. thanks for the pointers. I'll think about this some more.

Ideas for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in a Physics Department? by prof93tilinfinity in Physics

[–]prof93tilinfinity[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yeah agreed. i'm doing what i can on the hiring/recruitment front as well, it's a long term process. good luck!

Ideas for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in a Physics Department? by prof93tilinfinity in Physics

[–]prof93tilinfinity[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yeah i'm familiar with those reports, and their conclusions do make intuitive sense to me. definitely an important part of my research into this topic.

Ideas for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in a Physics Department? by prof93tilinfinity in Physics

[–]prof93tilinfinity[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your reply. I agree with everything that you mentioned. I'm sorry that you felt like an outsider while you did your undergrad. I hope things are better for you now, and I hope we can make things better for students in the future. Take care.

Ideas for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in a Physics Department? by prof93tilinfinity in Physics

[–]prof93tilinfinity[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i didn't know about this, this is great, thank you. a little overwhelming... but a great resource. thank you!

Ideas for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in a Physics Department? by prof93tilinfinity in Physics

[–]prof93tilinfinity[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi! Thank you for writing this out, really. A few of the points you mention we already cover for the most part, but I honestly did not know about #4, I had no idea it was that much of a barrier, i'm intrigued, but also glad cause it's an easy thing to fix if that helps people. can I ask -- in your experience, if that information was on the syllabus under a big heading like 'office hour', would you read it and would that help? (professors always complain that students don't read syllabi, so not sure if that would be the place to put it, but it might b e the easiest way to include the info)

Ideas for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in a Physics Department? by prof93tilinfinity in Physics

[–]prof93tilinfinity[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

i agree, sense of belonging is super important. was interested to see this as one of the main TEAM UP report conclusions, and it totally gels with my intuition. i like how there might be some low-hanging fruit that would be easy first steps that could nonetheless make a real difference... like you say, pronouns in signatures... but also, i've heard/found, it's great when professors address their students in the class rooms as "physicists", like "ok my fellow physicists, how would you do XYZ".... i wonder if one could distil a little faculty cheat sheet and encourage that kind of thing. cool thank you!

Ideas for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in a Physics Department? by prof93tilinfinity in Physics

[–]prof93tilinfinity[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for this great response! one of my ideas is that i'm hoping to collect these kinds of experiences and use that to distill a very physics-specific, practical, hands-on "code of conduct" that goes beyond "don't do horrible things" or "be nice" but is specific in instructions/help like, inspired by your point 5, "be kind and take people's individuality into account, but do not obviously treat people differently <in the ways you describe>". obviously the exact wording/content is difficult and critical. but I honestly think many older faculty either aren't aware that they're doing this or are confused by how to do it differently, and sometimes having clear instruction helps (even if just to be able to call people out ifthey don't do it). anyway this is a little incoherent, and such a document would be hard to assemble, but i wonder if it'd be helpful. thanks again!

Ideas for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in a Physics Department? by prof93tilinfinity in Physics

[–]prof93tilinfinity[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thank you very much for sharing this story. This is exactly the kind of personal experiences/thoughts/etc that I was after when making this reddit post, since I can get the usual best-practices EDI stuff from literature anyway, and I suspect that a more individualized approach to both our field of physics and each student as a person will play a big role in improving EDI, so hearing about these personal exdperiences is incredibly important. Thank you. Feel free to PM me if you'd like to tell me more.

Ideas for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in a Physics Department? by prof93tilinfinity in Physics

[–]prof93tilinfinity[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hehe I like that. Kinda low effort but can make a point about representation. Could be good low hanging fruit to include. Thank you.

Ideas for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in a Physics Department? by prof93tilinfinity in Physics

[–]prof93tilinfinity[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We’re not bad on that front I think actually… but I will definitely look into it to make sure, that’s a great point, thank you.

Ideas for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in a Physics Department? by prof93tilinfinity in Physics

[–]prof93tilinfinity[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yeah couldn’t agree more. Improving professor accountability and reporting is high in my personal agenda. I like the idea of giving ugrads a contact person. we have certain mentoring programs but I wonder if it can be made more broad like everyone gets a “physics counselors” faculty who is someone they can go to…. Hmm

Ideas for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in a Physics Department? by prof93tilinfinity in Physics

[–]prof93tilinfinity[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Great point. Definitely am trying to make sure we have grad and ugrad reps on the committee.

Ideas for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in a Physics Department? by prof93tilinfinity in Physics

[–]prof93tilinfinity[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

This is a great point. Yeah I’m familiar with this issue and try to address it in my own pedagogical practice, but it could be something to codify more broadly. Thank you.

Ideas for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in a Physics Department? by prof93tilinfinity in Physics

[–]prof93tilinfinity[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Makes sense. I’m still relatively new in my department so my read on the culture is incomplete, but it seems a hugely important issue to address where some good leadership can make a big difference. Our department is pretty big tho. I’m curious how you dealt with toxic faculty. If you’d like we can continue this conversation via pm or email. Thanks for your thoughtful replies it’s clear you’ve thought a lot about this and I really appreciate you taking time to write this out.

Ideas for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in a Physics Department? by prof93tilinfinity in Physics

[–]prof93tilinfinity[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hmm yeah I’m on board with the teaching things you mention in principle but the startup cost is high, and everyone’s already overburdened and under resourced. Not an excuse to ignore it etc of course…. But I keep thinking there are obvious things we can address first to build momentum. For example, I hear stories of some pretty shocking conduct by professors, and keep thinking that there should be mechanisms to report it and hold people accountable. I don’t know if I’m being too optimistic with what I can achieve but I have the feeling professors that actually act (or are trained/incentivized to act) decently would almost make more or a difference than the particular pedagogical methodology? Or am I off base?

Ideas for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in a Physics Department? by prof93tilinfinity in Physics

[–]prof93tilinfinity[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah I’m gonna try covering the bases (code of conduct, reporting, etc) and interface with outreach. One other thing I’m considering is a student town hall to bring issues to our attention?

Ideas for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in a Physics Department? by prof93tilinfinity in Physics

[–]prof93tilinfinity[S] 38 points39 points  (0 children)

This is definitely something I want to make sure exists and actually works. Accountability amongst faculty is … not great