Spring 2023 Update
The PBS DEIC met about every other week in Spring 2023. The issues that were discussed and actions taken this quarter were as follows:
1. Data from the PBS 2021-22 PBS Climate Survey was analyzed. While low response rates for many of the constituent departmental groups (e.g. Faculty, Staff) limits the broad conclusions that can be drawn, some details were shared at the DEIC Town Hall meeting during week 10, with a specific focus on Graduate student responses (where the response rate was better).
2. DEI Committee members wrote and submitted a grant proposal to the Cognitive Science Society program on broadening participation in Cognitive Science.
3. Efforts to establish a system for achieving some UG representation on/for DEIC remain in progress, though the goal of having this in place by this quarter was not met. This effort will be renewed in Fall, where we will explore whether collaboration across Departmental committees (e.g., The Undergraduate Experience Committee) might be a more effective strategy.
4. Faculty representatives from the committee attended monthly meetings of Diversity Officers (TG, IS, KS) run by the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, as well as working groups focused on UG and PG specific DEI issues (TG, KS).
5. What the goals for the committee should be next academic year were discussed; they will include a review and evaluation of progress on the PBS strategic DEI plan.
Winter 2023 Update
The PBS DEIC met three times in Winter 2023. Fewer meetings were possible because of the very busy faculty search candidate visit schedules, with each Faculty member of the committee on one of the three committees. The issues that were discussed and actions taken this quarter were as follows:
1. The committee discussed a number of items raised by graduate student representatives on a range of DEI issues including submissions to the anonymous reporting tool on the Diversity microsite, transparency in the faculty hiring process, and the aftermath of the UAW academic worker strike.
2. A memo in response to inquiries from the office of the VCDEI was discussed and drafted detailing progress made on the PBS Departmental Strategic DEI Plan. This also asked us to comment on feedback/questions about one particular aspect of the plan (Topic C: Faculty Recruitment, Promotion and Retention). This memo can be viewed here.
3. Further progress was made on achieving UG representation on the DEIC; a group of 10-16 interested UG major students will meet with TG in week 10 of W23 to discuss details and implementation. We hope to have this UG committee set up and ready to provide input by early in S23.
4. Faculty representatives from the committee attended a mandated bias training session (IS) as well as monthly meetings of Diversity Officers (TG, IS) run by the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
5. Goals for the committee for S23 were also discussed, chief among them the analysis and dissemination of the 22-23 climate survey and the possibility of running a DEI town hall.
Fall 2022 Update
The PBS Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee for 2022-23 comprises:
Tamsin German (Faculty rep, Chair), Kallie Hill (Staff rep), Ikuko Smith (Faculty rep), Shreya Sodhi (grad rep), Karen Szumlinski (Faculty rep), Vinnie Wu (Grad rep), and Hongbo Yu (Faculty rep)
The PBS DEIC met most weeks in Fall 2022. The issues that were discussed and actions taken are as follows:
1. Organized and ran a ‘sneak peek’ graduate recruitment outreach event via zoom (spearheaded by Karen Szumlinski); potential graduate students from PBS, and organizations such as SACNAS, McNair, and UC-LEADS were invited to hear presentations about UCSB, PBS, graduate student support, Faculty and graduate student research and participate in Q’n’A with graduate students and Faculty. Attendance was unfortunately quite low, but important lessons were learned to improve things for next year.
2. A UCSB graduate school fair was held at a Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting in San Diego on November 14 and 15th. The goal of the event was to increase the exposure of the three neuroscience programs (MCDB/DYNS/PBS) to prospective applicants. Many graduate students from PBS contributed greatly to the event.
2. A memo detailing PBS efforts for graduate student outreach and support was compiled and sent to graduate division in response to their request for that information for deciding the level of the department’s block grant diversity augmentation.
3. A plan for a Diversity in Psychological Science UG class, to be offered for the first time during the 2023-24 academic year was developed; in its initial form the class will be offered via the UD special topics course #, with the goal of converting it to a course catalog class thereafter.
4. A plan was made to develop UG representation on the DEIC; several meetings were held with representatives of SUP, in order to recruit volunteers to create an UG panel with which DEIC would meet at least once quarterly.
5. Representatives from the committee attended monthly meetings of Diversity Officers run by the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and Tamsin German attended working group meetings of a small number of UG Diversity Officers from STEM departments to brainstorm UG focused diversity issues.
Spring 2022 Update
The PBS DEIC met most weeks in Spring 2022. The issues that were discussed and actions taken are as follows: 1) Completed analysis of the 2021 Climate Survey. Dan Conroy-Beam took the lead on this, with Shuying Yu and Vinnie Wu completing some additional analyses specifically on the Graduate Student portion of the survey. 2) Presented the results of the Climate Survey to Faculty at a Faculty meeting. 3) Representatives from the committee attended monthly DEI meetings organized and run by the office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity Equity and Inclusion. 4) The 2022 Climate Survey was released to respondents. Because the release of the survey was delayed until after the end of Spring quarter, the survey will remain open, and reminders will be sent to our department constituencies at the beginning of Fall quarter to ensure sufficient numbers of respondents. 5) A Graduate Student Town Hall meeting was organized and run over zoom in week 10, where the broad results from the 2021 climate survey were disseminated by Dan Conroy-Beam and the graduate student specific elements were disseminated by Vinnie Wu and Shuying Yu.
