WORKING TOGETHER TOWARD EQUITY: GOALS, PROJECTS, AND NEXT STEPS OF THE MIAMI UNIVERSITY URGE POD AND DEPARTMENT DEI COMMITTEE

Geoscience is the whitest STEM discipline in the United States, and the Department of Geology & Environmental Earth Science at Miami University (MU) reflects these national demographics. In response to undergraduate and graduate student feedback expressing a need for improvements in departmental climate and policies, a DEI faculty committee formed in summer 2020. In response to reviews of best practices and solicited focus group and survey information, the departmental DEI committee has initiated a new graduate student onboarding course (abstract #386504, this meeting), clearer work guidelines and expectations for graduate TAs, graduate and undergraduate student representatives in faculty meetings, a biannual Departmental Bulletin, and an annual Geosciences Student Research Symposium. In spring 2021, a group of undergraduate and graduate students, post-docs, and faculty at MU formed a Pod in association with the Unlearning Racism in Geoscience (URGE) program. The URGE program facilitates the creation and implementation of antiracist policy deliverables within geoscience environments. As part of this program, the MU pod created a resource map to help new students, staff, and faculty find support within the university and broader community. This is now widely shared with prospective and current students and faculty. A document outlining university complaint and reporting policies has been drafted and is currently under institutional review. The MU pod has also begun to solicit student feedback to inform and develop codes of conduct and safety for field and lab settings. We have gained many insights as a working group composed of individuals with a variety of academic roles, experiences, and perspectives, spurred in part by changing membership as students complete their programs. We are embarking on assessment of the impacts of the efforts undertaken by the department DEI Committee and Miami University URGE Pod through the use of surveys of student perceptions, ongoing evaluation of student performance, and by continued tracking of departmental demographic data.