In 2020, Dean Laura Haas tapped over 50 faculty, students, and staff to lead our college's anti-racism efforts to identify and dismantle barriers to inclusion and equity in admissions, academic success, and the workplace—the Committee Against Racism and for Equity, or CARE.
The committee quickly identified six projects to focus on for the 2020–2021 academic year. Some of those projects are now ongoing parts of CARE, some have been institutionalized or “spun off” into their own free-standing projects, and some have been folded into the four major CARE initiatives for 2021–2022. Read on to learn more about these initiatives and how you can get involved.
CARE Committee Leadership
Michelle Trim CARE Committee Co-Chair
Senior Lecturer II & Associate Director of the Informatics Program
Nader Akoury CARE Committee Co-Chair
Doctoral Student, Computer Science
Erika Dawson Head Director of Diversity and Inclusive Community Development
2021–2022 Projects
Improving Representation Through Recruitment
This group will investigate and make recommendations on our admissions recruitment processes, with a lens on how our college can become more effective in recruiting diverse students: who applies to our programs; who is accepted; and who of our accepted students enroll.
Identifying Structural Barriers to Academic Success for Diverse Students
Building on work by the Inclusive Teaching Committee and the Faculty Teaching Committee last year, this group will investigate and make recommendations related to academic policies and aspects of curriculum structure that present barriers to success for students from diverse and historically marginalized backgrounds.
Cultural Competency Working Group
Building off of work by the Microaggressions and Safe Spaces working group last year, this group will propose and develop strategies for cultural competency education in the college with an emphasis on preventing microaggressions and tone policing.
Diversity Committee Antiracism Standing Reserve
This group is being established for those volunteers who want to contribute, but who may not have regular availability and/or who do not have a preference for where their volunteer efforts are directed.
This work couldn’t be done without the direct involvement of community members like you—the students, faculty, and staff at the heart of this work. Volunteer to be part of the CARE effort today.