Equity

Ensuring equity and diversifying higher education means providing equitable access to opportunities for everyone, including scholars from different races, ethnicities, genders, religions, sexual orientations, gender identities, age, socioeconomic status, abilities, experience, etc. At the Berhe Biogeochemistry Lab at UC Merced, we strive to create a dynamic, diverse, and equitable STEM community that represents the public that we (members of public insitutions of higher learning) are entrusted to serve.

Below are a few useful resources for diversity, equity, and inclusion activities, esp. in the academic enterprise.

• Are you an undergraduate student interested in a summer research opportunity in our lab at UC Merced, make sure to check out the resources available through UC Merced’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Center (UROC)

If you are interested to join in the Berhe Soil Biogeochemistry lab, please send inquiries to Asmeret at aaberhe(at)ucmerced(dot)edu

• Asmeret is a co-PI of the ADVANCEGeo Partnership,  a project aimed at empowering geoscientists to transfrom workplace climate. We focus on geoscientists because it is one of the least diverse of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. The major goals of the ADVANCEGeo Partnnership are to:

1. 1. Develop and test sexual harassment bystander intervention training programs with geoscience-relevant scenarios and that incorporate experiences of diverse women.
   2. Develop teaching modules on sexual harassment for geoscience faculty and instructors to use in research ethics training courses.
   3. Disseminate training workshops, webinars, and teaching modules via partnership with professional societies for sustainability.
   4. Develop a sustainable model that can be transferred to other STEM disciplines.

Learn more about the project, and access a rich the database of resources we are curating by visitng the project website located at https://serc.carleton.edu/advancegeo/index.html

By visiting the ADVANCEGeo resource page, among other things, you can find resources for addressing topics such as:

• • (In)equity in the Time of COVID-19
  • Creating Inclusive Virtual Spaces
  • Harassment, Bullying, and Discrimination
  • Codes of Conduct
  • In the Field
  • Training
  • Responding to Hostile Behaviors
  • Creating Inclusive Climates
  • A Primer on Diversity
  • Legal Context
  • Recognizing Bias
  • Reporting
  • Data

• Are you planning to write a letter of reference for a promising person of color, here is a useful guide for how to avoid common traps rooted in unconscious bias (high-resolution PDF file can be downloaded from this link, Avoiding racial bias in reference writing)

How to write contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion statement

• Are you applying for positions that require you to write contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion statement? Consider reading these helpful guides before you start:
  • University of California, Davis: Guidelines for Writing a Statement of Contributions to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
  • University of Michigan: The Promise of Diversity Statements
  • Vanderbit University: Developing and Writing a Diversity Statement
  • Chronicles of higher ed: 5 Don’ts in Writing Your DEI Statement

Academic Secret Menu
(a.k.a the hidden curriculum that is crucial for success in graduate school and beyond)

This is a wonderful resource, a compilation of links, advice, questions, and answers on how to navigate academic environments. The authors prepared this document to help demystify the “hidden curriculum” of academia by providing a central location for advice on this topic. Huge thanks to the authors.  Academic Secret Menu link

Helpful Reading lists

• For more information check out this Equity reading list (resources on experience, hiring, retention of POC in the academy, etc) compiled by Dr. Needhi Bhalla from UC Santa Cruz.
• Reading list on connection between racism and the environment compiled by Somini Sengupta, published in the New York Times