Department of Psychology
Department of Psychology

DEI Committee

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee

The Psychology Department’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee seeks to enact the department’s mission to foster an academically enriching and supportive climate for all members of our community. The faculty and graduate student committee serves the entire psychology community, including staff, students, and faculty.

The committee is chaired by the department’s Director of Diversity and Inclusion, and includes the following subcommittees:

  • Curriculum: Uses a DEI lens to review the graduate student curriculum and identify opportunities to improve graduate courses. Also offers trainings and presentations (e.g., tied to inclusive teaching).
  • Undergraduate data and outreach: Analyzes trends and emerging patterns to assess student outcomes and representation. Develops relevant programming and focuses on retention of  students in the major.
  • Graduate recruitment and data: Evaluates changes in the diversity of our applicant pool, admitted, and entering classes to determine where we can improve representation and target recruitment efforts. Also evaluates climate for current graduate students.
  • Space: Ensures that the physical departmental space (e.g., offices, labs, community space) is accessible and promotes DEI.
  • Website and social media: Curates and posts DEI content on the departmental website and social media to foster engagement and outreach.
  • Awards: Reviews nominations for the department’s annual Faculty and Graduate Student
    Excellence in DEI awards.
  • Watch events: Organize DEI-related movies, documentaries, panels, or other ‘watch’ events that the dept. can attend, and facilitate discussion about the material.
  • Graduate student well-being: Seeks to reduce work-related stress among students and enhance students’ well-being and opportunities for success in the program. The committee focuses on a number of support initiatives, such as a buddy system that pairs incoming students with more advanced students, a welcome guide for incoming students, a second mentor system that helps graduate students match with secondary faculty mentors who can provide both professional development and support (along with possible new research connections), organizing coffee shop and writing meet-up times, and a field day with games for incoming students. The committee also works with the Director of Graduate Studies to implement new mentorship initiatives and provide info about diverse career paths after graduation. 

The DEI committee strives to foster an environment that is diverse with regards to social identities (including race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, class, ability, religion, immigration status) and where all members of the community feel safe, respected, and valued. The mission includes being proactive (generating initiatives that faculty are particularly well suited to lead), supportive (helping students and other members of the community implement their ideas to promote diversity and inclusion), and reactive when necessary (addressing problems that may arise in the psychology community and broader university).

Central to all activities of the faculty committee is a commitment to collaboration, transparency, self-reflection and assessment, equality, and using psychological science (when possible) to guide our activities and decision-making. 

We welcome new participation from any graduate students & postdocs who would like to contribute to a subcommittee. Most committees hold meetings about once a month (and then work on planned initiatives between meetings as needed).