Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA)
EPS is committed to taking meaningful action against racism by being anti-racist.
The University of California has made a valued effort to promote, foster, and defend diversity within its structural foundation through its Diversity Statement. It has made equity and inclusion one of the measuring benchmarks for excellence among faculty, researchers, students, and staff. We attest that these qualities are necessary and that for the most part, are working for the intended targeted groups, However, if EPS is to sustain and justify its position as a top-ranking department, its diversity and inclusion platform must continue to meet the programmatic needs of its constituency. We must ensure the retention, promotion, intellectual, and emotional development of our members. Our ambition is for:
- Everyone to feel included in the EPS mission and welcome to all EPS activities;
- undergraduate demographics to roughly resemble those admitted to Berkeley;
- graduate student, postdoc, and faculty demographics - being drawn from a global community - may not resemble California, but should roughly resemble our scientific societies.
These three goals provide a starting point for assessing how we are making progress.
Department Values
In our preparation for the department's strategic plan, we adopt the following guidelines:
- EPS has an academic mission.
- We advance this mission with a comprehensive dedication to equity and accessibility for all those who are or wish to be members of our community.
- We promote inquiry.
- We build community and allyship.
- We sustain cohesion.
- We acknowledge that success can only be achieved through thoughtful allyship, practicing a culture of coalition building, and engaging others intentionally.
Ongoing Action Items
- We ensure that we have diverse colloquium speakers and include seminars addressing diversity.
- We have run open faculty searches to get the most diverse pool of applicants.
- Our faculty are engaged in DEIA efforts through scientific, professional, and other non-profit societies and institutions including AGU, GSA, and the National Academy.
- Faculty, students, and postdocs engaged in the Unlearning Racism in Geoscience (URGE) initiative including creating one of the inclusivity tips recordings. Their deliverables were incorporated into the department's strategic plan for diversity, equity, inclusion, access, and implementation and were summarized in an AGU presentation.
- We acknowledge and disavow the racist views of the founder of our department, Joseph LeConte.
- We provide implicit bias training and cover the costs of antiracist reading material.
- We are providing field equipment and outdoor wear for those who need financial help to engage in geoscience education and experiences. If you are a student in need of financial help or accommodations to fully participate in field components of an EPS course please contact epsua@berkeley.edu
Library Guide
Thanks to our dedicated cohort of EPS graduate students and in partnership with the Earth Sciences & Map Library, we are happy to provide a Library Guide with suggestions on how to increase and improve equity and inclusion in the geosciences.
Get Involved
If you would like to contribute to our efforts or have any questions please contact the department chair, Micheal Manga (mmanga@berkeley.edu).
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