The LAS Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is constituted to advise the Dean of LAS on matters of diversity, to support diversity initiatives in the college, and to serve as a conduit of information and communication between the Dean of the College and its faculty, staff, and students on diversity-related issues.  The committee is charged with identifying and highlighting both areas of strength and areas where attention is required, and with helping the college set diversity priorities.

Structure of the Committee

• The committee will be chaired by an LAS Associate Dean.
• The committee will be made up of 5-7 LAS faculty and staff with expertise in and experience with diversity issues. Members will be appointed by the Chair in consultation with the Dean for 3-year, renewable terms.

 Activities and Meetings

• The LAS Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion will monitor diversity and diversity initiatives in the college, reviewing data provided and requesting additional data as needed.
• The Committee will meet at least twice a year with the The LAS Council on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (see below) to discuss diversity-related issues.
• The Committee will meet at least once a year with the Student Advisory Council to hear the student perspective on diversity issues in the college. The committee will also invite LAS students to contact them with diversity-related thoughts or concerns.
• In addition, the Committee will meet once in advance of the first LAS Council on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion meeting. It is expected that the committee will meet approximately once a month, including the meetings with the Diversity Council, the Student Advisory Council, and the meeting to report to the Dean (see below).
• The Committee will administer select diversity initiatives undertaken by the college (e.g. a Dean’s Diversity Grant which supports programs aimed at promoting meaningful diversity).

 LAS Council on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

• The scope of diversity initiatives at the campus-, college-, and unit-level necessitate creating a vehicle for sharing both successes and concerns. The college will therefore establish an LAS Council on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, to which each academic unit within LAS will be asked to name a member.  The Council will serve as a conduit of information between the units and the college on matters related to diversity.
• The Council will meet with the LAS Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at least once a semester. These meetings will provide the opportunity for the committee to advise the council about diversity and diversity initiatives at the college-level, and for the Council to ask questions and to communicate to the committee successes, challenges, and observations from the units.
• Members of the Council may contact and consult the Committee about diversity-related issues at any time.

 Reports

• In the Spring Term, the Committee will meet with the Dean to report on the academic year’s activities.
• Once a year the Committee will give a report at an LAS faculty meeting.

Chair:
Marya Schechtman

Members:
Aixa Alfonso
Rachel Caidor
Andres Feldmann
Sandi Hall
Briana Hanny
Nicholas Huggett (on leave Spring 2021)
D’arcy Meyer-Dombard
Connie Zdenek (ex officio)

Diversity Initiative for Graduate Instructors: Workshop Series
Awarded to the Philosophy Department Graduate Program Coordinator and a 4th-Year graduate student to launch and run the Diversity Initiative for Graduate Instructors workshop series, aimed at bringing together UIC graduate instructors across LAS to combine resources and insights, tackle common issues, and examine pedagogy practice to learn together to make classes more accessible and inclusive. The awardees will coordinate with the Center for Teaching Excellence to transition the workshop and any resulting data, case studies, and relevant other information into their future programming for graduate student instructors.

Increasing Gender Diversity among Economics Majors
Awarded to four faculty in Economics (including the Director of Undergraduate Studies) to develop four special events involving four carefully selected female guest speakers to present their research at a level that is accessible to students with little knowledge of economics. These speakers will also be part of a panel that will include one or two of the proposers and some other students to provide information about the economics major at UIC. They will also develop a mentoring program for students enrolled in ECON 120, matching advanced students with students in the introductory-level course. Both initiatives will help students in general, but both will be tailored with the special aim of increasing the percentage of women who choose to major in ECON, addressing widespread gender inequality in the field.

Academic Advising Staff Mentoring Program
Awarded to four members of the LAS Academic Advising staff to better support advisors of color through a mentorship program for new and veteran advisors of color, or from historically marginalized backgrounds. This will be a two-tier program that pairs incoming advisors in the relevant groups with veteran mentors and mentorship of the veteran advisors who are mentors to incoming advisors by LAS professionals in advanced administrative or leadership roles. There is also money for professional development in the form of conference attendance by one or two pairs of mentors and mentees.

Highlighting Diverse Identities to Empower the Next Generation of Mathematicians and Scientists
Awarded to faculty in Earth and Environmental Science and Chemistry, and staff at the Math and Science Learning Center to support positive science and math identity development in students by celebrating diversity and creating a sense of belonging through a photo backdrop installation at the Math and Science Learning Center that leverages the hashtags #ThisIsWhatAScientistLooksLike and #ThisIsWhatAMathematicianLooksLike that have been popular in social media campaigns to increase the visibility of women, minorities, first-generation experiences, individuals with disabilities, the LGBTQIA+ community and more. There are three main components to this initiative – a student designed photo backdrop competition, promotion of the hashtags on social media, and a showcasing of the photos and stories of our students on a display in the MSCL. There will also be a student design competition for two wall graphics.

The LAS Council on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion was constituted to provide a venue for the individual units to exchange information with the College (through an LAS Associate Dean and the LAS Diversity Committee) and with each other.

ANTH – Anna Roosevelt
BIOS – Teresa Orenic
BLST – Cynthia Blair
CHEM – Xiaojing Yang
COMM – Kishonna Gray
CLJ – Alana Gunn
ECON – Javaeria Qureshi
EAES – Kimberly Van Meter
ENGL – Madhu Dubey
GWS – Ronak Kapadia
HIST – Joaquin Chavez
LALS – Andreas Feldmann
LSRI – Josh Radinsky
MSCS – Alina Cojocaru
PHIL – Daniel Sutherland
PHYS – Misha Stephanov
POLS – Alexa Filindra
PSYCH – Dan Cervone
SOC – Michael Emerson
SLCSL – Liliana Sanchez and Krishni Burns