Faculty and staff in Chemistry and Biochemistry have committed to holding regular community meetings in which we hope both to listen to current student experiences and concerns and also to share our planned actions and report back on those in progress. At each meeting, we will provide anonymous spaces to share feedback and ask questions. We hope this will create space to share honestly and openly -- even the hard stuff. We want to make space to hear what is working and where we must do better.
Our next community meeting will be held in Fall 2022 (date and time TBD)
Topic(s): TBD
Have something you'd like to discuss? Please share it with us here. At all meetings, there will be time for "new business" for students to share thoughts, concerns, and suggestions about any other topics they'd like to discuss more at future meetings.
Because not every community member will be able to attend each meeting, we will share bullet point minutes to share topics discussed at each meeting. These notes will be abbreviated to ensure anonymity of participants.
Minutes coming soon
Tuesday, November 9, 2021, 12-1 pm. 24 attendees (13 faculty/staff, 11 students)
Community Check-In:
We started the meeting with a check-in. Many in our community are feeling tired and stressed. Some are also feeling sad, lonely, and angry. It has been difficult to return to in-person learning after a year online.
Update from Chem/Biochem DEI Working Group on Student Research (follow-up from April 2021 meeting):
Goals: To make research experiences better and process for joining research groups more transparent
Resources available on or linked from the Chem/Biochem Anti-Racism Community Website (under the "Additional Resources" tab) were highlighted, including "How to Join a Research Lab".
A draft of the new 295/395 research application for chemistry/biochemistry was shared and discussed
This application is based on one newly implemented by Biology, which can be found here.
Students expressed a mix of positive feedback and constructive criticism. Ideas for improvement/changes included:
Lowering the barrier for having "references". Instead, ask students to list a few faculty/instructors who have gotten to know them.
Changing the format for indicating courses taken. Fill in rather than check list, so applicants can feel empowered by the courses they have taken, rather than being reminded of courses yet to take.
Reconsidering the requirement/expectation that students contact/meet with faculty before applying. This is a barrier for students who don't have "social capital" to make those connections.
Next meeting in Spring 2022, date and topic TBA
Thursday, April 22, 2021, 4 pm. 18 attendees (9 faculty, 2 staff, 7 students)
Follow up on anti-racism website:
Suggestion to link to our department website, perhaps add a friendly getting-to-know-us page.
Reminder from students that faculty should remind students about this website more than once, not just post to Moodle.
Still in progress: revisit whether we can link this website to the official Chemistry and Biochemistry webpages.
Discussion around access and barriers to research opportunities:
Doing research for credit is not always a good option for BIPOC and low-income students due to the need to do longer work-studies. Is there a way that we can think about financial support as an alternative to working for credit to make research experiences more available to those who might not have had the time to participate?
Prerequisites can be (or seem) like a barrier, especially if students have negative experiences early in a course/lab in the department.
Students can feel as though they need research experience to get involved in a lab at MHC. Not all high schools provide this experience. If “no prior research experience” is required, we should be explicit about that.
Labs (and all the equipment in them) are intimidating. Some peers have seen this stuff in high school and it’s intimidating when you have no idea what they are talking about. Could we do lab open houses to stop by labs and see the type of instruments they use? Bonus: maybe meet folks in the lab, too!
Chem199 (intro to research) has been hugely helpful to students. Is there more we can do to get more students involved / advertise more extensively / incorporate elements of this curriculum into other intro courses?
Discussion of the importance of normalizing that it is ok to switch labs if the research experience isn’t serving you or the environment isn’t a match (or stop research if you want to pursue something else). This is important, not just at MHC, but in future student research/job experiences.
Tuesday, February 23, 2021, 11:30 am. 26 attendees (16 faculty/staff, 10 students)
Two new mechanisms being introduced as a result of conversation at previous meetings:
Creation of a Chem/Biochem Anonymous Google form (not for bias incidents) for reporting of any student feedback to be shared with the Biochem/Chem programs
One of the goals is to use the form to ensure the department is proactive about responding to bias
This is not the official institutional channel for reporting incidents of bias
Chem/Biochem Anti-Racism Community Website- this is one mechanism for accountability and transparency in our anti-racism work. Tabs that are included on the website provide information/access to:
Feedback for the Biochem/Chem programs- linked to Google form
Minutes from Community Meetings
Additional Resources – Independent study/research information
Biochemistry Equity Lab
Summer internship opportunities
Discussion of how feedback communicated to the programs will be acted on. There is not a current outlined procedure- we are learning by doing this work and will seek additional resources from the institution when necessary.
Next meeting will occur after BOOM
Wednesday, November 18, 2020, 4:30 p.m. 19 attendees (13 faculty/staff, 6 students)
Update about our work to create a feedback form:
College in final stages of a new bias reporting form - being rolled out in the Spring - new mechanism might have more information coming forth with that.
Students expressed a strong desire to have a more local mechanism of sharing feedback.
Transparency is important - what happens if submit to one mechanism vs. another. Important to make information about how to report incidents of bias and what happens more clear -- statement on top of Moodle pages.
Educating students about campus resources like what an "Ombudsperson" is would be very helpful.
We will continue to offer opportunities to share feedback anonymously in advance and during each community meeting, whether or not a student would like that to be read aloud.
Increasing student involvement in future meetings:
Change up times of future meetings to increase attendance
Make goals and expectations more clear
Wednesday, September 30, 2020, 4:30 p.m. 32 attendees
Attendees are here: to be heard, to feel supported; to feel in community with one another; to listen, learn; to better advocate for BIPOC students and colleagues.
Students would especially like to:
Hear specific plans of Biochem/Chem to address racism and injustice
Hear specifically what individual faculty plan to do to address racism and injustice
Overt racism happening in our professional world in Chemistry, etc. Can we discuss these as a community?
Microaggressions in labs, with students not wanting to partner with black students, not just white students but other POC
Reporting bias: how to lower the barrier, make more visible the path to share about bias -- by faculty, staff or other students. What actions will be taken after reporting an incident?