Please visit our new website:  https://sites.google.com/umn.edu/gwipaumn

Purpose of GWiPA

GWiPA is the Gender-Minorities and Women in Physics and Astronomy graduate student group at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. We provide support to students who identify as gender minorities and women, as well as advocate for change within the physics and astronomy departments, with the goals of both improving the climate and increasing graduate level enrollment, retention, and graduation rates. We work to build strong ties within the graduate student and postdoc community, develop professional and personal connections to faculty minoritized by gender, and collaborate on events with undergraduate women and gender minorities in the department. In line with our mission to advance and support those minoritized by gender, our group welcomes participants of all gender identities.

What are our organization’s primary goals?

Our organization focuses on support and advocacy. The advocacy work that we do  mainly involves pressing for macro and structural change, particularly within the department. An example of this is the annual report that we circulate to the department following our winter cabin retreat. Additionally, we believe that in order to advocate effectively for our peers, students need to feel comfortable showing up, being involved, and sharing their experiences. This is why a key pillar of the support that we provide is social support through community-building. Socializing with other astrophysicists and physicists of underrepresented genders is a great avenue to achieve this community building. Some events, like monthly lunches, are socially focused and lay the groundwork for a support system amongst peers. Additionally, we aim to provide structural and navigational academic support, such as navigating an advisor-advisee relationship, finding an advisor, and handling the academic stress associated with being minoritized due to gender.

Who does our organization primarily serve?

We primarily advocate for graduate students in the School of Physics and Astronomy (SPA). Broader outreach work, such as volunteering with high school students, extends past the current goals of our organization and resources. While our organization primarily focuses on graduate students, which does require reserving spaces just for graduate students, we believe postdocs are an important part of our community. We believe that having postdocs involved, such as attending lunches and sharing opinions on changes in the department, is vital and mutually beneficial. We believe that we can build solidarity and community across employment types in ways that provide meaningful support. Additionally, building relationships with postdocs and researchers allows graduate students to see themselves in the “next stage” of academia. Note that we do not include faculty in these events because of power differentials and the unique positionality that graduate students and postdocs occupy. GWiPA aims to advocate for change that affects both graduate students and postdocs, which makes their connection to the organization very helpful to current and future students and postdocs. 

GWiPA also plans to work with UWiPA on some dual events, but the two groups (GWiPA and uW+iPA) serve two distinct populations. The goal of our work with UWiPA is to provide experience and advice, as needed. For example, we can share our experiences being in graduate school, going through the application process, or help undergraduates get involved with research opportunities. By collaborating on events, we also increase the visibility of women and gender minorities in graduate school, which can enhance undergraduates’ sense of belonging in the field. Additionally, in order to create structural and systemic change, we believe we need communication between advocacy groups and to work together and to push for larger change, when appropriate. 

How do we see the officers’ role in this organization and what avenues do we want/expect students to seek support?

The organization will prioritize intentional programming to foster a strong community and relationship-building between members to allow meaningful levels of support. We expect the officers to foster authentic discussion and facilitate building new connections among members. Positioned as liaisons in the department, we anticipate that students will turn to the officers for support. Officers are expected to listen, show solidarity, direct students to the appropriate resources, and bring up issues to other officers (and the department) as required. Only with consent will an officer bring grievances to the other GWiPA officers to better advocate for a student. Our most important avenue of support is keeping our ears to the ground and identifying structural and individual issues of discrimination or minoritization, and then fighting for structural and macro-level change accordingly. We acknowledge that being minoritized is stressful, so it is important that officers hold space for others who are experiencing those challenges as well. We want to emphasize that the officers are not counselors. They do not have the training to fulfill that role and are not expected to solve individual problems brought to us by our peers. We instead are peers with the organizing power to act as effective liaisons with the department.