General Meetings. POWUR holds weekly general meetings in which we discuss ongoing and future projects designed to meet the needs of undergraduates, graduate students, staff members, and post-doctoral researchers. All non-faculty members of the department are welcome, and members of adjacent departments, such as Earth and Planetary Sciences, Chemistry, and Biophysics regularly participate. These meetings have been a driver of community building through sharing of experiences in “Win/Loss” - a segment of the meeting where members share a “win” they had recently as well as a “loss.” This not only builds strong personal bonds among members as they become aware of what our colleagues are experiencing, but also helps to raise awareness of ongoing issues that might be possible to address through action and self-advocacy. Funds from the APS WIP Grant have previously been used to provide refreshments for these meetings, as well as supplies to create a bulletin board advertising the group.

Socials. POWUR holds quarterly socials that serve to both advertise our group to new students and build community through activities such as trivia, board games, and video games. This grant has previously funded refreshments for such events. During COVID, these socials have transitioned to online, and provide a space where students can build community in response to the isolated nature of online classes. We have had several online socials so far, and plan to increase the frequency to bi-weekly at the request of our membership.

Inclusivity seminars. Last year, POWUR began inviting experts in the social sciences to give special seminars on topics related to diversity, equity, & inclusion to the whole department to spread awareness and information of these issues. Our first talk was titled “Creating a positive racial climate through understanding microaggressions” given by Dr. Rita Kohli of the UCR Graduate School of Education, while the second was titled “Broadening participation in STEM by reducing stereotype threat.” We are planning to hold a third in January 2020 with another guest speaker from the Graduate School of Education. While COVID has impacted our ability to have in-person events, we plan to proceed with virtual seminars, allowing us to host speakers from distant institutions while circumventing travel expenses. With future speakers, we plan to cover the topics such as inclusive, data-driven assessment techniques.

Excursions. POWUR has hosted one excursion and plans to host more once travel is deemed safe. These excursions are open to anyone and they serve as both outreach for our group as well as for the discipline of Physics and Astronomy as the destinations are chosen to be places of particular scientific interest. Our first excursion was to the UC Irvine Nuclear Reactor, where attendees were able to witness Cherenkov radiation first hand. Future destinations include the Palomar Observatory in northern San Diego county, as well as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Mt Wilson Observatory in Pasadena. Funds from this grant were used towards a previous excursion that took place in February 2020.

Outreach. POWUR is also involved in community outreach. Our members are encouraged to volunteer for public outreach events held by the Department of Physics and Astronomy. We have also held our own events, such as a visit from the science club of a local under-priviledged high school where we discussed inclusivity in STEM as well as career paths to becoming a scientist, with a focus on community college as a stepping stone to success.

Lectures. POWUR has been invited to give guest lectures on diversity in higher education to both the graduate and undergraduate courses on professional development within the Department of Physics and Astronomy. This is an opportunity for POWUR members to develop professional skills such as public speaking, as well as for the attendees to receive formal training from colleagues who are certified by the university in DEI work.

Colloquium speakers. POWUR has been promoting student requests for colloquium speakers for several years now. Prior to POWUR’s involvement, invited colloquium speakers were predominantly white, male, late career physicists. POWUR’s involvement has changed this to a more even split between late & early career physicists, as well as a minimum of half of invited speakers being womxn. POWUR has also introduced regular student meetings to the regular schedule with invited speakers to discuss research and career experiences. This also gives students access to advice and mentorship from people in a variety of different careers. Several speakers have remarked about their positive experience and the unique structure of these student meetings that allowed them to reflect on challenges in their careers.

Advancing Faculty Diversity. POWUR has also contributed to the cause of diversity among the ranks of faculty members. We participated in the Advancing Faculty Diversity initiative, which was funded partially based on our previous diversity work, in which we interviewed faculty candidates and made recommendations to the department based on our assessment of their prior diversity work and what contributions they plan to make to diversity at UCR.

Community Workshops. POWUR began hosting community workshops with the entire department starting in June of 2020 with an event called “Speak Truth With POWUR” that was organized as a racial literacy journal club, with discussion about anti-racism in our teaching and function as a department. This was followed up with a series of three Equity Workshops in collaboration with the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences and the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The purpose of these workshops has been to build a culture of community involvement and shared responsibility so that the needs of graduate students can more easily be met by department leadership, as well as a way to foster more fluid communication about ways to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion within the department ranks. As part of this, the Department has begun an initiative to hold town halls to hear concerns and questions, as well as give updates on activities within the department. Future community workshops will include topics such as creating inclusive syllabi.

APS-IDEA. Beginning this year, POWUR led the entry of the UCR Department of Physics and Astronomy to the APS Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity Alliance (IDEA). POWUR members, along with faculty and university administrators, are a core part of the UCR team that participates in this intra-university initiative intended to transform the culture of physics departments across the country along community based principles. In partnership with several other campuses, we are collaboratively exploring research based practices that will enable our department to identify core values around climate, diversity, and inclusion, before turning those values into a sustainable long-term practice.

Certificates. Several senior members of POWUR hold advanced university certificates in the fields of Education and Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion and Science Policy. POWUR encourages its members to apply for these programs while providing mentorship and guidance to those seeking to apply.

Book Club. POWUR hosted its inaugural book club in the summer of 2020, hosting weekly meetings to discuss the reading material. We received suggestions from our membership, and due to the heightened racial climate of the time, elected to read "Are Prisons Obsolete?" by Angela Davis. We plan to hold future book clubs on both fiction and non-fiction works.