Chemical and Physical Sciences EDI Committee
Departmental Climate and Demographic Survey
Unlearning Racism Program (UR-CPS)
Additional Link to CPS Activities
Chemical and Physical Sciences EDI Committee
The Department of Chemical & Physical Sciences formed an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee in 2020-2021. The committee includes faculty members, staff, emerti faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and undergraduate students.
The committee drives internal and external efforts to promote EDI across the department and support other CPS committees in implementing EDI best practices.
Responsibilities:
- Work to promote and support an equitable, diverse, and inclusive community within CPS
- Engage with the EDI specialist to identify specific, actionable examples of inequity that need to be addressed within the CPS community
- Identify ways in which the EDI lens can be applied to all departmental committees or communities within CPS
- Coordinate with the EDI specialist on changes to CPS policies, procedures, and strategies in support of EDI (e.g., developing a departmental code, creating recruitment strategies, building EDI principles into the curriculum, developing fundraising strategies to reduce financial barriers, strategizing around mentoring plans, planning to recognize and/or compensate contributions to EDI work)
- Coordinate with the EDI specialist on the planning and implementation of events (e.g., developing workshops, training, seminars, recruitment, and community engagement events)
CPS conducted a survey in spring 2023, intended to guide the efforts of the Department of Chemical and Physical Sciences to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion within our community. We require data to ensure that we’re targeting the right problems in the right way, and to track our progress over time.
We will repeat this survey annually, publishing the resulting report, good and bad, on our website, along with our plan for addressing any concerns that are raised.
See link for full information on the 2023 CPS Climate and Demographic Survey
CPS offers training on a variety of EDI-related topics at least two times a year. Events thus far have included:
- April 15 & 24, 2022: Indigenous Cultural Competency Training, John Crouch, Indigenous Training Coordinator at the Office of Indigenous Initiatives, University of Toronto
- April 12, 2023: Topical Training: Combatting Islamaphobia on Campus, Aasiyah Khan, National Council of Canadian Muslims
- December 6, 2023: Understanding and Addressing Antisemitism, presented by Dr. Shari Golberg, Ontario Public Service
- April 17, 2024: Roots & Routes: Confronting Anti-Black Racism Beyond May 25, 2024 - Prof. Christopher Taylor
Led by graduate students, this 8-week program is aimed at exploring racism in STEM fields through reading and conversation. Grad students ran a group in summer 2021, and also ran a program open to undergraduates in winter 2022.
As part of this program, students participate in informal discussions to unlearn racism and gain knowledge to form educated opinions about how academia can do better to address institutionalized and systematic racism. Participants are awarded with a training certificate, and have the opportunity to help improve policies for future UTM CPS students.
This program’s curriculum was inspired by and adapted from URGE© Unlearning Racism in Geosciences for an interdisciplinary STEM audience.
The department is also active in supporting and organizing EDI-related public events.
- November 27, 2020: CPS held a screening and follow-up discussion of the documentary film Picture a Scientist
- February 22, 2022: CPS hosted Dr. Freeman Hrabowski III for the E.A. Robinson Lecture on his experience in creating the extremely successful Meyerhoff Scholars Program for outstanding Black undergraduates in STEM fields
- September 20, 2022: CPS co-sponsored the performance of the one-woman show TruthValues
The department provides a number of resources for graduate students, including a student manual, and funding for conference and research travel, degree completion, pedagogic and professional development, and support during parental leave. CPS provides a graduate student handbook. The department also recently introduced Mentor Café, a program pairing senior and incoming graduate students to help the latter navigate their entry to UTM.
CPS faculty and graduate students worked to draft a document that can serve as a template for an agreement that supervisors and lab members mutually commit to in order to facilitate a successful professional relationship and create a positive lab culture. It also clarifies what lab members can reasonably expect from their supervisor and other members of their lab and, correspondingly, what the supervisor and other lab members can reasonably expect of them. It further establishes guidelines for interactions in the lab that should encourage the development of a respectful, collegial, and productive relationship among all lab members and the development of successful professional scientists. At its core, this document is intended to create a working and training environment in which all members of the lab can flourish. The lab agreement is to be shared with all faculty and lab members on an annual basis.
CPS initiated and was the inaugural participant in the UTM STEM Scholars Program. This program is actively working to address and mitigate the persisting structural and systemic barriers that limit access to STEM education among historically underrepresented populations.
In acknowledgment of the persisting barriers to inclusion that impact Black students in STEM, the pilot of the UTM STEM Scholars Program provides incoming Black students with a comprehensive support system to promote academic success in STEM disciplines throughout their undergraduate careers at UTM. Available through a competitive application process, students admitted to the UTM STEM Scholars Program are offered a full-tuition scholarship (plus fees), renewable for four years of undergraduate study; are enrolled in a fully funded, 7-week residential Summer Bridge program; receive special tutoring assistance in first-year science courses; have access to academic and personal mentorship throughout their undergraduate career at UTM; and are eligible for paid research opportunities each summer. By combining academic and non-academic supports from across campus, the UTM STEM Scholars Program will build a sense of belonging and encourage students to collaborate with, support, and inspire one another.
More than a transition program, the goal of the UTM STEM Scholars Program is to provide ongoing academic supports that will allow UTM to better retain students from underrepresented communities in STEM. In addition to building a community of Black undergraduate scientists, the program promotes the development of science identity and science efficacy through experiential learning, providing students with paid opportunities to engage in cutting-edge research projects under the guidance of faculty mentors. This unique program structure ensures that students will gain practical knowledge, develop problem-solving abilities, and deepen their understanding of scientific methodologies, not only enhancing their academic profiles but increasing their competitiveness for graduate education and career opportunities.