We want to thank participants for their insightful and honest responses. This survey highlights a number of areas of particular concern for the Department, and we are grateful to participants for the broad range of excellent suggestions they offered on where improvements can be made. In order to focus our response, we held two community meetings – one with faculty in October 2023 and one with other members of the department in January 2024 – to collect feedback and discuss next steps. The Departmental EDI committee then used the results of the survey and feedback from these meetings to formulate a plan of action. As we continue to facilitate these surveys, this plan will be revised.
Theme 1: Community
Undergraduate students report feeling a lower sense of belonging in the department, with non-binary respondents less satisfied with the department climate compared to men and women and Muslim respondents less satisfied than Christian participants. We plan to:
- Host additional community-building events for undergraduate students but with strong faculty participation, including student town halls organized by disciplinary Faculty Advisors and undergraduate social events (e.g., Winter Warmer) organized by the CPS Outreach Committee.
- Build undergraduate community and connections with alumni through linked Quercus and LinkedIn pages, organized by the CPS Outreach Committee.
- Support undergraduate clubs associated with CPS by assigning Faculty Liaisons to increase faculty engagement and investigate ways in which the Department may provide needed logistical or financial resources.
- Create opportunities for students to connect in lectures, labs, and tutorials through discussion, group work, and group learning activities.
Explore and address differences in response by demographic groups within our community with support from the Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Office and Student Affairs & Services.
Theme 2: Addressing Incidents of Harassment
There were reports of discrimination and exclusion in the survey. Amongst undergraduate respondents these incidents occurred primarily in lecture, laboratory, or tutorial sessions. Non-undergraduate respondents reported incidents primarily occurring at departmental and social events or in research laboratories. Respondents also identified a power imbalance between graduate students and faculty that makes reporting incidents problematic.
- Continue the Departmental Topical Training series, offering additional sessions throughout the year with a focus on education, practical training, and discussion.
- Complete and implement “cultural safety modules” centered around equity, diversity, and inclusion that must be completed as part of general safety training before gaining access to CPS laboratory spaces. This work is being undertaken by the CPS EDI Committee.
- Make it easier and safer to report incidents of harassment by developing a simplified document that outlines how incidents can be reported, sharing it on the EDI tab of the CPS website and in orientation materials.
Promote the CPS Laboratory and Field Agreement template by sharing it annually with community members, particularly entering graduate students, to provide PIs and lab members a framework for discussion and articulation of mutual responsibilities.
Theme 3: Faculty Diversity
Many respondents highlighted the lack of diverse faculty as an area of concern. CPS considers this both a pipeline and a process problem.
- Contribute to increasing the number of Black applicants for faculty positions in general through continued support of the UTM STEM Scholars Program.
- Provide greater career and professional development support for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in the Department, including mentoring, support of student clubs, development of handbooks, and website resources.
- Address the critical postdoctoral fellowship phase of a faculty career track by offering financial support for faculty who implement best practices in PDF recruitment.
- Continue to employ best practices around advertising and attracting diverse candidates and bringing awareness of unconscious bias to the search process. Explore opportunities for hiring diverse faculty through University Programs.