CDEI September Update from the Chair
September update from CDEI chair, Liz Litzler
Hello dear CDEI stakeholders,
As part of my promise to make CDEI more transparent, I’m sharing a monthly update on what the Commission is up to. You’ll also be getting more “just-in-time” emails with other quick announcements. Also, part of my mission this year is to make sure that racial justice and anti-racism work remains top of mind for us all. In that vein, here is a CDEI Hot tip which comes from one of our CDEI members, Kimberly Cook Chennault!
CDEI Hot Tip: We should all:
1) Pay attention to the lack of inclusion of Black scholars in conducting research and in citations of research. This invisibility negatively impacts scholars’ quality of life in terms of recognition in the field and career progression at people’s respective institutions.
2) Do something: Make sure to cite Black engineering education scholars next time you write a paper (It’s ASEE Abstract time!) and reach out to Black scholars to be co-PIs on your next research project.
Follow our YouTube Channel so that you don’t miss a thing from our virtual workshops.
Many of our seven committees have been busy with CDEI work, and so have the chairs. Here’s what is going on:
Chairs Updates: We are in the process of reviewing nominations for our newly vacated Member at Large position. We will be sharing the good news about our new member soon. We are working to get CDEI set up in the new ASEE Hub. Since our member list isn’t in Monolith, it isn’t a very straightforward process L. The chairs also talked with some ABET staff/leaders about their new DEI Advisory Council and gave advice about how to be successful. We also drafted a new budget for the 2020-2021 year so that we have some resources to do our work.
Awards: We have new co-chairs of this committee- Karin Jensen, Teaching Assistant Professor at University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, and Katey Shirey, STEAM Education Consultant at eduKatey LLC,. Thanks to Karin and Katey for being willing to lead this. We will be rolling out our new ASEE Constituent Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award this year in addition to our Best DEI Paper award–so there will be lots to do on this committee!
Communications: We have a new Scholar Spotlight series that Communications is starting. Check out the first Spotlight of Dr. Homero Murzi. It’s awesome! Communications has created a timeline/plan for posting content on our CDEI Blog. We will no longer send out a quarterly newsletter- instead, you’ll find all the same sorts of information posted on the blog over time. Once we get the CDEI hub group set up we’ll post links to our new blog content there.
Conference Planning: Conference planning is working on firming up the list of volunteers and trying to figure out how we will adapt if the conference is virtual again next year. This committee’s work gets busier later in the year. See the PD committee for information about submitting a proposal to the Annual Conference.
Partnerships: This committee is going to focus on developing a toolkit to help divisions execute DEI strategies. We are so excited to share this with Divisions when it is ready.
Policy & Letters: This committee provided feedback on the DEI language in a Bylaws Template that ASEE is working on. We forwarded our feedback to the ASEE President and Executive Director for them to take to the ASEE Board of Directors. They are also working on a policy statement regarding the toll of the pandemic on diversity in academic personnel and a response to the recent Executive Order extending the ban on ‘sensitivity training’ to federal contractors.
Professional Development: The CDEI 2020-21 Call for Proposals is Live (PDF CFP). Use this link to propose an annual conference workshop or to propose a virtual workshop. This committee is also piloting a new cohort based Community of Practice/Peer mentoring groups for people to connect with and learn from others about diversity, equity, and inclusion in engineering. Expect to hear more about this soon! Finally, some PD team members are also collecting data to determine how best to serve pre-college educators, so we’ll let you know what we determine there.
Strategic Planning and Assessment: This committee is focusing on multiple tasks this year, some of which include helping CDEI transition from Operating Procedures to Bylaws now that we are a commission, revising our strategic plan, streamlining assessment mechanisms, and drafting sections of the CDEI Annual Report to show our progress.
ASEE Headquarters is offering on a very relevant 3-hour Workshop on October 28th called “Replacing Implicit Bias: Recognize, Reconsider, and Respond” (October 28, 2020 from 11 AM – 2 PM, ET): https://resources.asee.org/replacing-implicit-bias/. Sign up and put it on your calendar—ASEE members get a discounted fee of $125
In Solidarity,
Liz Litzler
CDEI Chair 2020-2021