CDEI November Update from the Chair
Hello dear CDEI standing members, delegates, and friends,
I hope you will forgive my late update this month. I took some much needed time off this past week in advance of Thanksgiving and Native American Heritage day. The CDEI November 2020 Updates include:
1. CDEI hot tips
2. Upcoming CDEI meetings
3. CDEI November updates
1. CDEI hot tips
This month’s CDEI hot tip about the importance of both individual awareness building and shifting our environments and systems comes from our CDEI members Kimberly Cook-Chenault and Alice Squires.
CDEI hot tip #1
Engineers and scientists, as the creators and gatekeepers of technology, determine the cultural breadth of engineering designs. In the same way, therefore, that we seek to broaden our knowledge of unfamiliar disciplines to improve on our works, so too must we broaden our understanding of cultures that are different from our personal experience, to create diverse, inclusive, and equitable designs. In this context, culture is intentionally a broad term. The more we learn about other cultures, the more we understand that we are part of a much larger global community. In order to be the best at what we do, therefore, it is imperative that we broaden our worldview to include all peoples.
– Alice Squires
CDEI hot tip #2
There are many perspectives and approaches to solving challenging engineering and science problems, and as members of this community, we must be holistic in our approaches towards learning, teaching, and engaging in strategies that enable a diverse, inclusive, and equitable environment for participation of all.
– Kimberly Cook-Chenault
CDEI hot tip #3
In order to put these tips into action, consider learning about culturally responsive teaching from Geneva Gay and Gloria Ladson-Billings, which helps us change the systems experienced by learners in our schools. If you didn’t get a chance to learn about other cultures through reading and watching and listening during this Native American Heritage month, please consider doing so before the end of the year. There are so many great Indigenous authors, artists, and filmmakers; “There, There” by Tommy Orange was a highlight of my reading this year.
2. Upcoming CDEI meetings
Here are our upcoming CDEI meetings which all members (standing members, delegates, and friends) are encouraged to attend. Add these to your calendar. You’ll find the meeting links posted in our group on the ASEE Hub. For those of you that are new to the CDEI, we offer two times options to maximize participation. Content will be the same across the meetings, so you only need to attend one of them. Hope to see you there!
Mark your calendar for February 2021
All Hands call option 1: Thursday February 25th at 10am PT/ 11am MT/ 12pm CT/ 1pm ET
All Hands call option 2: Friday February 26th at 1pm PT/ 2pm MT/ 3pm CT/ 4pm ET
Mark your calendar for June 2021
All Hands CDEI Business Meeting before the Annual Conference: Thursday 6/10/2021 10am-11:30am Pacific/1pm-2:30pm Eastern
ASEE CDEI Social before the Annual Conference: Thursday 6/17/2021 3pm-4:30pm Pacific/ 6pm-7:30pm Eastern
3. CDEI November updates
Here are the CDEI November updates:
Chairs Updates: Our Distinguished Lecture Panel “Black in Engineering: A Social Justice Movement for the Academy” with Carlotta Berry, Monica Cox, Chris Carr, and Tahira Reid was accepted. It is currently planned for 6/30/2021 from 1:45pm-3:15pm.
Awards: This is the inaugural year for our new ASEE Constituent Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award. Please make sure your division/section/zone knows about this award and encourage them to apply! Also be sure to nominate papers from your constituent group for the Best DEI Paper award.
Communications: We have two Scholar Spotlights posted on the blog and another one will be coming out soon. Our CDEI Blog is active- check it out for CDEI updates and professional development. We are also tweeting- if you want us to re-tweet your DEI work, please complete this form to let us know what to tweet.
Conference Planning: Conference planning committee will meet again in Late January. We hear that ASEE will make the decision about whether the conference will be virtual after January 2021.
Partnerships: This committee met to discuss a delegate toolkit that will help divisions to incorporate DEI work into their work.
Policy & Letters: This committee worked on a response to the recent Executive Order extending the ban on ‘sensitivity training’ to federal contractors. The CDEI chairs team utilized all that work to create something shorter and more targeted for the Prism piece that will be published (read it now on our blog).
Professional Development: This committee started their Cultivating Inclusive Communities program on 10/29 with 118 participants! The small groups are closed to new folks at this time, but you can still participate in the broader community: Sign up to join in. The free Virtual Workshop Series is continuing with one more session this year: Register now:
12/18/20 @ 2 PM ET: Black Engineering Faculty Speak, by Dr. Carlotta Berry, Dr. Monica Cox, and Dr. Tahira Reid [Learn More | Register]
Strategic Planning and Assessment: This is doing some really hard thought work about our vision and mission, our goals, and how to link our objectives and outcomes. They are drafting our new bylaws and putting together an updated strategic plan. We are planning to have the Bylaws and Strategic Plan ready for ASEE Board review at their January meeting.
Corporate Member Council: CMC will be supporting CoNECD and the Engineering Deans Institute this year. They have also been working on the plans for Industry Day at ASEE 2021. They are working on other resources about global engineering and will share those with us when ready.
In Solidarity,
CDEI 2020-2021 Chair, Dr. Litzler
Liz Litzler
CDEI Chair 2020-2021