ASEE Diversity > DEIcommittee > Blog > Chair's blog > CDEI January 2021 Update from the Chair

CDEI January 2021 Update from the Chair

Hello dear CDEI standing members, delegates, and friends,

I hope that you were able to take some time off during winter break, and had an opportunity to refresh and relax.  I used part of the break to work on sewing a quilt that I’ve been slowly working on for the past year or so, and it was so nice to have that creative time.  And now we are back to work, and CDEI has some great new resources for you!

Hot tip:  CDEI members Stephen Secules and Cassandra McCall wrote an awesome blog for us that includes strategies for educators, for researchers, and community members to enhance inclusion in engineering education. I encourage you to read the whole blog post. One of their strategies that I’m sharing as the CDEI Hot tip is simple but really powerful: Listen to your students when they come to you with concerns or questions; do not make assumptions regarding student experience. https://diversity.asee.org/deicommittee/2020/12/11/taking-a-deeper-look-at-diversity-through-inclusion/

Hot tip: Is your organization hiring with a goal of increasing diversity and inclusion?

  1. Create job announcements that are intentional in the recruitment of underrepresented racial minority groups. Beyond stating that diversity and inclusion are important to the organization, job announcements should highlight specific ways that hiring practices, the organization’s policies, and the collective community including the surrounding area demonstrate a commitment to the inclusion of underrepresented racial minority groups.
  2. Organizations can further include clear descriptions of technical skills and past contributions that would be valued from applicants that speak towards the interests of underrepresented racial minority students like experience with culturally relevant pedagogy or securing external funding that promotes their inclusion.
  3. Learn more from the ASEE CDEI Best Paper Award Winner from 2020: https://peer.asee.org/34124and ASEE CDEI Focus Friday Session with two of the paper authors, Dr. Canek Phillips and Samara Boyle: https://diversity.asee.org/deicommittee/2021/01/14/awards-info/.

 

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.

  1. All Hands call option 1: Thursday February 25th at 10am PT/ 11am MT/ 12pm CT/ 1pm ET
  2. All Hands call option 2: Friday February 26th at 1pm PT/ 2pm MT/ 3pm CT/ 4pm ET

(We offer two times to maximize participation; Content will be the same across the meetings, so you only need to attend one of them)

  1. All Hands CDEI Business Meeting before the Annual Conference: Thursday 6/10/2021 10am-11:30am Pacific/1pm-2:30pm Eastern
  2. ASEE CDEI Social before the Annual Conference: Thursday 7/22/2021 3pm-4:30pm Pacific/ 6pm-7:30pm Eastern.

 

Here are the CDEI January updates:

Chairs Updates: We are submitting a proposal to the ASEE Board for a Year of Impact on Racial Equity that would begin after the 2021 Annual Conference ends. The CDEI Executive committee helped us push our thinking forward and gave us additional ideas to include in the proposal.

 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!  The deadline for the Constituent DEI Award has been extended to Friday, February 5, 2021, at 11:59 pm PST.  Also be sure to nominate papers from your constituent group for the Best DEI Paper award. You can learn more about the 2020 Best DEI paper from the video of the CDEI Focus Friday session held on 1/8/2021.

 Communications: We have new blog posts available: one is about our Constituent DEI Award, and one is a guest blog by Stephen Secules and Cassandra McCall. 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 is planning further meetings to discuss a delegate toolkit that will help divisions to incorporate DEI focus into their work. They are working with several templates for the toolkit.

Policy & Letters: No new updates.

Professional Development: While the Cultivating Inclusive Communities small groups are closed to new folks at this time, you can still participate in the broader community: Sign up to join in.  The Annual Conference PD team is working on developing scale-able training curriculum for the DEI 100 and DEI 200 sessions that are planned for the June conference. The free Virtual Workshop Series is continuing. The next session is on Promoting Mental Health and Wellness in Undergraduate Engineers on 2/26/2021 at 2pm ET. See more and register. The PD committee is also rolling out a Work-in-Progress Feedback Workshop Series on the 4th Thursday of the Month from January-May 2021 from 3:30-5pm ET. See more and register here.

 Strategic Planning and Assessment: This committee is working on our new bylaws and putting together an updated strategic plan.

Corporate Member Council:  CMC shared results of a 2020 Survey for Skills Gaps in Recent Engineering Graduates,  a public recording of Industry 4.0: Accelerating Engineering Education Reform to Meet the Demands of the Talent Pipeline, there is a new Industry 4.0 session cming up on Education, Policies, Perspectives, and Pandemics on 1/29/2021 at noon EST.  Find out more and register here: https://workforcesummit.asee.org

 

In Solidarity,

Liz Litzler

CDEI Chair 2020-2021