Hi Everyone,
In case you haven't yet seen this message from Dean, I have copied it below. While I know that today is very busy with labs re-opening, I was hoping to start a discussion about how the Biodiversity Research Centre can act concretely to support black and racialized communities. As someone close to me has pointed out, "there a huge number of hurdles faced by non-whites in academia (lower funding success, lower publication rates, lower citation numbers, greater service requests, higher imposter syndrome, the list goes on - all references are available on web of science)." With this in mind, I canvassed a number of our faculty who care deeply about this topic and/or have experienced racism themselves. A suggestion from Diane Srivastava that resonated with me was to "take some time to research what has been tried before, and what works, to come up with a longer-term plan." She mentioned the ESA SEEDS Program as an example of a program that has worked. Please let me know if you would be interested in participating in such a research effort, with the goal of moving towards concrete action.
Thanks, Loren
Hello Heads and Directors:
You may be aware that a number of our professional organizations and their members will name tomorrow 10 June as a Day of Action. We have prepared a statement from the Faculty of Science in support of the black and other racialized communities, and as well the #ShutDownSTEM movement. I hope that you will encourage your people to take some time tomorrow to consider their own responses and actions.
Here is the link for that statement:
https://science.ubc.ca/news/statement-support-black-lives-matter-and-shutdownstem
Meigan