Feedback and Accountability

In this document, we lay out a framework for an ongoing collective effort to improve DEI in our community. We ask that the Department likewise create a framework by developing a long-term strategic DEI plan at the department and division levels. We should publicly post data, keep holding town halls (which we applaud the Department for hosting), and talk about representation in the Department at these open forums. June 10th was just a baseline first step to improvements we need, but this cannot be left as a single day effort and it cannot only be led by the current set of student leaders. We as a community need to hold ourselves accountable in the long term. 

Recommendations

 

Recommendation 27. (Immediate action requested)
That the Department develop a long-term strategic Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) plan for our physics community. That the Divisions also form DEI committees and action plans for their own communities. 

The Department is currently taking in a substantial amount of information from student groups, divisions, and the broader university community about ways in which we can make our community more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. In order to ensure that we as a Department fully consider the available information, commit to making change as a collective body, and hold ourselves accountable for our goals, we recommend the development of a Department-level strategic action plan for diversity, equity, and inclusion. This would parallel the strategic DEI plan being created at the institute level. 

We strongly commend the current situation where the Department holds a Town Hall as a community once per semester. We recommend that the Department also hold an internal review of progress every semester and provide the community an email update about progress a week prior to each Town Hall. At Town Halls, the Department can take in community feedback about where further improvements can be made and revise its action plan as needed. The responsibility for this review could be given to the Physics Values Committee, with separate check-ins with Department leadership, SPS and PGSC leadership, UWIP and GWIP leadership, and URM leadership. A scorecard with these recommendations could be made public on the Department website. There is precedent for creating strategic DEI plans at peer institutions, for example at Stanford’s Physics Department and Harvard’s Physics Department. We also recommend that the Department regularly interface with the Visiting Committee about the plans and recommendations currently being developed and, in the future, our progress on these necessary goals. 

Most of the day-to-day interactions and culture of the department for graduate students, postdocs, and faculty happen within individual research divisions. We strongly propound the creation of division-level DEI committees. The charge of these committees should be to advise their respective division heads (who should not be voting members of the committee) about matters of Climate, Culture, and Inclusion within their own communities; specifically including action items the divisions developed on June 10, as well as the recommendations issued by us and SPS. (Specific Recommendations from this document that could be worked on by divisions include Recommendations 2, 4-6, 11-12, 13, 17,  20-22, 23-24, and 26.) These committees should interface with the PVC and other relevant organizations like PGSC, SPS, and faculty committees for two-way feedback and ideas. Division DEI committees should also form strategic DEI action plans and hold an annual division Town Hall for feedback.

 

Recommendation 28.
That the Department post data to its website about representation. 

The Department should publicly post on its website an at-a-glance sheet about representation of URM and women physicists in our Department at all levels: undergraduates, graduates, postdocs, research staff, and faculty. Having such information available for everyone to see is crucial to holding ourselves accountable to our goals. Undergraduate data should be presented relative to MIT-wide demographics.

If the Department is concerned about the optics for prospective applicants, students, and employees, the Department could consider writing text and putting links on the same webpage to historical data, MIT Institutional Research surveys, information about representation in the field of physics, and DEI efforts in our Department to put this information into context. The act of contextualizing the raw data also will help hold the Department accountable for making sure that it is undertaking appropriate initiatives to improve DEI in ways that we would want prospective students, postdocs, and faculty to see. 

 

Recommendation 29.
That the Department create an ombuds position to serve all members of our Physics Department community

We are aware that having a true ombuds at the Department would be difficult due to the lengthy and intensive nature of training for such a position. However, having someone who is familiar with our Department, its culture, and its resources serve in an ombuds-like capacity would greatly assist in making Department members feel like they have a person to go to who can best help navigate conflicts that they feel cannot be resolved through ordinary channels.

For this position to be effective, it is important that the person and the purpose of the appointee be known by all members of the Department. On the graduate student end, it would be helpful to introduce this person to incoming students at Orientation and perhaps have them attend a PGSC event mid-year. We note that students would like their opinions to be included in the hiring or appointment process. 

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