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Initial Publication Date: June 26, 2023

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Resources for Geoscience Heads and Chairs

Workshop Program

Heads and Chairs of Earth and Space Science Departments

Sunday, 10 December 2023, AGU23 Meeting, San Francisco, CA

Workshop held at: San Francisco Marriot Marquis
Room Salon 4-6 (Lower B2 Level)
780 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA

700 am PST to 500 pm PST

7:00 - 8:00 Breakfast

8:00 - 8:30 Welcome, Logistics, and Introductions

  • Program welcome
  • Logistics for the day
  • Introductions (all) – Name, title, and Institution only

Morning Session

8:30 - 11:30 Writing and Reviewing Letters of Recommendation for Equity (Dr. Steve Desir, University of Southern California, and Dr. Aurora Kamimura, Washington University in St Louis; Funding for this portion of the workshop was provided by Inclusive Graduate Education Network (IGEN))

  • Letters of recommendation are used in the admissions and faculty search processes to glean information and qualities which may go unnoticed in the review of an applicant's file. However, they are also one of the most common places that bias is written into applicant records– sometimes in subtle ways. Toward the goal of equity-minded evaluation, this workshop 1) situates letters of recommendation as key components in holistic evaluations of faculty job applicants, 2) reviews key research studies on bias in letters of recommendation, 3) enables participants to recognize gender and racial biases in existing letters, 4) provides practice in reviewing letters from an equity-minded perspective. Activities are specifically designed to help attendees develop knowledge, skills, and language to manage common equity dilemmas inherent in how we review, solicit, and write letters of recommendation. 
  • Participant Resources Google Drive Folder
  • Resources from Participants

11:30 - 1:00 Lunch and Networking

  • Please grab lunch and network with your colleagues. Small group discussions on topics of interest can be organized if there is interest.
      

Afternoon session


1:00 - 4:00 Aligning Recruitment and Admissions (Facilitators are Dr. Steve Desir, University of Southern California, and Dr. Aurora Kamimura, Washington University in St Louis; Funding for this portion of the workshop was provided by Inclusive Graduate Education Network (IGEN))

  • Recognizing that many faculty do not see graduate student recruitment as their responsibility and may even misunderstand the factors that are important to prospective graduate students from marginalized backgrounds, the curriculum for this workshop includes a combination of presentation and activities designed to build attendees' 1) knowledge about the current state of research on recruitment, 2) appreciation for how a graduate program's website can operate as a recruitment tool, and 3) planning for recruitment activities that complement more equitable admissions practices. 
  • Resources

4:00 - 4:45 Updates from the community

  • Updates about Geoscience Workforce (Christopher Keane, American Geosciences Institute) 
  • Opportunities from NAGT and SERC (Rory McFadden, Science Education Associate, SERC; NAGT 1st Vice President) 

 

4:45 - 5:00 Closing Remarks and Workshop Evaluation

  
Workshop Support   
Pranoti Asher, AGU Assistant Director; AGU Bridge Program Project Director
Eva Kostyu, Program Manager, AGU Bridge Program  
Rory McFadden, Science Education Resource Center (SERC) at Carleton College   
Heather Macdonald, College of William and Mary  

 

The workshop website is supported by NSF under grant DUE-0817353 to the Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College. The workshop is supported by the Building Strong Geoscience Departments project and funding and logistics for the workshop is provided by AGU.