Diversity, Inclusion, and Access

Diversity, Inclusion, and Access (DI&A) in the Geology and Geological Engineering Department

The Geology and Geological Engineering department values diversity in all its forms, and we strive to ensure that our department is welcoming and accessible. Please explore below for more information about DI&A efforts in the department, campus resources, and to learn about ways to get involved.

We’re always looking for more committee members! For more information about the GGE DI&A committee and to get involved, or to contact the DI&A committee anonymously, please use the feedback form at right.

Students at field camp
GGE Students at a poster session

Ongoing and Completed Activities

Our work encompasses three major areas to enhance DI&A in our department that were identified based on a 2021 departmental climate survey:

Click through the slides below to see what we’ve done and how these items fit into our three major priorities areas.

GECCo Coffee and Bagels

with students and faculty, held weekly during the semesters. Please refer to the DI&A committee event calendar below for GECCo times.

ENHANCING DEPARTMENT CULTURE

Dropped the GRE

for graduate applications, based on evidence that the GRE is a barrier to full participation in STEM for minoritized communities.

ACCESS

Departmental climate survey

Was conducted to assess priorities and needs for improving DIA in the Geology Department

AWARENESS

Fieldwork Safety

Began offering satellite personal locator beacons to increase safety during fieldwork

ACCESS

URGE pod

Several faculty and students participated in an URGE pod to identify ways to unlearn racism within our community.

AWARENESS, ACCESS

Revitalizing Berthoud Hall

To better represent the diversity of identity and interests of our students, faculty, and staff

COMMUNITY - work in progress

Social events

Including Geology movie night, post-Van Tuyl social hours, annual department holiday party, and more!

COMMUNITY

Redesigning this website

To communicate with our community about the values and efforts towards DIA within GGE. This will always be a work in progress.

AWARENESS

Ongoing Events

International Potluck

Field Equipment Drive

DIA& Workshops: Facilitating Difficult Conversations Toolkit

GECCo Coffee and Bagels

 

 

Resources

Food, Housing, and Transportation Resources

Navigating graduate school

University-sponsored grants and scholarships

Graduate student funding resources

Check out the list compiled here.

Several Geology faculty also maintain lists of relevant graduate student funding opportunities on their personal webpages. These include:

 

Scholarship that informs our work

  • Ali, H. N., Sheffield, S. L., Bauer, J. E., Caballero-Gill, R. P., Gasparini, N. M., Libarkin, J., Gonzales, K. K., Willenbring, J., Amir-Lin, E., Cisneros, J., Desai, D., Erwin, M., Gallant, E., Gomez, K. J., Keisling, B. A., Mahon, R., Marín-Spiotta, E., Welcome, L., & Schneider, B. (2021). An actionable anti-racism plan for geoscience organizations. Nature Communications, 12(1), 3794. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23936-w
  • Berhe, A. A., Barnes, R. T., Hastings, M. G., Mattheis, A., Schneider, B., Williams, B. M., & Marín-Spiotta, E. (2022). Scientists from historically excluded groups face a hostile obstacle course. Nature Geoscience, 15(1), 2–4. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-021-00868-0
  • Chaudhary, V. B., & Berhe, A. A. (2020). Ten simple rules for building an antiracist lab. PLOS Computational Biology, 16(10), e1008210. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008210
  • Dutt, K. (2020). Race and racism in the geosciences. Nature Geoscience, 13(1), 2–3. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0519-z
  • Morris, V. R. (2021). Combating Racism in the Geosciences: Reflections From a Black Professor. AGU Advances, 2(1), e2020AV000358. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020AV000358

Events and Announcements

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Integrate the GGE DIA calendar into yours using this link to stay up to date with GGE DIA events.

Committee members

We’re always looking for more committee members. If you’d like to join the committee, please fill out this form or email one of the committee members listed above to express your interest.

Acknowledgements

We live and work in and around Golden, CO, on the traditional lands of the hinono’eino’ biito’owu’ (Arapaho), Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute), and Tséstho’e (Cheyenne) people. We recognize that land acknowledgements such as this one are a small and incomplete step towards honoring the sovereignty and rights of Tribal Nations and offer this in a spirit of continuous improvement and work.

Photos used on this site are from committee members and from Unsplash.com; artists include Miriam Jessie, Nathan Dumlao, Nguyen Dang Hoang Nhu, Noom Peerapong, and UX Indonesia.