I’ve been having discussions with my advisor and lab group about actions that can be taken so that Black graduate students (and other minorities) feel safe, welcomed, and supported. Here’s what I/we have come up with so far
The first is a value statement to put on our lab website. This is so our lab has guiding principles that we all agree on and so that prospective members know where we stand. We will be having a meeting where we craft this statement together
A clear understanding of actions our PI and we as a group, will and will not tolerate in our lab space. For example: degrading students for making mistakes
Training for all lab members on inclusive practices, anti-racist, and anti-discriminatory practices(i want this to be school wide as well) for example, micro-aggression training. This is what i experience the most on a daily basis.
Additional training on how to communicate across difference and how to engage in productive conflict. I have extensive experience with this from my work with the Intergroup Dialogue Project at Cornell(more on this another time)
Lab members suggested doing more non-work related outings to get to know one another and community service activities
That’s all i have for now. This is free knowledge. Feel free to use it. Also share things your lab group/community is doing in response to racism and discrimination.
Just to add: if you’re going to make a value statement, pair it with concrete ways you will make your space safe and inclusive of people with different identities. We want to retain students not just admit them for “diversity” sake. A statement with no action is pointless
Here is a link for citing tweets in APA style. You can google how to cite in other styles as well. apastyle.apa.org/learn/faqs/cit…
