Raising our Expectations for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Work in Geoscience Faculty Evaluation Systems

Racial and ethnic diversity in the geosciences continues to be exceptionally low relative to other STEM fields. These demographics have not shifted over the past 40 years even as gender representation has improved and despite sustained attempts to achieve diversity. These results reflect a need to significantly alter institutional and cultural systems and engage faculty in diversity, equity, and inclusions (DEI) efforts to effect meaningful and sustained change. We interviewed 45 current geoscience faculty members at 4-year academic institutions to identify faculty perceptions of how DEI efforts are valued and considered in evaluation and reward systems. Based on faculty interview responses, growing and sustaining diversity in academia requires looking beyond recruitment and retention of students and should consider the impacts of implicit, systemic, and structural biases found at the institutional level, within career stages and associated reward structures, and throughout the individual demographics in geoscience departments. Recognizing and rewarding equity-building activities as valid faculty scholarship is a big step towards removing educational disparities in STEM.

Speaker: Alisa Kotash, Clackamas Community College

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