Our commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) is rooted in our vision of creating the next generation of problem solvers who can create ethical and equitable solutions to global challenges.
Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO) is a collection of researchers, educators, learners, and community members that values creating access, opportunity, and advancement through engineering education. Tufts CEEO has prioritized becoming an organization that is welcoming, equitable, and inclusive, especially for those who have been marginalized and underrepresented in STEM. We acknowledge this is an ever-changing quest and that engineering and education has been deeply shaped by oppressive systems such as racism, sexism, ableism, and classism. To this end, Tufts CEEO works toward:
- Building and supporting a CEEO workforce that is equitable and diverse in thought, experience, and representation from marginalized communities.
- Creating a community at CEEO that is transparent, collaborative, reflective, respectful, and inclusive.
- Creating engineering education scholarship, teaching, and technology built on equity and inclusion by acknowledging existing power structures and working to counter dominant narratives around engineering (who gets to be an engineer, is included in engineering/can be considered an engineer)
- Identifying barriers faced by marginalized populations and working to address these barriers by actively seeking out their voices and building upon communities’ existing assets in our research, outreach, teaching, and technology design and development.
- Recognizing that our work needs to be done in partnership with diverse community organizations and experts, and working to support and build that network.
To support this vision, our DEIJ Action Plan has been designed to enable Tufts CEEO members to collaboratively work towards building knowledge about anti-oppressive work in our community, creating a welcoming and inclusive working environment, and diversifying our network of collaborators and partners.
Timeline
Strategy 1: Knowledge:
Create structures that support all CEEO members having a shared understanding of anti-oppressive work and community practices
Initiative 1-1: Develop a continuous training schedule that will share CEEO DEIJ values and practices for new people, and an evolving series of DEIJ training sessions for existing CEEO members to support their work. In addition to developing these trainings, we will decide which CEEO members will need to participate in each of the different types of training sessions. Read more.
Initiative 1-2: Create Best Research Practices documents and processes to support CEEO members in incorporating best DEIJ practices in research operations.
Initiative 1-3: Create Best Outreach Practices documents and processes to support CEEO members in using best DEIJ practices in outreach.
Initiative 1-4: Develop DEIJ trainings for those supervising or managing others within CEEO to become a more DEIJ-aware and anti-racist managers. Training should include ethical supervision, DEIJ and management, non-violent communication, and conflict resolution/transformation. Focus will be on proactive measures as well as incorporating conflict resolution strategies.
Strategy 2: CEEO Environment/Culture:
Create structures and accountability that support CEEO as a welcoming and inclusive workplace
Initiative 2-1: Define CEEO onboarding requirements for different CEEO member groups (e.g. faculty, staff, students) and a timeline for completion for CEEO members. This initiative will identify the different CEEO member groups and outline what onboarding requirements are necessary for each group and the timeline for completion of onboarding requirements. Read more.
Initiative 2-2: Establish CEEO DEIJ Committee composed of CEEO members that will meet regularly. Read More.
Initiative 2-3: Develop CEEO-wide community-building activities and schedule, including a series of events and activities for the internal CEEO community that are designed to counteract “competitive” culture and build an inclusive community.
Initiative 2-4: Create conflict resolution, bystander intervention, and reporting systems and processes that includes addressing sexism issues in addition to anti-racism.
Initiative 2-5: Schedule discussion spaces for formal and informal discussions where CEEO members can network and connect with each other.
Initiative 2-6: Make internal CEEO resources available to faculty, staff, and students, including funds for personal training, training to support other goals, and bringing in speakers. This also includes financial support for housing and transportation for summer interns, and a liveable wage payscale.
Initiative 2-7: Define and implement transparent reporting for our outreach, financial and research activity.
Strategy 3: Connections/Network:
Create connections and networks that diversify our collaborators, partners, and communities
Initiative 3-1: Create guidelines for our public facing information (e.g web, marketing, communication with new collaborators) that convey our values and culture.
Initiative 3-2: Expand CEEO’s research network by developing deeper relationships and communication with BIPOC scholars, organizations, external evaluators, and other stakeholders that are part of the engineering education ecosystem.
Initiative 3-3: Create and sustain community equitable partnerships (local and global) with other organizations, ensuring that CEEO is providing resources/outreach and that diverse organizations can participate in CEEO research, consulting, and testing.
Initiative 3-4: Support our network of alumni to connect with current Tufts (or CEEO) students.