The University of Texas at Dallas has become a charter member of an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) initiative to transform colleges and universities into more diverse, equitable and inclusive campuses.
STEMM Equity Achievement (SEA) Change helps institutions identify policies, processes, programs and practices that perpetuate exclusion and create systemic barriers to diversity, equity and inclusion through a voluntary self-assessment process. STEMM includes science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine.
“A diversity of people, ideas and perspectives is crucial to UT Dallas’ vision and mission. This can only be achieved with emphasis on equity,” said UT Dallas President Richard C. Benson, the Eugene McDermott Distinguished University Chair of Leadership. “Being a charter member of SEA Change complements our work to make UT Dallas a better, more equitable and inclusive place for all to work, live and learn.”
Joining SEA Change as a charter member demonstrates the University’s commitment to addressing the root causes of inequities, said Dr. Yvette E. Pearson, who joined UT Dallas in August as vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion.
“Creating greater diversity, equity and inclusion goes into the way we teach and research, the way we recruit and the way we create programs and initiatives,” Pearson said. “It has to be baked into the fabric of who we are as an institution in order to have successful outcomes on the other end and to not continue to perpetuate the societal inequities that we see as a result of inequities in STEMM.”
Through SEA Change, universities develop individual action plans to accomplish their goals. The AAAS recognizes sustainable systemic change with bronze, silver and gold awards.
“We are honored to welcome UT Dallas as a charter member of SEA Change and pleased about the statement that this participation makes about the University’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and excellence in STEMM,” said Dr. Shirley Malcom, senior advisor and director of AAAS’ SEA Change.
“Being a charter member of SEA Change complements our work to make UT Dallas a better, more equitable and inclusive place for all to work, live and learn.”
UT Dallas President Richard C. Benson
Becoming a charter member of the initiative follows other recent actions that UT Dallas has taken to achieve greater diversity, equity and inclusion.
In May 2020, the University launched a Living Our Values Task Force, comprising students, faculty and staff, that developed recommendations that led to the creation of two new academic minors, enhanced faculty and staff training, and the establishment of a campus police oversight committee.
This fall, Benson expanded the UT Dallas Strategic Plan to include a new initiative to foster diversity, equity and inclusion with specific goals across the University. UT Dallas also was awarded a $1 million, three-year National Science Foundation ADVANCE grant to enhance its efforts to recruit and retain more female tenure-track faculty members in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
These efforts build on longtime goals to create a welcoming campus. The University has been named one of the nation’s most ethnically diverse campuses by U.S. News & World Report. UT Dallas was one of only two universities in the Southwest to make Campus Pride’s 2021 Best of the Best list of 30 LGBTQ-friendly colleges and universities.
In October, Lauren DeCillis, founding director of the Galerstein Gender Center, was honored by the Dallas chapter of the United Nations Association of the United States of America with the 2021 UN Day Global Leadership Award for the center’s work to advance gender equality. In addition, UT Dallas recently was one of nine recipients of the Veteran Education Excellence Recognition Gold Award from the Texas Veterans Commission’s Veterans Education Program.
By focusing on broad-based systemic change, SEA Change moves diversity, equity and inclusion efforts from the work of one department to a universitywide approach, Pearson said. She said the initiative also will help the University unite various individual initiatives that currently exist in silos.
“Diversity, equity and inclusion is often relegated to the margins of what universities do,” she said. “It’s not part of business as usual. There has to be agency across the board at every level — students, faculty and staff. That’s the key to gaining momentum.”
One of the University’s goals is to broaden the definition of diversity and recognize the exacerbation of disparities for those who have intersectional identities that have been marginalized, Pearson said. Another critical issue, she said, is to break down misconceptions about achieving greater diversity.
“There’s this separation between diversity and excellence, this dichotomy that people have created in their minds that is absolutely not true,” Pearson said. She noted that a lack of diversity, equity and inclusion at institutions has contributed to inequitable outcomes in infrastructure, health care, access to medical facilities and accessibility.
“That’s why it is important to cultivate the next generation of scientists and engineers so that it is second nature for them to be thinking about these challenges, including diverse perspectives and working toward equitable outcomes,” Pearson said. “Also, it is critical to make sure that we are cultivating a culture and climate in which a wide range of folks can succeed so we’re not narrowing who can become engineers and scientists.”
UT Dallas joins 16 other universities as a charter member of SEA Change, including Purdue University, Rutgers University and three University of California universities.
