[bioundgrd] Fwd: #shutdownSTEM.MITBio follow up

[Alan D Grossman]

Dear Colleagues,

I’m forwarding this email on behalf of the group who organized the #ShutDownSTEM program on Monday.

Many thanks to the organizers who put together a poignant and powerful program. And thanks to the many who participated.  If you did participate, please provide feedback to the organizers (link in the message below).

Best,
Alan


Alan D. Grossman
Professor and Head
Department of Biology
Building 68-530
M.I.T.
Cambridge, MA   02139

(617) 253-1515
adg at mit.edu<mailto:adg at mit.edu>





Begin forwarded message:

From: Sara Kim <skim1 at mit.edu<mailto:skim1 at mit.edu>>
Subject: #shutdownSTEM.MITBio follow up
Date: June 12, 2020 at 12:01:50 PM EDT
To: Alan D Grossman <adg at mit.edu<mailto:adg at mit.edu>>

To the Biology community,

Thank you to all who participated in the #shutdownSTEM programming this week. We had over 250 members of the Biology department community participate! A special thanks goes out to the facilitators who worked to make the day successful, especially given the short timeline to do so. If you participated in any way, please fill out a short feedback form here<https://forms.gle/fYiE6vfV3vwoXfuB8> so we can gauge impact of the event and improve for future events. It was also brought up during the event that there may be some within the community who may have not directly received these emails, so please also circulate widely.

The conversations that we had on Wednesday are a continuation of our individual and departmental work towards dismantling systemic racism, and we are looking forward to continuing these conversations in both formal and informal settings. We have attached a list of actionable items generated by the community during discussions, and here<https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15x40M3Iv9LG7djgpUVM-by2TAFXZ785K?usp=sharing> is a link to a Google folder with uploaded resources from each of today’s sessions. Some of the attached suggestions require more discussion and implementation, and we are thrilled that so many in the community are interested in being involved in thinking about and implementing these suggestions.

In addition to the topics that were discussed on Wednesday, there are more ways you can continue to address and combat racism in STEM in the department and in your communities, including:


  *
Donate to organizations supporting Black community members
     *
The Biology Department has begun a faculty-matched donation drive for trainees and staff! Please visit the matching spreadsheet<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KWXKzgt8geEEFYpj7zxTDpUSCtCmgamR-CFeMegGGTw/edit?usp=sharing> to participate, and for a partial list of participating faculty, trainees, and staff. This is a personal (and not corporate) initiative and donations or matches can be anonymous if desired.
  *
Schedule a Zoom call with your lab or cohort to further discuss racism and specifically anti-Blackness in your communities and commit to taking antiracist actions as a group.
  *
Become involved in the Biology Diversity Community through active participation in building a network/formal infrastructure of peer support and creation of diverse and inclusive spaces in our department (email mkasal at mit.edu<mailto:mkasal at mit.edu> to be added to the BDC listserv and keep an eye out for emails about ways to stay involved).
  *
Join the Slack channel (#shutdownSTEM on the MIT Bio workspace) to share more resources, schedule future discussion sections, and communicate about the day.
  *
Check out the hashtag #BlackInTheIvory<https://twitter.com/search?q=%23blackintheivory&src=typed_query> on Twitter to understand some of the experiences of our Black colleagues in academia.
  *
Let’s continue to seek out and support the activism of those who call on us to help our department become a more diverse, equitable and inclusive community!

We appreciate your participation and your commitment to understanding and combating racism in our communities.

Best,

SaRa Kim on behalf of the #shutdownSTEM.MITBio team

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.mit.edu/pipermail/bioundgrd/attachments/20200612/767ac3ce/attachment-0001.html
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Action Items for the MIT Biology Community to Implement.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 95573 bytes
Desc: Action Items for the MIT Biology Community to
	Implement.pdf
Url : http://mailman.mit.edu/pipermail/bioundgrd/attachments/20200612/767ac3ce/attachment-0001.pdf
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.mit.edu/pipermail/bioundgrd/attachments/20200612/767ac3ce/attachment-0001.htm