Minute Taker: Emily

Welcome (back): Review of committee nuts & bolts, time commitment

Subcommittees: (Brief overview of last year’s activity + what committees will continue + assignment of group members to committees)

• Transparency Committee: Developed a departmental manual that makes explicit departmental roles and responsibilities and how-tos for both faculty and students. This is a work in progress still. (Christal in charge: could use some more sub-committee members here?)

• Admissions Committee:

  • Last year: Web updates to simplify the process for applicants, development of an exit survey, collection of data on applicant demographics as a baseline

  • This year: need to update the site with who is taking a student; administer exit survey. Anything else?

    • Mention of removing “Have you committed a felony?” question. Might be a recommendation for the subcommittee to focus on this year.

    • Are we going to ask for potential graduate students to interview in-person or online?

      • Initial interview online then offer to visit after acceptance?

      • Make financial options more accessible on the website

      • Regardless of the decision, it is important to make a clear decision to make sure we treat applicants equally (if it is optional, those who cannot might face disadvantages).

• Diversifying the Pipeline:

  • Last year: created a list of articles for core psych major classes to decolonize the syllabi, got a DEI-related question on the College-wide TCEs. Worked with Hive to create a sweet video about departmental values.

  • This year: how do we disseminate our article list to ensure uptake? Can we film more videos with faculty (how a specific research project centers dei, how a specific pedagogical strategy centers dei). We need to propose additional TCE questions for psychology. 

    • How to get undergraduates involved in our committee? Internship for undergraduates (ongoing web edits, interfacing with other undergraduate organizations, create designs)?

      • Lynda S-F: “ there is an undergraduate certificate program for diversity and inclusivity awareness sponsored by the college of social work and the psychology majors in this program might want to get involved in our committee” + she thinks 399 is a good idea

      • Also from Lynda: “I would love to include information about the committee, as well as DEI related resources, on the PSY Canvas page. I can build the page if someone from the committee would provide me with the information.” 

    • CELT training for the department?

    • Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program - PREP. NIH grant to develop a training program for post-bacs from diverse backgrounds to set them up. It’s an internal competition first - need key personnel, title, 2 page summary of proposal by Oct 11. Then the grant is due January 11th. Christia says the college would like proposals from A&S to complete with proposals from the med side. Funding is 400K annually for 5 years.

      • One-on-one mentorship with marginalized undergraduates to prepare for graduate school. 

        • Start to Finish, 1x1 mentorship opportunity to underrepresented students

        • APA Super Summer Academic Experience– may be available as a post-bacc option 

        • Casey Grimes– Psychology Alumnus from and currently at UKY that could provide inspiration behind mentorship

        • More accessible website (multi language, captions to video).

• Resource Dissemination committee:

  • Last year: Created a number of web edits, including a DEI page.

  • This year: still need to research and add funding (internal and external) and scholarships (+ maybe training programs/retreats). We have a page on the website waiting for this info.

    • Would love to assign an undergraduate to keep the psych page “events” updated with DEI content

      • Social media presence for undergrads

    • An idea: can we try to get DEI member coverage at many of the DEI events on campus (to attend and write a short blog post that goes out to the department)

    • Upcoming DEI events in the college: Thursday, September 15th, 2022 (2 – 4pm in JSB 361M); Thursday, October 20th, 2022 (2 – 4 pm in JSB 361M); Thursday, November 17th, 2022 (2 – 4 pm in JSB 361M)

• Other topics:

  • Funding

    • It’s possible that we could apply for department/college funding opportunities, but if we decide to do that, we should delegate a person/team to it to ensure equal distribution of labor among committee members

  • Helping unhoused people in downtown Lexington/other volunteer opportunities

    • We could collaborate with Christopher’s advocacy group

    • Why are we choosing this specific cause?

      • It’s difficult to justify one cause over another; so, instead of making assistance to unhoused people a specific aim of the DEI committee, we could incorporate it by doing all kinds of volunteer work as team-building activities for the DEI committee

      • Other volunteer ideas: drop-in counseling for people who are pregnant and don’t want to be at Clinic for Emotional Health, helping flood victims in eastern KY, etc. (we are in a unique position to help people in Appalachia)

  • Putting the social in social justice

    • We now have a GroupMe to use as an informal place to communicate about volunteer opportunities or other DEI-related opportunities that come up (e.g., protests, percentage nights at restaurants that support relevant causes/charities, etc.)

      • Download the GroupMe app and scan this QR code to join the DEI GroupMe

      • 

      • If that doesn’t work, use this link: https://groupme.com/join_group/88319133/CDzBIPnr

      • Other ideas related to community work

        • People could write blog posts about their volunteer experiences to be published on the website

        • We could dedicate a page on the website to showing our team-building activities

        • On the same page, we could highlight actions of individuals (e.g., “XXXX went to the pro-choice protest on Saturday and this was their experience”)

  • Reach out and see if people from other departments would be interested in joining/helping

What are we missing? What is being left out?

Reading for next time?