Creating a Program-Specific DEI Committee
This post is about the Social Psychology Graduate Student DEI Committee at The Ohio State University’s Social Psychology PhD Program. It gives an overview of what our committee does, why we exist, and why a program-specific DEI Committee can be beneficial for graduate students in navigating hidden curriculum. We also provide resources for creating your own program DEI Committee.
What is a DEI Committee in the context of a graduate school program?
A program DEI Committee is a group of students, and optionally faculty as well, that works to create an inclusive environment for the program, handle any issues with inclusivity that arise, and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion within the program. We do this by assessing the climate of the program, addressing changes that need to be made to better the climate, and putting on programming to benefit members of the program community. This programming often highlights parts of the hidden curriculum—for example, by explicitly highlighting resources available to students, or by educating students on what the hidden curriculum is and ways to combat it.
What is the purpose of our DEI Committee, and why is it helpful to have a program-specific DEI Committee?
We were founded in 2020 in response to a department-wide climate survey’s results about women’s low feelings of belonging in our male-faculty-dominated program. As a response to these issues, the DEI Committee was formed, with 4 student representatives and 2 faculty liaison members. The 4 student members represent the graduate students in the program, and the 2 faculty liaisons serve as both advisors to the committee when faced with issues, as well as bridges between the DEI Committee and the program faculty. Our committee is focused on improving the inclusion, belonging, and safety of the graduate students in our area.
Being a committee gives us legitimacy and power. Of course, the faculty will listen to student concerns about DEI-related issues. However, rather than students individually communicating with their advisors about issues (something that students might find uncomfortable), which may or may not be shared amongst the faculty, a committee can consolidate across issues and report on them as a whole. This leads to more effective change, by making everyone aware of the issues present and working to find a solution that benefits everyone.
While our psychology department has a department DEI Committee, having a program-specific DEI Committee (Social Psychology Graduate Student DEI Committee) provides us with more benefits. We are able to focus exclusively on issues faced by students within our program, and provide support to students through internal resources and programming. In addition, we can communicate with faculty through a committee, taking the burden of communicating DEI-related issues off individual students, who may not be comfortable addressing these types of concerns with their advisors or other faculty members. We maintain a close relationship with both the program’s students and faculty. We regularly send out newsletters to students and faculty of the program, hold meetings with all students in the program to discuss upcoming goals and initiatives, and often add agenda items to faculty meetings that relate to DEI issues.
Finally, having a DEI Committee can put policies in place to prevent negative experiences from happening within the program. By dealing with negative experiences that arise, we can set a precedent for fair ways to deal with any future incidents. We can formalize expectations for our program’s climate and work to ensure that those expectations are followed.
What do we do in our committee?
We are committed to increasing the diversity, equity, and inclusion of our graduate students. As a committee, we have implemented an Anonymous Reporting Line, where graduate students can report any incident related to diversity, equity, and inclusion within our program. Anyone who reports an incident can remain anonymous if they wish. As a committee, we meet to discuss the incident and come up with solutions to resolve the issue. This can involve talking with the perpetrator of the issue and offering resources to them. It can involve providing resources to the reporter, if they decide to not be anonymous. It can also involve larger committee discussions if we receive multiple reports of similar issues to assess how to best approach the apparent systemic issue. This may involve programming on things like microaggressions or cultural appropriation, creating a resource guide and distributing it to members of the program, or addressing issues at a faculty meeting to update faculty on issues that students have been facing.
To continue to improve our climate, in Spring 2024, we launched our first Social Area Climate Survey where we measured things such as imposter feelings, negative experiences, implicit bias/discrimination, faculty evaluations, student perceptions of contributions to the program, perceptions of faculty’s fixed mindset, etc. Through this rich data, we were able to determine what the committee should prioritize in terms of the upcoming academic year’s goals and initiatives.
So, what are some of our upcoming goals and initiatives?
Social Area Climate Survey (anonymous)
We have feedback from students regarding last year’s Climate Survey that we wish to incorporate in the upcoming Climate Survey, such as including ways to further de-identify data, assess advisor evaluations, and assess the effectiveness our programming and solutions to students in the program. The Climate Survey allows us to get a sense of how students are feeling and what changes they would like to see most.
Graduate Student Code of Conduct
Most organizations, such as SPSP, have a code of conduct to protect their members from disrespectful treatment, harassment, and discrimination. Why shouldn’t our program have one? We are working in collaboration with our Psychology Department-wide DEI Committee to create a Code of Conduct for all Psychology PhD Areas at Ohio State, to explicitly state a welcoming and inclusive environment and document examples of behaviors that will not be tolerated at Ohio State.
Workshops
From our climate survey results, our DEI Committee learned more about some of the negative experiences and implicit bias/discrimination present in our program. Thus, to prevent such negative experiences, we are inviting an expert to educate students on microaggressions and cultural appropriation, to further an inclusive and non-hostile environment. The goal of this workshop will be to increase education and awareness around DEI-related issues, so that all students are equipped to avoid them and to know what to do when they encounter one.
Creating a program DEI Committee:
Creating the committee: Organizing the committee was something that the students pitched to faculty, who supported the initiative. Though, if you’re worried about your faculty’s support of a DEI Committee, it can also be fully student-run and operated! As students, we are aware of the problems that exist in our program, and can work together to brainstorm solutions.
Meetings: Our committee meets every other week to address issues that may arise and to check in on progress towards goals and initiatives. You can create a committee that meets regularly, or one that meets as needed if/when issues arise.
Members: Members of our committee are chosen by students who nominate themselves to be part of the committee, and faculty liaisons are chosen by the faculty as a whole. You can elect members, nominate members, or have a committee that is open to anyone in the program.
Resources: Additionally, we are happy to share our materials such as our Social Area Climate Survey, Code of Conduct (draft), Anonymous Reporting Line, etc.
We have a lot more goals and initiatives planned! We would be happy to talk to other PhD students to share our experiences in organizing and serving on our DEI Committee.
Contact Us:
Committee Chair: Ariana Hernandez-Colmenares: hernandez-colmenares.1@buckeyemail.osu.edu
Committee Member: Rani Bawa: bawa.17@buckeyemail.osu.edu
About the Authors
Ariana Hernandez-Colmenares (hernandez-colmenares.1@osu.edu) is a PhD candidate in Social Psychology at The Ohio State University. Ariana’s research interests include ways to increase motivation and achievement. Some of her lines of work include investigating growth mindsets, role models for women of color, and increasing trust in interracial power-imbalanced relationships. Prior to graduate school, Ariana worked as a project assistant at the University of Southern California and as a college counselor for high school students.
Rani Bawa (bawa.17@buckeyemail.osu.edu) is a PhD candidate in Social Psychology at The Ohio State University, working with Drs. Lisa Libby and Dylan Wagner. She uses a social cognitive approach to study how relational motives (motives for connecting with others) and epistemic motives (motives to find meaning and understanding) affect human behavior and cognition. Specifically, she is interested in personality characterization of others, the emotion of nostalgia, parasocial relationships, and experiences of discrimination. In addition, she is passionate about DEI issues and enhancing equity in education.
