Summary of CWS DEI Committee Projects AY 2023–2024

AY 2023-2024

  • Refreshed CWS DEI webpage content – Including adding AY 2023-24 completed projects, alongside AY 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23, to increase accessibility to the content.

Internal Culture

  • Held a training seminar for the CWS community, facilitated by the UCD DEI office.
  • Hosted a monthly journal article reading club to read and discuss peer-reviewed literature related to DEI, field safety, and mentorship.
  • Hosted new and regularly occurring Communi-tea Time
  • Hosted one Game Night
  • Created informational resources and acquired supplies for parents working at or visiting CWS. Purchased a portable changing table (stored in the CWS common area) – accompanied with wipes, etc. – for use when needed. Campus has formally designated breast-feeding/changing spaces as well, so we included signage in the bathrooms and conference room about what resources CWS offers, and the campus too, whom to contact, and/or where to go to find them. We did attempt to have a changing table installed in both downstairs bathrooms, but  Facilities deemed there was not enough space in the bathrooms to do so and still meet ADA requirements.
  • Continued to provide free menstrual products for downstairs restrooms (see CA Legislative Assembly Bill #367).
  • Continued committee meetings with engaged early-career members and members of CWS leadership and the PI group.

Outreach

  • Hosted family-friendly outreach event at the Winters Community Library, May 2024 in partnership with the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology and the Sacramento-Davis AFS club: Created posters, bug ID cards, brought an inflatable boat, fishing rods for kids, had a live fish tank, a birding station, and a variety of bird, mammal, bat specimen stations, and many other hands-on kid-friendly activities. The library also offered a fish-themed story time during the event, and we had multiple raffles throughout the day. We were able to advertise the event as bilingual, and circulate flyers in both English and Spanish, thanks to the help of Spanish-speaking undergraduates that were hired as translators for the event. 
  • Discussions around a future ECL290 course to help CWS graduate students link their research to local classrooms.
  • Supported NorCal Resist with a Thanksgiving food drive.

Hiring Practices

  • Continued to widely circulate job postings to multiple UC and CSU campuses, ecological and freshwater scientific society job boards, social media, the website front page, and directly to various departments and organizations catered to the content of each ad. CWS remains cognizant of using inclusive language in advertisements and reviews applicants holistically.