Past Activities

2019-2020 members:  LuAnne Thompson (Chair), Mikelle Nuwer (Co-Chair), Ginger Armbrust, Dhruv Balwada, John Baross, Angie Boysen, Randie Bundy, Kimberly Gottschalk, Evan Howard, Rick Rupan, Mark Warner

2019-2020 Projects

• Redesigning Graduate Admissions: This year, the DEI committee has made changes to the way in which the UW School of Oceanography recruits and evaluates potential graduate students. This includes changing the application requirements and prompts, eliminating the GRE exam as a requirement, updating the School website to make sure that all applicants have the information they need to write a competitive application, and changing the decision-making process and timeline to make it more equitable and transparent.
   
• AGU Bridge Application: Participating as a partner in the AGU Bridge Program (AGU-BP) will contribute towards our ongoing efforts to recruit and support graduate students from underrepresented minorities (URMs) in oceanography. As a community, we believe it is our responsibility to provide an environment where all students can thrive as a diverse set of voices to collectively investigate fundamental scientific questions about the biology, physics, chemistry, and geology of the ocean. We are committed to being an AGU-BP partner that will provide students, accepted through the program, with the mentoring, support, and education that will enable them to thrive in graduate school. For more information on the AGU bridge program visit https://www.agu.org/bridge-program.

2018-2019 Pre-Committee members: Mark Warner (Chair), Mikelle Nuwer, Deb Kelley, Rick Rupan, Robert Morris

2018-2019 Projects:

• DEI Committee Formation:The committee should have six core members serving one- to two-year terms with addition members added for term lengths based upon the current task of the committee. The core committee membership should include faculty, staff, and grad students; while undergraduate members could be considered for the task-based members. Our current proposal for core members would be two faculty members, two staff members (one from the administrative staff, one from the research or ship staff), one graduate student, and one graduate student or post-doc. All members would serve staggered two-year terms. One of the faculty members should serve as chair of the committee. Additional members would be added to the committee based upon the current task(s) of the committee. We think no more than 3 additional members, bringing the total to 9, should be added. At least one of the additional members must be a faculty member. The chair should also consider ensuring two grad students are on the committee. The terms of these members could be as short as a quarter or as long as a year. Selection of members can be a combination of volunteers and director’s choice. When the official committee is announced, the director could ask for volunteers and then select from among those who express interest.