The Steward Diversity and Inclusiveness Committee welcomes your thoughts and suggestions on making Steward the best place possible to work and thrive. Our charge is reproduced below. Please contact any one of us with your ideas and concerns. Some of Steward's recent accomplishments include partnering with the Cal-Bridge Program and continuing the TIMESTEP program.

Committee Charge (adopted at the January 13, 2017, Faculty Meeting)

This committee will oversee efforts to ensure that Steward Observatory and the Department of Astronomy promote work and learning environments that make all people feel welcome, and that enable everyone to work at the highest levels possible. The committee will be expected to interact with College of Science and university-level diversity efforts both to learn from others and to show what is working for SO/DA. The issues confronting the diversity committee will vary across the Observatory and the Department, and solutions will need to be tailored to the various groups within the Observatory and Department. The goals of the Diversity Committee are:

Sustain diversity in the department by ensuring a healthy and inclusive climate, welcoming and supportive to all students, faculty and staff regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability status.
Enhance diversity in the department at all levels through increased recruitment of students, faculty, and staff.
Build on the inclusive climate in the department to maximize the retention and graduation of undergraduate and graduate astronomy majors, eliminating disparities in graduation rates among diverse groups.
Implement best practices for mentoring and career development for faculty, students, and staff that promote equitable opportunities for career success. Periodic training in mentoring and diversity awareness should be arranged by the committee.
Ensure that Steward benefits from College of Science and University-level diversity and inclusion activities, and informs the College of Science and University-level groups of results from activities at Steward.
The committee will be responsible for providing assessments of the work and learning environments to ensure that an inclusive and supportive atmosphere is being maintained. The committee should develop and implement a procedure to collect input from the constituents of SO/DA on real and perceived problems and concerns; and by assessing that information establish and maintain a prioritized list of problems that need to be addressed (considering both urgency and impact). The committee should develop a short- and long-range plan to address these issues and should report to the faculty against those plan milestones. The committee shall translate the goals into a set of concrete steps to be taken both in the short term (few months time scale) and in the longer term. The committee may wish to develop a plan for equity, diversity, and inclusion.

The University of Arizona sits on the original homelands of indigenous peoples who have stewarded this land since time immemorial. Aligning with the university’s core value of a diverse and inclusive community, it is an institutional responsibility to recognize and acknowledge the people, culture and history that make up the Wildcat community. At the institutional level, it is important to be proactive in broadening awareness throughout campus to ensure our students feel represented and valued.

LGBT+ Inclusivity in Physics and Astronomy: A Best Practices Guide 

The APS and the AAS have produced a second edition of the LGBT+ guide which first appeared in 2014. The guide is available here, and contains sections relevant to many areas of Steward activities ranging from general departmental climate to hiring to class room climate to mentoring of grad students.

 The Diversity Committee Chair Serena Kim can be contacted at serena00@arizona.edu. A directory of all members follows: