If you’re doing basic scientific research in the US, here’s a new must read. This preprint by Chen et al. dropped on Friday, entitled “Decades of systemic racial disparities in funding rates at the National Science Foundation.” Using over 20 years of data on funding rates, they demonstrate that white PIs have been getting funded…
Search Results for: equity
Undergraduate research: course credit vs. getting paid
StandardUndergraduate labor powers many university laboratories. Many of us faculty in primarily undergraduate institutions simply would not be shipping much product without this source of labor. And even in PhD-granting institutions, undergrads are often the labor that makes dissertations possible. Oftentimes, this is unpaid labor. But in the eyes of many, this form of unpaid…
If your society is serious about diversity, equity, and inclusion, you need to keep having online conferences
Standard(Also, obviously, online conferences have lower carbon footprints) Many traditionally in-person scientific meetings have shifted to virtual formats during the COVID-19 pandemic. As an attendee (and organizer) at several virtual conferences over the last two years, I heard a lot of people talking about how they look forward to conferences being “back to normal” next…
Benefits of virtual conferences for ecology and conservation research
StandardNote: This is a guest post by Lauren Kuehne and co-authors of Kuehne et al. 2022. Hot on the heels of Catherine Scott’s excellent post in early February, where she summarized Skiles et al. 2021 on how virtual conferences shifted conference attendance, we want to share a brand new article in Conservation Biology related to…
On the legacies of Ed Wilson and EO Wilson
StandardIt doesn’t do any harm to Wilson’s friends and colleagues to recognize the unfortunate aspects of his legacy. It simply gives us a way to move forward to make science more just and equitable.
Can we talk about Field Camp?
StandardA few years ago, I was spending time with some geologists and they were telling me about Field Camp. That it’s a standard requirement of most Geoscience programs, but also that it’s highly problematic. I just googled a bit, here’s what I learned. According to UW Milwaukee, “Field camp is a tradition in the education…
Adjusting scholarship expectations after the pandemic ends
StandardFor most of us, academic productivity has taken a huge hit over the past year. And that’s fine. If you’re working from home full time while raising young children doing remote schooling, I can’t imagine how you have done anything above the bare minimum. For the rest of us, it’s entirely reasonable to have not…
Anti-black racism in STEM is pervasive, and we must change this reality
StandardIn academia, so much of the burden of defeating racism falls squarely on the shoulders of black scientists. This needs to change and change is possible- we have seen it over the past few weeks. “Black Lives Matter” has shifted from being a taboo phrase to one largely embraced by the public. Systemic racism is being openly acknowledged in the corporate sector. You might be asking, “Where do I start?”
Help us to diversify and humanize biology courses!
Standarda guest post by Project Biodiversify (www.projectbiodiversify.org @biodiversifying) We contain multitudes. Our courses should reflect this. We contain multitudes. Like an ecological niche, a person’s identity is composed of infinite dimensions that make up a person or group’s collective identity space (Figure 1). However, in science – a discipline that has historically valued objective and…
NSF’s accountability for the Waterman award
StandardUsually we talk about accountability when people are getting it wrong, and perhaps on the occasional moment when someone or some organization experiences appropriate negative consequences for their own actions. That’s only the first step. Accountability includes taking the steps to right the wrong, to move forward doing the right things. So: I’d just like…
On the exodus of faculty
StandardA lot of folks, with tenured positions, are choosing to get out of the university game to do other kinds of work. A recent issue of Nature has a particularly strong piece of journalism that dives into “the great resignation.” This article has resonated with a lot of people. Perhaps we’ve only seen the the…
Look in your own backyard
StandardMetaphorically, that is. What can you do to increase the representation of minoritized people in your department and in your lab? Well, the big answer to the question is that anything worthwhile takes work. This is not just worthwhile, it’s important. So, it will require effort on your part. And it means challenging yourself to…
They’re not even trying at NIH
StandardI just saw this, and I think everybody needs to see this. Here it is: I'm in a NIH review panel helping decide where millions of research dollars go – 26 experts in their respective fields. Yet just one is a woman. C'mon, this is crazy. @stemwomen — Rick Peltier (@20000breaths) November 19, 2019
Gender inequity at every step of publishing
StandardI sat down to my laptop this morning and was looking forward to getting to work. But then I looked at the news. And I saw this: “It is apparent that the gender gap manifests at every stage of the publishing process — choice of journal, editorial decisions, referees’ decisions and even citations…This suggests something…
Recommended reads #188
StandardThe science of changing the minds of unreasonable people This longform article, “Private Schools Are Indefensible” captures the fundamental issues here so strikingly. [highlighted read] How to nominate people for awards, especially women and minoritized scientists.
Better recruitment of postdocs and grad students
StandardRemember when I was saying that junior scientists of color are more likely to get ignored when they send their CVs to PIs they want to work with? A couple weeks ago, a paper came out with some substantial data validating concerns about this problem.
“I know you’re busy, so I’ll make this quick”
StandardThis is a sign that I’ve been getting it wrong. When people start talking to me by saying, “I know you’re busy, but…” then I feel like I have already failed a little bit.
On bureaucratic obstacles to field experiences for students
StandardIf your university is like mine, then you hear a lot about everybody is working hard to make sure that students have exposure to high impact educational practices. We all want to make sure that while students are in college, that they have the chance to have meaningful experiences. For students in a bunch of…
Play The Game, or Change The Rules?
StandardI feel a dilemma — or rather, a tradeoff — when I think about investing time, money, and effort into supporting undergraduates to gain admission to graduate programs. On one hand, we all know that the system is rigged, such that students who come from whiter and wealthier backgrounds have a huge leg up.
Recommended reads #181
StandardThe author of the infamous Carreira letter just became the Editor-in-Chief of the flagship journal of the American Chemical Society. (This month, he issued another nonpology. He says he regrets writing it. I sure bet he does!) An American teenager who doesn’t speak Scots wrote many of the Scots Wikipedia entries. Now Wikipedians are figuring…
Recommended reads #180
StandardA detailed account of how Eunice Foote conceived the role of atmospheric gases in climate warming in 1856, and how she designed and conducted her experiments. It’s pretty cool. Is lecturing racist? What is the effect of Article Processing Charges on the geographic diversity of authors? Are paywalled journals more accessible to publish in for…
Who uses tenure and how do they use it?
StandardThey say that tenure is designed to protect academic freedom. That is mostly true, but it is also used for for other purposes by faculty and other parties. Let’s do a rundown of how tenure gets used.
Stepping up to do the work in an academic society
StandardToday, the Ecological Society of America is dropping its ballot for a new round of seats on the Governing Board. I’m hoping to serve the society as the VP for Education and Human Resources. If elected, I’ll begin a 3-year term in summer 2021.
Why you should nominate people for awards
StandardAwards and honors don’t matter, but, still, they really matter.
Now, let’s replace the SAT and GRE with something more equitable
StandardCongrats, everybody! Even before the pandemic, the SAT and the GRE were slowly being set aside, and for most of us, it looks like these tests just won’t be coming back. There were plenty of good reasons to drop these standardized tests. So, yay. However — and I think this is needs to be a…
Recommended reads #173
StandardTeacher evaluation form for Spring 2020, from McSweeney’s This is a very handy and straightforward resource to help you create an accessible online course. Asking little kids to “do science” is substantially more impactful than asking them to “be scientists.” Just in case you wondered whether words matter, and whether subtle differences can have a…
When to use the terms PUI, SLAC, MSI, HSI, RPU, etc.?
StandardWe’ve got an acronym problem when it comes to classifying colleges and universities. No, it’s not that we have too many acronyms. Our problem is that the commonly used acronyms rarely capture the distinctions that we’re trying to specify. While I’ve already taken a stab at describing institutions with a typology that I think holds…
The adjunct hiring process is ridiculous
StandardOnce in a while, I get an email that sounds like this: Hi everybody I know who is driving distance from campus, We’re looking to hire an adjunct to teach [something] for us before the semester starts in a few weeks. Ideally this person has a PhD related to this topic and some teaching experience,…
Actions required of men to advance gender equity in academia
StandardThe last time I was in the audience for a Women-In-Science panel, a member of the audience asked something like, “Of all of the changes that we need to make, what matters most?” The panelist — Dr. Joan Herbers — responded, “The single most important thing we can do is get men to change their behavior.”
NSF Graduate Fellowships and the distant mirage of an equitable pipeline
StandardThis is a pipeline problem. It’s not that the pipeline doesn’t work well enough. It’s that it works too well. Because the pipeline is built to serve the folks who built it.
