Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Psychology Department Values Statement

We present these values in the active voice, to give clarity and transparency to what we are working towards as a Department. In the Department of Psychology, we acknowledge the historical and systemic inequities that exist within our department, the field, academia, and society at large. We strive to collaboratively construct an inviting, respectful, safe, and inclusive learning community for students, faculty, and staff. We seek to develop skills to disrupt past and current injustices through our teaching, research, service, and interpersonal interactions. We encourage faculty, staff and students to engage in innovative, ethical, anti-racist scholarship and education towards the mission of creating a more socially just world.

2022-23 DEI Goals:

Below, we list our goals for the upcoming academic year. Some of these goals are a continuation of previous goals we hope to build upon, and some are new goals we hope to make progress on this year.

  • Consult with the Culture, Race, and Ethnicity search committee throughout the hiring process, and build upon the work that has been done to improve our recruitment of a deep and diverse applicant pool.
  • Continue to consult with the department regarding equitable service workloads for faculty, and use the new service dashboard to examine disparities in workload assignments.
  • Further improve the IDEA section of the Psychology website and work to share more resources with all psychology stakeholders.
  • Collaborate with the Center for Cross-Cultural Research to highlight the work of visiting scholars and improve student access to psychologists of color.
  • Provide support to the new Psychology and BNS Students of Color Affinity Group.
  • Continue to support faculty to continue to decolonize and indigenize their classrooms and other interactions with students (i.e., labs, advising, clubs).
  • Assist the department to increase equity in advising and improving access to information about graduate school and careers in psychology after graduation.
  • Connect with other ADEI groups on campus and the new WWU Office of Equity to share information and strategies.
  • Ensure integration of IDEA related criteria in faculty evaluation by serving in a consulting role with the Department Evaluation Plan task force.
  • Design an equitable process for IDEA consultation with other department committees.

2021-22 DEI Goals:

  • Support department leadership in revising our admission requirements to a more holistic approach (that doesn’t focus on GPA alone).
  • Support the Cognitive Search Committee in recruitment of a deep and diverse pool of applicants (including but not limited to help with the hiring announcement, ways in which bias may impact application review, and faculty-wide recommendations on how to support applicants when they visit campus). Support the Search Committee by providing advice on the evaluation rubric and updated information to guide the interview process.
  • Review and support of equitable service workload for faculty. Preliminary data has been collected and evidence-based recommendations need to be made to address inequitable service amongst faculty (see O’Meara et al., 2021). This does/will have an impact on marginalized faculty members’ experience within the department, ultimately impacting students.
  • Develop and share an IDEA section of the Psychology website to promote the work we are doing in a transparent manner, while providing a space to share resources with students, staff and faculty.
  • Increase departmental awareness and representation of BIPOC psychologists (particularly Black and Indigenous scholars) doing original and innovative work in Psychology.
  • Support the new BIPOC Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience student group.
  • Continue to develop and host department Brown Bag meetings, about 3 times a quarter, for faculty to consult, support, teach, and promote growth through IDEA related topics.
  • Support faculty to continue to decolonize and indigenize their classrooms and other interactions with students (i.e., labs, advising, clubs).
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Contact

Questions or thoughts? Email us at IDEA.psych@wwu.edu

22-23 IDEA Committee

  • Anne Fast
  • Antonya Gonzalez
  • Ira Hyman
  • Kate McLean
  • Shaun Sowell