UCI wins equity award from American Association for the Advancement of Science
Change is hard, and can be achingly slow, but, one step like this a time, it does happen.
UCI recently became the second UC campus alongside our sister campus, UC Davis, to receive the STEMM Equity Achievement (SEA) Change Bronze Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The award honors the tangible efforts of colleges and universities to promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in STEMM fields: science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine. The bronze award — the first tier in a three-tier award ladder that climbs to silver and platinum — came after a peer-reviewed self-assessment by UCI showcased its inclusive excellence strides, which, at the School of Physical Sciences, are manifold. For instance, in the fall of 2020, the dean of Physical Sciences, Professor James Bullock, announced the formation of the Physical Sciences Office of Access, Outreach, and Inclusion, which has the sole aim of developing and promoting DEI efforts at the school; also in the fall, the Department of Physics & Astronomy published an action plan detailing the changes it’s committing to overhaul a culture that, in unknowing ways, abets the exclusion of minority populations; and last summer the Department of Mathematics launched its Community Outreach and Mentoring Program, which, with funding from the UCI Office of Inclusive Excellence, is already working to connect with underserved Latinx populations in the Orange County area.