DEI Statements

Overview Statement  

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are essential to academic excellence and our aim is to foster an environment where we value, support, and promote diversity. This means providing equitable access to resources and opportunities to ensure that our department is a place where difference is welcomed and respected and every individual feels a sense of belonging and inclusion.  

Full Statement  

Openness to diverse backgrounds infuses our scholarship with different and valuable points of view. Therefore, diversity, equity, and inclusion are essential to academic excellence. We define diversity as different races, ethnicities, ages, gender identities and expressions, religions, national origins, cultures, migratory statuses, disabilities/abilities, political affiliations, veteran status, and socioeconomic backgrounds. In order to value, support, and promote diversity, we must provide equitable access to resources and opportunities. We commit to respond to bias, harassment, and discrimination. We further commit to nurturing a success-oriented, cooperative, and pro-active department where we attract and retain faculty, staff, and students who feel comfortable contributing their knowledge, experience, and perspectives. Our aim is to foster an inclusive environment where difference is valued and every member of the department is welcomed, accepted, and treated equitably.   

Foundational Principles 

1. We will work together to build authentic and trusting relationships across all aspects of human differences. 
2. We will incorporate marginalized people and perspectives from around the world into our research and value output from such research. 
3. We will incorporate marginalized people and perspectives from around the world into our teaching. 
4. We will embed diversity, equity , and inclusion in the processes the department utilizes to recruit, admit, fund, and evaluate graduate students. 
5. We will embed diversity, equity , and inclusion into the processes the department utilizes to recruit, hire, retain, and evaluate staff.  
6. We will embed diversity, equity , and inclusion into the processes the department utilizes to recruit, hire, retain, and evaluate faculty.  
7. We will encourage and sponsor training and other events to members of the department so that they can develop professional skills and cross-cultural competencies that further their capacity to create equitable and inclusive environments.
8. We acknowledge that geography as a discipline has not been and is not representative of the diversity that comprises our world. 
9. We acknowledge the department resides on the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary Lands of the Anishinaabeg—Three Fires Confederacy of Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi people. The department is committed to affirming Indigenous sovereignty, histories, perspectives, and experiences.   

Statements and principals were voted by the faculty of Department Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences in Spring 2021.

References: This statement is drawn from materials on diversity, equity, and inclusion from the University of Michigan and the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Michigan State University.