Dear Members of the CNS Community,
Earlier today the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) released a statement in support of #ShutDownSTEM. This movement calls on members of the academic community not directly involved in COVID-19 research to spend Wednesday, June 10, transitioning "into a lifelong commitment of actions to eradicate anti-Black racism in academia and STEM." We support this call for the STEM community to pause and reflect on needed change. As a critical part of our responsibilities as members of the STEM community, we encourage you to spend time tomorrow listening, learning, and reflecting.
We are committed to engaging with all members of our community to listen to and learn from one another, as well as more broadly. This will empower us to identify and implement "actions needed to bring about real and lasting change" that will eradicate all forms of racism from STEM. To build on this day of reflection, we shall create multiple opportunities for members of our community to come forward to share, discuss, and refine ideas (even nascent ones) that have the possibility of effecting the change we need. More details will be provided about these opportunities in the near future.
The CNS Diversity and Inclusion Committee website offers resources for navigating this learning process. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and there are many other resources readily available on-line, which you might consider as well.
We are committed to making positive changes in CNS and beyond. We hope that, together, as a college community, we can embark upon an unprecedented, sustained commitment to ending racism and inequity in STEM.
Sincerely,
Paul M. Goldbart, Dean
Shelley M. Payne, Advisor to the Dean
Dean Appling, Associate Dean
Dan Knopf, Associate Dean
Andreas Matouschek, Associate Dean Designate
Natasa Pavlovic, Associate Dean
Melissa Taylor, Assistant Dean
David Vanden Bout, Senior Associate Dean
