Committee: Udval Altangerei (Undergrad), Angela Boag (Grad Student), Max Boykoff (Assoc Prof), Atreyee Bhattacharya (Inst), David Ciplet (Asst Prof), Myles Maland (Staff), Dale Miller (Sr Instr), Carol Wessman (Prof)
1. Definition of inclusive excellence from the Environmental Studies Program perspective:
The Environmental Studies Program approaches modern complex environmental problems in the context of human-environmental systems. Our excellence is defined by how well we teach and engage our students in their learning, achievement of high levels of research and productivity, and active outreach and involvement of the broader university and public communities. ENVS research and education programs focus on integrating science, policy and values to solve problems at the intersection of the environment, society, and issues of sustainability. Thus, each time we frame a problem, we strive toward the ideal of inclusiveness. Further, in Environmental Studies we both attempt to solve existing environmental problems that are the result of human activity, and use the notion of sustainability as a lens that employs the same principles to anticipate and avoid activities or situations that can have harmful effects on people or the environment in the future, including humans not yet alive. Inclusive excellence in Environmental Studies, then, includes applying the ideals of fairness, justice, equal opportunity, and representation not only when looking outwardly at existing or potential problems, but also when looking inwardly at structure, standards, policies, and procedures.
2. Here’s why improving inclusivity is important to environmental studies:
Research documents that environmental problems and hazards often disproportionately impact racial and ethnic minorities, native peoples, low-income people, women, the young and the elderly, and other underrepresented groups. This is related to social, economic and political forms of inequality in society, including unequal representation in environmental decision-making and leadership, and the neglect of certain forms of knowledge and value systems. As the recent health crisis related to water contamination in Flint, Michigan has revealed, forms of environmental inequality can have devastating impacts on individuals and communities.
Despite this, there is racial and ethnic diversity lacking in major environmental organizations including non-governmental organizations, foundations, and government agencies. While accounting for 38% of the United States population, ethnic minorities and people of multi-racial backgrounds account for just 16% of staff and board members of these three types of organizations, and less than 12% of the leadership positions.1
Environmental studies and environmental science programs are also often not representative of ethnic minorities, people of multi-racial backgrounds and other disproportionately impacted groups, including their faculties, despite the relevance of environmental issues to their lives. Building more inclusive environmental leadership will necessitate more inclusive and diverse environmental studies programs. Such programs will also provide more enriching learning environments for all students, and a safe, inclusive, and productive space for underrepresented individuals.
3. Here’s how inclusivity fits into our existing program:
The CU ENVS program provides a strong basis from which to build inclusive excellence. Relevant attributes of the program include:
- Systems thinking grounded in interdisciplinary study, leading to challenging boundaries and distinct ways of defining and addressing environmental problems;
- a unique focus on values, including diverse conceptions of justice and considerations of how environmental issues impact people’s lives;
- a policy focus and action orientation, including engagement to confront real world problems;
- a science focus on research techniques and problem solving relevant to modern and interdisciplinary environmental challenges;
- an approach that combines considering local contexts with a global orientation, including a new certificate program in Global Environmental Affairs (GEA);
- a practical and professional orientation, with a focus on skill-building and hands-on career development that offers possibilities for well-paid jobs, particularly in the natural and social sciences. (including internships, an active ENVS club; a highly successful honors program).
Two of several ENVS efforts to reach out to new and diverse populations: (i) ENVS successfully served as host for the first Chair in Conservative Thought; and (2) our new professional graduate program, Masters of the Environment, reaches participants with whom we have not previously or deliberately engaged, including mid-career professionals and students wishing to pursue an applications-based graduate experience, rather than a research-oriented one.
4. Here are ways that we seek to improve:
Faculty and staff representation: Faculty (TTT and instructors) and staff need to represent the population that students want to see in their fields of study. A faculty and staff that represent inclusion are, in turn, inclusive in teaching and mentorship. We can: (i) create inclusiveness through the faculty with targeted hires where there is a diverse pool rather than theme-driven hires; (ii) make targeted efforts to recruit and hire diverse staff; (iii) ensure a culture for underrepresented faculty and staff that is inclusive, through an intentional and educated process of building an inclusive culture in the program. This will help with faculty and staff retention, increase diversity among ENVS undergraduate and graduate students, and enhance mentorship, learning and department culture.
Culture: It is not reasonable to think that becoming more inclusive occurs, with the campus cultural changes this demands, only through changes in hiring or recruitment practices with a focus on diversity. Inclusiveness is not exclusively based in compositional change; it is also equal opportunity, freedom to participate and govern, and addressing enduring forms of privilege embedded in institutional and cultural patterns. This translates across employment levels and the student body. Inclusiveness is as much a climate or culture as it is a practice. Thus it may be necessary (though difficult) for the university to also assess its existing structure and practices to identify where it is within its ranks exclusive or exclusionary.
Academic departments have particular cultures and norms which, though they may feel “normal” to individuals of dominant groups, can feel foreign, isolating, offensive, or inaccessible to individuals that are not part of that culture. As a result, it is important to intentionally build awareness and understanding of how certain group and organizational dynamics may reproduce power differentials and uneven access to opportunities, and create an unfavorable environment for underrepresented groups.
Curriculum: Our classes strive to integrate science, policy and values that define our social-environmental landscapes. However, we recognize a need to provide classes and curricula that are specifically justice-oriented and better integrated programmatically; with inclusivity- and diversity-oriented discussions and considerations in the design of other courses as well. This includes expanding examination of the natural environment to consider issues of race, gender, health, human rights, disability, sexual and gender identity, workplace safety and social justice.
5. Recommendations to the University:
We have several recommendations, however we focus this request on resources for:
(1) diversity training for faculty, staff and graduate students
(2) targeted, preferably cluster, faculty hires
(3) fellowship/scholarship resources to attract and retain underrepresented graduate and undergraduate students.