Institute of Cognitive Science Inclusiveness Policy

V1.0 Prepared by Prof. Robert Rupert and Prof. Alice Healy on behalf of the Institute
V1.1, updated by T. Sumner on April 22, 2018

1.  ICS values interdisciplinary breadth of membership. The Institute will continue to encourage participation from a highly diverse group of members and students and to cultivate a welcoming atmosphere and approach to recruitment of new members, students, and other participants. Current active members and students hail from a wide variety of units, including  Psychology and Neuroscience; Computer Science; Linguistics; Philosophy; Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences; Integrative Physiology; Information Science; ATLAS; and the Schools of Education and Business.

2. When hiring faculty rostered in ICS, the Institute welcomes tenure-home appointments in a wide variety of units. In future searches, ICS will continue to identify the best candidates and pursue tenure affiliation in whatever department is most suited to the candidate’s needs and interests.

3. In recent years, ICS has expanded its number of research professors (of all ranks) and has pressed to increase their participation in the Institute. The Institute encourages its research faculty to pursue ground-breaking projects wherever they lead. The Institute also includes many research associates who are not research professors. The Institute will increase its efforts to welcome these individuals to participate in all ICS activities that would enhance their ability to interact and collaborate with others. The Institute will also increase its efforts to engage graduate students participating in our research mentoring and training programs in Institute activities that will enhance their professional development and opportunities to collaborate.

4. Historically, the Institute has emphasized a connection between ICS membership and the sharing of funds from indirect cost return. Although it must be recognized that these monies provide an indispensable source of revenue for ICS, the Institute is considering ways to encourage greater participation and stronger affiliations with those who cannot promise or provide as much in the way of ICR.

5. ICS provides channels for input from all affiliated parties, including students, staff, associates, fellows, and ICS faculty (both TTT faculty and those on the research track) and will continue to do so. Such input is gathered in face-to-face contexts – at various annual Institute events and presentations – and solicited electronically. Membership on the Institute’s Executive Committee is diverse and includes faculty with various forms of ICS affiliation, including a graduate student representative. Moreover, student voices have been well represented in recent ICS searches.

6. ICS is committed to casting its net broadly in the hiring of ICS-based faculty. Job notices have been, and will continue to be, posted widely. The entire ICS community will be encouraged to engage in informal recruitment efforts. ICS will also work to make use of internal means for diversifying its faculty, for example, by putting forward candidates for the Chancellor’s PostDoctoral Diversity Fellowships.

7. ICS will intensify its efforts to schedule talks and invite visitors who speak to the cognitive processes that eventuate in diversity- and inclusion-related forms of behavior. These speakers will contribute to the Institute’s weekly colloquium, which features a variety of local and invited “distinguished” speakers. More information on the colloquium and the distinguished speaker series is available on the ICS website.

8. ICS will work with relevant offices on campus (e.g., the Office of Disability Services; the Office of Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement, etc. ) to provide those who teach in ICS and who manage ICS-based labs with the most up-to-date information about policies and strategies for dealing with diversity- and inclusion-related issues as they arise in the classroom, in graduate supervision, and in the lab and workplace.

9. ICS affirms its longstanding commitment to support policies and make arrangements that are friendly to parents and to those with other family-related obligations.

10. ICS will review its web site to ensure that it is as accessible as possible to those with a variety of cognitive profiles.

11. ICS will work to ensure that appropriate forms of advising and tutoring are available to all students.

12. ICS will continue to encourage and reward public engagement by its faculty.