Our JEDI statement is an aspirational reminder —

MRM acknowledges and honors the fundamental value and dignity of all individuals and is committed to furthering Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion through creating an environment where everyone feels welcome and supported.

— but it’s just the beginning. It’s important to remember our history, values, and actions, where to get some more information, and resources.

History, Values and Action

Ocean sciences have lagged behind other STEM disciplines in the diversity of students, faculty and workforce (Bernard & Cooperdock, 2018). This lack of diversity reflects institutional racism within universities, including ours, and we are committed to work to eliminate these harmful institutional structures within our program, college, university, and society. In the MRM graduate program, we believe that all people deserve respect, equitable opportunities, and a safe learning environment.

As an interdisciplinary, science-based, professionally oriented program that identifies and addresses “wicked” problems in marine science, MRM knows that solutions are scientifically proven to be more impactful when diverse minds and approaches are engaged (Swartz et al., 2019; Powell 2018). We believe justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion enriches all of us by exposing us to a range of ways to understand and engage with the world, identify challenges, and to discover, design and deliver marine resource solutions.

Therefore, every day we commit to crafting a more just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive environment through:

  • recognizing the rights of all individuals to mutual respect and the acceptance of others without biases based on perceived differences of any kind,
  • creating and maintaining an environment that respects diverse traditions, heritages, and experiences,
  • the equitable treatment and elimination of discrimination in all of its forms at all organizational levels, throughout aspects of our program,
  • building respect, dignity, fairness, caring, equality, and self-esteem,
  • addressing the lack of cultural diversity within our program, CEOAS, and in the geosciences as a whole,
  • ensuring that racial and gender microaggressions, exclusion, bullying, and discriminatory remarks are addressed and eliminated from our program,
  • maintaining an ongoing working group consisting of MRM students and the MRM program director to help improve JEDI within the program, and
  • improving the feeling of welcomeness in our program which will be measured by
    • Annual climate assessments
    • Requiring students to participate in at least one JEDI course or SJEI training per year
    • Requiring all students to demonstrate how their research will contribute to JEDI
    • Honoring and acknowledging work done by MRM faculty that improves the university climate and adopts a JEDI lens
    • Ensuring students understand process for reporting bias incidents
    • Crafting a mentorship program for incoming students (TBD what this looks like)

For More Information

Resources

Go to the Marine Resource Management Program page