November 2022 D I and A Digest Header
Finish line is in sight

Welcome back from the holiday break. We hope it was a safe, enjoyable and restful time off. We’re just a few short weeks away from the end of the fall semester. This time of year, we find ourselves in the final sprint to get things done. We seem to get our boost of energy from those holiday goodies, hot cocoa and lots and lots of sugar. You, too? We know we’re in good company. As we round the corner on another quick semester, we invite you to stay actively engaged as we prepare to welcome three candidates who are interviewing for the Presidential Faculty Fellow for Mines DI&A over the next few weeks. Constructive feedback from students, faculty and staff is essential as we transition leadership for Mines DI&A. Read on to find the candidates’ campus presentation dates and times. We look forward to seeing you there. 

Finish well, Orediggers! 

Dr. Amy E. Landis, Tammy Curry, Heather Houlton, Kelly Knechtel and Arielle Rainey
Mines DI&A

Presidential Faculty Fellow for Mines DI&A campus presentations

Dr. Landis’ term as the Presidential Fellow for Mines DI&A is ending. Over the next few weeks, campus will have the opportunity to hear from three internal candidates on their vision for Mines DI&A, their backgrounds and their past and ongoing contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion on campus. Time will be allotted for questions from those in attendance. 

Dr. Leslie Lamberson — November 30th, 3:00 PM in Metals Hall 
Dr. Linda Figueroa — December 8th, 11:00 AM in Metals Hall 
Dr. Kate Youmans– December 14th, 3:00 PM in Metals Hall  

The presentations will be available as a Zoom Webinar and recorded if you are not able to attend in person. Zoom access information was sent via email to all of campus on 11/28 from Peter Han, Chief of Staff.

The Fellow plays a lead role in driving long-term, institutional change at Mines through implementing, updating and assessing the impact of Mines’ Strategic Plan for DI&A. This individual collaborates cross-functionally with the DI&A Council, campus leaders and campus departments and units to help the university achieve its DI&A goals. This position is designed to be a three-year rotation and reports directly to the President. The Fellow is expected to maintain connection to their core job at Mines so that they may rotate back to that position after their term concludes. The Fellow devotes about 50% of their time to this position and the remainder to their academic appointment.

Celebration of DI&A at Mines returns April 3

Attendees of the Celebration of DI&A at Mines listen to keynote speaker, Regan Byrd present on the topic of ally shipMark your calendars—again, for a full-day of DI&A learning and celebration. Students, faculty and staff are all invited to this annual day of learning. Please note, the date has been changed from March 13 to April 3 due to the Higher Learning Commission’s visit. The Celebration will include breakout sessions hosted by colleagues, students and industry representatives and a keynote lunch. New this year! In lieu of department flash talks, units will share their diversity progress report updates during a poster session. The posters will be on display throughout the event and 45 minutes will be set aside to allow participants to review and ask questions of department representatives. A poster template will be provided in December.

We could also use your support drumming up facilitators for the breakout sessions. Want to lead a discussion on a timely DI&A topic? Do you know someone whose DI&A efforts helped foster a greater sense of belonging? Please consider or encourage others to submit a brief proposal by January 23, 2023.

Mines awarded Department of Education’s TRIO

This fall, Mines was awarded its first-ever TRIO Programs recognition. The U.S. Department of Education’s TRIO Programs, Upward Bound Math Science will help low-income and first-generation students prepare for post-secondary education in STEM. The grant was spearheaded by Dr. Justin Shaffer, Teaching Associate Professor from the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering with collaborators in Enrollment Management. Justin was a 2021-2022 Mines DI&A Fellow whose project focused on writing this competitive grant. Emilie Rusch, Director of Communications, helped elevate the exciting announcement in a Mines newsroom article Colorado School of Mines to launch Upward Bound Math Science Program last week. 

Meet the 2022-2023 Mines DI&A Fellows

The Mines DI&A Fellows program recognizes highly accomplished and motivated faculty and staff for their exceptional DI&A leadership and service and provides support as they gain leadership experience and drive institutional change at Mines. Each Fellow leads a strategic initiative or program that furthers the vision and mission of Mines DI&A. We are excited to announce the three newest Fellows and the projects they will champion.

Portrait of Dr. Lakshmi Krishna Dr. Lakshmi Krishna, Director of Undergraduate Research Scholars from the Department of Physics, will center inclusive mentoring for advancing DI&A at Mines. This project will lead to a research mentoring workshop based on the Entering Mentoring curriculum designed and developed by Center for Improvement in Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER) to ensure mentors and mentees receive training and skills to sustain productive mentoring relationships.
Portrait of Annette Pilkington Annette Pilkington, Director of the Women in Science, Engineering and Mathematics (WISEM) Program will design and implement a leadership coaching program for Mines employees. The program will use ontological coaching, an approach that focuses on the nature of being, or the way a person “is” in the world.
Portrait of Professor Susan Reynolds Prof. Susan Reynolds, Teaching Professor from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, will lead Neurodiversity@Mines: A celebration of all kinds of minds at Mines. This project will create a dialogue around neurodiversity to foster an environment in which bright and quirky people are supported and celebrated as a core part of the Mines community.

Read more about Lakshmi, Annette and Susan’s projects.

Nominate a colleague during campus’ call for award nominations

If you’ve kept a close eye on the daily blast or your inbox the last few weeks, you’ve likely noticed a few calls for award nominations. Mines places great emphasis on everyone contributing to MINES@150 goals. We know formal recognition validates individuals’ work and encourages sustain efforts. In this award nomination season, we ask you to carve out some time over the next few weeks to recognize your colleagues, peers and students for their individual or collective contributions that help make Mines a world-class institution.  

A handful of nominations that are currently open: Forces of Mines: Elevating Women for supporting women in STEM and business, Martin Luther King Day Recognition Award for individuals committed to diversity, inclusion and access work on campus, Classified Employee of the Year Award for employees who exemplify Mines values and Faculty Awards such as Teaching Award (teaching, tenure, tenure-track), Board of Trustees’ Outstanding Faculty Award, W.M. Keck Mentorship Award, etc. 

Student organization spotlight: American Medical Women’s Association

Three students show off their informational poster board about AMWAThe American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) at Mines is a premedical branch of a national organization whose mission is to advance women in medicine, advocate for equity and ensure excellence in healthcare. AMWA leaders have connected members with physicians, dentists and nurses to help inspire the next generation of practitioners. Medical professionals guest speakers’ topics center around medical pathways, potential specialties and how to thrive in a medical career. Through social events and a mentorship program, AMWA connects Mines students to a premedical community.

AMWA’s next meeting is on Monday, December 5 at 6:00 PM in McNeil Hall 314. The Director of the Ludeman Family Center for Women’s Health Research at University of Colorado Anschutz will speak about the importance of women’s health research. All Mines students are invited to attend. Learn more about AMWA by visiting the organization’s webpage.

Department and campus units’ diversity progress reporting reaches the halfway point of the year

As we near the close of the fall semester, we are reminding department and campus units’ diversity committees we’re about halfway through the reporting cycle for the 2022-2023 diversity progress reports. What does this mean? If you haven’t been tracking your respective area’s contributions to DI&A so far this year, now is a good time to catch up so finalizing your report in the spring goes smoothly. Tracking your contributions includes including the impact your efforts have made using both qualitative and quantitative data. Most departments have a report template they’ve used and updated since reporting began in 2019. You can continue to update that document or use a report template that was provided last year based on the Mines DI&A general council members’ feedback. 

DI&A collection at the Arthur Lakes Library

The library helps champion diversity, equity and inclusion through the collection and maintenance of materials related to Diversity, Inclusion & Access. The collection, located on the library’s second floor or virtually, explores many social identities including race, ethnicity, age, gender, sexuality and religion in the context of higher education. Below are some of the library’s more recent additions:

Want to request a specific title? Fill out their suggest a purchase form.

Mines Community Alliances host second annual professional development: Inside and Outside the Box

MCA conf_Participants get ready for equity activityLast month, members from the five Mines Community Alliance Groups organized a professional development conference event meant to expand the definition of professional development. The conference opened with an equity activity led by graduate student Noah Sandoval, where participants were compelled to think about the difference between equity and equal. Sessions included an Ally workshop delivered by Regan Byrd and a session exploring pronouns and the evolution of gender-neutral language, created and presented by Mines staff Megan Rose, Senior Budget Analyst, and Savannah Allshouse, Proposal Analyst. Dr. Ivar Reimanis, Department Head MME, presented on increasing participation of underrepresented groups in the recruitment of graduate students, while other sessions were geared toward undergraduate, graduate student and postdoc career development. Ninety-nine staff, faculty and students registered for the conference, which was a 50% increase from the previous year. Conference organizers were Kathleen Armstrong, Chris Bird, Camar Diaz, Kelsie Diaz, Aurea Tolnay, Zhao Han, Skip Miller, Kelly Ragland, Megan Rose, Sara Russo and Noah Sandoval. 

SPUR update

The Strategies Promoting Undergraduate Retention (SPUR) Initiative is a study for learning about the experiences of Mines undergraduate students and the contributing factors to their decisions to leave Mines. The goal of SPUR is to understand the reasons affecting student retention at Mines, focusing on the reasons causing challenges and/or barriers for underrepresented student groups. We are excited to announce that we have begun reaching out to students. We are finalizing the survey instrument and anticipate collecting data during the month of December. We look forward to this collaborative effort of learning from our students how to best support their success. The results of SPUR can help Mines with further initiatives and programming that can create a campus climate where students feel less vulnerability to withdrawing. If you would like more information about this study, we encourage you to reach out to Arielle Rainey, Mines DI&A Research Project Professional, and she will be happy to discuss further study goals and design. Additionally, if you are interested in participating in this study, please connect as well. 

Contribute to December’s Mines DI&A Digest

Help us highlight the work you or your department is doing across campus to support DI&A at Mines by submitting a brief article to December’s Mines DI&A Digest. Submissions must be received by the first week of December in order to make it into the Digest.

Save the Dates 

Hyperlinks = virtual meeting access information. All times are Mountain Daylight Time.  

  • 11/30 @ 11:00-11:30 AM Bi-weekly Unconscious Bias & Microaggressions Bystander Learning Community  

  • 12/6 @ 10:00 AM Mines DI&A Council Monthly Meeting-General. Open to all Orediggers.  

  • 12/14 @ 5:00-7:00 PM The Continuum, a celebration of women graduates- past, present, future. Friedhoff Hall. RSVP by 12/7. 

    As always, we welcome your ideas, thoughts and feedback at diversity@mines.edu.
    Thank you for being a member of an inclusive Oredigger community and an advocate and ally for positive social change.

    Diversity, Inclusion and Access