Diversity & Climate

Historically, academia and astronomy have been hostile to under-represented people. White men are overwhelmingly overrepresented in positions of power, and almost all historically-excluded people in academia report harassment, discrimination, and targeted microaggressions. Academia is structured so that the people who commit these offenses rarely face any consequences, while those who suffer them rarely receive redress.

As a result, academics and astronomers have a long history of exclusion. They fail to recruit historically-excluded students, then subject those they do recruit to hostile environments, and finally neglect to promote those who remain into positions of power. Rather than implementing changes that would make academia a more equitable place, academics in positions of power—most often white men, who benefit from the racist, sexist status quo—tend to abide by their long-standing, failed institutions.

Our astronomy group is committed to challenging this status quo. For example, we have implemented a seminar series once a semester where we discuss ideas for how to improve the climate in our department and then commit to specific actions that we will take before the next meeting. In this way, we are working to create a supportive community not just through intent, but also through meaningful action.

As certainly as we must push for change in our society at large, so we must push for change in academia. We commit to resisting and dismantling all systems in science and academia that uphold white supremacy, racism, colonialism, and patriarchy.

Department Organizations

The astronomy group is very active in the department, leading the way in nearly all of the measures taken to improve the climate and truly support inclusion in our community. Our graduate students especially are incredibly active, taking leadership positions across organizations and working to hold our department accountable. We recognize that there will never be a time when enough work has been done — we should always be striving to improve, challenging ourselves to push for progress as passionately as we discuss science. Our grad community is committed to pushing for concrete actions and meaningful changes, rather than perpetuating a passive environment which centers whiteness and protects the status quo.

Below, we list some of the organizations that exist in our department, all of which have a strong astronomy presence, with brief summaries about the purposes of each one.

The Society for the Under-Represented in Physics & Astronomy (SUPA)

Established in 2016, SUPA's goal is "To bring together and provide support for diverse peoples to create and foster an inclusive and engaged community. To create a space for free communication among diverse groups to promote support and community." SUPA works to provide a safe space for under-represented people to come together and discuss the challenges and issues they may face, both in our department and in academia in general. While SUPA is open to everyone in the department, spanning all levels (including faculty & staff), they press that those more privileged in dicsusisons to take on the full responsibility of educating themselves and not relying on under-represented peoples to do this for them. This department-funded group was created by three astronomy graduate students (Sarah Cantu, Taylor Hutchison, & Katelyn Stringer) and the leadership and membership of SUPA has continued to have a very strong astronomy presence.

SUPA website

Climate & Diversity Committee

Established in 2018, they are tasked with developing and implementing plans to improve the climate of the department as a whole, and build and support the diversity of the scientists and students who live within it. This group has a strong graduate student presence (with a recent addition of two more grad members), and the contribution from the astronomy group has continued to be invaluable.

Mentoring & Advising Graduates in an Inclusive Community (MAGIC)

Established in June 2019, MAGIC is a mentoring program created by and for graduate students in Physics & Astronomy at Texas A&M. We match graduate student mentors to incoming graduate students in order to create an inclusive, supportive community to help students thrive throughout graduate school. This program was created by two astronomy graduate students (Jonathan Cohn & Taylor Hutchison) for the astronomy program, and the MAGIC structure has since been adopted into a program for the physics side as well.

MAGIC website

Postdoc+Grad mentoring program

Started in 2020 by our esteemed postdocs, the program connects each graduate student with a postdoc (therefore each postdoc has a few grad mentees). Each postdoc+mentee meet once per month, and can talk about anything -- be it general grad life, postdoc life, applying for jobs, tips & tricks, mentoring, etc. The current postdoc contact for this program is Grace Olivier (gmolivier@tamu.edu).

DEI Resources

To see a collection of DEI Resources, visit our General Resources page — and if you have any suggestions, let us know! We are always working on building the list.