Evelyn Cooper, assistant dean for academic programs and director for retention and diversity at AGNR, discusses the college’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and respect (DEIR).
What are the college’s DEIR goals?
As a college, our goal is to make all our faculty, students, staff, and constituents feel welcome in an environment where they can thrive. A commitment to DEIR means building a community that is strong and supportive, where all members feel valued. Including respect in our diversity, equity, and inclusion values is especially important because there has to be respect for each other and the vision to have the difficult conversations that our college, campus, and country are having now.
What is AGNR currently doing in DEIR?
In my role, I focus primarily on students, organizing the national Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences (MANRRS) chapter on campus, which provides research opportunities, social activities, and professional development. I manage programs like Ag Discovery to recruit under- represented high school students and give them research experience, and similar programs for graduate students. For our students of color, we also recently started hosting diversity panels. With all of the changes happening right now, students want to know that UMD, and AGNR in particular, is a safe space. To highlight that across students and employees, we are implementing the university's new Terrapin Strong program to provide DEIR-focused onboarding to all students, faculty, and staff.
What is the purpose of the college’s new DEIR strategic plan?
The strategic plan is designed to pull all our units together under this common mission and create measures of success. We’ve been active in DEIR for years, but we’ve all worked individually. It’s rare that we come together and discuss how our values and commitments to DEIR help to elevate and move the college forward, but that is exactly what needs to happen. This plan is a well thought out effort to coordinate and expand our impacts across the college. It’s also an opportunity for AGNR to be leaders in DEIR, to set an example for the rest of the university to follow.
Why is it important to integrate DEIR into the culture of AGNR, and what does success look like? It’s not only the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do. At AGNR, we want to recruit students from different backgrounds and perspec- tives that will bring innovation and creativity through diverse ideas. We can’t do that if we don’t grow our DEIR culture and aren’t reflective of the population. DEIR not only creates a welcoming environment, but it keeps us on the cutting edge and moves us forward as applied scientists, students, and educators. Success will mean seeing different types of people from different regions, states, and countries from both rural and urban backgrounds. We definitely want to recruit more faculty of color, especially Black tenure-track faculty. We also need to prioritize more diverse graduate students from underrepresented backgrounds. There is work to be done, but AGNR is ready to do it.
LEARN MORE ABOUT AGNR'S COMMITMENT TO DEIR: go.umd.edu/AGNRdeir