Diversity & Inclusion

Executive Updates - February 24

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Feb 2022 02:53:21 +0000

Executive Updates - February 24 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 02/24/2022 - 19:53

To our graduate and professional colleagues,

Please see below for a weekly update from the Graduate and Professional Student Government, which you should also be receiving from your department representative or college senator.

Upcoming events and opportunities:

GPSG meetings
- Assembly Meetings - Wednesdays 5pm
- Administration Team - biweekly Thursdays 4pm
- Engagement Team - Tuesdays 3:30pm
- Executive Team - Thursdays 10:30am
- Outreach Team - Mondays at 10am
Grad and Professional student events on the CU Calendar
Applications for Graduate Excellence Awards are open, due Thursday, March 17. Apply to be recognized for your contributions to teaching and the scholarship community on campus!
Arts & Sciences: The search for a new college dean is entering the public phase where finalist candidates will be visiting campus. How would grad students like to interact with potential candidates to provide feedback? So far in this search there has been only ONE grad student representative so we would like to have a high number of students provide feedback at this stage! Please email Barra Peak if you have ideas or want to be involved!
See current openings to work with GPSG.
Sign up to get the weekly GPSG newsletter!

Week in Review:

Our President of Engagement, Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Senator for the School of Education met with CU System President Todd Saliman to talk about DEI work on campus this week.
The Executive team met with the Grad School and discussed strategies for communicating important information (see new monthly email format) and started collaboration on ensuring equitable workload for students on appointment.
Please let us know if there are particular issues you’d like us to prioritize!
Our Director of Legislative Affairs attended Lobbying Day at the Colorado capitol.

If any questions arise, you can reach out to your representative or contact us at gpsg@colorado.edu.

We hope you stay safe and have a great week,

Emily Jensen, Barra Peak, and Mckenzie Dice

GPSG Executive Team

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GPSG Attends President's DEI Lunch

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Feb 2022 18:09:10 +0000

GPSG Attends President's DEI Lunch Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 02/24/2022 - 11:09

On Monday, GPSG members President Emily Jensen, Director Sima Bhowmik, and Senator Marlene Palomar attended a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion lunch with CU System President Saliman and Dean of Students Banks. We discussed the need for structural, system-wide support of DEI initiatives as well as supporting students from diverse backgrounds through equitable pay and affordable housing.

If you have any other thoughts on DEI priorities GPSG should pursue, please email diversity.gpsg@colorado.edu.

See pictures from the event

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Statement: Regarding CUSG Legislative Strike

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 22:38:09 +0000

Statement: Regarding CUSG Legislative Strike Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/12/2021 - 16:38

The CU Student Government (CUSG) Legislative Council has recently announced a strike in response to systemic racism within the CUSG system and a transfer of power to university administration which undermines the autonomy of their government. GPSG executives have written a statement clarifying the role of GPSG in this strike and our commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion in our daily operations.

Read the statement here

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Statement: GPSG Requests Holiday Observance Changes

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 21:37:51 +0000

Statement: GPSG Requests Holiday Observance Changes Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/06/2021 - 15:37

GPSG President of Outreach recently released a letter to university administration requesting CU add two official holidays (no work or class) to the university calendar. Specifically, GPSG requests that Juneteenth and Indigenous Peoples Day be added as official holidays.

Read the letter here

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Executive Updates - September 22

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 16:58:45 +0000

Executive Updates - September 22 Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/22/2021 - 10:58

To our graduate and professional colleagues,

Cooler fall weather is now reaching us in Colorado! Please see below for a weekly update from the Graduate and Professional Student Government, which you should also be receiving from your department representative or college senator.

Upcoming events and opportunities:

GPSG meetings, open to everyone
- Assembly Meetings - Tuesdays 6:15pm (tentative, working on rescheduling. If you are interested in attending, email speaker.gpsg@colorado.edu)
- Engagement Team - Tuesdays 4pm
- Executive Team - Mondays 10am
- Outreach Team - Tuesday 4:30 pm (as needed)
Grad and Professional student events on the CU Calendar
Our first DEI Grad Social Hour is happening this Friday, Sept 24 from 1-3pm at the GPSG office (UMC 127).
Current open applications: various campus positions (rolling review), DEI award
Our Director of Social Events will be graduating this semester! A formal application will open later this semester.
The executives would like to thank Anthony Pinter for his many years of service to GPSG through the roles of department representative, (the inaugural) Director of Data Analytics, Vice President of External Affairs, and most recently as Speaker of the Assembly. Anthony recently stepped down to graduate this semester; we wish you best of luck with your future endeavors!
We now have a weekly newsletter (here’s the link to sign up)!

Week in Review:

We met with Disability Services to make suggestions for making the comprehensive and dissertation exam process more accessible. Students registered with this office are entitled to the same kinds of accommodations for these exams as for courses.
Our summary of grad and professional university dental insurance options, available here, has been updated with new information from the grad school.
We met with the graduate school last week to discuss the results of the Fees and Benefits committee report from last year. We also followed up on department culture investigations and the graduate housing changes.
The executives would like to thank Anthony Pinter for his many years of service to GPSG through the roles of department representative, (the inaugural) Director of Data Analytics, Vice President of External Affairs, and most recently as Speaker of the Assembly. Anthony recently stepped down to graduate this semester; we wish you best of luck with your future endeavors!

If any questions arise, you can reach out to your representative or contact us at gpsg@colorado.edu.

We hope you stay safe and have a great week,

Emily Jensen, Barra Peak, and Bobby Vondrasek

GPSG Executive Team

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Executive Updates - September 15

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Sep 2021 21:04:36 +0000

Executive Updates - September 15 Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/15/2021 - 15:04

To our graduate and professional colleagues,

We hope you are getting settled into the rhythm of teaching and research. Please see below for a weekly update from the Graduate and Professional Student Government, which you should also be receiving from your department representative or college senator.

Upcoming events and opportunities:

GPSG meetings
- Assembly Meetings - Tuesdays 6pm
- Engagement Team - Tuesdays 4pm
- Executive Team - Mondays 10am
- Outreach Team - Tuesday 4:30 pm (as needed)
Grad and Professional student events on the CU Calendar
Our first DEI Grad Social Hour is happening next Friday, Sept 24 from 1-3pm at the GPSG office. Please stop by to meet fellow students and GPSG officers.
Applications for open Senator positions and a variety of opportunities to sit on campus boards are open (most are paid). Click here to access the application form. They will be reviewed on a rolling basis starting September 15.
Applications for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award are now open! Apply by October 15.
Our Director of Social Events will be graduating this semester! We will be searching for her replacement soon, see this article for more details.

GPSG Week in Review:

Met with CUSG Executives to discuss joint goals
Chairs & Directors meeting was focused on staff DEI, student graduation rates
We wrote a summary of grad and professional university dental insurance options, available here. The graduate school recently released some new information on this, please send us any questions you have so we can follow up with the graduate school.
We now have a weekly newsletter (here’s the link to sign up)!

If any questions arise, you can reach out to your representative or contact us at gpsg@colorado.edu.

We hope you stay safe and have a great week,

Emily Jensen, Barra Peak, and Bobby Vondrasek

GPSG Executive Team

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New Event - DEI Social Hour

Anonymous — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 23:13:10 +0000

New Event - DEI Social Hour Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 09/09/2021 - 17:13

Our Director of Diversity Initiatives and Director of Social Events are piloting a new event this semester! We hope you can join us for a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) social hour. During this event, come chat with GPSG officers about your experience with DEI issues on campus. The first 30 minutes will be reserved for individual or group discussion, while the remainder of the time will be spent enjoying treats and playing games. This event will be held twice this semester, so please stop by and catch up. Please direct any questions to diversity.gpsg@colorado.edu.

View the event details here

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2021 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award Winners

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Apr 2021 15:54:19 +0000

2021 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award Winners Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 04/29/2021 - 09:54

The Graduate and Professional Student Government is pleased to announce the winners of the 2021 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award. During this inaugural award year, we received 12 applications and awarded 5 awards with 3 honorable mentions. We will post more about the award recipients this summer so you can learn more about them and the work they are doing in our community.

Award Winners

Nancy Maingi, Communications

Alexander Williams, Literature

Rachel Janie O'Neal, Political Science

Joy Chieko Yamaguchi, Music

Chu May Paing, Anthropology

Honorable Mentions

Prasanth Prahladan, Computer Science

Derek LeFebre, Education

Ali Raza, Computer Science

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Open Letter on Race

Anonymous — Sat, 30 May 2020 20:57:19 +0000

Open Letter on Race Anonymous (not verified) Sat, 05/30/2020 - 14:57

Dear Graduate and Professional Students of the ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ and greater community,

In recent days and weeks, we have seen long-standing issues of race rise to the surface with protests around the United States and the world. Once again, lives have been lost needlessly. The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in rural Georgia expose an ugly truth.

The oppression, discrimination, and harassment of various racial and minority groups has always been and continues to be a central aspect of the American experience. It is our enduring nightmare and an open wound. Black people and people of color should not have to worry for their safety from bad actors and police brutality when going about their daily lives. This constant stress, trauma, and exhaustion people of color endure for simply existing in public spaces is unacceptable and immoral.

The University of Colorado Boulder is no exception to these issues. We have experienced multiple incidents of racism on our campus and in our community in recent months and years. We know that unconscious bias, microaggressions, and explicit racism degrade and demean our students of color on a regular basis. Our institution, as well as higher education as a whole, has vast racial disparities and inequities. People of color are underrepresented as undergraduate students, and the disparity of representation does not improve when we examine our graduate student and faculty bodies.

Beyond our campus we know that racial disparities exist in virtually every aspect of our society: the criminal justice system, employment, wealth, health outcomes, education, among many others. It is incumbent on each of us to fight for both the civil rights and human rights of people of color in our communities and to work to end inequality, however it may manifest.

UGGS will tirelessly continue our work to ensure all students feel safe, welcome, and valued in our campus community; please contact us to share your experience or give us feedback for improvement.