Diversity plays a crucial role in all professional and academic spaces, but especially in the STEM fields. These professional fields are significantly lacking in women and non-women minorities, which only contributes to fewer students from these backgrounds entering the field due to them lacking a sense of belonging. Identity and the ability to see oneself as a member of a community is critical to students graduating with STEM majors and eventually entering these fields. Therefore it is vital that universities maintain inclusive hiring processes to not only provide students with diverse perspectives but also to help them identify with people who have been successful in the fields that they want to go into.

In order to develop this diverse environment, we are calling upon Arizona State University to adopt the following hiring policies in their STEM departments:

Search Advocate Program:

Oregon State University developed this program in which Search Advocates are trained on diversity, how to reduce bias, an the inner workings of the university’s hiring processes so that they can be present not only in recruitment for positions but also in hiring committees to ensure that inclusive practices are being observed and that bias is not impacting decisions. For more information, here is the link to OSU’s Search Advocate website: https://searchadvocate.oregonstate.edu/about

Diverse Applicant Pool:

The Search Advocate can be instrumental in recruiting applicants from many different ethnicities, genders, levels of ability, and sexualities to ensure that hiring committees review applications from people of many different backgrounds. Coupled with blind interviews, having a diverse applicant pool ensures that all voices are represented and that they all have a level playing field in hiring processes.

Blind Interviews:

By conducting initial interviews via phone and removing names and questions about gender and ethnicity, universities can ensure that they are drawing from an already diverse pool of candidates, and the candidates that are moving through the hiring process were vetted purely by their skills and experience rather than other factors that may cause bias. This will help change universities from an environment of “culture fit” to an environment of “culture add.” Where candidates are not selected purely to fulfill a quota but to add their unique perspective to the working environment.

Contributions to Diversity Statement:

By mandating that colleges ask their applicants how they will uniquely contribute to and foster a diverse and inclusive environment, they can create accountability for their employees. This will help to vet candidates who do not prioritize diversity and serve as something to reflect upon during employee evaluations if they truly are promoting the culture that they said they would.

While this list is by no means extensive, it will help increase the diversity of university faculty and therefore create an environment where students of diverse backgrounds feel that they can succeed. Please sign this petition to indicate your support for these hiring processes if you would like to see these implemented at Arizona State University. If you would like to learn more about what the university is currently doing to encourage diversity, the link to their diversity policies is here: https://inclusion.asu.edu/