The time is now.

The department is taking action to improve inclusion and move toward becoming an anti-racist community. Recent and ongoing efforts toward these goals are outlined below.

New Inititatives

Faculty and Staff Education / student support

  • Department faculty will meet with Dr. Elizabeth Bleicher and other representatives from the Center for Student Success to discuss strategies to better support struggling students.

student education

  • Our department now has a CAPS faculty liaison who distributes information to faculty to share with students about mental health support on campus. 

Curriculum and Pedagogy

  • Instructors in the department are experimenting with alternative grading practices that are more equitable, increase student motivation, and emphasize authentic learning (over earning "points").
  • A team of faculty, staff, and students submitted a proposal to the administration requesting funds to renovate CNS 204 (one of our main classrooms). The proposed renovations would address safety concerns, improve aesthetics, and dramatically enhance the learning experience by creating a classroom uniquely suited to active learning. If funded, the renovations will be completed over Summer 2024.

DEI Leadership

  • The department is working on creating a DEI Coordinator position, description pending.

Recent Notable Progress

Faculty and Staff Education

  • Dr. Kelley Sullivan recently completed a two-year DEI Fellowship funded by the American Physical Society. As a fellow, Dr. Sullivan received training in facilitating critical conversations in the classroom and also co-created a workshop to help other physics educators increase their skills in recognizing and addressing critical situations in the classroom. 
  • Several physics faculty attended DEI sessions at the APS March Meeting. 

Student Education

  • Faculty members teaching the professional seminar classes have updated the curriculum to include explicit discussions of DEI in the context of the field of physics at large.
  • Individual faculty members have also integrated assignments and discussions in classes highlighting hidden figures, for example, and other DEI issues.

Student Support

  • Several physics faculty participated in a pilot effort to test "clicker" systems under consideration by the college. The chosen system will be provided for all students free of charge starting in Fall 2024. 
  • The department developed a new fund and application form for students to request travel funding to attend or present at regional and national conferences.

representation

  • Seminar coordinators select speakers diverse in identity and field of study and have included industry professionals!
  • In January 2022, Ithaca College and Cornell University co-hosted a Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics.

Community

  • Upcoming identity-based conferences are advertised to faculty and students.
  • The Astronomy Club has worked with faculty to reinstate observatory nights.

Curriculum and Pedagogy

  • The department faculty worked together to redesign the first two years of our curriculum to provide multiple pathways into the major and better scaffolding of mathematical and analytical reasoning skills.

DEI Leadership

  • Several physics faculty members participated in the APS TEAM-UP webinars, which support the national goal of doubling the number of black students earning bachelor's degrees in physics and astronomy by 2030.