College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Fisheries and Wildlife

Background

In late spring 2023, the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife (FW) invited all current faculty, support staff, academic staff, post-doctoral research associates/fellows, and graduate students to complete a survey evaluating diversity, climate and working relationships in the department.  The data collection instrument was developed by the FW Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee with assistance from the Office of Survey Research at Michigan State University (MSU).  The survey contained the following sections: Views on Diversity, Views on Civility, Equity, Inclusion, and Relationships, Experience with Relationship Violence and Sexual Misconduct, Incident of Bias and Reporting, Current Climate, and Demographics.  The survey was administered and analyzed by MSU’s Office of Survey Research to encourage open and honest responses and only de-identified and summarized results were made available to the department.  A report on the survey results can be found HERE. 

Follow-up

During the 2023-2024 academic year, the results of the survey were made available to all FW employees and students and a verbal report was given to the department in October.  The FW DEI Committee organized multiple listening sessions to collect feedback on the survey result and identify priority areas that needed to be addressed.  In addition, several brainstorming sessions with participation across all FW employee groups were held to identify specific actions that could be implemented to address priority areas.  The FW DEI Committee consolidated and reviewed the collection of action items and recommended a set of actions that the department seek to implement to address the priority areas.  The priority areas to tackle were: Power Differentials/Bullying Concerns, Graduate Student Vulnerability, Perceptions Regarding Employee Well-Being/Feelings of an FW Community, Diversity Across all Academic Levels.  Recommended actions were the following:

Power Differentials/Bullying Concerns

1. Establish a zero-tolerance policy on bullying enacting a clear process for how bullying complaints will be addressed.  Steps needed to encompass this action included:
   • FW adopting agreed upon descriptions of behaviors constituting workplace bullying
   • Establish an approach or instrument for bullying complaints to reach FW chair
   • FW chair to provide an annual report on number of bullying complains received and how complaints were dealt with
2. Individual faculty/labs should establish codes of conduct describing expectations regarding work hours, modes of communications, how students will be treated, and how students are expected to treat other faculty, students, and staff
3. Clarify duties performed by FW staff
4. Remove anonymized feedback on staff annual reviews (or clarify how feedback is used)
5. As part of graduate student exit interviews, students should be asked about advisor mentoring with comments on mentoring discussed at faculty annual reviews

Graduate Student Vulnerability

1. Continue a policy of a minimum stipend level for graduate students informed by cost of living in the Lansing/East Lansing region
2. Establish a group of faculty advocates willing to meet confidentially with graduate students seeking advice to address challenges they are dealing with in their program
3. Department requirement that graduate research assistants complete research proposal that identifies research chapters/questions/objectives to be included in a student’s thesis or dissertation
4. Revise the FW graduate seminar course to have greater focus on skills needed to be successful during their program
5. Expectation that graduate student professional travel to be paid through cash advance
6. Improved communication as to university resources available to graduate students to assist with life challenges

Development of Community/Improvement in Well-Being

1. Wider recognition of professional successes/achievements of individual in FW to promote feelings of work being valued
2. Greater inclusion of all job categories in FW events
3. More equitable spread of committee assignments across faculty and staff
4. FW leadership holding regular open forums to identify and discuss issues affecting FW and individual employees
5. Supervisors proactively monitoring employees and students for signs of stress and burnout and assisting as needed
6. Expand availability of mentoring committees for those seeking career advice
7. Increased department social events where new hires are encouraged to attended and introduced
8. Establish a Teams Group or Slack Channel for advertising/organizing group activities

Improvements in Diversity

1. Establish a centralized list of email contacts and organizations for distributing position announcements
2. Invite representatives from underrepresented STEM groups to visit and discuss actions needed to increase diversity in FW
3. Enact a carpool-to-work program for FW
4. Establish a means/location for donating research of field work gear/equipment for those in need
5. Make it easier for faculty to see/review graduate application submitted directly to the FW