About

Hello! We are the College of Environment (CoENV) specific subgroup of our Union’s Anti-discrimination Working Group, formed in fall 2020. Our mission is to fight for structural change for all employees (both UAW 4121 members and non-members), throughout the College of Environment by collectively creating, advancing and evaluating grassroots campaigns furthering justice, equity, diversity and inclusion (JEDI) goals across the College. Below are some useful links, including resources within the UAW 4121 Contracts for both ASEs and Postdocs, College/Departments, and around the university.

Current Campaigns

  • Interfacing with the interim dean of the CoENV (and beginning in January 2022, the new dean) to advocate for and implement JEDI best practices throughout the college.
  • Pooling existing JEDI resources across the College: We are starting to pool different resources that have been shared in departments. These include topics such as (but not limited to) best practices for hiring/recruiting, JEDI tools, and literature written about JEDI in the academy. This will allow us to share best practices and ideas throughout the College for improving department culture. A link to these compiled sources will be shared here.
  • Helping 4121 members address specific instances of overt misconduct by “bad actors” within the College, through organizing, contract enforcement, and other strategies.

Past Campaigns

  • Organizing across the college to protest hiring a problematic R/V Thomas G. Thompson captain in the Oceanography department
  • New dean hire in CoENV: A new dean search was conducted in Fall 2020/Spring 2021. We collectively drafted a letter to the potential candidates about ongoing issues around JEDI, discrimination and harassment, and transparency and communication. This letter was open to the entire CoENV community and was signed by 200+ individuals and groups.  It was sent to the four finalist candidates to start a conversation with the new hire.  You can read the letter here:
    2021 CoEv Dean Letter

Other Helpful Links:

Join us!

If you’re a union member in the College of Environment, you are welcome to join us! Send an email to enviro.antidiscrim@uaw4121.org – we’ll add you to our Google group so you’ll get updates about our scheduled biweekly meetings. You’ll also be able to participate in any discussions we have via this listserv.

Questions? We can help!

You can also send us an email with any questions you may have about JEDI work in your department, or to let us know about any discrimination and harassment issues that may be happening in your department or lab. One of us will respond within 24 hours, and we’ll work with you to figure out the best way forward.