Concerned Scientists at IUB
#BloomingtonStandsForScience
#BloomingtonStandsForScience

CSIU Letter on SB202

CSIU submitted a formal letter opposing SB202, currently under consideration by the Indiana Legislature, that would radically change political oversight of academic programs at Indiana’s public universities, potentially adding litmus tests for “intellectual diversity” in classroom teaching and ending the protections of tenure afforded to university faculty. The CSIU letter focuses on the potential impacts to science and engineering research and education at Indiana’s public universities.

CSIU Statement on Proposed Abortion Bans

Read the joint CSIU/ASIU open letter to Indiana legislators on the proposed abortion bans that are being considered in the special session of the state legislation. The statement strong urges legislators to “reject any legislation that further restricts abortion care in Indiana.”  The CSIU statement mirrors public statements by many of America’s major medical organizations (including the American Medical Association,  American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology,  American College of Pediatrics,  and the American Public Health Association) that have underscored the importance of abortion as an essential part of comprehensive and high-quality healthcare.

A copy of the full letter is available here, and a copy of the one-page summary is available here.

CSIU Letter on Climate Action

See the Concerned Scientists’ letter on Climate Action for Indiana University. Submitted to President Pam Whitten, Vice President Tom Morrison, and Provost Rahul Shrivastav on February 23, 2022. The letter calls for “visionary university action to address climate change,” including appointment of a presidential task force to create a climate action plan and a target for carbon neutrality. See details on the attached letter and press release.

Join us for the CSIU Fall Forum - this Friday, December 4, 1:30 PM

Please join the Concerned Scientists @IU for the

 

CSIU Fall Forum: Planning for the Future of Science Advocacy

Friday, December 4, 1:30 – 2:30 PM

 

With special guest

Hannah Silverfine

Union of Concerned Scientists Center for Science & Democracy

 

Help us chart out our future for 2021 and beyond!

 

Register here:  https://iu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZItfuGpqD0pGdK24lw9PNrgkQpUaq4tm_5w

CSIU_FallForum_20201204.jpg

Registration Open: CSIU/ASIU Science Communication and Advocacy/Policy Workshops

Registration now open!

Limited space in workshops – register now to reserve your space!

Join us for two workshops on

Science Communication and Science Policy/Advocacy

Presented by the staff of the American Geophysical Union’s 

Sharing Science and Public Affairs programs

 

Workshop I:  Science Communication

“Communicating Science with Any Audience”

Friday September 18, 2020

Plenary Session (open to all): 1:00 – 2:00 PM

Workshop Session (limited participation): 2:00 – 5:00 PM

 Registration Required!

 Plenary registration: http://tiny.cc/IU_CommsPlenary

Workshop registration: http://tiny.cc/IU_CommsWorkshop

 

Workshop II:  Science Policy & Advocacy

“Communicating Science to Policymakers”

Friday October 2, 2020

Plenary Session (open to all): 1:00 – 2:00 PM

Workshop Session (limited participation): 2:00 – 5:00 PM

Registration Required!

 Plenary registration: http://tiny.cc/IU_PolicyPlenary

Workshop registration: http://tiny.cc/IU_PolicyWorkshop

 

Sponsored by

Concerned Scientists @IU

Advocates for Science @IU

With support from

the Office of the Vice Provost for Research, IU Environmental Resilience Institute,

Integrated Program for the Environment, Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences,

and the Union of Concerned Scientists

 

For additional information, contact us at csatiub@gmail.com.

CSIU's Letter on the Proposed Renaming of Jordan Hall

CSIU sent a letter on behalf of its 1200+ members to IU President Michael McRobbie, Provost Lauren Robel, Vice President James Wimbush, Vice Provost Eliza Pavalko, and Vice Provost John Nieto-Phillips on the proposed renaming of Jordan Hall.

In the letter, “CSIU adds their voice to the growing chorus advocating for changing the name of Jordan Hall… We encourage the University Naming Committee formed by President McRobbie to move swiftly, share its timeline and deliberations publicly, and by doing so, make a statement that the current views and values of the institution are those that support a diverse and inclusive environment, for all.” See a copy of the complete letter here.

CSIU's Open Letter on the Holland Summer Science Programs for Underrpresented Minorities

Dear Provost Robel, Vice President Wimbush, and Dean Van Kooten:

We are writing to applaud you for your recent efforts to secure funding for the Holland summer science programs for underrepresented minorities—and to encourage ongoing efforts to secure their long-term viability and growth.  The programs represent one of our most important and successful minority recruitment programs, and are especially deserving of support in this critical moment.

We write on behalf of Concerned Scientists @ IU, a non-partisan campus and community organization consisting of over 1200 members—scientists, students, and supporters of science—from Indiana University and the surrounding region.  Concerned Scientists @ IU is dedicated to strengthening the essential role of science in public policy and evidence-based decision making.  In recent days, we, like other science advocacy organizations around the country, have committed our organization to work to ensure that the opportunities and benefits of science are shared equitably for the betterment of all in society, and that dignity, equity, diversity, and opportunity become fundamental cornerstones of our work as scientists and as advocates for science.  We find ourselves in the first days of that commitment encountering an issue that we believe resonates with those aspirational goals.

Background
We start with the recognition that the demographic composition of researchers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields is highly skewed from the demographic composition of the United States as a whole. In many cases the disparities are jarring, have persisted over decades, and transcend academic hierarchies. As a consequence, many ethnic and racial minorities consistently miss out on the career opportunities STEM training would afford them, and entire disciplines miss out on the talents, perspectives, and ideas a diverse workforce would contribute. Indiana University is no exception.

Despite sincere efforts on the part of many individuals and offices across the IU campus, and despite the existence of several programs dedicated to enhance minority recruitment and retention in STEM disciplines, progress has been slow, or sometimes lacking altogether. Among the many challenges that such efforts encounter is (i) the fact that much interest in STEM fields among underrepresented groups is lost well before students make college decisions, (ii) building a STEM identity when role models are missing requires deliberate, repeated and diverse experiences, and (iii) once minority students enter college subsequent support and mentoring is often, at best, highly uneven.

A pipeline of three programs named in honor of beloved IU Professor James P. Holland have confronted these challenges head on, and with much success.

·      The James Holland Summer Enrichment Program (SEP), which recruits up to 60 8th and 9th grade students every summer to spend one week on campus for a broad introduction to the life sciences.

·      The James Holland Summer Science Research Program (SSRP), which returns the top 25 SEP (or equivalently qualified) students the following year for a week-long personalized internship in a research lab. Students design and execute a small, independent research project, and present their findings at a public poster conference.  While participating in the SSRP, students form important connections between the teaching of science (i.e., the content material they are exposed to in class) and the practice of science (i.e., how such content is generated in the first place), and - most importantly - their own abilities as active science practitioners.

·      The James Holland Research Initiative in STEM Education (RISE) program, which returns the top 10 SSRP students now as rising high school seniors, for a final, 2-week introduction to diverse disciplines, such as virology, plant genetics, mathematics, atmospheric sciences, supercomputing, hydrology, evolutionary developmental biology, and ecology. Each day small groups of faculty and graduate students present a new discipline, its overarching objectives and methodologies, and concrete examples of undergraduate research opportunities available to Holland students should they choose to attend IU. This third program establishes a critical bridge to college for our best Holland students, reinforces their exposure to STEM as a career option, helps cement their STEM identities, highlights Indiana University as a welcoming and supportive academic environment, and introduces students to scholarship programs and support networks available to them once on campus.

            All programs have been highly successful: for example, of 161 students participating in the SSRP so far 141 have graduated (the remainder are still in school) and all 141 are now attending college, the majority of whom major in STEM (97/141; 69%).  The inaugural 2015 class of ten RISE fellows collectively earned  $783,855 in support funds once they applied for college admissions.  And an impressive 12/59 students old enough to have graduated from college are now attending medical/dental/veterinary school or graduate school.

The Current Situation
There is much room to grow for all three programs, but recent developments not only threatened this growth, but the programs in their entirety. On April 1, 2020 and within days of announcing the shutdown of the IU campus due to the pandemic, program directors were informed that funding for all three programs was eliminated until 2025. The reasons given for this cut emphasized the uncertainty of the financial impact of the pandemic on the university. Very fortunately, since then and with your leadership, the original funding level had been restored. This welcome collaborative effort now promises that at least a subset of programs will be able to proceed in 2021. However, funding beyond 2021 remains entirely uncertain and not even tentative commitments have been offered.

            On behalf of the 1200 members of Concerned Scientists @ IU, we believe that the university must make a commitment for continuity and long-term funding for the Holland programs. Now is the time to fully secure the support these programs need long-term, to expand their reach, and to build on their successes to further enhance their mission.

In fact, we encourage you to strongly consider creating a fourth Holland Program aimed at IU undergraduates, that emulates the principals of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program at the University of Maryland Baltimore County whose extraordinary success has been detailed in a recent article in Science Magazine. Doing so would establish a critical and still much-needed  bridge from students’ undergraduate experience in STEM fields to professional and graduate school. Furthermore, at this point all three Holland programs are run by part time directors Mary Ann Tellas, a High School teacher based in Indianapolis, and IU Biology faculty Armin Moczek, with part-time staff support from the Biology Department. The Holland programs deserve a dedicated full-time Program Director able to fully realize their potential contributions to this University. We understand that to start and make sustainable such initiatives will require a commitment of resources and a willingness to engage in dedicated, long-term fundraising efforts, at a time when the financial strength of the University is under siege. But this is also an opportunity for IU to demonstrate true leadership at a time when it is most urgently needed.

We are certain that a positive and constructive solution can be found, and we welcome further discussion of this most urgent and timely issue. 

Yours,

Michael Hamburger

Deidra Miniard

            Co-chairs, CSIU Steering Committee

            On behalf of Concerned Scientists @IU

CSIU Statement in Solidarity with Protests

Dear CSIU Members.

On behalf of the CSIU Steering Committee, we are writing to share with you a message from the Union of Concerned Scientists—our ‘adopted parent’ organization—written in response to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the protests that are sweeping the nation.  We write in solidarity with those who are fighting for a safer, more just and humane society—and to declare our shared commitment to battle against racism in all its forms.

The UCS statement also acknowledges that science, while potentially an powerful source of good in our world, has been—and sometimes continues to be—complicit in the inhumane and unjust treatment of our citizens, often in the name of advancing knowledge.  We commit ourselves—as individuals and as an organization—to work together to ensure that the opportunities and benefits of science are shared equitably for the betterment of all in society, and that dignity, equity, diversity, and opportunity become fundamental cornerstones of our work as scientists and as advocates for science.

We can no longer afford to live and work in an academic bubble separated from the challenges of the society in which we are embedded.  We affirm our commitment to strengthen the role of science in understanding and mitigating the inequities left by a history of oppression and our intent to fight against racial bias and systemic racism wherever it appears in our personal and professional lives.  We invite all who are willing to join us in this struggle. 

In the email below and in our Weekly News Bulletin to follow, we share some excellent resources on issues of race, bias, and science.  An excellent starting point is this compilation from the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/05/climate/racism-climate-change-reading-list.html.

In the weeks to follow, we will be exploring how CSIU—as individuals and as an organization—can work together to ensure that the opportunities and benefits of science are shared equitably for the betterment of all in society, and how we can improve our work as scientists and as advocates for science to address the challenges of racism and bias in our community.   We solicit your ideas and contributions to help us make this aspirational goal a reality.  Share your ideas with us at csatiub@gmail.com. 

We look forward to hearing from you and working with you on this grand challenge. 

Yours,

CSIU Steering Committee

  ———————————————

Letter from Union of Concerned Scientists

Dear Member,

The protests that are sweeping the country are a direct response to the fact that racism is an inescapable reality in the United States. That these protests are happening right now, in the midst of a pandemic that places the protesters at risk from congregating, speaks to how deep the injustice is, and how urgent the need for change. The legacy of white supremacy continues to harm those of us who are Black, Indigenous, Latinx, or members of other racially marginalized groups. 

And despite having a veneer of objectivity and impartiality, science is not immune. 

Science is a powerful tool for solving problems and making people’s lives better. But it has been used to do harm and obstruct progress as well.

Most people have heard of the infamous example of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. In this 40-year study, Black men with syphilis were left untreated, without their informed consent and despite the availability of effective therapies, so that researchers could study the progress of the disease. This is but one example of howscience has been used to justify white, European conquest for centuries and continues to this day.

Today’s protests aren’t just about the nine minutes that ex-Officer Chauvin had his knee on George Floyd’s neck ultimately leading to his death. They are about the thousands of other unarmed Black men, women, and children who have been needlessly killed by police or others with impunity. They're about the 40 years of treating hundreds of Black men as guinea pigs in the name of science. And they're about the 400-year old legacy of slavery and inequality in this country, which manifests itself in institutional and systemic racism in all aspects of modern life from access to housing, health care, food, economic opportunity, and beyond. 

As an organization that works for a healthy planet and a safer world, we must address the reality that health and safety are enjoyed unequally across racial lines in our country. Ending these inequities must be an integral part of our mission and our daily work. And a commitment to facing facts means we must be willing to talk about racism explicitly, listen to those who've been hurt by it, take counsel from and show up as allies for those who are leading the fight against it, and confront it both in the world we seek to change and in our own institution, assumptions, and actions.

We stand in solidarity with the protesters and urge our supporters to do the same. We also recognize the additional risks protesters are incurring in the midst of a pandemic, and we strongly encourage all to protect their own health and the health of their loved ones at home by maintaining a safe distance from one another and wearing masks and gloves at all times, so that this important act of protest does not result in more sickness and death from the virus. 

If you haven’t already, seek out and support local organizers and organizations in your community who are doing critical work on racial equity, environmental justice, voting access, and more. Not sure where to start? Here are some groups that can be a launching point:

As an organization, we are also continuously working to advance our own internal racial equity as an integral part of working  to achieve our mission. We acknowledge that our progress is slow and that we have more work to do, even within our own organization. Below are some resources that some of our staff have found useful. 

You can also explore how bias plays out in your own life, as it does with all of us, bytaking this test on implicit bias designed by a cross-disciplinary group of researchers.

If you identify as white and haven’t yet explored issues of privilege, we suggest the podcast series Seeing White from the Center on Documentary Studies at Duke University, or watch this video series on systemic racism from our colleagues at Race Forward.
Sincerely,

Katy Love
Online Engagement Manager
Union of Concerned Scientists

Science for a healthy planet and safer world

UCS is a 501(c)(3) organization. All gifts are tax deductible. You can be confident your donations to UCS are spent wisely.

Union of Concerned Scientists, 2 Brattle Square, Cambridge, MA 02138-3780
© Union of Concerned Scientists. All rights reserved. www.ucsusa.org