CIRDI initiatives – the CIRDI Committee has held bi-monthly meetings since June 10th, 2020.
In order to improve racial diversity and inclusivity in ASA, we need to attract, educate, prepare, and support students of color to be successful in the field. To meet this goal, we propose a series of initiatives and activities:
| INITIATIVE | PROGRESS TO DATE |
| •ASA proposes to form the first structured summer research/internship experience in acoustics for Black undergraduate students. Students from HBCUs or minority-serving programs (MSP) at majority universities will have the option to work on an acoustics-related project under the guidance of a faculty or industry mentor. | CIRDI has been awarded a grant from the AIP 2020-21 Diversity Action Fund. Students will be required to attend an acoustics short course offered by the ASA and mentors will attend a workshop on mentoring students that are underrepresented in acoustics. Students will meet virtually throughout the summer with ASA members to share their experiences and learn about academic and career opportunities in acoustics, ultimately establishing a cohort that ASA will leverage for future programming. Lastly, students will be supported to attend the two ASA meetings following the summer experience and present on their work at one of the meetings. We anticipate that the summer experience will expose the students to academic and career opportunities in acoustics, establish a community and sense of belonging, and take initial steps towards identifying as acousticians. |
CIRDI initiatives – the CIRDI Committee has held bi-monthly meetings since June 10th, 2020.
In order to improve racial diversity and inclusivity in ASA, we need to attract, educate, prepare, and support students of color to be successful in the field. To meet this goal, we propose a series of initiatives and activities:
| INITIATIVE | PROGRESS TO DATE |
| • Create a summer research/internship program for undergraduate students of color. | CIRDI has been awarded a grant from the AIP Venture Fund of $ to support this initiative. |
| • Hire a consultant to assess ASA operations, governance, and meetings through the lens of DEI and make recommendations for improvement | Susan's meetings with Consultant |
| • Establish sustainable meaningful relationships with HBCUs/HSIs/MSIs. | CIRDI has identified x # of |
| • Target advertising and invitations of AVE and West Keynote to students of color. | CIRDI has approved $5k to cover student registration. This amount can be increased if needed. |
| • Create presence at ASA conferences dedicated to students of color in science and engineering (i.e. SACNAS, NSBP) | |
| • Organize sessions at NSBP/NSHP | |
| • Create an on-line presence for ASA regarding diversity initiatives and provide a meeting place for acousticians of color | ASA has purchased the domain acousticiansofcolorasa.org which may serve as an affinity site for all CIRDI initiatives |
| • Co-organize DEI-centric workshops/sessions with the Membership Engagement Committee. | |
| • Profile acousticians of color in various ASA media sources, including Acoustics Today | |
| • We could co-organize Distinguished Lectures for students at MSIs or featuring faculty from MSIs | |
| • The Committee on Archives and History obtains/records oral histories of individuals that have won ASA awards or that have served in the governance of ASA. The Committee could partner with AIP Center for the History of Physics to collect these oral histories and share more broadly. | |