AJED General Action Items Report

Fall 2020

Led by:

  • François Lutzoni (Professor - chair of AJED)

The following action items are outside the realm of the five AJED subcommittees. For this reason this progress report is done separately from the subcommittee reports. 

  • Action items 1 and 2 – Establish a diverse committee with representatives from each segment of our department.

Accomplishment: We have assembled the most diverse and comprehensive diversity committee (AJED) ever established for the Department of Biology. In addition to several faculty members, this committee includes two staff members, two postdoctoral researchers, two graduate students and two undergraduate students.

  • Action item 3 – Give two Town Hall meetings during the #ScholarStrike (Sept. 8 and 9, 2020) to share the list of action items the AJED committee has already generated, and seek new suggestions from our department at large, including the relative priorities of these potential action items.

Accomplishment: We did hold these two Town Hall meetings. The first meeting was for undergraduate students and the second Town Hall meeting was for all other members of our department.

Accomplishment: Members of the faculty participated in a series of facilitated discussions to propose action items in response to the IDEA committee petition. The resulting “Living Into the Vision” breakout groups considered what they need to know and what they could accomplish in response to each recommendation. Those discussions are informing the work of the department’s Steering Committee, Graduate Affairs Committee, Curriculum Committee and AJED.  

  • Action item 5 - TFEF and OIE sessions for Biology faculty with Krista Robinson-Lyles and Robert Crouch, respectively.

Accomplishment: The TFEF sessions with Krista Robinson-Lyles took place during the fall semester of 2020. A large fraction of the faculty participated. The OIE session with Robert Crouch is scheduled for the spring semester of 2021.

  • Action item 7 - Promote training opportunities to graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and faculty to improve mentoring skills.

From AGD: I am particularly interested in considering how varying public school writing educations could affect both prospective and admitted graduate and undergraduate success at Duke, but particularly graduate students for whom writing can be an especially large barrier to entry.

  • Action item 22 - Contribute to the development of a post-baccalaureate program via an R25 grant led by the School of Medicine.

Accomplishment: Ongoing.

  • Action item 27 - Consider elitism negatively impacting graduate students in the Department of Biology.

From AH: For item # 27 we need more information about this because determining which action could be taken to remedy this problem is somewhat unclear. The challenge is Duke University, by its very nature, is exclusive and elite. There is a lot of pride wrapped up in this identity.

This was discussed during our Oct. 2 meeting. “Elitism” seems to be associated with expectations from faculty for their students to focus on research with the goal to pursue a career in academia. The counterpoint argument was that many graduate students with Ph.D. from the Department of Biology at Duke pursue careers outside academia.

  • Action item 29 - Assess progress and success for each proposed action items.

Accomplishment: This report with the reports from each AJED subcommittee will be available publicly.

  • Action item 30 - Report progress of the AJED committee at future town hall meetings.

Accomplishment: Two town hall meetings are scheduled for the beginning of the spring semester (2021) to report progress made by the AJED committee and to seek additional feedback from all members of our department.

  • Action item 32 - Consider compensation for contributions to the AJED committee by undergraduate and graduate students, as well as postdoctoral researchers.
  • Action item 33 - Consider compensation for contributions to the IDEA committee (JN).

From JPW: For action items # 32 and 33 I want to go on the record as having concerns about compensation of graduate students for departmental service. I think it is an important part of graduate training and provides a real benefit to the students for career development. I also think there are slippery slope concerns - if we compensate for this committee, should we also be compensating for other committees?