LSU Coast & Environment Dean Leads DEI Collaboration with Gulf States

More than 50 participants from the Gulf states met virtually on January 28, 2021 as part of the Gulf of Mexico University Research Collaborative’s, or GOMURC’s, diversity, equity, and inclusion workshop. This DEI workshop was facilitated by GOMURC Chair Chris D’Elia, who is a professor in and dean of the LSU College of the Coast & Environment. Its purpose was to exchange ideas regarding the development of a strategy to enhance the diversity of doctoral graduates in the physical and environmental sciences.

According to the National Science Foundation, less than two percent of doctoral degrees in the physical sciences are conferred to African Americans and approximately five percent to Latinos, meaning there is only a small pool of Black and Latino candidates for physical sciences faculty positions.

“We knew that we urgently needed to collaborate to help narrow this gap. The educational environment needs to provide three things to ensure student success: good mentorship, supportive networking and open communication. We want to be sure that all students have full opportunity with each of these important things,” D’Elia said.

Participants felt the most important component in their DEI strategy was mentorship—between faculty and students, between students, and between institutions. Also, they advocated for creating a mentoring exchange program across GOMURC’s five-state network and laid out ideas for training and incentivizing mentors and establishing expectations for participants. 

The second component of the strategy was helping underrepresented students establish and leverage networks by providing training and research opportunities at GOMURC institutions.

“We believe that hosting formal and informal networking events, including student exchange programs, will support and sustain relationships across the GOMURC network. Exposing the students to different learning environments, labs, and research opportunities at LSU and among all GOMURC institutions will help students make critical decisions about the next step of their education,” D’Elia said.

The third component was to help students understand the complex paths to becoming a faculty member by engaging students in meaningful conversations about their goals and individualizing communications based on students’ needs. The communications plan included augmenting the GOMURC website with graduate program opportunities at GOMURC universities, program and contact information, employment opportunities, scholarship and other funding opportunities, a resource list, and the diversity action plans of individual institutions.

“We are taking an ‘all-in’ attitude toward this. Each of our students, including our students of color and other minority students, must be valued for their contributions. We are committed at the highest levels to closing this employment gap and creating more inclusive fields of study across disciplines,” D’Elia said.

The workshop included presentations from Isiah Warner, LSU’s vice president for Strategic Initiatives; Larry Robinson, Florida A&M University president; Peter Betzer, dean emeritus of the College of Marine Science at the University of South Florida, or USF; April Ellis, PhD student in USF’s College of Marine Sciences and LSU alumna; Nekesha Williams, assistant professor in St. Mary’s College of California and LSU alumna; David Yoskowitz, senior executive director of the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University; and Debbie Thomas, dean of the College of Geosciences at Texas A&M.