During 2018-19, the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences undertook a vital and relevant assessment of the environment for living, learning, and working - the Assessment of the Living, Learning, and Working Environment (ALLWE) survey. The initiative's goal was to make positive, lasting changes, and to help create a more inclusive campus.
ALLWE Implementation Plan
The results of the survey were used in the implementation plan to better enable the college to not only develop programs and policies that will increase inclusivity in areas which are shown to be problematic, but also enhance and replicate programs and policies in areas which are shown to be successfully meeting the needs of the community.
Current Documents
The implementation plans represents outcomes of the 2018–19 ALLWE survey results. Findings of the fall 2018 survey were presented in a Town Hall on April 15, 2019. Recommendations were developed during fall 2019 through broadly representative input from throughout the college, and the ALLWE Implementation Steering Committee (ISC) distilled those recommendations into the present implementation plan, finalized and accepted by the Dean and the EMS Executive Council in April 2020.
Our goal with these updates is to assess our progress, determining which action items can be considered to be “operationalized” within EMS and which need additional focus. By “operationalized” we mean that attention to an action area has become part of how we do things in EMS and that activities in support of the area will be ongoing as a matter of course; Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging rarely can be considered “completed.” We have broken out items needing additional focus from those which have been operationalized or are in progress. Moving forward, we will condense the implementation plan to highlight items that still need additional focus, and actions that will move in-progress items into operationalized status.
As the ALLWE ISC discussed priority areas and action items to address the most pervasive concerns, it became apparent that while EMS aspires to be a tight-knit and supportive community for all its constituents, we would benefit from specific attention to better managing relationships at and across all levels within the EMS community, including our World Campus.
In general, people are feeling overworked and overburdened, with more and more to do in less time. This has reached the point that there is not time to do things as well as they could be done, and community is taken for granted. This trend is damaging to morale and ultimately to our shared sense of EMS community.
The following Priority Themes are the areas that the ALLWE ISC believe to be most salient in fostering a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive EMS environment:
- Addressing Harassment and Marginalization
- Supporting Mental Health and Well Being
- Addressing Isolation and Fostering Communities Around Shared Purpose
- Transparency, Communication, and Building Trust in the System
- Professional Development
Previous Progress Updates
ALLWE SurveyTownhall to present results was held on Monday, April 15, 2019 from 1 - 2:15 p.m. in the Westgate Cybertorium (W201)
MatSE External Advisory Board Presentation
Implementation Steering Committee
- Damian Archer, Undergraduate Student, Earth Science and Policy
- Joshua M. Garber, Post Doc, Department of Geosciences
- Ahmed Hamed, Undergraduate Student, Energy Business and Finance
- Bernd Haupt, Associate Research Professor, Earth and Environmental Systems Institute
- Joshua Inwood, Associate Professor of Geography and African Studies, Department of Geography
- Nicola Kiver, (Tri-Chair) Business Administrator and EMS Chief of Staff, Deans Office
- Andrew Kleit, Professor of Energy and Environmental Economics, John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering
- Kelly Lombardo, Associate Professor of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science, Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science
- Jane McCandless, Academic Adviser, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education
- Ray Najjar, (Tri-Chair) Professor of Oceanography, Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science
- Shruti Natal, Undergraduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
- Kelly Rhoades, Administrative Support Coordinator, EMS Energy Institute
- Stevie Rocco, Director of Learning Design, John A. Dutton e-Education Institute
- Victoria Sanchez, (Tri-Chair) Associate Dean for Educational Equity, Office of the Associate Dean of Educational Equity
- Hillary Smith, Graduate Student, Geosciences
- Samantha Staskiewicz, Graduate Student, Meteorology and Atmospheric Science, EMS Graduate Fellow for Science Advocacy and Diversity
- Jasmine Walker, Graduate Student, Geosciences, EMS Graduate Fellow for Science Advocacy and Diversity
EMS Environment Assessment Working Group
- Rachel Conaway, Alumni Relations and Stewardship Officer, John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering
- Patricia Craig, Director of Marketing and Communications, Office of the Dean
- Liam Cummings, Undergraduate student, Energy Engineering
- Chris Forest, Professor of Climate Dynamics, Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science
- Chris Fowler, Associate Professor of Geography, Department of Geography
- Michael Gordon, Academic Adviser, Ryan Family Student Center, Office of the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education
- Liz Hajek, Associate Professor of Geosciences, Department of Geosciences
- Bernd Haupt, Associate Research Professor, Earth and Environmental Systems Institute
- Brandi Kamermans, Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Geosciences
- John Mauro, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
- Joel Morrison, Senior Research Associate, EMS Energy Institute
- Ray Najjar, Professor of Oceanography, Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science
- Kelly Rhoades, Administrative Support Coordinator, EMS Energy Institute
- Victoria Sanchez, Associate Dean for Educational Equity, Office of the Associate Dean of Educational Equity
- Jamesa Stokes, Ph.D. student, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Learn about the history of the ALLWE survey.
Penn State Resources
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