St. Olaf’s STEM community prioritizes creating more inclusive and welcoming STEM Departments, classrooms and laboratories in order to diversify the population of students that graduate with a STEM degree. However, as institutions implement more inclusive practices, they often fail to consult the students most affected by their decisions. Regularly including student voices by creating structures that encourage students to share their experiences is critically important as we build long term change on our campuses.
While some models of change-making bring together teams of faculty, staff and students and exist at the departmental level, our STEM-wide team is composed of student representatives from each department that work alongside a faculty mentor and reports directly to our Associate Dean and Department Chairs.
The STEM-wide reach of the Team has several advantages. First, it reflects students’ academic experiences, since STEM majors regularly enroll in classes outside of their major. It also gives the Team a unique perspective. Information gained in the process of comparing and contrasting initiatives across departments can be leveraged to highlight initiatives that seem to be making a difference in the day-to-day experiences of students. Secondly, the STEM-wide reach of the Action Team may also facilitate a more positive and productive exchange of information between students, faculty and department chairs. Regular engagement events allow the Team to collect feedback from students across STEM, reflect on that feedback as a Team and then share a summary of that feedback to faculty and department chairs. Finally, the Team is able to focus attention on the common challenges voiced by students in multiple contexts, while also ensuring feedback is productive and specific but not personal.