Students Outline Strategies to Increase Equity in Admissions at ReNUWIt Campuses
Students from four campuses drafted a report that summarizes best practices for increasing equity in graduate admissions, as part of an ongoing effort to promote diversity at the Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Re-Inventing the Nation's Urban Water Infrastructure, or ReNUWit, an NSF-funded center based at Stanford University.
The literature-based resource, drawn up by students from ReNUWIt’s four campuses, enables faculty on admissions committees to better advocate for practices that help mitigate bias and inequalities and admit a more diverse student cohort. The student report contributed to a multi-year effort at ReNUWIt to build an inclusive climate, recruit a more diverse population of students and researchers, and expand the pipeline for underrepresented minorities.
The report outlines five key actions that departments can implement to ensure an equitable, consistent, and efficient admissions process. The student effort reflects ReNUWIt’s unique organizational structure leading its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts—a structure that has resulted in student-led change. Center leaders have facilitated student leadership within DEI, and the actions they urge toward more equitable admissions comprise one example of their substantive contributions.
