The goal of Tufts SACNAS an organization formally known as SPINES (Scientist Promoting Inclusive Excellence) is to provide educational, professional, academic, and social support to underrepresented students, postdocs, staff, and their allies as we work together to build a scientific community at Tufts that promotes inclusive excellence. We are a group that values community-based decision-making and horizontal leadership. We look forward to partnering with you!
For those of you who are not familiar SACNAS stands for the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Sciences; a national organization with chapters at various universities, so we are glad to have the opportunity to be a part of the larger SACNAS community.
As scientists who come from underrepresented backgrounds, we have had many informal discussions about the climate at Tufts and advocating for diversity in the graduate programs at GSBS. While Tufts supports various pipeline initiatives (PREP, P2P, BDBS) we feel that it does not have mechanisms in place that intentionally create a space for minority scientists who are training at GSBS.
Mission:
Programs aimed at diversifying the STEM academy have successfully increased recruitment of undergraduate and graduate students from groups traditionally underrepresented in careers in the sciences. An emphasis on recruitment may help to update the narrow image of what a scientist looks like, but additional action is needed to evolve the full picture of who scientists are.
Inclusive excellence is a model first proposed by the American Academy for Colleges and Universities and recognizes that efforts of diversity can result in meaningful, measurable improvements in the excellence of an institution when that institution creates an environment that welcomes the cultural diversity of those included. For the STEM academy to benefit from a diversity of contributors, the culture and atmosphere of the STEM academy must update to include that of the new participants.
SACNAS can help achieve inclusive excellence in the sciences by building a community of scientists at Tufts who recognize and celebrate each other’s diversity of ability, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, and gender identity. We want to build spaces where we feel free to discuss all aspects of our lives as developing scientists. We also recognize that the needs and priorities of a community can change over time and therefore we encourage all members to take active roles in developing and implementing their ideas with the knowledge that the entire group will support them.