The University of California system is aiming to end"systemic barriers" to minorities choosing to study science, technology, engineering, math, and medicine, becoming the first higher education institution to join a diversity initiative on a systemwide level that will affect thousands of students.
The STEMM Equity Achievement Change program, or SEA Change, will provide training and resource materials to"develop new strategies to reduce or eliminate barriers to access and to undertake new research on faculty diversity and inclusive excellence" to foster"engagement with communities underrepresented in — and historically excluded from — those fields," the university system said.
The university did not elaborate on which"institutional barriers" these"underrepresented communities, including BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and disabled professionals, as well as individuals from disadvantaged socioeconomic and first-generation educational backgrounds," face. Other universities that have adopted the SEA Change program, which launched in 2018, include the University of Florida, the California Institute of Technology, and the University of Texas, Dallas.
A systemwide group for California will be marshaled through the SEA Change Awards process and trained over its next three fiscal years. Each of the 10 California campuses will be represented through a recruitment that it conducts.