Chemistry Black Lives Matter Statement

We, the faculty and staff of the Chemistry Department at Bowdoin College, affirm our belief that Black lives matter. We mourn the recent killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and Atatiana Jefferson. We share in the grief and outrage over their deaths and the loss of countless other Black lives, as well as the persistent criminalization of Black, Indigenous, and other people of color. We recognize that structural inequities persist in STEM education and academia, that Black students and faculty face oppression within their daily lives, and that these two forces intersect to impact recruitment and persistence within STEM. We stand ready to support students and faculty of color and have identified the following goals to do so:

1. We will integrate best practices into our curriculum and our teaching methods that foster community, belonging, and retention
2. We will increase inclusion, equity, and representation, especially with regards to race, gender, sexuality, class, nationality, and power inequities, within the research laboratory, classroom, and department-supported activities (seminars, study group leader positions, laboratory assistant, etc.)
3. We will increase inclusion, equity, representation, and support, especially with regards to race, gender, sexuality, class, nationality, and power inequities, of faculty and staff
4. We will work with our professional societies to raise up the voices of Black, Indigenous, and other scientists of color
5. We will analyze institutional policies and actively work to change policies that propagate systemic racism

We affirm that Black lives matter. As members of the Chemistry Department, we are committed to using our positional authority to challenge all forms of racial injustice, oppression, and white supremacy globally. The list above mentions small but concrete actions that we will implement in our ongoing efforts to create and sustain equitable, collective, and just communities at Bowdoin and beyond. We commit to being accountable to these goals by reporting annually, via the Chair’s departmental reports, on our actions toward achieving these goals within and across departments.