true positive moments are hard to come by these days so I just wanted to share something promising that came out of this tweet https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👇🏻" title="Rückhand Zeigefinger nach unten (heller Hautton)" aria-label="Emoji: Rückhand Zeigefinger nach unten (heller Hautton)"> that I’m proud of: https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧵" title="Thread" aria-label="Emoji: Thread"> https://twitter.com/_laufran/status/1270041543886336000">https://twitter.com/_laufran/...

I tweeted this, then realized that as burnt as I felt by alma mater’s bio dept for all the times I advocated for DEI and hit brick walls as a student, I still cared a lot and couldn’t let that tweet sit there without trying again

so I rounded up other alumni (incl. @Plant__Kween + @scivish), esp. from minoritized groups who could speak to their experiences that I as a WW could not. And over the summer, we penned a letter to the bio dept., cc’ing the president, dean, and VP of diversity and inclusion

Our letter largely pointed out how the hidden curriculum was disproportionally affecting minoritized groups (ex. knowing about office hours, REUs, grad school) and the need for diversifying syllabi

After …not great responses to my similar efforts in undergrad, I was astounded that we largely received appreciation for the effort and time we poured into the letter and since then we’ve had a couple meetings and forums in response.

I’m not sure what change will arise out of our collective work, but listening, recognizing there is a problem, and being receptive to change is the first step and I’m glad we’re there.

I just feel especially proud that my frustration and not being able to put up with this anymore was the first domino that brought so many others in and could help catalyze bigger change (hopefully! https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤞🏻" title="Crossed fingers (heller Hautton)" aria-label="Emoji: Crossed fingers (heller Hautton)">)