The Department of Physics and Astronomy’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Committee is a collection of students, faculty and staff who care deeply about making our department a more welcoming, supportive and inclusive community. Founded in 2021, our mission is to ensure that our department is free from discrimination, racism and harassment so that everyone feels valued, safe and empowered to be successful.
One of our key directives is to support and represent people from underrepresented groups within the department: women, individuals from the 2SLGBTQ+ community, Indigenous Peoples, members of visible minorities, and persons with disabilities or for whom English is a second language. This means that we will be using our webspace to act as a communication hub to engage our community members. Our EDI Committee will achieve this through the publication of resources and events for underrepresented groups, and through the promotion of EDI-related training and education. We welcome new members year-round from all students, faculty and staff to support our department's EDI initiatives and affect change in our school community.
Our EDI Committee also oversees the Women in Physics and Astronomy (WiPA) program, a donor supported initiative to recruit and retain women in physics, and to promote great science and amazing stories of women in physics through outreach events.
If you would like to reach out to our EDI committee, please use physastroedi@uwaterloo.ca.