This week, ESC discussed creating a committee on diversity.

The meeting began with a visit from Dean Hinton, the assistant dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) at SEAS. She provided background information on her professional experiences before her recent arrival at SEAS.

Dean Hinton explained that in 2020, SEAS conducted a commission report on DEI. The report looked at student experiences and identified priority impact areas. Dean Hinton is in charge of leading focus groups for diversity. She is working to understand student experiences at SEAS to develop and implement successful DEI initiatives. 

After this presentation, Student Body President Kennedy Salamat (‘23) presented the idea of adding a DEI committee to the Engineering Student Council. This committee would be dedicated to diversity initiatives. It would also work on solidarity statements.

The council discussed what adding this committee might look like from a technical standpoint. It might entail a new vice president position on the council to oversee the committee.

VP Policy Angel Mancera (‘23) noted that CCSC has a rotating committee where existing positions in CCSC take turns spearheading DEI initiatives. One drawback of this model is that there is no consistent point person on the council to whom administrators would bring DEI concerns. Several council members spoke to the pros and cons of a rotating versus permanent leadership structure for a DEI council. The council will continue to work on this idea further over the coming weeks.

Following this discussion, council members provided position updates.

Salamat sent out a statement of solidarity with Ukraine. 

VP Student Life Matthew Wahl (‘23) provided updates on upcoming events, including the SEAS Gala Cruise and upcoming Explore NYC events.

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