Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice.
For All Members of the SPH Community: Expectations of Ourselves at Our Best
These are intended to be expectations of all members of our community, faculty, staff, and students, expectations we hold ourselves to, aspiring always to be our best selves.
We all aim to:
* Strive for excellence
* Exercise the highest integrity in all aspects of work
* Be open, flexible, realistic, and understanding
* Demonstrate professionalism and trustworthiness as a representative of Boston University and the School of Public Health
* Understand and follow the policies and procedures of Boston University and of the School of Public Health
We aim to be guided by five behaviors, with corresponding expectations of ourselves for each behavior:
Engagement
Embrace responsibility for our work, learning, and all other activities
Work responsibly and collaboratively
Collaboration
Receive constructive feedback from faculty, teaching assistants, mentors and others
Openly share expertise and experience to assure individual and team success
Communication
Provide constructive feedback to faculty, teaching assistants, mentors and others
Seek support when needed
Use technology in a responsible and professional manner
Respect for others
Respect the unique cultures, strengths, viewpoints and experiences of others
Show compassion and tolerance
Actively and respectfully participate in community and classroom discussions and activities
Helping others succeed
Reach out to others who appear to be struggling
Seek ways to contribute to the success of others
Student Resources
Student organizations at SPH are central to the aims of DEIJ and are run, organized, and facilitated by students. Groups have a variety of goals and focus on public health issues, common interests, identities, community organizing, intervention, or current curriculum issues. The School of Medicine offers similar groups of interest to med students and those participating in joint MD/MPH programs.
The Activist Lab at SPH provides students and SPH community members with the opportunity to develop tools they can use to be effective change agents. The aim of the Activist Lab is to be a catalyst for bold public health practice that disrupts injustice with tenacity and compassion.
Diversity & Inclusion at the BU Medical Campus is a guide to resources available at all schools on the Medical Campus and at Boston Medical Center, the largest safety-net hospital and busiest trauma and emergency services center in New England.
SPH Diversity & Inclusion Oath
“We, as students of Boston University School of Public Health, form a community with a robust, complex mix of backgrounds and perspectives.
We enter this community with a shared mission: to improve the health of local, national, and international populations, particularly the disadvantaged, underserved, and vulnerable. In this endeavor, we recognize that social justice is integral to our shared vision of a healthier world.
As a student and a member of the BUSPH community, I vow to live by this oath.
I will challenge my worldview through interactions inside and outside the classroom.
I will embrace each person recognizing their inherent dignity and acknowledge the diversity of their identities and lived experiences.
I will create an inclusive community for all by challenging biases and acknowledging privilege.
I will act as an agent of social change in the School, community, field of public health, and beyond.
This is the public health legacy I am creating.
This is the BU School of Public Health I believe in.
This is our promise to ourselves and our world.”
Code of Conduct
Code of conduct in the BUSPH Virtual Community
All of our virtual communities aim to cultivate important communication and strengthen connections with students, alumni, staff and faculty by building a shared sense of community across the institution. This applies to all shared online virtual platforms such as Zoom, Blackboard, Twitter, GroupMe, Slack, Facebook Group forums, etc.
BUSPH is committed to creating an environment in which all individuals are treated with respect and dignity. Each individual has the right to participate in an academic and professional atmosphere that promotes safe and inclusive conversations. Virtual forums prohibit unlawful discriminatory practices, including discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, marital status, citizenship, national origin, genetic information, or any other characteristic. We expect that all individuals are treated with respect and dignity, and that all relationships among BUSPH community members, including in virtual communities, are free of bias, prejudice, and harassment.
Any member of our community who has questions or concerns about these policies should reach out to the Associate Dean of DEIJ (sphdi@bu.edu) or a member of the DEIJ Committee.
SPH Reads
SPH Reads is a school-wide reading program hosted by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. It aims to encourage critical thought and discussion among all members of the BUSPH community, and is centered on a carefully chosen, thought-provoking book. The fall 2020 selection is “There Goes the Neighborhood: How Communities Overcome Prejudice and Meet the Challenge of American Immigration”, authored by BUSPH alum Ali Noorani.
All incoming (first year) MPH students and core-course faculty are encouraged to read the selected book and will be provided with copies. Returning students, non-core curriculum faculty, and staff are encouraged to read the book. Throughout the year, beginning with Orientation, there will be opportunities to gather and talk about the issues presented in the book through lectures, seminars, and small discussion groups involving all members of the SPH community. To request a book, please fill out this SPH Reads Shipping Form.
Public Health Conversations
We aspire to create a culture of inclusion where all members of our community feel valued and respected. To that end we aim to create safe spaces for conversations that highlight diversity and inclusion issues in our research, teaching, and practice. The Diversity and Inclusion Seminar Series is part of this effort.
#BUSPHdiversity
Racial Justice Talking Circle
Join SPH faculty, staff, and students for an informal and unstructured (i.e. no assigned facilitator or specific agenda) conversation about racism, white privilege, and inequities—across our own identities and backgrounds, and across our roles at the school. Please reference the calendar for specific dates. Contact Mahogany Price with questions.
RJTC Flyer Spring 2021 Dates
Additional Student Organizations
Faculty and Staff Resources
Learning and Training: opportunities to learn new skills through reading groups, trainings, and workshops on campus, including on the topics of mitigating microaggressions, understanding diversity, equity, and inclusion, and developing inclusive faculty searches and addressing bias.
Interrupting Bias: Calling Out vs. Calling In is a quick and informative primer on how and when to convert uncomfortable conversations into potential mutual understanding.
The Science of Effective Mentoring in STEMM is a comprehensive guide from The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine featuring podcasts, online guides, and multiple reports and topical articles.
The Importance of Teaching History of Inequities in Public Health Programs is written from the perspective of an educator who developed and teach a course aimed at MPH students called “Historical Roots of Health Inequities.”
Through a Public Health Lens
Racism: Science & Tools for the Public Health Professional is a 2019 ebook from the American Public Health Association which documents the importance of investigating the long-standing differences in health outcomes and understanding the root causes of those differences.
The Impact of Racism on the Health and Well-Being of the Nation is an APHA webinar series about racism’s influence on health and disparities.
Culture, Race, and Health: Implications for Racial Inequities and Population Health is an article that proposed that to adequately address health inequities rooted in systemic racism, it is imperative to discuss the function of cultural racism in shaping population health in the United States.
Boston and beyond
For information about living and thriving in Boston, take a look at this crowd-sourced guide to the city and Boston University’s Glossary for Culture Transformation.
The National Museum of African American History and Culture offers a great starting point for talking about race for students, parents, caregivers, and people committed to equity.
158 Resources to Understand Racism in America is a compilation of articles, videos, podcasts and websites from the Smithsonian that chronicle the history of anti-black violence and inequality in the United States.
The New York Times transformed its 1619 Project series into a podcast designed to examine how slavery has transformed America, connecting past and present through the oldest form of storytelling.
How Diversity Makes Teams More Innovative is a TED Talk that examines data from 170 different companies to show how innovation flourishes by treating diversity as a competitive advantage. It’s part of a playlist—A Blueprint for Diversity in the Workplace—that offers basics on how to nurture and manage groups of people with different backgrounds and multiple perspectives.
In The Biology of Gender, From DNA to the Brain, Biologist Karissa Sanbonmatsu explores epigenetics, the emerging study of how DNA activity can permanently change based on social factors like trauma or diet, and what that means for our understanding of gender. Take a deeper dive in Celebrating (and Deconstructing) the Gender Spectrum.
Please reach out to Associate Dean of Diversity and Inclusion Yvette Cozier at sphdi@bu.edu with any questions or comments.
2018
2017
2016