SIPS Access & Community Empowerment

Learn how the School of Integrative Plant Science contributes to CALS' mission to cultivate an inclusive community by incorporating equitable practices that empower individuals, foster engagement, and advance equal opportunities for all. See also: CALS Access & Community Empowerment

Get involved with SIPS access & community empowerment efforts

Each SIPS section has a Leader for Diversity and Inclusion (LDI), who works with the CALS Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) to develop a strategic plan and best practices for their section, building on resources being developed across CALS and coordinating with efforts of fellow LDIs within SIPS. 

LDIs work with others in their Section to forge the best working group, committee and reporting structure to achieve section- and SIPS-wide goals. If you'd like to get involved, contact them: 

Assisting the SIPS LDIs and coordinating school-wide efforts is Chelsea Specht, Associate Director for Faculty Development, Equity and Inclusion.

Graduate students can also bring issues to their graduate field's Graduate Student Association (GSA) to make sure that their issues of concern are addressed, or contact Claire King SIPS DEI Liaison to the Graduate Student Council directly: cmk323 [at] cornell.edu (cmk323[at]cornell[dot]edu).

See also: CALS Access & Community Empowerment

Expressive activity policy update

On December 19, 2024, the Cornell Committee on Expressive Activity released this memo and its final report and proposed policy and submitted them for consideration to university leadership, which will determine next steps per the university’s policy review process.

Cornell AgriTech Belonging Bulletins

These Belonging at AgriTech Bulletins will help you discover new ways to incorporate belonging into your daily life.

Our Stories

Morgan Irons: Creating safe spaces

It has been an absolute joy to connect with researchers who are also LGBTQIA2S+ [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or gender expansive, queer and/or questioning, intersex, asexual and two-spirit] in my lab, across campus and at academic conferences. Having an environment or at least safe spaces where my colleagues, friends and myself can be open and honest about who we are has given me the courage and support I need to help create spaces in my office, lab and department where myself and my colleagues who are also LGBTQIA2S+ researchers can bring our full selves to our work, teaching and outreach. Identities are not boxes or distinct labels that only affect us in our personal lives or just in our work lives; identities are fluid and affect all aspects of our lives. 

Our Stories

Tom Silva: Working through first-gen challenges

I'm a senior lecturer in the Plant Biology Section and former chair of the SIPS Diversity and Inclusion Council. But I am also the first in my family to attend college, a story I share with my students to help them overcome anxiety and imposter syndrome.

 

Our Stories

Hana Barrett: Need to be proactive so we have more time for our science

As a nonbinary scientist I have experienced both transphobia and radical allyship in academia. My previous and current supervisors, Drs. Matt Kasson and Teresa Pawlowska, have been incredibly supportive of my identity, my advocacy and my research. 

Our Stories

Byron Rusnak: Shared STEM connections

A major source of joy has been the connections I have created with other LGBTQIA+ researchers in STEM. Through groups like Qgrads, which helps to represent and support the queer graduate student community, I have been able to forge friendships across disciplines in a way that would likely have not occurred without the shared connection of our queerness. 

Morgan Irons
tom silva
Hana Barrett
Byron Rusnak

Diversity, Inclusion, & Accessibility resources

  • Eloy Rodriguez Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Conference Travel Award - Broadens connections and recruitment of graduate students from groups historically excluded from STEM by supporting the presence of Cornell students and postdocs at key DEI events and conferences.
  • MANRRS - Scholarships promote academic and professional advancement by empowering minorities in agriculture, natural resources, and related sciences. 
  • SACNAS conference scholarship - Advances Chicano/Hispanic and Native Americans in science.  
  • Ford Foundation Fellowships - Seeks to increase the diversity of the nation’s college and university faculties by increasing their ethnic and racial diversity, maximize the educational benefits of diversity, and increase the number of professors who can and will use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students.
  • HHMI Gilliam Fellowships for Advanced Study - Provides awards to pairs of dissertation advisers and their graduate students based on what HHMI values and considers essential components of the environment, particularly the institution and adviser’s commitment to creating a healthy academic ecosystem and the student’s potential for scientific leadership.
  • NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Biology (PRFB) - Broadening participation of groups underrepresented in biology.

Cornell's Accessibility Services page provides accessibility information for faculty/staff, students, and visitors including:

  • Assistive technology for classes and meetings
  • Accessible dining and library details
  • Contacts to report a physical barrier to accessibility
  • Accessible meeting and event checklist
  • Contacts for the ADA Coordinator Team
  • Resources for obtaining accommodations at Cornell

Since 2000, Cornell University has had a program to track bias that is occurring on all campuses in an effort to be proactive in creating an inclusive climate for all. The Department of Inclusion and Workforce Diversity is responsible for collecting and tracking all reported bias activity that occurs at Cornell University that could potentially impact our commitment to diversity and inclusion, including all reports made by faculty, staff, students, and visitors to the Ithaca, Weill Cornell Medicine, and Cornell Tech campuses. If you have seen, heard, or experienced bias, you can make a report here:

Bias Incident Form

Around campus

Indigenous Summer Research Scholars Program

A grant from the USDA's New Beginning for Tribal Students (NBTS) program (matched by Cornell CALS) has made it possible to fully fund Indigenous students to take part in Cornell AgriTech's Summer Research Scholars Program

In 2024,  Sebastian April (Mi'kmaq) joined the Christine Smart Lab as the first Indigenous Summer Scholar. Seb majors in Sustainable Plant and Soil Systems (with a minor in Cannabis Cultivation) at the University of Connecticut. 

Smart paired him with plant pathology PhD student Jocelyn Schwartz as a mentor for his summer project investigating management and resistance of hemp to the fungal disease Septoria leaf spot. "When I ... saw all that I'd accomplished in just a few short weeks, it felt good to know that I could make a real contribution to the science of cultivating cannabis," says Seb.

 

Around campus

Dinners explore intersection of Black history, plant history, cuisine

The cuisines of the African diaspora tell the story of how food plants native to Africa have, across generations, remained central to the foods that Black communities celebrate. Throughout Black History Month, Cornell Dining has been offering a series of dinners featuring its take on traditional dishes of the African diaspora. And at these dinners, the Cornell Botanic Gardens is introducing students to its exhibition, “Seeds of Survival and Celebration: Plants and the Black Experience.”

View videos: Honoring Black History Through Collaboration and Celebration: A panel discussion about the Cornell Botanic Gardens Seeds of Survival and Celebration exhibit - Feb. 23 | Feb. 24

Around campus

CALS hires faculty cohort to address grand DEI challenges

Announced in fall 2021, the cohort initiative was led by Chelsea Specht, the Barbara McClintock Professor of Plant Biology and CALS’ associate dean for diversity and inclusion. The search committee, composed of 10 faculty members from across CALS, spent considerable time developing a recruitment ad that would reflect the values they were seeking, “to appeal to the hearts and minds of the people we wanted to apply,” Specht said. It worked: 381 people applied for the six positions. 

Fifth in a series of stories detailing actions CALS students, faculty and staff have taken over the past several years to make our community a more diverse, equitable and inclusive place for everyone. 

Around campus

Botanic Gardens features Seeds of Survival and Celebration exhibit

An exhibit at the Nevin Welcome Center reveals how enslaved Africans used their culinary skills and plants that came with them from West Africa to prepare foods, which eventually became regional staples. During the 2022 growing season, special gardens featured more than 20 plants grown and used by enslaved Africans in the Americas. Learn more:

Overview | Library guide | Featured plants | Exhibit panels | Audio narratives | Collaborators

Update: View panel discussions of the exhibit held during Black History Month 2023: Feb. 23 | Feb. 24

seb at microscope
students perusing display in dining hall
2022 New Faculty Cohort
map showing migration of crops from Africa to the Americas

CALS Access & Community Empowerment News & Events

CALS Office of Access & Community Empowerment Workshop table shot

Workshop

Celebrating Inclusion: Opportunities for Local and International Community-Based Projects
Get ready for an afternoon of discussion on 'Community-Based Projects' on April 11th! Snacks will be provided. What you can expect: Join us Friday, April 11th, and learn more about how you can get involved in the community projects around you...
  • Diversity & Inclusion
CALS Office of Access & Community Empowerment Workshop shot

Workshop

Get ready for an afternoon of discussion on 'Self-Advocacy' on March 21st! Snacks will be provided. What you can expect: Join us Friday, March 21st, and learn about what goes into self-advocacy. In this session, we will learn the importance of...
  • Diversity & Inclusion
Close up of Cornell Faculty speaking at event

Workshop

Get ready for an afternoon of discussion on 'Navigating Negativity Online' on February 21st! Snacks will be provided. What you can expect: Join us Friday, February 21st, and learn how to manage your presence online. In this session, we will...
  • Diversity & Inclusion
Students standing in graduation caps and gowns

Workshop

Get ready for an afternoon of discussion on 'Graduate School' on November 15th! Snacks will be provided. What you can expect: Network with graduate students to discover more about their individual journeys, career aspirations, stress management...
  • Diversity & Inclusion

Seminar

From 1914 to 1942, Cornell’s Department of Home Economics and later, New York State College of Home Economics, received federal, state, and private funding to create extension programs and scholarships for Hodinǫ̱hsǫ́:nih women. These programs...
  • Diversity & Inclusion
  • American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program

Land Acknowledgment

Cornell University is located on the traditional homelands of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ (the Cayuga Nation). The Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ are members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, an alliance of six sovereign Nations with a historic and contemporary presence on this land. The Confederacy precedes the establishment of Cornell University, New York state, and the United States of America. We acknowledge the painful history of Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ dispossession, and honor the ongoing connection of Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ people, past and present, to these lands and waters.

This land acknowledgment has been reviewed and approved by the traditional Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ leadership. Learn more from the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program website.