Building a more resilient graduate community

Over the past several months, the Graduate College has conducted a series of listening sessions with graduate students and faculty communities. These sessions allowed us to observe this generation’s resiliency. As deans, we find ourselves in awe of the resiliency ASU graduate students have demonstrated since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March. 

Community resilience is defined by the capacity for a broad community to acknowledge and respond to acute shocks and long term stresses. As the country is managing a global pandemic, responding to social justice, and continuing to deal with environmental crises, there is no better time to examine and understand these concepts. 

Our graduate population faces these macro-level conditions daily. To ensure that we stay focused on building community resilience and helping students cultivate resilience, forming a new Graduate Student Advisory Group, whose voices will guide us in three areas of importance and improvement: academic policies, funding policies and graduate student programming. 

Celebrating all voices among our graduate student population is an essential part of building a stronger, more inclusive graduate community. As Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month begins, it is an opportunity for us to take a closer look at what diversity means in this context. Hispanics and Latinos(as) account for 31% of the Phoenix metropolitan population, stemming primarily from Mexican American heritage, but also including immigrants and their descendants from Central America, the Caribbean, South America and the Iberian Peninsula. Hispanic faculty make up 8% of ASU graduate faculty. The Graduate College is working with other ASU units to implement a recently announced postdoctoral program by President Crow that can serve as a pipeline for tenure track faculty positions.

Our role at the Graduate College is to welcome and nurture talented individuals so they may succeed in professional pathways.  In order for us to do this effectively, we need to hear from you. Together, let’s honor and keep our community strong.

Collaboratively written by:

Elizabeth Wentz, Vice Provost and Dean

Enrique R. Vivoni, Associate Dean