Departmental culture includes the shared norms and values of a department. Departmental climate involves how people experience and feel about the departmental culture. This section provides guidance on how to create a departmental culture and climate in which all department members feel valued, respected, included, and supported. Department members include faculty, staff, undergraduate and graduate students, and postdocs. This section provides guidance on both how to actively create a positive culture and climate for all department members and how to prevent a negative culture and climate. It provides best practices for fostering inclusivity and proactively identifying and addressing problems with your departmental climate. For guidance on practices that support
Marginalized Groups
People of color and others with marginalized ethnicities, women and others who experience misogyny, LGBTQ+ people, disabled people, and others who have traditionally been marginalized in society and in physics. According to the TEAM-UP Report, marginalized groups are “groups of people defined by a common social identity who lack adequate social power or resources to design, build, or perpetuate social structures or institutions that reflect the centrality … of their identities, proclivities, and points of view. … They need not be underrepresented or numerical minorities, but often are.” We use the term marginalized groups, rather than minorities, underrepresented groups, or other commonly used terms, because people in these groups are not always minorities or underrepresented, and in order to convey that underrepresentation is the result of marginalization rather than a statistical accident. Another common term is minoritized groups. While we use this general term for brevity and readability, it is important to recognize that the many different groups encompassed by this term face different challenges and have different needs that should be addressed individually whenever possible, to learn the terms that people ask to be called, and to recognize that these terms may change over time.
The practices in this section can support your department in creating and maintaining a collaborative, friendly, empowering, fulfilling, and joyful environment for all department members. A department that takes care of its faculty, staff, students, and postdocs and helps them succeed (through tenure, success in courses, success in their careers, and professional development) will have more satisfied department members, which enhances recruiting and retention of students, faculty, staff, and postdocs. Members of departments with positive cultures and climates are more productive in research, teaching, and learning, and such departments will have positive relationships with graduates. Departments with inclusive and supportive cultures are able to function productively and make plans and decisions even when there are disagreements about directions or style.
Effective Practices
Engage the whole department in a review of your climate
Establish and communicate a collective vision for a healthy culture and climate
Create, nurture, and expect a culture in which everyone is welcome, included, and supported
Value and support healthy relationships within and beyond your department
Create and nurture programs, processes, and policies that support continuous improvement of departmental culture and climate
Programmatic Assessments
The Cycle of Reflection and Action
Where are you and what are you trying to accomplish?
Who should be involved?
What will you do?
How did it go and what comes next?
To be intentional about change, a department must have a clear understanding of its present situation and a vision for what it would like to become. Our cycle of self-reflection questions will help your department start conversations and structure thinking about how to get from where you are to where you want to be.
The Cycle of Reflection and Action will help you put the EP3 Guide to work for your department.
