Anyone who has been a part of the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs (SMEA) can tell you that interdisciplinary methods and community collaboration are key components of the department’s curriculum and research. SMEA is also committed to addressing climate and environmental issues through diverse approaches that aim to promote equity, justice, and inclusion. Whether faculty are designing new research projects or developing syllabi, it is clear this department is committed to producing practical and inclusive knowledge. However, as a student, it can be challenging to see yourself represented in research and academic spaces. It can also feel like a daunting task to build meaningful connections with peers outside the classroom in graduate school.

The SMEA Diversity Forum (Div Forum) was founded in 2019 by students, for students as a response to that disconnect. Div Forum aims to provide a safe space for historically underrepresented identities in academia, equip allies with resources and skills to deal with complex issues, and build community among the diverse student body both inside and outside SMEA. I learned about Div Forum for the first time during my orientation to SMEA and was happy to know something like it existed within the department. In writing this article, my aim is to share information about Div Forum with prospective SMEA students and others who might be interested in forming their own group. To learn more, I sat down with Rondi Nordal, a second-year thesis student, who is running Div Forum for the 2023-2024 academic year.

“If there is anything that comes up, any concerns that people have in their time at SMEA, we can discuss that because we are here to talk about the hard things.”  

From the start, Div Forum has been a place where students can decompress and escape the stress of graduate school for a bit, as well as address problems within the department. As Rondi explained to me over a cup of coffee, “Div Forum is really chill. We have snacks and talk about things going on in our lives and a little bit about things we thought were important to talk about with SMEA specifically. Things that we felt we weren’t seeing enough progress on. Div Forum has taken on a lot of roles since it started… If there is anything that comes up, any concerns that people have in their time at SMEA, we can discuss that because we are here to talk about the hard things.”

A notable accomplishment of Div Forum is the bathroom signage in the Marine Studies Building (MAR). In the fall of 2019, Div Forum sent out an SMEA-wide petition to raise support for displaying gender-inclusive signage in both the upstairs and downstairs bathrooms. The action got overwhelming support and before the quarter was out, every bathroom in MAR had gender-inclusive signage both inside and outside the bathroom. The signage encourages people to use whichever bathroom feels most comfortable for them and also communicates appropriate bathroom etiquette, which includes respecting an individual’s bathroom choice. Rondi says that this was Div Forum’s first action item and the fact that the signage remains shows its early success.

Another early success of Div Forum was the formation of the SMEA Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Committee. The JEDI Committee was established in 2020 as an official SMEA committee consisting of two student representatives, a SMEA staff member, and up to two SMEA faculty representatives. The JEDI committee is tasked with hosting town hall-style meetings that the whole SMEA department is encouraged to attend. The goal is to facilitate conversations and training on diversity and inclusion through formal channels. The work of Div Forum and the JEDI Committee can be viewed as complementary: Div Forum focuses on supporting students in personal and informal ways, while JEDI provides formal avenues for departmental-wide conversations and change. As Rondi explained, “Last year [the JEDI student representative] was also attending Div Forum. She would give us updates and we would talk about different approaches for JEDI meetings. I think that was an important relationship to have.”

Fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within SMEA goes beyond creating formal channels and inclusive spaces. It also means ensuring that students have the space to learn and explore environmental justices (EJ) and DEI issues. Anne Beaudreau, an associate professor at SMEA says, “The Diversity Forum wrote a letter to SMEA in 2020 asking for renewed focus on supporting diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. Among their requests included changes to the core curriculum.” This letter prompted a year-long collaboration between the SMEA Curriculum Committee (CC) and Div Forum that resulted in redesigning the core curriculum series for SMEA courses 500-Marine and Environmental Affairs Theory and Practice and 502-Decision Making and Action Taking in Marine Affairs. Professor Beaudreau continues, “[The] SMEA CC removed 502 and redesigned 500 to engage students in community building, collaborative problem-solving, and drawing from multiple disciplines and ways of knowing to understand social-ecological challenges. The push from the Div Forum in turn empowered faculty to prioritize these efforts.” These changes to the core curriculum have had a profound impact on the way incoming students engage with and think about EJ and DEI issues in their work.

Reflecting on the early successes of Div Forum Rondi says, “I think the folks who started Div Forum and continued it into the year were really instrumental in pushing for a lot of big changes in SMEA, or at least supporting changes that were in progress to get them up and running,” Rondi says. Although the early days of Div Forum were more active in pushing for change and progress in the department, Rondi says that this year’s goals are a bit different: “This year the goal is to build community. Of course, if something comes up that needs action that can occur, but right now it seems like we need to build community, build support, and also connections. Div Forum can do a lot for people, but it might not be for everyone, or not everyone can make it. I’m hoping to build connections between SMEA and other departments.”

“Things [can be] kind of siloed in the diversity dialogue, but I really felt like Div Forum was encompassing for whoever needed the space, being supportive of people’s needs, and finding ways to work together.” 

Rondi says that focusing on the intersectional community-building aspect of Div Forum is important because it’s not always easy to make connections and find support in graduate school, especially among students from different departments. Rondi described the Div Forum as a space for exploring intersectionality and allyship. She said, “I initially thought [Div Forum] was for BIPOC students and I, as a white person, thought this space wasn’t for me, but I think it is [also] a space for allies that want to learn and find community. And… there’s a lot of different types of diversity. Post 2020, most people think of racial and ethnic diversity for very powerful and important reasons, but a lot of the conversation leaves out disabled folks from a lot of different movements. And queer diversity is often its own separate thing… Things [can be] kind of siloed in the diversity dialogue, but I really felt like Div Forum was encompassing for whoever needed the space, being supportive of people’s needs, and finding ways to work together.” During our conversation, Rondi continued to emphasize that she sees Div Forum as a space where students with diverse identities and their allies can meet, share stories, and collaborate.

This year Rondi is excited to continue to build the Div Forum community both within SMEA and in collaboration with other diversity groups such as the Environmental QueerTrans group that is housed in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. The remaining meetings for fall quarter are on 11/13, 11/20, and 12/4 from 12-1 PM in MAR Room 237. If you are interested in joining Div Forum or just want to stay up to date, please reach out to Rondi Nordal at rnordal@uw.edu.