Guidelines for Advancing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Respect in Programs Offering Bachelor’s Degrees in Chemistry

Abstract

The chemical enterprise is recognizing that inclusive and equitable environments are essential to its mission and advancement. As such, the education and training of chemists requires a reassessment of how academic programs integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as a core principle of educational quality. This article describes a 3-year process that resulted in integrating experiences, ideas, priorities, and feedback from the chemistry community into a set of guidelines that agrees with the American Chemical Society (ACS)’s core value of diversity, equity, inclusion, and respect (DEIR). The process included learning about current DEI practices through a focus group, surveying stakeholders about the role of DEI in chemistry education, bringing together department chairpersons from all types of academic institutions from across the nation to discuss how they would adapt to DEIR guidelines, and synthesis of the DEIR guidelines that will be incorporated into the ACS Guidelines for Bachelor’s Degree Programs. The guidelines, described in this article, provide a DEIR baseline to maintain ACS Approval (critical requirements), direct programs to support and develop a DEIR culture (normal expectations), and exhort programs to make DEIR a priority (markers of excellence). It is anticipated that the DEIR guidelines will promote a DEIR culture among chemistry programs and that these guidelines could be adapted to other disciplines and organizations.