Colorado School of Mines

The Admissions Application includes a prompt that asks "Reflect on a time when you had to collaborate with individuals whose backgrounds, culture, experiences, or viewpoints are different from your own" and "How did this experience impact your understanding of your own identity and how do you think this experience will influence your approach in building inclusive teams?" 

For its 2022 Celebration of DI&A, Mines hosted various workshops such as "Hispanic, Latinx, Chicanx: Why Labels Matter", "How Faculty Can Integrate Equity into Engineering Course Content", and "Solidarity, Not Model Minority."

The University offers a number of workshops including "Minimizing Micro-Aggressions" and "Understanding Unconscious Bias" which are both facilitated by Mines DI&A Ambassadors.

The School provides a "Discriminatory Harassment, Bias and Retaliation" reporting form to "report concerns of bias, discrimination, and harassment."

During Faculty Orientation, new faculty must attend training including a "Diversity, Inclusion, and Access" session and an "Institutional Equity" session.

A grant of $300,000 from the National Science Foundation was secured by the Trefny Center and Mines DI&A "to provide tangible guidance to educators for operating an inclusive classroom."

All Campus Safety Officers are trained "in accordance with the Colorado Peace Officers Standards and Training," which requires training on "Proper Holds and Restraints, Anti-Bias training, Community Policing / Community Partnership training, De-Escalation training, and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIR)" at least once every 5 years.

The University plans to collaborate with Mine's Police and to "review our relationships with local and state police." Furthermore, the Public Safety Office has "conducted a detailed review of curriculum, policies, and enhanced transparency around [the] use of force and posted the Public Safety Use of Force policy on the department’s website."

The university has racial equity resources to hep students "more about unconscious bias" and become "an advocate, ally and anti-racist." Books include "How To Be An Antiracist" by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi and "So You Want to Talk About Race" by Ijeoma Oluo.

Mines has a President's Council on Diversity, Inclusion, and Access, which published Mines' Strategic Plan for DI&A in spring 2019. The President and the DI&A team also give out rewards for "innovation and commitment to fostering an inclusive campus community."

Mines has "Inclusion Icebreakers"--five-minute exercises that center on a relevant diversity, inclusion and access topic--separated into seven categories: confronting bias, underrepresented groups, cultural competence, microaggressions, inclusive environments, performance and evaluation, and mental & emotional health.

Mines has a 38-point "Diversity, Inclusion, and Access Classroom Checklist" of strategies for faculty to reference and implement.

Mines has Diversity, Inclusion, and Access Ambassadors who "engage in deeper learning about implicit bias, microaggressions and other diversity, equity and inclusion topics" to "[foster] a culture of inclusion and [enact] positive social change on campus."

Mines has DI&A Peer Educators who collaborate with the Institutional Equity and Title IX office to "[promote] safe, healthy behaviors and relationships and an inclusive campus culture."

The University provides an "Inclusive Teaching Practices Tips and Checklist" that helps faculty "respect the diversity of the students and their experiences and actively engages, includes, and challenges all students." It also provides a sample syllabus statement on "Diversity & Inclusion."

Racial Equity Resources are provided as the School asks "all of the Mines community to commit to learning more about unconscious bias." The School encourages students to "find [their] own way to take meaningful action towards being an advocate, ally and anti-racist."

After the death of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, Mines released a university anti-racist statement that asserted "systemic racial inequalities are found everywhere" and promoted DI&A resources. The school also promised that it would "collaborate with Mines police and review [its] relationships with local and state police" and "ensure DI&A is infused into onboarding of new employees and that supervisors are trained to mitigate bias."

Mines has given out annual Diversity, Inclusion, and Access awards since 2020. Nominees are assessed by their efforts to "enhance inclusion through positive foster dialogue communication between persons of different backgrounds; promote an environment free from bias and discrimination; raise awareness and lead initiatives that advance diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion; support efforts in Mines DI&A Strategic Plan; serve as a catalyst for change in the areas of diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion; and contribute to DI&A at Mines beyond primary position description or role expectations on campus."

On June 10, 2020, Mines shared on Twitter: "#ShutDownSTEM: No, this is not a day off. It's a day for all of us at Mines and in #STEM to engage in anti-racism activities and education. We are sharing resources and ideas from @DiversityMines in this thread."

Mines has an "Orediggers for Equity" page where students are asked to voluntarily submit a form to help the community "continue to learn and take action regarding diversity and racism on campus." Specifically, the form asks students to share how they, their department, organization, or team is supporting diversity initiatives and antiracism, and share DEI resources.

The University released a land acknowledgment stating, "We recognize that Mines sits on the ancestral land of the Cheyenne and Ute people" and that "We come with respect for this land we are on today, and pay our respect to those from our past, present, and future who have stewarded this land throughout the generations through long-held Indigenous languages, ideas, bodies, creations, and movements." The statement continues, "We value and respect the cultural heritage and beliefs significant to the Cheyenne and Ute people as we pay mind to the sacred and spiritual relationship that has always existed here." It concludes that the School has "a responsibility to acknowledge, honor, and make visible [its] past and present relationships with Native people in accordance with [its] values of community and inclusion."