Dear CSE majors,
Earlier today, you received an email from Dan Grossman, our Acting Chair, introducing our department’s new Inclusiveness Statement. Your advisors are proud to have helped write this and to support it.
Our Diversity Committee is particularly happy that the statement was finalized and announced this week — the week of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday and a time when many of us are thinking about and concerned about societal and political changes that could affect members of our community. CSE does not promote any political position — our diverse department doesn’t universally agree on political issues, and it’s not allowed as a government organization. We can, however, state our values, and this feels like an important time to make those values clear.
We work hard to be a supportive community. Each of you was invited to join CSE based on your own individual ability to succeed and contribute here. You come from all kinds of backgrounds, but you were all carefully chosen through a very selective admissions process. It’s important to us that you are able to fulfill your potential here, without barriers of bias or exclusion. It’s also important that you each uphold CSE’s values of inclusiveness: supporting your peers, helping us make progress in our ongoing efforts to be diverse and inclusive, and representing CSE well by carrying these positive values into your future work.
As our president Ana Mari Cauce reminded us in August, “Our University’s motto is ‘lux sit’ — let there be light. Let us strive to create light.”
Best,
CSE Undergraduate Advisors
Crystal, Raven, Jenifer, Maggie, and Elise