Together we aim to make the UMD physics and astronomy departments more humane places where everyone can learn and thrive. We work and organize for a department inclusive of all genders, races, orientations, and abilities. We are committed to building a community in which students, faculty, & staff support each other in solidarity to encourage the growth & flourishing of students. We are a collaboration of student organizations at UMD pooling resources and knowledge for equity and inclusion work

Mission Statement

UMD Equity Constellation is dedicated to making our physics and astronomy departments more humane places where everyone can learn and thrive. We will work and organize for a department inclusive of all genders, races, orientations, and abilities. We are committed to building a community in which students, faculty, and staff support each other in solidarity to encourage the growth and flourishing of students. Our efforts will be centered on empowering students to improve their own learning communities, participate in authentic science, and pursue their professional development. Equity Constellation is a proud member of the Access Network (find out more about the Access Network project here).

Our approach

We propose to network existing student organizations within the physics and astronomy departments, such as Women in Physics, Graduate Committee, GRAD-MAP, SPS, and others into a “senate.” We will create an infrastructure for collaboration and collective action across these groups to allow for exchanging ideas and increasing our impact. This senate will run some of its own initiatives such as facilitating regular cross-group communication, running workshops for student leaders across these organizations, running surveys of departmental culture, hosting equity events (e.g. bringing in outside speakers, bringing local leaders of campus-wide student organizations to our department, and offer regular departmental colloquia on Constellation’s efforts and featured departmental student organizations). We plan to involve Constellation representatives in Access Network activities by soliciting fellows and sending representatives to Access events to iteratively refine our approach.