Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering recognizes its responsibility to promote diversity and inclusion in all aspects of its educational and research missions.

  • Diversity makes us collectively better as a department because it allows us to embrace a broader range of ideas, benefit from different perspectives, and learn from our rich collection of cultures and experiences.
  • Inclusivity ensures that diversity impacts our department in a meaningful way. We must cultivate a welcoming environment which fosters mutual respect, values our differences, allows voices to be heard, and enables all members of our community to fully participate.

Adherence to these principles makes us collectively stronger, and moreover, is the right thing to do. Our society has an ugly history of marginalizing specific groups through a wide variety of exclusive and discriminatory practices including structural racism. At times, our field has been complicit in these practices. This has contributed to the underrepresentation of women, Black people, indigenous people, Latinx people, LGBTQ+ people, and people with disabilities within our field. We find this unacceptable. Our department is determined to remove the barriers and obstacles that have resulted in this imbalance and is committed to enabling the work needed to ensure diversity and inclusion.

Resources

The Northwestern Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion seeks to create and maintain a diverse, inclusive, and welcoming environment which supports all community members. Their webpage includes a number of helpful resources. We also include a list of relevant groups and resources below: