CROPPS comprises three land-grant institutions at geographically, agriculturally, and demographically diverse locations. Our partner institutions and our Center host a highly diverse group of students, staff, and faculty with a breadth of expertise from across multiple disciplines. Further, our three universities are connected to their regional rural populations through a variety of agricultural extension programs, which CROPPS will leverage to help bridge the rural-urban gap often found in high-productivity research universities and, more broadly, in society.
We aim to create a diverse and inclusive environment where everyone can thrive. Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) plan targets students and research professionals spanning their entire careers: beginning with high school students, and continuing through college undergraduates, graduate school students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty and research staff of all seniorities. Our plan engages in several complementary ways to create, deploy, and oversee DEI initiatives. It also aims at quantifying our degree of success throughout the life of the center.
In the first year, our goals for DEI include the following:
