Georgia Institute of Technology
PA-7: Support for Underrepresented Groups

Equal Opportunity, Nondiscrimination, and Anti-Harassment Policy Statement

Georgia Tech provides equal opportunity to all faculty, staff, students, and all other members of the Georgia Tech community, including applicants for admission and/or employment, contractors, volunteers, and participants in institutional programs, activities, or services. Georgia Tech complies with all applicable laws and regulations governing equal opportunity in the workplace and in educational activities.

Georgia Tech prohibits discrimination, including discriminatory harassment, on the basis of race, ethnicity, ancestry, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, genetics, or veteran status in its programs, activities, employment, and admissions. This prohibition applies to faculty, staff, students, and all other members of the Georgia Tech community, including affiliates, invitees, and guests.

As a federal contractor, it is also Georgia Tech’s policy to take affirmative actions to employ and to advance in employment all persons regardless of race, ethnicity, ancestry, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, marital status, disability, genetics, or protected veteran status, and to base all employment decisions only on valid job requirements. This policy shall apply to all employment actions, including, but not limited to, recruitment, hiring, upgrading, promotion, transfer, demotion, layoff, recall, termination, rates of pay or other forms of compensation, and selection for training, including apprenticeship, at all levels of employment.

Georgia Tech makes reasonable accommodations for the disabilities of qualified employees, students, and applicants. Please see Georgia Tech’s Disability Services website below for student ADA accommodations; see also Georgia Tech’s Human Resources Disability Services.

This policy outlines the process for reporting, investigating, and resolving claims of discrimination, including discriminatory harassment, and retaliation.

The Sexual Misconduct Policy governs allegations of sexual misconduct, which includes, but is not limited to, sexual discrimination, sexual harassment, domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, sexual exploitation, and stalking. Pursuant to that policy, allegations of student sexual misconduct are investigated and resolved under USG Policy 6.7 (Sexual Misconduct) and USG Policy 4.6.5 (Standards for Institutional Student Conduct Investigation and Disciplinary Proceedings). All other complaints of sexual misconduct will be resolved as outlined in this policy.

Policy Library:

https://policylibrary.gatech.edu/equal-opportunity-nondiscrimination-and-anti-harassment-policy

Students

Hispanic Initiatives (OHI)
Since 2002, Hispanic Initiatives (OHI) has offered programs designed to recruit, retain, and promote the success of students of Hispanic/Latino origin. OHI’s main components include recruitment, retention and outreach initiatives. Many programs have been created and expanded at Georgia Tech for actively recruiting and retaining Hispanic/Latino students.

GoSTEM Pathways to College Program - The GoSTEM Pathways to College Program provides academic mentoring for middle and high school Latino students in the Meadowcreek High School cluster. The program has three objectives: increase high school graduation rates, increase the number of students enrolling in post-secondary training, and increase the number of students pursuing post-secondary careers in STEM

Hispanic initiatives:

https://gostem.gatech.edu/en/hispanic-initiatives

Pathways to college program:

https://gostem.gatech.edu/en/pathways-college

The Center for Engineering Education and Diversity (CEED)

CEED offers a range of programs designed to support and retain undergraduate students at Georgia Tech. CEEDS three programmatic goals include:

Cultivating a diverse pipeline by increasing engineering awareness in the K-12 arena.

Attracting, empowering, and retaining undergraduate and graduate diverse talent in engineering.

Partnering with corporate and institutional stakeholders to expand the pipeline of a diverse STEM workforce.

Summer SEI program - CEED is also over the Summer SEI program. SEI is a 3-week residential program that focuses on under-represented minority rising 11th and 12th graders from across the nation.

Office of Minority Educational Development (OMED)

The office of Minority Educational Development (OMED) is charged with the retention and development of traditionally underrepresented students: African-American, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, and Multiracial. OMED programs and initiatives are open all Georgia Tech students.

Focus Program - Focus, http://focus.gatech.edu/ is one of the nation’s premier programs for raising awareness of graduate education. Through this program, hundreds of underrepresented students are introduced to their departments of choice and recruited by GT to apply for graduate admission and/or post doc opportunities. Students who participate are also given application waivers from the graduate school to remove any financial barriers as they pursue admission to Georgia Tech.

Challenge - Challenge is OMED’s signature summer five-week academic residential program for incoming first-year students. During Challenge, students are immersed into the Georgia Tech academic environment with supportive faculty, corporate, staff, alumni, and currently enrolled student networks. Recruitment through Challenge engages potential students from the pre-application phase to enrollment. Students are able to participate in this program at 30% of the program cost. Over the past year, Georgia Tech has continued to expand the Challenge program to offer even greater opportunities for underrepresented students to transition to higher education and lay the foundation for success.

Information Sessions/College Prep Workshops – OMED provides a series of information sessions and college prep workshops to inner city high school, community colleges, and minority serving institutions to assist with college preparation and STEM education, awareness, and exposure.

Academic Staff

ADVANCE Program

The National Science Foundation ADVANCE Program seeks to increase the participation of women in the scientific and engineering workforce through the increased representation and advancement of women in academic, scientific, and engineering careers. Georgia Tech’s ADVANCE Program builds and sustains an inter-college network of professors who are world-class researchers and role models to support the community and advancement of women and minorities in academia by:

Advocating for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Advising campus leadership on policy and structure.

Increasing awareness and reducing the impact of implicit bias.

Making data-driven recommendations for faculty retention, advancement, and satisfaction.

The Institute supports a “Target of Opportunity” faculty hiring program each year (funding varies each year). Deans can seek salary support to hire tenured/tenure-track faculty who help further the college’s diversity goals within their disciplinary specific hiring plans.

Academic Staff & Non-academic Staff

Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) -

Staff Diversity, Inclusion, and Engagement offers six Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) to support Georgia Tech’s efforts to build community and ensure that employees (academic and non-academic) experience a greater sense of belonging. These voluntary employee associations, organized around common dimensions of diversity, have been designed to offer forums where like-minded employees can enhance their employment experience.

some of the ERGs offered include:

African Heritage: GRIOT

Hispanics/Latinos: HOLA,

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual (LGBTQIA): PRIDE

Women: Women of Georgia Tech

https://www.sdie.gatech.edu/programs-and-initiatives/engagement/ergs

Students

The Center for Engineering Education and Diversity (CEED)

CEED offers a range of programs designed to support and retain undergraduate students at Georgia Tech.

Some of their programs include:

Peer 2 Peer Mentoring Program (P2P) - P2P is a retention program that is open to all students but is focused on students who are traditionally underrepresented in STEM fields. These groups include African Americans, Hispanic/Latinos, and Native Americans/Pacific Islanders. P2P is open to all full time students within the Colleges of Computing, Engineering, and Science. This mentoring program includes bi-monthly meetings covering professional development topics, access to corporate sponsors, graduate school preparation, faculty research talks, campus resources and academic enrichment.

https://ceed.gatech.edu/peer-2-peer-mentoring-program-p2p

Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation LSAMP - The goal of the LSAMP program at GA is to focus on the retention of under-represented minority students through completion of the baccalaureate degree and to expose this group to research careers in STEM. These goals are met by providing peer mentoring, workshops, research opportunities, and networking with program faculty, staff and students.

https://ceed.gatech.edu/LSAMP

Office of Minority Educational Development (OMED): Educational Services

OMED provides programming specifically to support underrepresented minorities (Black, Latinx, Native American, Pacific Islander, Multiracial students) and promote the success of underserved minorities.

· Challenge is a five-week, academic intensive summer residential program for incoming first-year students. While many bridge programs offer remedial pathways as a transitional model, Challenge at Georgia Tech provides advanced pathways through academic, professional, and culturally intense courses and workshops designed to enhance transitional success based on constructivist learning. During Challenge, students are immersed into the Georgia Tech environment; they live in on-campus housing, take classes provided by Georgia Tech professors, and participate in cultural, professional, and academic workshops and activities. Challenge is designed to help prepare incoming first-year students for a successful college career by equipping them to navigate the 7 C’s (computer science, chemistry, calculus, communication, career development, cultural competency, and community service).

· Edge, a year-long peer mentoring program designed to support URM first-year and transfer students (both academically and socially) through their first academic school year at Georgia Tech. The Edge program mission is to help new Tech students develop and refine strategies for a successful college transition and experience. The Edge Program pairs highly engaged enrolled students with incoming students and transfer underrepresented minority students to assist them both academically and socially throughout their first year at Georgia Tech.

· AAMI (African American Male Initiative) is an award-winning grant program aimed to cultivate innovative talent through targeted cultural and gender-based initiatives for Black males. AAMI is the first-ever statewide initiative specifically focused on increasing post-secondary education attainment among African American males.

· ILARC (Interactive Learning and Resource Center) hosts drop-in and appointment tutoring services, guided study groups, topic-specific review sessions (concept classes by graduate students), and GPA planning.

https://omed.gatech.edu/about

Focus - Focus is one of the nation’s premier diversity recruitment programs for raising awareness of graduate education. It is designed to attract highly skilled students who have historically been underrepresented in higher education and encourage them to pursue graduate degrees. Focus is a 4-day immersive program designed to attract and recruit the nation’s best and brightest diverse students to pursue graduate studies and careers in academia. The program aims to support students for academic careers by equipping them with the tools and access to develop strong PhD applications, research awareness, and faculty connections. Focus has brought more than 3,000 students from across the U.S. to Georgia Tech, and six of Georgia Tech’s faculty are former Focus participants (including two deans and two school chairs/associate deans). During Focus weekend, participants visit classrooms and research labs in their areas of interest and talk with Georgia Tech students and faculty. Focus also includes a Fellows component particularly for post-docs and current PhD students to have a daylong campus visit with prospective departments interested in recruiting diverse faculty and staff to their open positions.

http://focus.gatech.edu/
https://omed.gatech.edu/programs

Staff Diversity, Inclusion, and Engagement

https://sdie.gatech.edu/

OMED: Educational Services

https://omed.gatech.edu/programs