Current DEI Initiatives

Task Force: Supporting Undergraduate Students with Marginalized Identities

The Psychology Department is committed to improving existing support for our undergraduate majors and minors, particularly those who come from backgrounds historically underrepresented on college campuses.

  • The main outcome of this task force was to create and pilot a new program for peer mentoring in Psychology. Undergraduate psychology majors who hold any historically underrepresented or minoritized identity can sign up to be mentored by either a more advanced undergraduate student in Psychology, or a graduate student in one of our graduate programs.
  • Starting in Fall 2025, this program will be offered every year, operated by our Peer Mentorship Standing Committee.  

Task Force: Enhancing DEI Engagement in the Department

We wanted to find ways to keep the Fordham community in the loop about current events relevant to psychology -- and involve more people in the DEI Council's activities and decisions

  • The main outcomes of this task force included: Creating a new social media account (@fcpsychdei) and hosting events to bring awareness to DEI and allow students to feel included and safe
  • Starting in Fall 2025, we are transitioning the work of this group into the DEI Engagement Standing Committee.  

Task Force: Inclusion & Accessibility

We seek to address the barriers faced by students with disabilities at Fordham University, ensuring that all students can thrive in an accessible and inclusive environment.

  • Our task force is working to establish a stronger connection between the Psychology Department and the Office of Disability Services. Through a series of collaborative meetings and brainstorming sessions, we established a set of new psychology-ODS internships that will begin in Fall 2025. These multifaceted internships will allow students to gain hands-on experience in supporting disability services while contributing to the enhancement of resources available to students.
  • For more information about these internships, please contact ODS via email at disabilityservices@fordham.edu.

Task Force: Decolonizing Departmental Syllabi 

Fordham offers a set of guidelines for incorporating the principle of decolonization into our research, teaching, and pedagogy (you can read more about those guidelines here). We want to advance this work further, by establishing an updated rubric to evaluate Psychology department syllabi for DEI practices.

  • In 2024-25, we worked to modify versions of established rubrics to create one for the Psychology department. We are pilot testing the rubric in spring 2025.
  • In 2025-26, we plan to complete analysis of results and identify potential revisions to the rubric before operational use. Additionally, looking forward, we aim to socialize the rubric with department faculty, possible with a seminar, training videos, and/or office hours. We will also explore the potential for training ChatGPT to apply the rubric to syllabi so that faculty can have an option for self-evaluation.

 

Interested in joining a Psychology DEI task force, standing committee, and/or helping to shape future initiatives? Visit our Get Involved tab to learn more.