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Report of the Panel on State of the Profession and Societal Impacts

N.1 SYNOPSIS

Six astronomy and astrophysics decadal surveys have been produced by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to date. While each discussed the state of the profession and societal impacts, Astro2020 is the first to feature a formal panel devoted to these concerns. The statement of task given to the panel was as follows:

This is a new era in astronomy and astrophysics on every measurable axis, with many indicators of substantial progress in the past decade. Major new observatories and space-based telescopes are poised to produce massive quantities of new data about the cosmos. Near daily coverage of astronomical discoveries in the popular media—images of black holes, discoveries of potentially habitable worlds—reveals the field’s effective communication with the public. The number of students pursuing degrees in physics and astronomy continues to grow, and the field is becoming more representative of U.S. demographics, with steady increases in the number of women and Hispanic Americans.

A deeper look, however, reveals a Profession (Box N.1) with profound weaknesses. At many undergraduate programs, the attrition rate of physics and astronomy students is high. Nationally, students from underrepresented groups interested in physical sciences are less likely to complete physics and astronomy majors than white students, leading to the persistent underrepresentation of community members in the field relative to their representation in society at large. Racial discrimination and sexual harassment continue, leading to a climate in the field that depresses recruitment of people who identify as female, people of

color, and people from other traditionally minoritized groups, and an increase in the proportion of people from those groups who leave the field at all levels.

Women and people of color, people with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ people, nonbinary people, and people who hold two or more of these identities remain extremely underrepresented in senior leadership positions. Furthermore, astronomers have not always engaged adequately with local communities impacted by observatories; the consequences are made evident by the growing resistance from Indigenous peoples and their supporters, particularly surrounding construction on the summit of Maunakea (Mauna Kea) in Hawai’i, which is considered sacred by Indigenous people. This perspective has prioritized facilities over their impact on people and cultures and is facing increased resistance from those most impacted. The health of the Profession depends on setting priorities and doing science in ways that are mindful of these human realities. The promise of the decadal survey is the collective power of the Profession to carry out an ambitious, actionable plan to assert its priorities and, where needed, to change its trajectory. However, previous decadal surveys did not include written insight into nontechnical factors that guided their ranked selection: the human-centered processes necessary to carry out the science. The panel asserts that fundamentally, the pursuit of science, and scientific excellence, is inseparable from the humans who animate it. This statement guides the panel’s suggestions.

The panel proposes that by explicitly pursuing a set of equity-advancing values, in addition to articulating priorities for scientific investment, the Profession will improve the quality of science overall in the next decade and beyond. Equitable access, multimodal expertise, responsible stewardship, and accountability are four values that are defined and discussed in Section N.5. These values are reflected in the founding documents of the federal agencies that support astronomy and are reflected in best practices reported in the literature, white papers and public town halls for the decadal survey, the expertise of the panel, and numerous National Academies reports and consensus studies. For the Profession to maximize scientific advancement over the coming decade, the panel suggests that resources must be invested toward realizing these equity-advancing values by fostering engagement, increasing opportunities for participation by the full human diversity of our nation, and laying the foundation for lasting change. These values embody the panel’s vision for the Profession by 2030. This report provides a clear articulation of these values, along with suggestions for implementation and assessment. The panel identifies seven essential goals for the Profession in the next decade:

1. Collecting, Evaluating, and Acting on Demographic Data: Collect and report consistent demographic data from organizations that support astronomical research, education, and training. Data are key to identifying promising practices, measuring progress, and holding agencies and institutions accountable to equity-advancing values.
2. Leveraging Power: Use funding structures to recognize and realize equity-advancing values.
3. Reimagining Leadership: Develop, select, and sustain diverse cohorts of leaders who lead by exercising equity-advancing values.
4. Addressing Harassment and Discrimination: Establish clear policies, collect, and report relevant metrics, and enforce accountability measures to remove structures and individuals that perpetrate identity-based discrimination (including harassment) in astronomy.

5. Removing Barriers: Modernize practices that have a disparate impact on access to education, training, and advancement.
6. Cultivating Local and Global Partnerships: Reframe policies around community engagement in order to embed cultural humility, ethical practice, and a growth mindset throughout the Profession in a continuous effort to cultivate and sustain healthy cultures for scientific inquiry.
7. Partnering with Indigenous Communities: Align the values of the Profession with those of Indigenous and other local communities impacted by the Profession to cultivate and sustain healthy partnerships for the benefit of both.

The panel suggests methods for funding agencies, professional societies, university departments, observatories, research institutes, government laboratories, and the Profession to embody these values and achieve these goals. The panel estimates¹ that these methods range from no-cost to fairly substantial investments and provides agencies with specific guidance. On the order of $40 million per year spread across the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Science Foundation (NSF), and Department of Energy (DOE) would be required to address the highest priorities. Ideally, this funding would not come at the expense of current research grant funding but would be supplementary. Not all issues can be addressed immediately. Where appropriate, the panel identified methods to be implemented rapidly and others that require more time.

As this report was written in mid-2020, the United States was in the midst of profound self-examination of social and economic inequalities resulting from historic and systemic racism, discriminatory police brutality highlighted by the Black Lives Matter movement,² sexual harassment and inequalities highlighted by the #MeToo movement, and the starkly inequitable and severe health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on people of color. This background of social ferment and introspection makes all the more timely and more urgent a frank assessment of the ties between the equity and well-being of the Profession, including issues of race, ethnicity, gender, and workplace climate.

N.2 THE LANDSCAPE OF THE ASTRONOMY PROFESSION

This section gives a snapshot of the state of the Astronomy Profession as of mid-2020, the forces that have shaped it over the past decade, and those likely to shape it going forward. This discussion is not comprehensive, but outlines themes and conditions of the Profession that ground the panel’s suggestions.

N.2.1 What Does the Panel Mean by “the Profession”?

Historically, astronomers have conceived the Profession (see Box N.1) as a relatively dehumanized scientific enterprise, pursuing observatories and data with secondary regard to the humans who use them and the values that animate their work. As a result, progress toward an equitable and inclusive profession that is representative of the population has been slow. Astronomers have often failed to ethically engage with communities who are impacted by the facilities that they build. Barriers to equitable access and advancement are ingrained in both educational and professional astronomy contexts. Identity-based

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¹ The programmatic suggestions included in this report have been derived by the panel on a best-effort basis that includes examination of the costs of existing similar programs, consultation with agency staff, and other relevant documentation. The specific resources used in making individual suggestions are provided in footnotes. The final implementation of suggestions made here will necessarily reflect more formal and thorough analysis of cost, schedule and most effective programmatic practices.

² See Box N.2, “Black Lives Matter.”

discrimination and sexual harassment continue within the Profession. These wrongs undermine the professional integrity and the scientific excellence of the Profession.

The panel asserts that people and organizations are integral to the discovery process. The panel is concerned with the full scope of resources that enable scientific advancement. This includes the Profession that does the science, its knowledge and skills (i.e., human capital), and equity in the organizations where the work is carried out. In this report, the panel considers “the Profession” to be the community of scientists, engineers, technicians, and nontechnical people engaged in the production, dissemination, and instruction of astronomical knowledge, as well as learners on the path to joining their ranks. More than half (54 percent) of full-time employed U.S. American Astronomical Society (AAS) members with Ph.D.s work at institutions of higher education; 33 percent work at government laboratories, research institutes, or observatories.³ Also relevant are the broader set of communities with whom the Profession interacts, including amateur astronomers, editors, journalists, and educators who enable, support, communicate, and inspire the work of astronomy.

Astronomy is a quest to understand the universe and humanity’s place within it. Its discoveries resonate deeply with the public. Many in the Profession depend on a small number of shared resources: observatories and supporting infrastructure. While most astronomy funding comes from NASA and NSF, astronomy is one of many priorities for these agencies.⁴ Still larger societal forces profoundly shape the Profession. Yet, as a small field, astronomy can be nimble and experimental, and grassroots efforts of a few individuals through policy change can have a greater impact on the whole of the Profession. For example, NASA rapidly switched guest observer programs to dual-anonymous proposal review to reduce implicit bias from the review process.⁵ Owing to astronomy’s outsized visibility and influence in public opinion, its move toward equitable and inclusive practices may influence other professions to move in the same direction.

With these core qualities of the Profession in mind, the next section considers the central role of investments and the impacts they have on the Profession. Then, the panel provides a summary of the Profession’s demographics at different points on the pathway from college to and through career, and in both academic institutions and research laboratories.

N.2.2 Investments and Their Impacts

Funding affects everything from technology and infrastructure to academic opportunities and human capital development. Therefore, funding decisions influence which members participate, advance, and feel they belong. Overall funding for astronomy in the past decade has been increasing, with growing investment in facilities. But support of astronomers performing research and funding to train future researchers has been flat or declining during this same period.

N.2.2.1 Federal Agencies

Funding from federal agencies for astronomy has grown 40 percent in the past decade; however, this falls far short of the doubling in federal investment in astronomy that was envisioned in the 2010 decadal survey. Furthermore, funding for individual investigators and proposal success rates have been flat or declining. The Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee (AAAC) reports why this is happening and the

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³ J. Pold and R. Ivie, 2019, Workforce Survey of 2018 US AAS Members Summary of Results, Statistical Research Center of the American Institute of Physics, https://aas.org/sites/default/files/2019-10/AAS-Members-Workforce-Survey-final.pdf, accessed August 26, 2020.

⁴ For example, in the fiscal year 2020 NASA budget, the $1.729 billion spent on astrophysics was 7.6 percent of the total budget, and 24 percent of the NASA Science budget. The NSF Division of Astronomical Sciences budget was $287 million out of NSF’s $8.578 billion budget. DOE’s Cosmic Frontier budget was $94.9 million out of DOE’s $38.586 billion budget.

⁵ A. Witze, 2019, “NASA Changes How It Divvies Up Telescope Time to Reduce Gender Bias,” Nature 571:156, https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02064-y.

impact on science and scientists of the declining proposal success rates.⁶ The NSF Division of Astronomical Sciences (AST) allocates only 17.5 percent of its total division budget to its primary individual investigator grants program, the Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Grants (AAG). The largest share of the division’s budget has historically been directed toward facility operation. Meanwhile, the grant success rate for NSF AST fell from 50 percent in 1990 to close to 15 percent in 2015 and has remained under 20 percent since. NSF AST undertook a mid-decade review to identify opportunities for divestments. This led to the elimination of NSF’s Partnerships in Astronomy and Astrophysics Research (PAARE), their sole program to develop human capital at undergraduate and graduate levels through partnerships with Minority Serving Institutions. NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) proposal funding rates were a healthy 30–35 percent in the early 2000s, but since then they have steadily declined.

N.2.2.2 Private Foundations

Private philanthropy has been an important source of funding for astronomy for over a century.⁷ For instance, the Carnegie Institute funded the development of the Mount Wilson Observatory in 1904, and construction of the Hale Telescope on Palomar Mountain was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation in 1928. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey, supported by the Sloan Foundation, has transformed how astronomical research is conducted. The Heising-Simons Foundation recently funded the PI Launchpad to increase the number of space mission proposals led by principal investigators (PIs) with historically marginalized identities. A growing number of private foundations and individual philanthropists fund ground-based optical telescopes, individual researchers through fellowships and award programs, university participation in observatories, and an increasing role supporting postdoctoral researchers.⁸

N.2.2.3 Impacts of Trends in Investment

Scarcity of funding threatens capacities for creativity and risk-taking that are essential to bold scientific advancement. It also negatively affects the culture of workplaces and the training of the next generation. Scarcity increases the likelihood that both everyday and scientific decisions will be driven less by an ethical vision of scientific conduct than by urgency and pressure.

In this environment, the panel sees at least three promising directions that would enable progress. First, the field can communicate funding priorities to federal agencies to increase direct support to astronomers as researchers, mentors, and communicators, relative to agencies’ funding of facilities. Second, private foundation support could grow significantly to play a bigger role in the Profession’s future. Of the $2.3 billion in private funds distributed to science in 2017, 87 percent went to life sciences, with 11 percent ($250 million) going to physical sciences.⁹ Third, the Profession can associate more closely with industry and related fields with strong growth and investment, such as data science and advanced computation, to better support a variety of career paths.¹⁰ There are many applied areas where astronomy is positioned to contribute to the training of the scientific workforce.

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⁶ AAAC Proposal Pressures Study Group: P. Cushman, T. Hoeksema, C. Kouveliotou, J. Lowenthal, B. Peterson, K.G. Stassun, and T. von Hippel, 2015, “Impact of Declining Proposal Success Rates on Scientific Productivity,” https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1510/1510.01647.pdf.

⁷ This section was informed by data collected by the Astro2020 Panel on an Enabling Foundation for Research.

⁸ See Heising-Simons Foundation, “51 Pegasi b Fellowship in Planetary Astronomy,” https://www.hsfoundation.org/programs/science/51-pegasi-b-fellowship, accessed August 20, 2020.

⁹ This information was provided by Marc Kastner, president, Science Philanthropy Alliance, in a presentation to the Enabling Foundation for Research Panel, October 22, 2019.

¹⁰ The need for academic institutions to do a better job informing students about alternative career options was one of the recommendations of the Astro2010 decadal report.

N.3 DEMOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE

The past decade has witnessed substantial growth in the desire of Americans to participate in the excitement of astronomical discovery. The number of astronomy B.S. and Ph.D. degrees shows continued growth (Figure N.1). As nearly daily coverage of astronomical discoveries in the popular media reveals, the field is effectively communicating with the public. While there has been a steady increase in the numbers of women and Hispanic American degree recipients (Figures N.1 and N.2), the number of African American students earning Ph.D. degrees remains low and unchanged over three decades (Figure N.2).

American Institute of Physics (AIP) statistics show the unemployment rate of 2014–2016 astronomy Ph.D.s to be only 3 percent,¹¹ similar to other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.¹² Those joining the private sector with a bachelor’s degree or Ph.D. earn a median starting income of $60,000 and $120,000, respectively, which is higher than most other fields.¹³ A significant driver of these employment outcomes is the increasing importance of computational skills and data-science approaches in astronomy training and research. Newly minted Ph.D.s in astronomy are now more likely than ever to forgo a postdoctoral appointment and enter the nonacademic research workforce.¹⁴ The Profession has great capacity for enabling an array of excellent career outcomes in defense, healthcare, or commerce, as well as teaching.

At the same time, broader demographic trends reveal a systemic failure of the Profession to attract, retain, and advance diverse talent. About 2.5 percent of all first-year white students compared to about 1.5 percent of African American/Black, Hispanic/Latino and American Indian/Alaska Native¹⁵ first-year students intend to major in the physical sciences.^16,17 While 11 percent of white students intending to major in the physical sciences will earn a degree in physics and astronomy, only 4 percent of students from underrepresented groups with similar intent complete physics and astronomy degrees.¹⁸ This is consistent with earlier findings that only 40 percent of students who enter university with an interest in STEM and 20 percent of STEM-interested underrepresented minority students finish with a STEM degree.¹⁹ Engagement of American Indian/Alaska Native people in astronomy at the undergraduate level is the lowest of all physical sciences, with an average of two individuals receiving bachelor’s degrees per year.²⁰ Since astronomical first light on Maunakea 50 years ago, there have been a total of three Ph.D.s in astronomy or astrophysics awarded

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¹¹ American Institute of Physics (AIP) Statistics, 2019 “Physics Trends: Astronomy PhDs 1 Year Later,” https://www.aip.org/statistics/physics-trends/astronomy-phds, accessed May 19, 2021.

¹² National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, 2015, “Table 4-1. Unemployment Rate Among U.S. Residing Doctoral Scientists and Engineers, by Field of Doctorate: 2015,” in Survey of Doctorate Recipients Survey Year 2015, National Science Foundation, https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/doctoratework/2015/html/SDR2015_DST_4_1.html.

¹³ See P. Mulvey and J. Pold, “Astronomy Degree Recipients One Year After Degree,” AIP, https://www.aip.org/statistics/reports/astronomy-degree-recipients-one-year-after-degree, accessed August 26, 2020. Comparisons to other fields can be found at AIP Physics Trends, 2020, “What Do New Bachelors Earn?” AIP, https://www.aip.org/statistics/physics-trends/what-do-new-bachelors-earn for bachelor’s degrees.

¹⁴ P. Mulvey and J. Pold, 2019, “Astronomy Degree Recipients One Year After Degree,” AIP, https://www.aip.org/statistics/reports/astronomy-degree-recipients-one-year-after-degree.

¹⁵ The terms used in the paragraph are not the choice of the panel. Rather, they are a consequence of the terms used in federal data collection, on which this analysis draws.

¹⁶ Unfortunately, the number of entering first-year students who intend to major in physics/astronomy is not known.

¹⁷ National Science Board, 2016, Appendix Table 2-16, “Freshmen Intending S&E Major by Field, Sex, and Race or Ethnicity, 1998–2014,” in Science and Engineering Indicators 2016, NSB-2016-1, National Science Foundation, https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/2016/nsb20161/#/report/chapter-2/undergraduate-education-enrollment-and-degrees-in-the-united-states.

¹⁸ Calculated from AIP Enrollments and Degrees Survey, various years, unpublished.

¹⁹ S. Olson and D.G. Riordan, 2012, “Engage to Excel: Producing One Million Additional College Graduates with Degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Report to the President,” Executive Office of the President, https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED541511.

²⁰ L. Merner and J. Tyler, 2017, Native American Participation Among Bachelors in Physical Sciences and Engineering, AIP Statistical Research Center, College Park, MD, https://www.aip.org/statistics/reports/native-american-participation-among-bachelors-physical-sciences-and-engineering.

to Native Hawaiians. The loss of Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous physics and astronomy students during their undergraduate years is reflected in the low percent entering graduate school and the fewer than 10 astronomy Ph.D.s (out of nearly 200 Ph.D.s; see Figures N.1 and N.2) produced annually. This failure of the undergraduate educational system has long-term consequences for the diversity of the Profession at the doctoral level and beyond.

The 2015 and 2019 Inclusive Astronomy Conferences have raised attention on the experiences of LGBTQIA+ astronomers and astronomers with disabilities. In 2018, 1 percent of AAS members identified as a gender other than male or female, and a few astronomers identified as transgender. In the same 2018

survey of 1,915 AAS members, 85 percent identified as heterosexual, while 7 percent of AAS members identified as gay, lesbian, or bisexual, leaving 7 percent of the membership identifying as other (2 percent) or preferred not to respond (5 percent). In a 2016 survey of AAS members, 94.7 percent of the membership responded as not having any of the disabilities listed (hearing, sight, or mobility issues), with 2.5 percent preferring not to respond. In 2018, a more expanded survey of disabilities among U.S. AAS members was prepared.²¹ Recognizing additional disabilities, as well as providing the open-ended option for individuals to select “other disability,” reduced the number to 82 percent of AAS members not identifying with a disability.

N.3.1 Academic Institutions

The current landscape for racial and ethnic diversity among astronomy faculty remains dismal. African American people comprise a mere 1 percent of the faculty over all ranks among astronomy departments; Hispanic people comprise just 3 percent.²² Their collective representation of 4 percent is eight times below these groups’ joint representation in the U.S. population.²³ The low representation of Black undergraduate physics and astronomy students²⁴ indicates that no significant increase at higher academic levels can be expected for more than a decade. This underrepresentation was identified as a problem as far back as the 1980 decadal survey.²⁵ Representation of these groups is slightly better in physics departments, although they are not uniformly distributed among the nation’s colleges and universities. Indeed, as of 2016 there was only one astronomy department that had representation of both African American and Hispanic American faculty, and roughly two-thirds of astronomy departments had representation of neither.²⁶

Gender representation among astronomy faculty has improved over the past decade. In 2014, women in assistant and associate professor ranks each comprised 29 percent, up from 23 percent in 2003. Women make up 15 percent of full professors, up from 10 percent in 2003.²⁷ Recent AIP surveys show that the low representation is owing not only to the “lag” effect of fewer Ph.D.s to women in the past. Systematic gender differences in family work and career-advancing opportunities and resources have disadvantaged women in physics and astronomy.²⁸

N.3.2 Large Research Facilities

Large research facilities, managed through organizations (AURA, AUI, USRA²⁹) in cooperative agreements with the funding agencies, complement colleges and universities as significant employers of the

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²¹ J. Pold and R. Ivie, 2019, Workforce Survey of 2018 US AAS Members Summary of Results, AIP Statistical Research Center, College Park, MD, https://aas.org/sites/default/files/2019-10/AAS-Members-Workforce-Survey-final.pdf.

²² AIP Academic Workforce Survey, 2016, unpublished results.

²³ The 2019 Census gives 18.5 percent of the U.S. population as Hispanic or Latino and 14 percent Black or African American, for a joint representation in the United States of 32.5 percent.

²⁴ The AIP National Task Force to Elevate African American Representation in Physics and Astronomy (TEAM-UP), 2019, The Time Is Now: Systemic Changes to Increase African Americans with Bachelor’s Degrees in Physics and Astronomy, American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD, https://www.aip.org/sites/default/files/aipcorp/files/teamup-full-report.pdf.

²⁵ National Research Council, 1982, Appendix B, p. 172 in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 1980’s, Volume 1: Report of the Astronomy Survey Committee, and 1983, starting on p. 334 in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 1980’s, Volume 2: Reports of the Panels, The National Academies Press, Washington, DC.

²⁶ AIP Academic Workforce Survey, 2016, unpublished results.

²⁷ J. Pold and R. Ivie, 2019, Workforce Survey of 2018 US AAS Members Summary of Results, AIP Statistical Research Center, College Park, MD, https://aas.org/sites/default/files/2019-10/AAS-Members-Workforce-Survey-final.pdf.

²⁸ A.M. Porter and R. Ivie, 2019, “Women in Physics and Astronomy,” AIP Statistical Research Center, College Park, MD, https://www.aip.org/statistics/reports/women-physics-and-astronomy-2019.

²⁹ AURA: Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy; AUI: Associated Universities, Inc.; USRA: Universities Space Research Association.

professional astronomical workforce. They hold real potential to improve the Profession by aligning their composition with society and in training the future workforce. The organizations contacted by the panel expressed a positive stance toward diversity and inclusion; however, they could not identify specific mechanisms for monitoring or holding accountable the aspects of their operations bearing on diversity, equity, or inclusion. Both AURA and AUI have diversity officers and documented engagement with the broader community.

Because NASA manages its centers internally, it can directly implement change. The NASA Science Plan (2020)³⁰ states, “As research has shown, diversity is a key driver of innovation and more diverse organizations are more innovative.… NASA believes in the importance of diverse and inclusive teams to tackle strategic problems and maximize scientific return.” The panel identified positive steps NASA has taken to this end, such as instituting dual-anonymous proposal review to reduce risk of bias. However, additional targeted procedures and accountability mechanisms are needed, as well as transparency of the demographic representation of its staff and individuals they serve.

N.4 THE EVOLVING LANDSCAPE

In the past two decades, the field has undergone massive shifts in the structure and size of research teams, the places where research is carried out, and the skill sets for which students are trained. Large collaborations and survey-scale missions are increasingly prominent, with an explosion of data and a workforce that is more digitally connected and more geographically distributed than ever before. The “grand challenges” of the next 10 years will require advanced, innovative methodological and computational approaches to solve. It is imperative that the current and coming generations of astronomers are trained in computational methods. Despite the broad access to massive data sets via public facilities and surveys, the most powerful computers, and the knowledge and training to use them, are not openly accessible. Institutions where most astronomers and students from underrepresented groups reside have the least access and thus the least opportunity to engage in this new mode of astronomical training and discovery.

The Profession also needs to modernize its core structures, such as its approaches to mentoring (from teacher-apprentice models to evidence-based practices such as mentoring networks), research funding (from structures that disadvantage underresourced institutions to a more equitably distributed funding model that rewards individuals who can carry out needed systemic changes), leadership (from a system that overburdens individuals from underrepresented groups to one that elevates them), education (from traditional lecture to inclusive pedagogy and research-based instruction), and community engagement (from unidirectionally broader impacts to mutually beneficial community partnerships).

Meanwhile, the demographics of the United States are changing; communities of color already constitute the majority in states such as California. Efforts to accelerate the participation of racially minoritized populations in astronomy graduate education such as the Cal-Bridge Program and the Fisk-Vanderbilt Master’s-to-Ph.D. Bridge Program are engaging America’s population in the Profession. These programs are two examples of ways in which astronomy has become a leader in STEM by implementing structural changes toward equity, diversity, and inclusion. The AAS Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion in Graduate Education made recommendations based on lessons learned from research and from these and other initiatives to improve graduate admissions, recruitment, and mentoring, as well as program climate and data use.³¹ Particularly amid disruptions to both testing and test preparation owing to COVID-19, many

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³⁰ NASA Science Mission Directorate, 2020, Explore Science 2020–2024 A Vision for Science Excellence, Washington, DC, https://science.nasa.gov/science-pink/s3fs-public/atoms/files/2020-2024_Science-TAGGED.pdf.

³¹ Recommendations from the Task Force can be found at https://aas.org/sites/default/files/2019-09/aas_diversity_inclusion_tf_final_report_baas.pdf.

graduate programs have eliminated both general and physics GRE score requirements for Ph.D. admissions in order to more effectively attract talented, high-achieving students from an increasingly diverse pool of candidates.³² The emerging sensibility around equity-based holistic review has applicability not only for admissions, but also hiring, awards, grants, and leadership positions.

Women in Astronomy (WIA) have organized (most recently in 2017) meetings to equip one another and the Profession with knowledge, perspective, research, and skills to advocate for equitable workplaces. Concerns about focus on gender without consideration of intersections with race and other identities led to the 2015 and 2019 Inclusive Astronomy conferences, which gathered astronomers, social scientists, and policy makers to highlight issues of equity and inclusion from an explicitly intersectional perspective. The AAS endorsed the recommendations following these meetings. Recently, the AIP commissioned a report from the National Task Force to Elevate African American Representation in Undergraduate Physics and Astronomy (TEAM-UP).³³ Based on student and department head surveys, site visits to high-performing physics departments, and interviews with African American students, the report identified five key factors for their success: (1) fostering a sense of belonging, (2) creation of a physics identity, (3) effective teaching and academic support, (4) personal financial support, and (5) leadership to create environments, policies, and structures to maximize African American student success. The report’s goal is to at least double the number of African American physics and astronomy bachelor’s degree recipients by 2030, and to transform the field into one that welcomes, includes, and values all people.³⁴

The panel believes that the Profession must apply the same level of regard it demonstrates in studying the universe toward the recognition of how human and social interactions contribute to knowledge and workplace culture. Just as the Profession relies on its technicians to constantly update computational resources and software to keep pace with science capabilities, it must also work with social scientists to help it foster the social, psychological, structural, and cultural environment where all who ponder the universe can share in the production and validation of that knowledge.

N.5 A VALUES STATEMENT FOR THE PROFESSION OF ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS

The construction of the astronomy and astrophysics decadal survey is itself a demonstration of the inseparability of humans and the science they produce. Each decadal survey, delivered for congressional review, is the product of an internal set of weighted priorities determined by a selected group of people with an assumed broad set of astrophysical expertise. This interplay between (1) the people who influence and create the Profession; (2) the processes, norms, structures, and systems that govern and are reflected by everyday activities; and (3) the consensus-based priorities and desired outcomes they advocate for, are artifacts of the culture³⁵ of astronomy. All scientific disciplines are knowledge communities, with ways of

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³² J.C. Hu, 2020, “Graduate Programs Drop GRE After Online Version Raises Concerns About Fairness,” Science, https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2020/06/graduate-programs-drop-gre-after-online-version-raises-concerns-about-fairness.

³³ The AIP National Task Force to Elevate African American Representation in Physics and Astronomy (TEAM-UP), 2019, The Time Is Now: Systemic Changes to Increase African Americans with Bachelor’s Degrees in Physics and Astronomy, American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD, https://www.aip.org/sites/default/files/aipcorp/files/teamup-full-report.pdf.

³⁴ The AIP National Task Force to Elevate African American Representation in Physics and Astronomy (TEAM-UP), 2019, The Time Is Now: Systemic Changes to Increase African Americans with Bachelor’s Degrees in Physics and Astronomy, American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD, https://www.aip.org/sites/default/files/aipcorp/files/teamup-full-report.pdf.

³⁵ Culture is the “languages, customs, beliefs, rules, arts, knowledge, and collective identities and memories developed by members of all social groups that make their social environments meaningful” (American Sociological Association). See https://www.asanet.org/topics/culture#:~:text=jpg,make%20their%20social%20environments%20meaningful, accessed August 18, 2020.

knowing, distinctive language, and beliefs about what types of questions are most important to pursue. The knowledge that communities, including scientific communities, produce are therefore cultural knowledge.³⁶ Stated another way, “scientific knowledge is but a particular form of cultural knowledge.”³⁷

As recent National Academies reports³⁸ have emphasized, the climates and cultures of science are inseparable from the advancement of scientific knowledge and investments. Previous decadal surveys have prioritized technical resources to produce the best science, but they did not include written insight into the nontechnical factors that guided their ranked selection. This resource prioritization includes the implicit values that have historically guided astronomy’s culture and are demonstrated by its composition, behaviors, and rituals. While implicit cultural values can be learned over time, this favors those already living within these norms and thus embeds structural inequity. By leaving implicit the values that have guided past decadal surveys’ scientific priorities, the Profession failed to move forward together toward a more equitable future, as described in Section N.2 above. Therefore, an explicit statement of equity-advancing values—(1) equitable access, (2) multimodal expertise, (3) responsible stewardship, and (4) accountability, which are further described below—will enable the Profession to foster engagement, increase opportunities for equitable participation in the field, and lay the foundation for lasting scientific excellence in a more diverse nation.^39,40,41,42

For example, the Profession’s inherently hierarchical structure, based on assumed individual superiority of innate scientific capacity, perpetuates in part by casting the structure of opportunity as a “scientific meritocracy.” Meritocracies are well known to reproduce structural inequities by defining merit using metrics that favor historically privileged groups and disadvantage those with different or emerging forms of leadership and expertise.⁴³ The Profession demonstrates commitment to scientific rigor in its pursuit of understanding the universe by conceptualizing and launching successful missions, as prioritized in this and previous decadal surveys. However, the Profession has not prioritized equitable access to the resources available from federal sponsoring agencies in pursuit of that understanding, as evidenced by the large gap between the demographic profile of the Profession and the U.S. population.⁴⁴ Given that intellect is distributed equally across the entire human population, any deviation from the country’s demographic composition in the Profession delineates structural inequities⁴⁵ along the pathways to full participation in the field. These structural inequities include, but are not limited to, racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, xenophobia, neurotypical bias, and the intersecting oppression, often with multiplicative deterring effects

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³⁶ R.K. Merton, 1973, quoting Max Weber, in “Science and the Social Order (1938),” in The Sociology of Science: Theoretical and Empirical Investigations, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.

³⁷ L. Chambers, 2019, “A Different Kind of Dark Energy: Evidence for Placing Race and Gender in Physics,” white paper submitted to Astro2020: Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics, https://baas.aas.org/pub/2020n7i162/release/1.

³⁸ See the following reports of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine: Graduate STEM Education for the 21st Century (2018); Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences (2018); The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM (2019); and Addressing the Underrepresentation of Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine (2020)—all published by The National Academies Press, Washington, DC.

³⁹ S.A. Hewlett, M. Marshall, and L. Sherbin, 2013, “How Women Drive Innovation and Growth,” Harvard Business Review—HBR Blog Network, August 23, https://hbr.org/2013/08/how-women-drive-innovation-and.

⁴⁰ A. Kezar, 2013, How Colleges Change: Understanding, Leading, and Enacting Change, Routledge, New York.

⁴¹ A.J. Kezar and E.M. Holcombe, 2017, Shared Leadership in Higher Education, American Council on Education, Washington, DC.

⁴² A. Kezar and D. Maxey, 2014, “Faculty Matter: So Why Doesn’t Everyone Think So?” Thought and Action Fall 2014:29–44, National Education Association, https://www.uog.edu/_resources/files/faculty-senate/kezar_article.pdf.

⁴³ J.R. Posselt, 2016, Inside Graduate Admissions: Merit, Diversity, and Faculty Gatekeeping, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

⁴⁴ U.S. Census Bureau, Population Census, 2021, U.S. Demographics (White alone, not Hispanic or Latino: 59 percent; Hispanic or Latino: 19 percent; Black or African American alone: 14 percent; Asian alone: 6 percent; American Indian and Alaska Native, alone: 1.3 percent; Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone: 0.3 percent; two or more races: 3 percent), https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045219.

⁴⁵ C. Miller and K. Stassun, 2014, “A Test That Fails,” Nature 510:303–304, https://www.nature.com/articles/nj7504-303a.

on those holding multiple marginalized identities. The history of this country and the Profession encode discrimination and structural oppression into virtually every system.^46,47 The Profession must proactively remove these systems and replace them with evidence-based, equity-advancing ones. The field must evolve narrow definitions of scientific rigor into scientific excellence. The panel defines scientific excellence as the equitable optimization of knowledge, infrastructure, and innovations, and includes technical and nontechnical contributors and stakeholders, which produce higher quality^48,49,50,51 and more innovative⁵² outcomes. By this definition, true scientific excellence is not possible without equitable participation.⁵³

There is no better time to take stock of the Profession than in a drastically changing world. The impacts of the “COVID era”⁵⁴ have not been experienced in recent history: millions of deaths worldwide, widespread shelter-in-place, and a severe recession. Add to this the international demonstrations of millions of people in support of the Movement for Black Lives—a response to often unprosecuted police- sanctioned and vigilante murders of Black people (see Box N.2). Taken together, the sense that the world is irreversibly changing cannot be denied, and as members of the astronomical and global community, the Profession is unquestionably affected by these events. In this context, the relationships between product and person and between individual and community are being interrogated in unprecedented ways that are directly relevant to the survival and success of professional astrophysics.

Clearly articulated values are necessary to guide policy development. This is demonstrated by the founding and amended legislation (hereafter, the founding documents) that outline the congressionally mandated goals of the sponsoring agencies. The sponsoring agency values⁵⁵ identified are: (1) innovation (e.g., NASA Act 2008; Section 102.d.5⁵⁶); (2) economic prosperity (e.g., NSF Act 2018; Section 1862.a.1⁵⁷); (3) health and well-being (e.g., DOE Act 2014; Section 7111.2⁵⁸); and (4) broadening participation (e.g., DOE Act 2014; Section 7141.b⁵⁹). These values connect the well-being of individuals in and adjacent to the Profession to the national interest.

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⁴⁶ Ibid.

⁴⁷ S.C. Wilder, 2013, Ebony and Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities, Bloomsbury Press, New York.

⁴⁸ H.H. Friedman, L.W. Friedman, and C. Leverton, 2016, “Increase Diversity to Boost Creativity and Enhance Problem Solving,” Psychosociological Issues in Human Resource Management 4(2):7–33, https://addletonacademicpublishers.com/contents-pihrm/592-volume-4-2-2016/2624-increase-diversity-to-boost-creativity-and-enhance-problem-solving.

⁴⁹ K.A. Jehn, G.B. Northcraft, and M.A. Neale, 1999, “Why Differences Make a Difference: A Field Study of Diversity, Conflict and Performance in Workgroups,” Administrative Science Quarterly 44(4):741–763, https://doi.org/10.2307/2667054.

⁵⁰ T.H. Cox and S. Blake, 1991, “Managing Cultural Diversity: Implications for Organizational Competitiveness,” The Executive 5(3):45–56, www.jstor.org/stable/4165021.

⁵¹ S.A. Hewlett, M. Marshall, and L. Sherbin, 2013, “How Women Drive Innovation and Growth,” Harvard Business Review—HBR Blog Network, August 23, https://hbr.org/2013/08/how-women-drive-innovation-and.

⁵² B. Hofstra, V.V. Kulkarni, S. Munoz-Najar Galvez, B. He, D. Jurafsky, and D.A. McFarland, 2020, “The Diversity–Innovation Paradox in Science,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A. (P.S. Bearman, ed.) 117(17):9284–9291, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1915378117.

⁵³ Ibid.

⁵⁴ E. Yong, 2020, “How Will the Pandemic End,” The Atlantic, March 25, https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/03/how-will-coronavirus-end/608719.

⁵⁵ The sponsoring agency values identified here are not an exhaustive list of the priorities as outlined in their respective founding documents, but are indicative of priority convergence as determined by this panel.

⁵⁶ NASA Act, 2008, “The preservation of the role of the United States as a leader in aeronautical and space science and technology and in the application thereof to the conduct of peaceful activities within and outside the atmosphere.”

⁵⁷ NSF Act, 2018, “The Congress finds that the fundamental research and related education program supported by the Federal Government and conducted by the Nation’s universities and colleges are essential to our national security, and to our health, economic welfare, and general well-being.”

⁵⁸ DOE Act, 2014, “The Congress of the United States finds that this energy shortage and our increasing dependence on foreign energy supplies present a serious threat to the national security of the United States and to the health, safety and welfare of its citizens.”

⁵⁹ DOE Act, 2014, “The Director shall have the duty and responsibility to advise the Secretary on the effect of energy policies, regulations, and other actions of the Department and its components on minorities and minority business enterprises and on ways to insure that minorities are afforded an opportunity to participate fully in the energy programs of the Department.”

Motivated by these documents, the panel explicitly defines a set of human-centered, equity-advancing values that present an opportunity for current and potential astronomers to equitably contribute to scientific excellence. These equity-advancing values are (1) equitable access, (2) multimodal expertise, (3) responsible stewardship, and (4) accountability, and the panel describes them here with their connection to sponsoring agency values. These values were not developed in isolation, but were gleaned from best practices as reported in the literature (described below), from submitted white papers, public town halls for the present decadal survey, expertise of the panel, and numerous National Academies reports and consensus studies. In short, the panel has sought to summarize, synthesize, and clarify a minimum set of values that would increase equity in the field of astronomy and astrophysics.

Some readers may find the terms and concepts included in this values section new and uncomfortable. However, extensive sociological, psychological, pedagogical, and organizational development literature indicates that it is precisely this confrontation of new concepts and ideas that leads to unexpected insights. The panel notes that there is a strong evidentiary basis in research on change about the importance of sense-making—that is, making new meaning around concepts through a variety of inputs.^60,61 The reader is urged to attempt to inhabit a different and perhaps unfamiliar perspective in trying to interpret these ideas. These short paragraphs represent decades of research, experiences, and expertise, only a small fraction of which can be presented here. The reader is invited to explore the literature cited here and throughout the report.

Equitable access is the set of practices, procedures, norms, and structures that ensure that all current and future astronomy community members can contribute their unique talents and perspectives to the field, while having fair use of all necessary and available resources. An equitable professional structurement of the ways that individuals and institutions contribute to scientific excellence and how relationships among various actors impact the Profession. Equitable access accounts for the extent to which there is equity within the organizations that educate the next generation, for whom training is a prerequisite to access career opportunities in the Profession. Cultivating equitable access allows the Profession to fully contribute to the agencies’ value of equitable participation by anyone in the United States.

Multimodal expertise is the multiple ways of prioritizing, assessing,⁶² and evaluating knowledge, including the science and research objectives of the field. In the humanities, it is termed “epistemology.”⁶³ Multimodal learning^64,65 and leadership⁶⁶ styles are well known in the social sciences, STEM education, and management/leadership literatures. Such expertise will expand the scope of inquiry in unexpected ways,⁶⁷and require the development of broader skill sets for many members of the Profession. Valuing it will also require recognition of many who already demonstrate such skills and leadership abilities. This includes technical, individual, interpersonal, cultural, and systems-thinking practices such as active listening, open-mindedness, attention to universal design,⁶⁸ cultural humility⁶⁹ and literacy, social justice, and growth mindsets. The Profession historically prizes objective, rational thinking in the pursuit of scientific rigor. Yet, how it approaches research questions, determines funding priorities, locates sites of research and investigation, conducts the research, and interprets the results are all dependent on the communities

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⁶⁰ The AIP National Task Force to Elevate African American Representation in Physics and Astronomy (TEAM-UP), 2019, The Time Is Now: Systemic Changes to Increase African Americans with Bachelor’s Degrees in Physics and Astronomy, American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD, https://www.aip.org/sites/default/files/aipcorp/files/teamup-full-report.pdf.

⁶¹ S. Elrod and A. Kezar, 2016, Increasing Student Success in STEM, Association of American Colleges and Universities, Washington, DC.

⁶² L. Winig and R. Livingston, 2017, “Values-Based Leadership Across Difference: The Life and Legacy of Nelson Mandela,” Harvard Business Review, May 30, https://store.hbr.org/product/values-based-leadership-across-difference-the-life-and-legacy-of-nelson-mandela/KS1238.

⁶³ S.G. Harding, ed., 1987, Feminism and Methodology: Social Science Issues, Indiana University Press, Bloomington.

⁶⁴ E.F. Keller, 1984, A Feeling for the Organism, 10th Anniversary Edition: The Life and Work of Barbara McClintock, Macmillan, New York.

⁶⁵ A. Lightman, 2018, Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine, Vintage, New York.

⁶⁶ J. Alvehus, 2018 online, 2019 print, “Emergent, Distributed, and Orchestrated: Understanding Leadership Through Frame Analysis,” Leadership 15(5):535–554, https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1742715018773832.

⁶⁷ J. Posselt, 2016, Inside Graduate Admissions: Merit, Diversity, and Faculty Gatekeeping, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

⁶⁸ “Universal design is the design and composition of an environment so that it can be accessed, understood, and used to the greatest extent possible by all people regardless of their age, size, ability, or disability.” See T. Hause, 2011, Shared Space, Shared Surfaces and Home Zones from a Universal Design Approach for the Urban Environment in Ireland, National Disability Authority, Dublin, Ireland, https://universaldesign.ie/Built-Environment/Shared-Space/Shared-Space-Full-Report.pdf.

⁶⁹ Cultural humility is a “lifelong commitment to self-evaluation and self-critique, to redressing the power imbalances …, and to developing mutually beneficial and non-paternalistic clinical and advocacy partnerships with communities on behalf of individuals and defined populations.” M. Tervalon and J. Murray-Garcia, 1998, “Cultural Humility Versus Cultural Competence: A Critical Distinction in Defining Physician Training Outcomes in Multicultural Education,” Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved 9(2):117–124.

of individuals that are animating those processes. This becomes increasingly important as large collaborations become more prominent. Increasing the number of perspectives, expertise, experiences, and cultural touchpoints makes the process of collaborative work more difficult,⁷⁰ but the outcomes more just,^71,72 innovative,⁷³ and of higher quality.^74,75,76,77 This productive friction will encourage scientific excellence while increasing equitable access. Multimodal expertise maps directly to the sponsoring agency value of innovation. The Profession’s increasing complexity will require broader skill sets than simply technical expertise; valuing these skills will produce innovative outcomes.

Responsible stewardship is the reciprocal care for the environment, land, and people in relation to resources consumed by the Profession. Responsible stewardship requires that the Profession recognize the “common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities”⁷⁸ held throughout astronomy. The actions taken by the Profession impact living beings and the environment. Practicing responsible stewardship in the Profession can lead to the agencies’ value of economic prosperity by supporting the learning and development of its membership and prioritizing environmentally, financially, and socially responsible scientific inquiries.

Accountability is the clear articulation of thoughtful, rigorous, site- and context-specific, effective guidelines to protect the members of the Profession with less privilege and power, while providing clear actions to take when infractions are suspected or perpetrated. Accountability holds community members responsible for realizing the stated equity-advancing values. The privileging of personal autonomy without systems of accountability has been a major impediment to the realization of ethical, excellent science, a concept that Indigenous Hawaiians refer to as “Imi Pono.”⁷⁹ Accountability requires that the Profession assess and modify distribution of power, and allow for restorative justice processes that are responsive to the needs of those who have been victimized when considering commensurate consequences.⁸⁰ Discriminatory, inequitable, and unethical systems and people must be addressed, including a punitive response for consistent and/or egregious violations of ethical policies. Demonstrated accountability must be structural, data-driven, and site-specific and include active learning and listening opportunities for all community members. Accountability fosters collective professional well-being, in support of sponsoring agency values, by decisively and quickly addressing infractions when they occur, and supporting structures necessary to

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⁷⁰ C.Y. Tang and C. Byrge, 2016, “Ethnic Heterogeneous Teams Outperform Homogeneous Teams on Well-Defined But Not Ill-Defined Creative Tasks,” Journal of Creativity and Business Innovation 2, https://www.journalcbi.com/ethnic-heterogeneous-teams-and-creativity.html.

⁷¹ C.L. Ford and C.O. Airhihenbuwa, 2010, “Critical Race Theory, Race Equity, and Public Health: Toward Antiracism Praxis,” American Journal Public Health 100(Suppl. 1):S30–S35, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2837428.

⁷² K.W. Phillips, 2014, “How Diversity Works,” Scientific American 311(4):42–47, https://www.scientificamerican.com/index.cfm/_api/render/file/?method=inline&fileID=9F4FCDB9-A5B3-40AB-A9A525FDC71156AB.

⁷³ B. Hofstra, V.V. Kulkarni, S. Munoz-Najar Galvez, and D.A. McFarland, 2020, “The Diversity–Innovation Paradox in Science,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A. 117(17):9284–9291, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1915378117.

⁷⁴ H.H. Friedman, L.W. Friedman, and C. Leverton, 2016, “Increase Diversity to Boost Creativity and Enhance Problem Solving,” Psychosociological Issues in Human Resource Management 4(2):7–33, https://addletonacademicpublishers.com/contents-pihrm/592-volume-4-2-2016/2624-increase-diversity-to-boost-creativity-and-enhance-problem-solving.

⁷⁵ K.A. Jehn, G.B. Northcraft, and M.A. Neale, 1999, “Why Differences Make a Difference: A Field Study of Diversity, Conflict, and Performance in Workgroups,” Administrative Science Quarterly 44(4):741–763, https://doi.org/10.2307/2667054.

⁷⁶ T.H. Cox and S. Blake, 1991, “Managing Cultural Diversity: Implications for Organizational Competitiveness,” Executive 5(3):45–56, www.jstor.org/stable/4165021.

⁷⁷ S.A. Hewlett, M. Marshall, and L. Sherbin, 2013, “How Women Drive Innovation and Growth,” Harvard Business Review—HBR Blog Network, August 23, https://hbr.org/2013/08/how-women-drive-innovation-and.

⁷⁸ United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 1992 Treaty, 2015, “Common But Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC),” https://climatenexus.org/climate-change-news/common-but-differentiated-responsibilities-and-respective-capabilities-cbdr-rc.

⁷⁹ A. Kalili, quoted in B. Lewis, 2020, “Plenary Lecture: The Stewardship of Maunakea’s Legacy from the Perspective of the Hawaiian and Astronomical Communities,” January 7, https://astrobites.org/2020/01/07/astrobites-at-aas-235-day-2.

⁸⁰ Restorative Justice Network, “Homepage,” http://restorativejustice.org, accessed August 18, 2020.

reduce the likelihood for such infractions to occur in the first place. This will reduce attrition in the field and increase the vitality of the Profession.

These human-centered, equity-advancing values have been embedded into this report’s suggestions, ensuring alignment between the proposed growth of the profession and the guiding principles of the federal agencies. The astronomical community will ultimately be responsible for the acceptance and implementation of these values; they cannot be successfully implemented if deployed in a “top down” fashion.⁸¹The hope is that the Profession moves forward from the challenges of 2020 with a collective commitment to equity and scientific excellence, a clear plan as laid out in the following suggestions, and benchmarks for progress that can be evaluated in the future.

N.6 GOALS AND SUGGESTIONS

The panel’s overarching goal is to invigorate the Profession through training and workplaces that reflect equity-advancing values and allow the full human diversity of the nation to meaningfully and maximally contribute to the field. The panel’s suggestions regarding the state of the Profession are situated within the current landscape and are intended to be actionable within the decade. As is typical for a decadal survey, the primary actors for most of these recommendations are the funding agencies that sponsored Astro2020. However, the panel also includes recommendations for the academic departments, private foundations, observatories, professional societies, government laboratories, and research centers where astronomers work.

In the following sections, the panel presents seven goals with a total of 18 suggestions considered critical to begin to create a Profession that promotes equity-advancing values in order to achieve scientific excellence. Each section follows the same format: first, research findings are presented to motivate each suggestion, and then example methods are provided that can help to carry out the given suggestion, identifying actors, impact, and estimated costs. The findings, suggestions, and methods that are presented in this report are not intended to be prescriptive but may include detail for clarity. Each agency would need to adapt the suggestions to work within their own context to achieve the proposed goals.

N.6.1 Goal 1: Collecting, Evaluating, and Acting on Demographic Data

To achieve a diverse and inclusive Profession requires a robust mechanism to (1) collect data pertinent to the values the Profession espouses, (2) report those data for transparency and accountability, and (3) use the data to compare outcomes to the desired state and adjust as needed. Without data, it is not possible to fully assess the state of the Profession or determine progress toward desired outcomes.

N.6.1.1 Current Practices in the Collection of Demographic Data

The panel requested data on astronomy-related programs from NASA, NSF, DOE, and management organizations for major astronomical facilities. Demographics of staff, contractors, review panels, proposers, awardees of grants and fellowships, and proposal success rates were also requested. Last, the panel sought

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⁸¹ F. Dobbin and A. Kalev, 2018, “Why Doesn’t Diversity Training Work,” Anthropology Now 10(2):48–55, https://doi.org/10.1080/19428200.2018.1493182.

data on agency programs and funding to promote broader access to opportunities and reduce barriers to achieving success in the field for underrepresented groups.

Minimal data were produced by the federal agencies. While all three agencies collect some demographic data (gender, race, ethnicity) on staff and applicants for funding, several issues are clear. First, the agencies do not collect and track the same quantity or categories of demographic data. NSF collects demographic information but publishes it only at the highest level of aggregation, and data on people from underrepresented groups are often suppressed to maintain confidentiality.^82,83 After a 2015 critique by the Government Accountability Office,⁸⁴ NASA began collecting additional demographic data through its proposal submission website NSPIRES,⁸⁵ but the data are not yet publicly available. The DOE Portfolio Analysis and Management System (PAMS)⁸⁶ collects applicant demographic data, but it is not designed for analysis, and separate programs in the Office of Science maintain their own databases. Through their diversity-equity-inclusion website, the DOE Office of Science collects and reports demographic data on laboratory employees, although not on facility users.⁸⁷

Second, the agencies have no consistent policy on releasing information. NASA shared the inferred binary gender of awardees based on given names and provided data on the number of unsuccessful proposals in various programs. By contrast, NSF declined to share information of this type, reserving the data it gathers for use in internal reviews and assessments. Third, even if the requested data were collected, that information was not readily available, or the panel had to aggregate the information itself. Last, none of the agencies appear to evaluate the efficacy of programs funded to promote diversity and inclusion.

The panel requested demographic data from two management organizations operating major astronomical facilities for NSF: AURA and AUI. Both show commitment to the equity-advancing values of diversity and inclusion and provided demographic data to measure progress. The AIP Statistical Research Center collects longitudinal data and reports on the demographics and career outcomes of students and faculty in both physics and astronomy programs, such as those presented in Section N.3 above. The difficulties encountered by National Academies committees in gathering demographic data from federal agencies are not new.⁸⁸ The panel recognizes that the agencies must comply with a number of statutes and regulations governing the collection and release of data⁸⁹ such as that requested by the panel.

N.6.1.2 A Cost-Effective Path Forward

An effective path forward is illustrated by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). For decades, NIH has collected demographic information from researchers in its external grants program, ~80,000 applications/year, larger than the number from NASA, NSF, and DOE grants programs combined. The Office of Extramural Research manages the process through its electronics grant system electronic Research Admin-

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⁸² NSF National Center for Science Engineering Statistics, “About,” http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/about-ncses.cfm#service, accessed August 18, 2020.

⁸³ NSF, Merit Review Process, Fiscal Year 2019 Digest, https://www.nsf.gov/nsb/publications/2020/nsb202038.pdf.

⁸⁴ U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2015, “Women in STEM Research: Better Data and Information Sharing Could Improve Oversight of Federal Grant-Making and Title IX Compliance,” GAO-16-14, December 3, https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-16-14.

⁸⁵ NSPIRES, “NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System,” NASA Research and Education Support Services, https://nspires.nasaprs.com/external, accessed August 18, 2020.

⁸⁶ Department of Energy Office of Science, “SC Portfolio Analysis and Management System (PAMS),” http://www.energy.gov/science/office-science-funding/sc-portfolio-analysis-and-management-system-pams, accessed August 18, 2020.

⁸⁷ Department of Energy Office of Science, “Diversity, Equity & Inclusion,” https://www.energy.gov/science/diversity-equity-inclusion, accessed August 18, 2020.

⁸⁸ National Research Council, 2000, Federal Funding of Astronomical Research, National Academy Press, Washington, DC, https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/9954, p. 55.

⁸⁹ Notably, the Privacy Act of 1974 (P.L. 93-579) and the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (P.L. 96-511).

istration (eRA). Applicants submit demographic data on a voluntary basis. As with NASA, NSF, and DOE, these data are not used in the grant decision-making process. However, unlike NASA, NSF, and DOE, NIH has aggregated and published applicant data on funded programs in its Data Book⁹⁰ for decades while maintaining respondent confidentiality. The Department of Health and Human Services manages an even larger database—Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures and Results (RePORTER). It draws information from databases of funded projects and is used by several major federal agencies.⁹¹

In 2011, working in collaboration with NIH to obtain nonpublic demographic data on submitted grants, Ginther et al. (2011)⁹² identified a significant gap in African American versus white applicant funding levels at the NIH. This result spawned creation of a Working Group on Diversity. Their 2012 report to NIH⁹³ created a new Office for Scientific Workforce Diversity,⁹⁴ whose Chief Officer reports directly to the NIH Director, and new funding designed to sustain scientists from underrepresented groups.⁹⁵ Early reports on the progress made by the new funding for underrepresented groups show promise.⁹⁶

To better utilize its vast amount of data, NIH plans to contract with an existing federal statistical agency to manage and analyze all of its information, including data on its intramural workforce, composition of review panels, and demographic information on submitted grants not currently included in the Data Book or RePORTER. The federal statistical agency will have the data management expertise and congressional approval to provide high-level analysis and reports on NIH data to the public (such as the National Center for Health Statistics or the Census Bureau). NIH is poised to make significant change through these initiatives listed in its new Strategic Plan for Workforce Diversity.⁹⁷

Goal 1, Suggestion 1: The panel suggests that federal agencies collect, analyze, and make available demographic, career, and workplace data on members of the Profession.

Method, impact, and programmatics and cost to achieve this suggestion:

• NSF, NASA, DOE
  • Method: Following NIH’s lead, the agencies can arrange for an existing statistical federal agency to analyze and report their data for them. All existing data could be handed over now, including demographic data, surveys on workplace environment, training grants, and program assessments. Permission can be obtained from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to collect any new data. A shared interagency agreement on data collected will ensure that categories and formats are consistent across agencies, follow OMB standards, and allow for benchmarking progress.

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⁹⁰ National Institutes of Health, “NIH Data Book,” NIH RePORT, https://report.nih.gov/nihdatabook, accessed August 18, 2020.

⁹¹ National Institutes of Health, “Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs),” NIH RePORT, https://report.nih.gov/faqs, accessed August 18, 2020.

⁹² D.K. Ginther, W.T. Schaffer, J. Schnell, B. Masimore, F. Liu, L.L. Haak, and R. Kington, 2011, “Race, Ethnicity and NIH Research Awards,” Science 333(6045):1015–1019, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21852498.

⁹³ Working Group on Diversity in the Biomedical Research Workforce (WGDBRW), The Advisory Committee to the Director (ACD), 2013, “Draft Report of the Advisory Committee, to the Director Working Group on Diversity in the Biomedical Research Workforce,” National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, https://acd.od.nih.gov/documents/reports/DiversityBiomedicalResearchWorkforceReport.pdf.

⁹⁴ National Institutes of Health, “COSWD Homepage,” https://diversity.nih.gov, accessed August 18, 2020.

⁹⁵ National Institutes of Health, 2014, “NIH Awards ~$31 Million to Enhance Diversity in the Biomedical Research Workforce,” https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-awards-31-million-enhance-diversity-biomedical-research-workforce.

⁹⁶ H.A. Valantine and M.R. Wilson, 2019, “NIH Scientific Workforce Diversity Actions and Progress 2014–2019,” presentation for the 118th NIH ACD Meeting, https://diversity.nih.gov/sites/coswd/files/images/docs/ACD_2019_June_13_Valantine_Wilson_FINAL.pdf.

⁹⁷ National Institutes of Health, 2018, NIH Scientific Workforce Diversity Strategic Plan 2016–2020: Great Minds Think Differently, https://diversity.nih.gov/sites/coswd/files/images/2018-06/SWD_StrategicPlan_layout_final_links-508c.pdf.

• • Impact: Existing data and surveys will be publicly available for analysis, allowing for direct feedback on programs and processes. Effective programs can be expanded or emulated elsewhere to increase impact.
  • Programmatics: Achieve by 2025. Cost: $700,000/year for each agency’s entire portfolio⁹⁸ in order to analyze existing data and establish consistent data collection goals across the agencies as a standard procedure.⁹⁹
• Academic Departments, Non-Federal Institutions, and Professional Societies
  • Method: Following the recommendations of the AAS Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion in Astronomy Graduate Education, astronomy departments form a central data collection and analysis unit at a relevant professional society to house their demographic and climate data.
  • Impact: Institutions can collect and store sensitive demographic and climate data without the risk of violating respondents’ confidentiality and measure progress toward their diversity and inclusion goals.
  • Programmatics: Achieve by 2025. Cost: $150,000/year.¹⁰⁰

Goal 1, Suggestion 2: The panel explicitly suggests that each federal agency consider convening a dedicated office to increase oversight, transparency, and accountability. The offices will use data to document progress toward the realization of equity-advancing values and thereby a Profession that evinces inclusion and workforce diversity.

Method, impact, and programmatics and cost to achieve this suggestion:

• NSF, NASA, DOE
  • Method: The panel suggests that each agency use this new office to carry out key functions of values-based, equity-advancing management of funds, programs, and assets. This office would regularly update an external advisory board composed of members of the Profession and stakeholders, which could include the AAAC.¹⁰¹ While the specific implementation for each federal agency will depend on its regulatory structure, an example of the methodology an agency might pursue could include: (1) Sponsor annual “town-hall” style events¹⁰² to provide opportunities for members of the Profession to engage with the new agency office. (2) Provide mechanisms for data-driven accountability to ensure that programmatics reflect equity-advancing values that are derived from agency founding documents. For example, by using the demographics gained from partnering with existing federal statistical agencies, the new office can identify and remedy structural inequities in resource allocation and access (including, as it

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⁹⁸ Based on discussions with relevant actors within NIH, such a service will cost NIH, similar in size to NASA and DOE, a nominal fee of a few hundred thousand dollars annually. NSF may cost even less given their relative size.

⁹⁹ Based on discussions with relevant actors within the NIH, this would be a one-time cost for the effort.

¹⁰⁰ The panel estimates one full-time employee (FTE) society staff person would be needed to manage this effort for all U.S. departments.

¹⁰¹ Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee, “Charter,” https://www.nsf.gov/mps/ast/aaac/charter.pdf, accessed August 24, 2020.

¹⁰² Ideally, these events would take place at different locations that are representative of the broad array of contexts in which professional astronomy is done, which could be a way to support equitable participation.

• • relates to Americans with Disabilities Act [ADA]). (3) Build a set of agency-specific guidelines and procedures that ensure that the Profession engages ethically with all stakeholders.¹⁰³
  • Impact: The Profession will gain data-driven insight regarding the realization of values-based equity in the field as evidenced by trends in demographic and other data collected by the agencies.
  • Programmatics: To be achieved in 1–5 years. Cost for events: $500,000/year/agency; one-time cost: $250,000/agency.¹⁰⁴ At the time of the National Academies mid-decadal review, sponsoring agencies can have an office in place with a strategic plan and be able to demonstrate progress toward values-based, equity-advancing outcomes and data-driven accountability structures.

N.6.2 Goal 2: Leveraging Power

Recent National Academies¹⁰⁵ and AIP reports¹⁰⁶ summarize research that shows that science workplace and higher education experiences differ across demographic groups. Individuals with historically marginalized identities report feeling less comfortable than those from dominant groups and are disproportionately subject to microaggressions, bullying, and harassment, to the detriment of their focus and productivity. Conversely, positive mentoring and interpersonal connections built through networking can instill a sense of belonging within the scientific community, ameliorate negative organizational climates, and aid in performance and retention. These findings highlight the significant impact that improving the experience of higher education and the workplace for all scientists can have on excellence in science.

The federal agencies fund basic research nationwide. The organizations that make up the Profession train, promote, and reward astronomers as they advance in their careers. Together, the agencies and the Profession can form a powerful partnership to (1) motivate the building of equitable and inclusive workplaces and higher education settings; (2) hold each other, as well as members of the Profession, accountable for engaging in these efforts; and (3) assess their progress on this goal.¹⁰⁷

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¹⁰³ The panel has identified a partnership framework, described in Section N.6.6, “Goal 6: Cultivating Local and Global Partnerships,” that is gaining traction in scientific and industrial communities. For example, U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, 2008, “The Status of Community Based Forestry in the United States,” https://www.usendowment.org/the-status-of-community-based-forestry-in-the-united-states; Viswanathan et al., 2004, “Community–Based Participatory Research: Assessing the Evidence: Summary,” AHRQ Evidence Report Summaries, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK11852. A list of internal policies and external resources is provided on Community Engaged Research by Ohio State University—Office of Responsible Research Practices, https://orrp.osu.edu/irb/research-participants/community-engaged-research.

¹⁰⁴ The panel arrived at this cost by estimating three agency representatives and one administrative staff person for each agency. The one-time allocation would support the development of the ethical guidelines and procedures to the field.

¹⁰⁵ National Research Council, 1982, Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 1980’s, Volume 1: Report of the Astronomy Survey Committee, and 1983, Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 1980’s, Volume 2: Reports of the Panels, National Academy Press, Washington, DC.

¹⁰⁶ The AIP National Task Force to Elevate African American Representation in Physics and Astronomy (TEAM-UP), 2019, The Time Is Now: Systemic Changes to Increase African Americans with Bachelor’s Degrees in Physics and Astronomy, American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD, https://www.aip.org/sites/default/files/aipcorp/files/teamup-full-report.pdf.

¹⁰⁷ Note that AAS is already partnering with STEM Equity Achievement Change (SEA Change), which institutes a reward system to encourage positive culture change. The panel’s suggestions focus on using the unique resources and position of federal agencies as an additional avenue for this work.

N.6.2.1 Motivate Individuals to Enhance Effective Mentoring Practices

Individual scientists significantly impact how other community members experience the workplace, most obviously through mentoring.¹⁰⁸ The agencies have uneven requirements for mentoring plans, and the Profession does not adequately train mentors.

Goal 2, Suggestion 1: The panel suggests that federal agencies partner with organizations in the Profession to motivate and support individual PIs to create healthy workplaces, by updating the grants system to require (1) demonstrated knowledge of evidence-based mentoring practices as well as resources for mentees; and (2) reporting and assessment of mentoring built into proposals and reports systems.

Method, impact, and programmatics and cost to achieve this suggestion:

• NSF, NASA, DOE
  • Method: (1) Require Mentoring Plans (MPs) in all individual grant proposals that include funding for mentees, whether students, postdoctorates, or staff; (2) utilize NIH’s National Research Mentoring Network as an educational resource for evidence-based professional development; and (3) devote 2 percent of grants awarded¹⁰⁹ to work on inclusion or broadening participation.
  • Impact: Encourages PIs to enhance mentoring skills through self-assessment, planning, and access to resources; improves mentor/mentee relationships.
  • Programmatics: No cost. Could be implemented immediately.
• NSF, NASA, DOE
  • Method: Make career development of mentees a focus of federally funded programs. (1) Improve graduate programs by (a) giving student stipends to faculty teams within Ph.D. departments charged with reviewing and updating training and mentoring practice, such as NIH’s Institutional Predoctoral Training Grants T32¹¹⁰ and NSF’s Research Traineeship Program;¹¹¹ (b) engaging institutions to support, assess, and hold accountable research teams to participate in agency-sponsored surveys and assessments of mentoring; and (c) aggregating this data nationwide and longitudinally and reporting to their respective dedicated office to assess the effectiveness of mentoring. (2) Improve development of junior team members through multi-institutional grants, following NASA’s Theoretical and Computational Astrophysics Networks model, but requiring explicit mentoring and equity-advancing goals alongside research outcomes.
  • Impact: Encourages researchers to work in teams to proactively support junior researchers; builds mentor networks for trainees and channels for information, support, and professional development; encourages establishment of support and accountability for effective mentoring at the institution and within grant structures; collects survey, demographic, and outcome data to assess programs.
  • Programmatics: Following NIH, each agency would transfer 10 percent of graduate student support from research grants to individual PIs to team-based programs. Create partnerships with organizations in this work through Institutional Commitment Letters.¹¹²

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¹⁰⁸ National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2019, The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM, The National Academies Press, Washington, DC, https://doi.org/10.17226/25568.

¹⁰⁹ For a typical individual grant, this would range from a few thousand to several thousand dollars, a scale that encourages deliberate thought about how to spend it—for example, on hiring an undergraduate for a summer.

¹¹⁰ NIH General Medical Sciences, “Basic Biomedical and Medical Science Training Program NRSA Institutional Predoctoral Training Grants (T32),” https://www.nigms.nih.gov/training/instpredoc.

¹¹¹ National Science Foundation, “National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) Program,” https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?WT.z_pims_id=505015&ods_key=nsf19522.

¹¹² This method comes from the NIH model, where 10 percent of graduate students are supported with training grants.

N.6.2.2 Incentivize Teams to Support Career Development for Their Members

Current teams leading observational surveys, facilities, and missions do not reflect the diversity in the field in part because diversity considerations are not yet fully incorporated into the funding process. Accessibility in terms of ADA compliance and training in the use of data are not required in data management plans. Agencies do not require reporting of demographics or climate. Diversity of the team is not a consideration in selection, and proposal teams that have no individuals who identify as women are common.¹¹³

Equitable access to training is needed for junior scientists to become PIs. For example, there is clear bias in the gender and career stage of leaders and participants in proposals submitted over the past decade to NASA’s Explorer-class mission calls. The data suggest that barriers to participation exist in the development of mission leaders, in the selection of proposals to receive the institutional support required to be competitive, and in a selection process that in practice does not value diverse teams.

Goal 2, Suggestion 2: The panel suggests that federal agencies urge teams (collaborations, projects, facilities, and missions) to adopt evidence-based practices to (1) address demographic disparities in recruitment, retention, and advancement of scientists; (2) provide facilities and data that are accessible to all; (3) implement strategies to improve work environments for all; and (4) assess their own progress.

Method, impact, and programmatics and cost to achieve this suggestion:

• NSF, NASA, DOE
  • Method: Expect teams applying for awards to (1) describe plans to demonstrate diversity among members, including technical and leadership; (2) participate in agency-sponsored demographic and climate assessments; (3) have an explicit leadership selection process; (4) have clear mentoring and advising plans for students and postdoctoral fellows; (5) have demonstrated a plan for increasing accessibility for facilities, with open and equitable access to data, software, and training sets; and (6) demonstrate funding and resources devoted to the work above and broadening participation more generally. Approaches would be agency-specific. For example, NASA might give extra weight in its selection process to missions with diverse leadership and participation.
  • Impact: Sets the expectation for the field; recognizes scientists and their work environments as essential to the development of science itself; aids development of a diverse cohort of future leaders.
  • Programmatics: No cost beyond development of assessments.

N.6.2.3 Strengthen Oversight of and Accountability for Funding

The barriers that hinder individuals with historically marginalized identities from choosing and continuing in physics and astronomy, or advancing to positions of power and influence, are elucidated throughout this report. A key barrier is lack of accountability: good mentoring is not trained for or rewarded; there are few consequences for identity-based harassment or bullying; and there is inadequate support for reporters of such problems. The resulting discriminatory loss of talent is unacceptable if the Profession is to maximize innovation and scientific excellence. NIH has made significant efforts to systematically address these problems over the past decade, with the establishment of several groups responsible for the oversight of funded

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¹¹³ J. Centrella, M. New, and M. Thompson, 2019, “Leadership and Participation in NASA’s Explorer-Class Missions,” white paper submitted to Astro2020: Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics, https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.10314.

programs, such as the Division of Biomedical Research Workforce and the Diversity Program Consortium. These groups have distinct roles in contributing to the overall agency strategy on workforce development.¹¹⁴

Goal 2, Suggestion 3: The panel suggests that DOE, NASA, and NSF build on NIH experiences to strengthen their resources and expertise for education, monitoring, and assessment of proposals and grantees.¹¹⁵ Accountability policies and processes, tied to proposal rejection or even suspension of funding in extreme cases, would be implemented as part of the funding process.

Method, impact, and programmatics and cost to achieve this suggestion:

• NSF, NASA, DOE, in Partnership with Institutions
  • Method: Use dedicated offices (in Goal 1, Suggestion 2) to support Goal 2, Suggestions 1 and 2. (1) Associated with grant solicitations, provide expectations and resources for the development of several existing components of proposals, including Broader Impacts, Mentoring, Data Management, Facilities Plans, and Institutional Support Letters. For grants to teams, this would further include the development of new plans for self-assessment, leadership, and support of junior members. (2) These components of each proposal would first be reviewed by the agency office and these ratings incorporated during the scientific review process. (3) Proposals would articulate goals and benchmarks outlined in (1), and annual reports would document progress on these to be reviewed by the agency office.
  • Impact: Motivates self-education and institutional action toward equitable practices and creating inclusive workplaces. Positive response to a solicitation or a history of effective practices becomes an influential condition for funding. Builds on NIH experience.
  • Programmatics: $0.25 million/year/agency office for consultant work to change proposal and annual reporting processes.¹¹⁶

N.6.2.4 Increase Funding and Recognition for the People Who Lead the Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement of Individuals from Historically Underrepresented Groups

For those who lead the recruitment, retention, and advancement of individuals from historically underrepresented groups, many of whom are members of historically marginalized groups themselves, this important work can take time and energy that compromises their professional well-being and career.^117,118,119 Grants supporting this work (e.g., NSF Scholarships in STEM Program [S-STEM], Research Experiences for Undergraduates [REUs]) often have rigid funding models that do not acknowledge the loss of scientific productivity of leading PIs or their need for administrative support.

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¹¹⁴ National Institutes of Health, 2018, NIH Scientific Workforce Diversity Strategic Plan 2016–2020: Great Minds Think Differently, https://diversity.nih.gov/sites/coswd/files/images/2018-06/SWD_StrategicPlan_layout_final_links-508c.pdf.

¹¹⁵ Through the dedicated agency-specific offices suggested in Goal 1.

¹¹⁶ Cost scaled from $1 million budget for NIH’s Division of Biomedical Research Workforce, which serves a similar role.

¹¹⁷ K.B. Porter, J.R. Posselt, K. Reyes, K.E. Slay, and A. Kamimura, 2018, “Burdens and Benefits of Diversity Work: Emotion Management in STEM Doctoral Students,” Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education 9(2):127–143, https://doi.org/10.1108/SGPE-D-17-00041.

¹¹⁸ V. Lerma, L.T. Hamilton, and K. Nielsen, 2020, “Racialized Equity Labor, University Appropriation, and Student Resistance,” Social Problems 67(2):286–303, https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spz011.

¹¹⁹ D.R. Hekman, S.K. Johnson, M.-D. Foo, and W. Yang, 2016, “Does Diversity-Valuing Behavior Result in Diminished Performance Ratings for Non-White and Female Leaders?” Academy of Management Journal 60:2, https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2014.0538.

Goal 2, Suggestion 4: The panel suggests that the federal agencies provide material support to researchers who build and lead programs designed to retain, recruit, and advance historically underrepresented people.

Method, impact, and programmatics and cost to achieve this suggestion:

• NSF, NASA, DOE
  • Method: Increase budget size and funding flexibility for grants to advance equity-advancing values (e.g., reduce barriers to diversity and equity; create inclusive workplaces) to allow individuals to fund (1) their research program (e.g., pay for graduate students, summer salary, computing resources); and (2) administrative support staff, including program coordinators and evaluators.
  • Impact: Increases the respect for the work it takes to lead and build such programs as well as the ability of scientists to engage in such efforts while maintaining active research programs.
  • Programmatics: Estimated at $1 million/year/agency to provide extra support for 5–10 grantees (DOE, NASA, NSF).¹²⁰

N.6.3 Goal 3: Reimagining Leadership

Develop, select, and sustain diverse cohorts of leaders who lead by exercising equity-advancing values.

Expanding astrophysical knowledge in the 2020s requires reimagining leadership. The panel envisions a profession that develops and sustains broadly diverse cohorts of leaders who lead by exercising equity-advancing values. Leadership is a social process by which an individual or a group of individuals with a shared vision act to influence, guide, and motivate members of a group to achieve a desired outcome. The Profession currently relies on hierarchical leadership structures that oversee teams to achieve collective research goals.¹²¹ Leaders also oversee the processes that distribute resources, evaluate performance, and recognize scientific excellence. How leaders are cultivated, and how they are encouraged to lead, will determine the advancement of the Profession and the individuals within it.

N.6.3.1 Develop and Select Diverse Leaders Who Practice Equity-Advancing Values

Diverse teams can outperform and out-innovate homogeneous teams.¹²² Currently, the absence of an equity-based values framework and the associations of leadership with whiteness, masculinity, and elite education¹²³ together cause the Profession to preferentially select leaders from overrepresented identities and perspectives.¹²⁴ These selection processes do not take into account the diversity of skills required to sup-

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¹²⁰ Cost calculated based on 10 PIs per agency with grants of about $100,000 per year to support their research efforts. This is comparable to current NSF AST spending on REU.

¹²¹ National Research Council, 2015, Enhancing the Effectiveness of Team Science, The National Academies Press, Washington, DC, https://doi.org/10.17226/19007.

¹²² V. Hunt, S. Prince, S. Dixon-Fyle, and L. Yee, 2018, Delivering Through Diversity, McKinsey & Company, Washington, DC, https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/delivering-through-diversity; C. Díaz-García, A. González-Moreno, and F.J. Sáez-Martínez, 2013, “Gender Diversity Within R&D Teams: Its Impact on Radicalness of Innovation,” Innovation 15(2):149–160, https://doi.org/10.5172/impp.2013.15.2.149; D. Rock and H. Grant, 2016, “Why Diverse Teams Are Smarter,” Harvard Business Review, https://hbr.org/2016/11/why-diverse-teams-are-smarter; S.S. Levine, E.P. Apfelbaum, M. Bernard, V.L. Bartelt, E.J. Zajac, and D. Stark, 2014, “Ethnic Diversity Deflates Price Bubbles” (D.S. Massey, ed.), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A. 111(52):18524–18529, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1407301111.

¹²³ H. Liu, 2018, “Redoing and Abolishing Whiteness in Leadership,” pp. 101–111 in After Leadership, Routledge, London, England; L.A. Rivera, 2016, Pedigree: How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.

¹²⁴ E. Cech, 2015, “Engineers and Engineeresses? Self-Conceptions and the Development of Gendered Professional Identities,” Sociological Perspectives 58(1):56–77, https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0731121414556543.

port, advance, and execute the scientific mission. Aspiring leaders are expected to change their leadership styles to conventional norms.¹²⁵ Consequently, the Profession’s power structure indirectly, but systematically, discriminates and perpetuates the underrepresentation of leaders who lead in diverse ways, including those from historically marginalized groups.¹²⁶ Current and future generations of scientists are looking for leaders not only with conventional scientific reputations but also with expertise in the knowledge and skills to combat systemic inequality within the Profession.¹²⁷ Therefore, there is an acute need for training leaders with multimodal expertise at all career levels. Such leaders are defined here as leaders who practice equity-advancing values, including being trained in cultural competency, critical thinking, how to lead discussions inclusively, and how to develop culturally responsible solutions.¹²⁸ These skills are hallmarks of multimodal expertise¹²⁹ and are essential to leading astronomy in realizing a holistic view of scientific excellence. In addition to new programming, existing leadership training programs in astronomy and physics promote training in the advancement of equity-advancing values (e.g., Project Kaleidoscope,¹³⁰ SACNAS Leadership Institute,¹³¹ PI Launchpad,¹³² National Society of Black Physicists [NSBP]/National Society of Hispanic Physicists [NSHP] Student Leadership Summit). These excellent models merit financial support, expansion, and replication. There is no need to wait to diversify astronomy’s leadership. Effective leaders with multimodal expertise already exist in the Profession and need to be supported to assume greater roles.

Goal 3, Suggestion 1: The panel suggests that members of the Profession purposefully develop, nominate, and select future leaders with multimodal expertise who exercise equity-advancing values. The panel suggests that federal agencies: (1) update selection processes and criteria to require evidence of ability to lead diverse teams; (2) build programs that incentivize the hiring of leaders capable of supporting underrepresented scientists; and (3) develop leadership pathways that include both training in the practice of equity-advancing values and opportunities for early career leadership.

Method, impact, and programmatics and cost to achieve this suggestion:

• The Profession
  • Method: Update selection criteria for leadership positions throughout the Profession’s organizations to include evidence of multimodal expertise through concrete examples where candidates exercise equity-advancing values. Criteria might include demonstrated, quantifiable outcomes—for example, improving institutional culture, building or sustaining effective

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¹²⁵ S. Cheryan and H.R. Markus, 2020, “Masculine Defaults: Identifying and Counteracting Hidden Cultural Biases,” Psychology Review 127(6):1022–1052, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/rev0000209; S.S. Levine, E.P. Apfelbaum, M. Bernard, V.L. Bartelt, E.J. Zajac, and D. Stark, 2014, “Ethnic Diversity Deflates Price Bubbles” (D.S. Massey, ed.), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A. 111(52):18524–18529, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1407301111.

¹²⁶ N. Subbaraman, 2020, “How #BlackInTheIvory Put a Spotlight on Racism in Academia,” Nature 582:327, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01741-7.

¹²⁷ American Astronomical Society, 2016, “AAS Endorses Vision Statement for Inclusive Astronomy,” https://aas.org/press/aas-endorses-vision-statement-inclusive-astronomy.

¹²⁸ S. Lee, 2020, “Yale Astronomers Questioned Systemic Racism Because They Hired One Black Employee 35 Years Ago, Emails Show,” BuzzFeed News, June 16, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniemlee/yale-astronomy-systemic-racism-emails.

¹²⁹ J. Alvehus, 2019, “Emergent, Distributed, and Orchestrated: Understanding Leadership Through Frame Analysis,” Leadership 15(5):535–554, https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715018773832. See also Section N.5 in this appendix. W. Kuepers, 2012 book review of Donna Ladkin’s Rethinking Leadership: A New Look at Old Leadership Questions, in Leadership 8:463–467, https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715012444678.

¹³⁰ American Association of Colleges and Universities, “PKAL STEM Leadership Institute,” https://www.aacu.org/event/2021-pkal-sli, accessed October 22, 2022.

¹³¹ Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics & Native Americans in Science, “Leadership Programs,” https://www.sacnas.org/what-we-do/leadership-programs, accessed August 24, 2020.

¹³² NASA Science, “PI Launchpad,” https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/pi-launchpad, accessed August 24, 2020.

• • community partnerships,¹³³ demonstrating academic leadership on these topics (publications, lectures, and discussions), and improving recruitment, retention, and advancement of mentees, particularly individuals from historically underrepresented communities.
  • Impact: Reduces current inequities in access to resources, awards, advancement, and leadership appointments through the selection of leaders who practice equity-advancing values. Selects leaders who have the skills needed to support a diverse workforce.
  • Programmatics: No-cost. Can be implemented immediately.¹³⁴
• DOE, NASA, NSF, Academic Institutions, Government Laboratories/Observatories
  • Method: Diversify institutions’ permanent professional workforces with respect to race/ethnicity/gender and other social identities.¹³⁵ The panel suggests that institutions and agencies build hiring programs to incentivize the creation of new positions for individuals with strong track records in promoting equity-advancing values. Agencies could follow solicitation NSF 19-558, Faculty Development in the Space Sciences. The panel further suggests that agencies and institutions classify the recruitment of such employees as critical, with a severe shortage of candidates, and support this priority by utilizing tools at their disposal, such as the Direct Hiring Authority.¹³⁶
  • Impact: Selects science leaders with demonstrated equity-advancing skills who support scientists from underrepresented backgrounds.
  • Programmatics: Estimated at $4.5 million per agency (DOE, NASA, NSF).¹³⁷
• DOE, NASA, NSF
  • Method: Build leadership training programs specific to the agency’s leadership structures and include workshops to teach how to implement equity-advancing values as leaders. For example, missions and collaborations might include leadership development in their budgets, and each agency establishes and funds equivalent to the PI Launchpad program. The panel suggests that outcomes from training programs be assessed with longitudinal tracking of participants and reporting of aggregated data.
  • Impact: Agencies participate and guide the development of leadership programs that provide equitable access to organization-specific information.
  • Programmatics: Estimated at $120,000 per meeting per agency.¹³⁸

N.6.3.2 Promote the Exercise of Leadership by Diverse Leaders

STEM organizations have become more diverse primarily through the disproportionate labor of scientists who represent the communities that STEM fields are seeking to better serve.¹³⁹ Individuals with historically underrepresented identities spend significant time on this “invisible” work, with consequences

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¹³³ See Section N.6.6, “Goal 6: Cultivating Local and Global Partnerships,” in this appendix.

¹³⁴ Requires only additional criteria in selection procedures for leadership positions and awards.

¹³⁵ See Appendix B in National Research Council, 1982, Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 1980’s, Volume 1: Report of the Astronomy Survey Committee, and 1983, Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 1980’s, Volume 2: Reports of the Panels, National Academy Press, Washington, DC.

¹³⁶ Office of Personnel Management, “Direct Hiring Authority,” https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/direct-hire-authority, accessed August 24, 2020.

¹³⁷ Annual; estimates are based on National Science Foundation, 2019, Faculty Development in the Space Sciences, NSF 19-558, Alexandria, VA, https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2019/nsf19558/nsf19558.htm. Funding supports 3–4 awards per agency, resulting in 9–12 new hires annually.

¹³⁸ Annual; estimates are based on the budget for the NASA PI Launchpad program (E. Hamden, private communication): 40 people attending, plus ~25 mentors/speakers/panelists = $100,000 operations, $20,000 travel budget for NASA speakers = $120,000. Budget for PI Launchpad was largely supported by the Heising-Simons Foundation.

¹³⁹ J. Posselt, 2020, Equity in Science: Representation, Culture, and the Dynamics of Change in Graduate Education, Stanford University Press, Palo Alto, CA; K.B. Porter, J.R. Posselt, K. Reyes, K.E. Slay, and A. Kamimura, 2018, “Burdens and Benefits of Diversity Work: Emotion Management in STEM Doctoral Students,” Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education 9(2):127–143, https://doi.org/10.1108/SGPE-D-17-00041.

to their research productivity.¹⁴⁰ True commitment to exercising equity-advancing values must not obscure the racial equity labor that goes into building racial inclusion.¹⁴¹ Furthermore, leadership by white women and members of marginalized groups is often unduly scrutinized and criticized.¹⁴² The Profession needs to accept and empower leaders with multi-modal expertise by recognizing the value of diverse ways of leading,¹⁴³ and be willing to be led by people with different ideas, identities, and approaches.

Recognition is one of the core tenets of belonging, critical to the creation of a STEM identity,¹⁴⁴ and a key determinant of retention.¹⁴⁵ Agencies and the Profession can use powerful levers (awards, grants, prizes, promotion, raises, tenure) to recognize the currently invisible labor of individuals to diversify the Profession. Such levers can help sustain leaders with multimodal expertise who are critical to actualizing equity-advancing values and the strategic plans of agencies/institutions. This establishes the work of promoting equity-advancing values as a core mission of the Profession and a responsibility of its leaders.¹⁴⁶

Goal 3, Suggestion 2: The panel suggests that the Profession sustain and empower leaders with multimodal expertise, including leaders from historically underrepresented groups, by recognizing their leadership in encouraging equity-advancing values in promotion evaluation and service assignments. This responsibility lies not only with those who select leaders, but also with their peers and those being led.

Method, impact, and programmatics and cost to achieve this suggestion:

• The Profession
  • Method: Recognize and reward leadership that demonstrates equity-advancing values in individual evaluations at all career stages—for example, fellowship applications, awards and review committees, evaluation for tenure and promotion. Account for this leadership when considering service loads within institutions so that scientists from historically underrepresented backgrounds (including people identifying as women) are not overburdened. Provide meaningful, context-specific rewards for scientists who promote equity-advancing values, which can include service/teaching relief and/or an extra semester of sabbatical.

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¹⁴⁰ T. Brown-Nagin, 2016, “Race and Higher Education Commentary Series: The Mentoring Gap,” Harvard Law Review Forum, 129:303–312, https://harvardlawreview.org/2016/05/the-mentoring-gap; C.T. Pittman, 2010, “Race and Gender Oppression in the Classroom: The Experiences of Women Faculty of Color with White Male Students,” Teaching Sociology 38(3):183–196, https://doi.org/10.1177/0092055X10370120; D.R. Hekman, S.K. Johnson, M.-D. Foo, and W. Yang, 2016, “Does Diversity-Valuing Behavior Result in Diminished Performance Ratings for Non-White and Female Leaders?” Academy of Management Journal 60:2, https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2014.0538; R.F. Martell, 1991, “Sex Bias at Work: The Effects of Attentional and Memory Demands on Performance Ratings for Men and Women,” Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 21:1939–1960, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1991.tb00515.x.

¹⁴¹ V. Lerma, L.T. Hamilton, and K. Nielsen, 2020, “Racialized Equity Labor, University Appropriation, and Student Resistance,” Social Problems 67:2, https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spz011.

¹⁴² M.E. Heilman, A.S. Wallen, D. Fuchs, and M.M. Tamkins, 2004, “Penalties for Success: Reactions to Women Who Succeed at Male Gender-Typed Tasks,” Journal of Applied Psychology 89(3):416–427, https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.3.416; D.R. Hekman, S.K. Johnson, M.-D. Foo, and W. Yang, 2017, “Does Diversity-Valuing Behavior Result in Diminished Performance Ratings for Non-White and Female Leaders?” Academy of Management Journal 60:2, https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2014.0538; S.K. Johnson, and D.R. Hekman, 2016, “Women and Minorities Penalized for Promoting Diversity,” Harvard Business Review, https://hbr.org/2016/03/women-and-minorities-are-penalized-for-promoting-diversity.

¹⁴³ L. Madhlangobe and S.P. Gordon, 2012, “Culturally Responsive Leadership in a Diverse School: A Case Study of a High School Leader,” NASSP Bulletin 96(3):177–202, https://doi.org/10.1177/0192636512450909.

¹⁴⁴ H.B. Carlone and A. Johnson, 2007, “Understanding the Science Experiences of Successful Women of Color: Science Identity as an Analytic Lens,” Journal of Research in Science Teaching 44(8):1187–1218, https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.20237.

¹⁴⁵ J.E. Stets, P.S. Brenner, P.J. Burke, and R.T. Serpe, 2017, “The Science Identity and Entering a Science Occupation,” Social Science Research 64:1–14, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2016.10.016.

¹⁴⁶ W.R. Brown-Glaude, ed., 2009, Doing Diversity in Higher Education: Faculty Leaders Share Challenges and Strategies, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ.

• • Impact: Rewarding such leadership influences promotion metrics used at all institutional levels, empowers individuals, particularly those from underrepresented communities, to continue promoting equity-advancing values in the Profession, and encourages others to join in and respect the work of these individuals.
  • Programmatics: Minimal up-front cost that is ultimately recoverable.¹⁴⁷
• DOE, NSF, NASA
  • Method: Establish Early-Career Leadership Awards and Fellowships to recognize and fund early-career faculty, scientists, postdoctorates, graduate students, and especially undergraduate students who work to support the recruitment and retention of historically underrepresented scholars. Create leadership training programs for awardees and existing agency postdoctoral fellows. Self-nominations for awards ought to be encouraged.
  • Impact: Encourages institutions to recognize these individuals and their work to further equity-advancing values.
  • Programmatics: Financial support for the individual’s research through multi-year awards to scientists (similar to NSF/DOE Early Career Awards), fellowships for graduate students and postdoctorates, and scholarship awards for tuition for undergraduates. Award recipients could receive mentoring from dedicated agency-led leadership training programs (Goal 3, Suggestion 1). Estimated at $3 million/year NASA, $3 million/year NSF, $1.5 million/year DOE.¹⁴⁸

N.6.4 Goal 4: Addressing Harassment and Discrimination

Identity-based discrimination is a core mechanism for preserving inequity within the Profession.¹⁴⁹ It includes both differential treatment (including harassment) on the basis of identity, as well as ostensibly neutral practices that produce differential impacts owing to identity. Identity-based discrimination minimizes equitable access to the resources, infrastructure, and relationships necessary to participate fully in the field and discourages multimodal expertise by subordinating those historically perceived to be from social out-groups.¹⁵⁰ It erodes the sense of belonging and respect needed for confident engagement, thereby diminishing or altogether eliminating people and their valuable perspectives.¹⁵¹ Given the pervasiveness of

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¹⁴⁷ Requires additional criteria in promotion/selection criteria (no cost). Teaching relief and/or extensions in sabbatical are short-term costs for the institution employing the individuals that can be balanced in the long run by retention and improved performance of employees who improve the climate of the institution.

¹⁴⁸ Annual; estimates based on the following: (1) Scientists: Comparable to NSF CAREER, DOE Early Career Programs (5-year term, 500,000 grants, 6 per year; NASA, DOE, NSF). (2) Graduate/Postdoctoral: Comparable to AAPF/GRFP (~$100,000 per fellow, selecting ~15 new fellows per year, for 3-year terms; NASA, NSF). (3) Funding for scholarships for undergraduates ($15,000 per student, 20 students per year, NASA, NSF). Estimate based on data from 2015–2016, “where 78 percent of full-time students at public 4-year colleges and universities had need remaining after grant aid, averaging $14,400.” See College Board, Trends in Student Aid 2019, https://research.collegeboard.org/pdf/trends-student-aid-2019-full-report.pdf, accessed August 24, 2020.

¹⁴⁹ National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2020, Promising Practices for Addressing the Underrepresentation of Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine: Opening Doors, The National Academies Press, Washington, DC, https://doi.org/10.17226/25585.

¹⁵⁰ K. Crenshaw, 1989, “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,” University of Chicago Legal Forum 1989(1):8, http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1989/iss1/8.

¹⁵¹ X. Padamsee and B. Crowe, 2017, Unrealized Impact: The Case for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Promise54, https://www.promise54.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Unrealized_Impact-Final-072017.pdf, pp. 52–53.

identity-based discrimination (including harassment) in the Profession,¹⁵² the panel emphasizes the need to balance accountability, recourse/reporting and environmental interventions to address and ultimately eradicate unchecked acts of discrimination as well as the standard operating procedures that have disparate or differential impact on individuals in the field.

Pervasive identity-based discrimination in the Profession (be it structural or between individuals, overt or implicit) impacts (1) professional well-being by producing stress and other negative health outcomes; (2) equitable participation and advancement by not accounting for these differences in experience and mental/emotional load when evaluating performance and outcomes; and (3) economic prosperity and innovation by limiting the degree to which minoritized populations can obtain and maintain jobs in the Profession and further a deeper understanding of the universe.

Since 2018, the National Academies have released four consensus reports that have taken a systemic approach in addressing key issues in higher education and academic research: Graduate STEM Education for the 21st Century; Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM; and Minority Serving Institutions: America’s Underutilized Resource for Strengthening the STEM Workforce.¹⁵³ Each of the committees created reports that situated the issue of sexual harassment and discrimination within the broader culture of higher education, as the committees perceived that incentive and reward systems are critical drivers of behavior in academia. In particular, there is broad consensus that the legal system alone is not an adequate mechanism for reducing or preventing sexual harassment. These reports further highlight the role that federal agencies, which control research funding, can play in enacting long-lasting change.

The National Academies report Sexual Harassment of Women^154,155 highlights the need to address the effects of harassment and discrimination on the integrity of research. This report concludes that “parts of the federal government and several professional societies … focus more broadly on policies about research integrity and on codes of ethics, rather than on the narrow definition of research misconduct.”¹⁵⁶ The panel is in agreement that scientific integrity has to include how researchers treat people. “Research culture and policies are quick to denounce plagiarism, data fabrication, and mismanagement of funds, yet we have too long ignored the mistreatment of people.”¹⁵⁷ The House of Representatives Committee on Space, Science, and Technology in 2019 held a hearing¹⁵⁸ to investigate efforts to combat sexual harassment in STEM fields. In her opening statement, Chair Eddie Bernice Johnson said, “The public investment in research needs to draw on all of our nation’s talent to return the best possible science for the benefit of society. To reach this goal, we must do more to ensure that all researchers have access to a safe work environment.” “Harassment, bullying, and discrimination damage science at the individual, community, institutional,

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¹⁵² K.B.H. Clancy, K.M.N. Lee, E.M. Rodgers, C. Richey, 2017, “Double Jeopardy in Astronomy and Planetary Science: Women of Color Face Greater Risks of Gendered and Racial Harassment,” Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets 122:1610, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JE005256.

¹⁵³ These reports of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine—Graduate STEM Education for the 21st Century (2018); Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences (2018); The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM (2019); and Minority Serving Institutions: America’s Underutilized Resource for Strengthening the STEM Workforce (2019)—were published by The National Academies Press, Washington, DC.

¹⁵⁴ National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018, Chapter V.5 and Chapter V.6 and R:13 in Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, The National Academies Press, Washington, DC, https://doi.org/10.17226/24994.

¹⁵⁵ Page 170 of that report defines sexual harassment; the panel uses that definition.

¹⁵⁶ National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018, Conclusion 6 in Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, The National Academies Press, Washington, DC.

¹⁵⁷ E. Marín-Spiotta, 2018, “Harassment Should Count as Scientific Misconduct,” Nature 557:141, https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05076-2.

¹⁵⁸ E.B. Johnson, “Combating Sexual Harassment in Science,” https://science.house.gov/hearings/combating-sexual-harassment-in-science.

and societal levels and cause health problems, fear, mistrust, depression, and trauma.”¹⁵⁹ It thus follows that additional consideration needs to be given to safe social spaces, termed “counterspaces,” which provide support and reinforce the sense of belonging in STEM.¹⁶⁰ Counterspaces¹⁶¹ can enable peer-to-peer relationships that provide academic, social, and/or emotional support, mentoring relationships that help victims navigate how to succeed in the field, and access to campus groups to advance professional skills and develop leadership opportunities.¹⁶² Support programs can take the form of coaching, counseling, and childcare while negotiating the after-effects.

Cultural shifts around identity-based harassment require second-order theories of change (i.e., addressing underlying priorities and norms, not just reforming policy and practice) and an intersectional lens (i.e., attending to experiences of people with multiple marginalized identities).¹⁶³ Harassment continues to be a major concern in our field. In the most recent poll by the Pew Research Center, “among women who worked in male-dominated workplaces, 48 percent said that harassment was a problem. Just under one-quarter of women said that they had been harassed.”¹⁶⁴ In spite of the fact that research on gender inequalities in STEM has generated ample strategies in order to achieve gender equity,¹⁶⁵ urgent gaps persist in knowledge about racial discrimination, including how it manifests in educational and professional environments and how it intersects with other forms of discrimination and oppression.¹⁶⁶ These themes necessitate a great deal of reflection and require an intersectional approach. These include, for example: the experiences of women of color, women with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ women, as well as those involving women in all intersectional identities.

Goal 4, Suggestion 1: Recognize identity-based discrimination and harassment as equally deleterious as research misconduct in terms of its effects on the integrity of research.¹⁶⁷

Method, impact, and programmatics and cost to achieve this suggestion:

• NSF, NASA, and DOE
  • Method: The panel suggests that agencies adopt scientific integrity policies that specifically address identity-based harassment with the same severity as any other research or scientific

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¹⁵⁹ E. Marín-Spiotta, 2018, “Harassment Should Count as Scientific Misconduct,” Nature 557:141, https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05076-2.

¹⁶⁰ D. Solorzano, M. Ceja, and T. Yosso, 2000, “Critical Race Theory, Racial Microaggressions, and Campus Racial Climate: The Experiences of African American College Students,” Journal of Negro Education 69(1/2):60–73, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2696265.

¹⁶¹ “Counterspaces in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education are often considered safe spaces that, by definition, lie in the margins, outside of mainstream educational spaces, and are occupied by members of non-traditional groups.” From M. Ong, J.M. Smith, and L.T. Ko, 2018, “Counterspaces for Women of Color in STEM Higher Education: Marginal and Central Spaces for Persistence and Success, Journal of Research in Science Teaching 55(2):206–245.

¹⁶² National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2020, Promising Practices for Addressing the Underrepresentation of Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine: Opening Doors, The National Academies Press, Washington, DC, https://doi.org/10.17226/25585.

¹⁶³ S. Elrod, and A. Kezar, 2016, Increasing Student Success in STEM: A Guide to Systemic Institutional Change, Association for American Colleges and Universities, Washington, DC.

¹⁶⁴ Pew Research Center, “Race- and Gender-Based Bias Persists in US Science,” 2018, Nature 554:561, https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-02175-y.

¹⁶⁵ T. Feder, 2017, “Widespread Harassment Reported in Astronomer Survey,” Physics Today in Politics and Policy, July 21, https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.6.2.20170721a/full.

¹⁶⁶ C. Prescod-Weinstein, 2020, “Making Black Women Scientists Under White Empiricism: The Racialization of Epistemology in Physics,” Journal of Women in Culture and Society 45(2):421–447, https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/704991.

¹⁶⁷ P.A. Johnson, S.E. Widnall, and F.F. Benya, eds., “Related Findings and Suggestions,” Chapter V and Recommendations 3, 4, 13, and 14 in Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, The National Academies Press, Washington, DC.

• • misconduct, such as fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism. The panel endorses the suggestions of Zellner and collaborators and supports “the provisions of H.R. 36, the Combating Sexual Harassment in Science Act of 2019.… The proposed law requires the development and implementation of harassment reporting terms and conditions, like the one used by NSF, at all major science funding agencies.”¹⁶⁸
  • Impact: The panel identified grantmaking authorities as the optimal actors. Adding new terms and conditions directed specifically at harassment and discrimination to the agencies’ proposal policies would place it alongside numerous other requirements that institutions already agree to every year when they accept funding.
  • Programmatics: No-cost. Could be implemented in 1–2 years.
• NSF, NASA, and DOE
  • Method: Hold individuals and institutions responsible for harassment and discrimination. Establishing sexual harassment as a serious issue would require that federal funding agencies be notified by funded institutions when PIs, co-PIs, and grant personnel have violated sexual harassment policies.¹⁶⁹
  • Impact: Increases incentives for institutions. Creates accountability partnerships between agencies and institutions; sets expectations of accountability and consequences throughout the field.
  • Programmatics: No cost. Can be implemented in 1–2 years.
• Academic Institutions
  • Method: The panel suggests that academic institutions consider identity-based discrimination as equally important as research misconduct and increase collaboration among offices that oversee the integrity of research in order to provide more resources to handle complaints and implement sanctions.¹⁷⁰
  • Impact: By enforcing consequences for identity-based discrimination as a violation of research integrity, institutions can be better equipped to remove individuals and systemic structures that perpetrate identity-based discrimination.
  • Programmatics: No-cost. Can begin in the first year.
• Professional Societies
  • Method: The panel suggests that professional societies seek to eliminate harassment and discrimination in their activities, particularly conferences and scientific publication, and throughout the Profession by providing resources and setting high community-based standards of conduct.¹⁷¹
  • Impact: Would lower the tolerance for harassment and discrimination within the Profession, and promote grassroots changes in behavior.
  • Programmatics: No-cost. Can be implemented immediately.

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¹⁶⁸ N. Zellner, J. McBride, N. Morrison, A. Olmstead, M. Patterson, G. Rudnick, A. Venkatesan et al., 2019, “Astro2020 APC White Paper: Findings and Recommendations from the American Astronomical Society (AAS) Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy: Towards Eliminating Harassment in Astronomy,” white paper submitted to Astro2020: Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics, https://arxiv.org/abs/1908.00589.

¹⁶⁹ P.A. Johnson, S.E. Widnall, and F.F. Benya, eds., “Findings and Conclusions,” Chapter V, Number 5 in Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, The National Academies Press, Washington, DC.

¹⁷⁰ P.A. Johnson, S.E. Widnall, and F.F. Benya, eds., Recommendation 4 in Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, The National Academies Press, Washington, DC.

¹⁷¹ S. Sardelis, S. Oester, and M. Liboiron, 2017, “Ten Strategies to Reduce Gender Inequality at Scientific Conferences,” Frontiers in Marine Science 4:231, https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmars.2017.00231.

Goal 4, Suggestion 2: Support individuals marginalized by harassment and discrimination.¹⁷²

Method, impact, and programmatics and cost to achieve this suggestion:

• Professional Societies and Private Foundations
  • Method: The panel suggests that professional societies and private foundations convene working groups that can effectively assess how funding can be provided for mental health and well-being, legal counseling, and other support structures for survivors.
  • Impact: Individuals impacted by discriminatory practices or harassment require a range of support options that can be facilitated by flexible funding that allows them to make arrangements that best suit their needs.
  • Programmatics: Convened working groups could include participation by representatives of funding agencies. Options might include support for dependents or caregivers or for new and existing counterspaces designed to mitigate the negative impacts of identity-based discrimination.
• Academic Institutions
  • Method: The panel suggests that academic institutions support new and existing counterspaces designed to mitigate the negative impacts of identity-based discrimination.
  • Impact: “Creating counterspaces, alongside inclusive policies that guard against racism and sexism (and other forms of discrimination), [enhances the] learning environment and the opportunity for all to succeed.”¹⁷³
  • Programmatics: Could be done as an institutional program in campuses around the country.
• NSF, NASA, DOE, and Academic Institutions

  Method: The panel suggests that agencies and institutions design and fund training that focuses on cultural humility and bystander intervention. While cultural competency focuses on providing practitioners the ability to understand, communicate with, and effectively interact with people across cultures,¹⁷⁴ cultural humility is a way of being with ourselves, others, and the institutions we inhabit.¹⁷⁵ It asks not only that we assess our environments and engage them in an unbiased and nonviolent manner but also that we reflect deeply on who we are and how we show up for others.

  • Impact: Changes discriminatory evaluation and decision-making processes within the Profession through training to reduce inequities in participation and leadership within the field.
  • Programmatics: Minimal cost. Could be implemented in 1–2 years.
• NSF, NASA, and DOE, and Institutions
  • Method: Because lack of access is a form of discrimination, the panel suggests that institutions consider developing accessibility plans to identify the current state of facilities and plans for increasing access.
  • Impact: Accessible spaces encourage equal participation.

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¹⁷² P.A. Johnson, S.E. Widnall, and F.F. Benya, eds., “Related Findings and Suggestions,” Recommendations 4, 13, and 14 in Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, The National Academies Press, Washington, DC.

¹⁷³ M. Ong, J.M. Smith, and L.T. Ko, 2018, “Counterspaces for Women of Color in STEM Higher Education: Marginal and Central Spaces for Persistence and Success, Journal of Research in Science Teaching 55:206–245, https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21417.

¹⁷⁴ T.L. Cross, B.J. Bazron, K.W. Dennis, and M.R. Isaacs, 1989, Towards a Culturally Competent System of Care: A Monograph on Effective Services for Minority Children Who Are Severely Emotionally Disturbed, NCJRS: 12439, National Institute of Mental Health’s Child and Adolescent Service System Program (CASSP), Washington, DC, https://spu.edu/-/media/academics/school-of-education/Cultural-Diversity/Towards-a-Culturally-Competent-System-of-Care-Abridged.ashx.

¹⁷⁵ R. Danso, 2018, “Cultural Competence and Cultural Humility: A Critical Reflection on Key Cultural Diversity Concepts,” Journal of Social Work 18(4):410–430, https://doi.org/10.1177/1468017316654341.

• • Programmatics: Accessibility plans can be implemented in 1–2 years.

N.6.5 Goal 5: Removing Barriers

Modernize practices that have disparate impact on access to education, training, and advancement.

Scientific excellence depends on ensuring that each generation of scientists can thrive within the environments in which they learn and work and requires equitable access to education, advancement opportunities, funding, and facilities. Astronomy is a dynamic field, both culturally and technologically, and training (including teaching practices, curriculum, and technical/professional development) that reflects the current state of evidence-based, inclusive practice is needed. Physics and mathematics instruction is the gateway to the Profession and must be modernized nationwide. Inequities in career advancement and access to the tools of the Profession must be addressed so that the entire workforce is engaged. See also the driving motivation for SEA Change,¹⁷⁶ an effort of the American Association for the Advancement of Science to effect sustainable change with regard to diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEMM¹⁷⁷ at U.S. institutions of higher education.

N.6.5.1 Work with Physics Departments to Incentivize the Widespread Adoption of Research-Based Instructional Strategies and Inclusive Pedagogy in First-Year Physics

The first-year sequence in physics is among the most influential in a student’s chances to continue not only in astronomy but also in all STEM fields. This sequence, along with calculus, have drop, fail, or withdrawal (DFW) rates of 30 percent or more, and first-generation (First Gen), Pell-eligible and minoritized students, particularly those with intersectional identities, can have nearly double the DFW rates of majority non-Pell, non-First Gen students.¹⁷⁸ Retention and degree completion is strongly tied to D and F grades in the first term.¹⁷⁹ The increased DFW rate at the course level with underrepresented minority students leads to the loss of these students, as presented in the earlier sections. Physics Education Research and Astronomy Education Research (PER, AER) shows that there are specific instructional practices that consistently achieve better student course outcomes and retention than traditional lectures.¹⁸⁰ Collectively known as “interactive engagement,” these methods include student-centered instruction and discovery-based learning practices such as peer instruction.¹⁸¹ Sociology and psychology research further demonstrates the importance of student belonging and the impact of stereotype threat, and provides proven classroom methods that improve student performance.¹⁸² The low rates at which these methods are applied in STEM courses reduces the

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¹⁷⁶ SEA Change, “See Change with STEMM Equity Achievement,” American Association for the Advancement of Science, https://seachange.aaas.org, accessed August 24, 2020.

¹⁷⁷ Science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM).

¹⁷⁸ K. Michaels and J. Milner, “APLU’s Powered by Publics Learning Memo: The Big Ten Academic Alliance Cluster Exploring Foundational Course DFW Rates, Equity Gaps, and Progress to Degree,” Association of Public & Land-Grant Universities, https://www.aplu.org/library/powered-by-publics-learning-memo-the-big-ten-academic-alliance-cluster/file, accessed August 24, 2020.

¹⁷⁹ Ibid.

¹⁸⁰ S. Freeman, S.L. Eddy, M. McDonough, M.K. Smith, N. Okoroafor, H. Jort, and M.P. Wenderoth, 2014, “Active Learning Increases Student Performance in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A. 111(23):8410–8415, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1319030111.

¹⁸¹ C. Turpen, M. Dancy, and C. Henderson, 2016, “Perceived Affordances and Constraints Regarding Instructors’ Use of Peer Instruction: Implications for Promoting Instructional Change,” Physical Review Physics Education Research 12(1):010116, https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.12.010116.

¹⁸² C. Verschelden, 2017, Bandwidth Recovery: Helping Students Reclaim Cognitive Resources Lost to Poverty, Racism, and Social Marginalization, Stylus Publishing, Sterling, VA.

production of science and technology graduates, and contributes to the loss of diversity among those who do graduate. Moreover, the documented reduction of gender and racial/ethnic performance gaps^183,184 in courses taught with research-based instructional strategies (RBIS) makes the continued use of lecture-based teaching in first-year physics and calculus courses tantamount to discriminatory practices.

Sadly, evidence abounds that despite efforts to train faculty to move from teacher-centered lecture to learner-centered course design, the majority of faculty trained (75 percent) in workshops continue to use lecture-based pedagogy.¹⁸⁵ Recently, new initiatives that promote the use of RBIS are grounded in robust theories of change, such as supporting networks or learning communities of faculty, called Communities of Practice and Research-Practice Partnerships. Learning communities allow cultural and work-related shifts to happen on the part of both researchers and practitioners engaging in this work to implement and spread reform.¹⁸⁶ A non-exhaustive list includes the Accelerating Systemic Change Network,¹⁸⁷ AAC&U TIDES,¹⁸⁸ the AAU Undergraduate STEM education Initiative,¹⁸⁹ and Project Kaleidoscope.¹⁹⁰ Private foundations have supported the advancement of such communities, such as the Research Corporation for Science Advancement’s contributions to the American Physical Society’s NSF Funded Workshop for New Physics and Astronomy Faculty. New funding from federal agencies is required to implement these new, innovative means for increasing the adoption of RBIS. This will require enriched engagement with education researchers in designing professional and department-level training and mentoring in RBIS.

Goal 5, Suggestion 1: The panel suggests that the Profession adopt and promote inclusive pedagogy and RBIS in the classroom through engagement with experts from the PER and AER communities to design professional and department-level training in modern teaching practices at all career stages. To achieve transformational change at a national scale, the panel suggests that federal agencies increase funding in PER and AER.

Method, impact, and programmatics and cost to achieve this suggestion:

• NSF-MPS, NASA STEM-Engagement
  • Method: Expand funding for research-practice partnerships based on Physics and Astronomy Education Research in order to promote the adoption of evidence-based inclusive pedagogy. Funding supports grants for conferences, training for current and future instructors (master’s, doctoral students, and postdoctorates). Private foundations can also support program development.
  • Impact: Expanded use of RBIS and inclusive pedagogy in gateway courses will increase retention of all students pursuing astrophysics, particularly underrepresented students.

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¹⁸³ S.L. Eddy and K.A. Hogan, 2017, “Getting Under the Hood: How and for Whom Does Increasing Course Structure Work?” CBE-Life Sciences Education 13:3, https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.14-03-0050.

¹⁸⁴ E.J. Theobald, M.J. Hill, E. Tran, S. Agrawal, E.N. Arroyo, S. Behling, N. Chambwe et al., 2020, “Active Learning Narrows Achievement Gaps for Underrepresented Students in Undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A. 117(12):6476–6483, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1916903117.

¹⁸⁵ D. Ebert-May, T.L. Derting, J. Hodder, J.L. Momsen, T.M. Long, and S.E. Jardeleza, 2011, “What We Say Is Not What We Do: Effective Evaluation of Faculty Professional Development Programs,” BioScience 61(7):550–558, https://doi.org/10.1525/bio.2011.61.7.9.

¹⁸⁶ A. Kezar, S. Gehrke, and S. Elrod, 2015, “Implicit Theories of Change as a Barrier to Change on College Campuses: An Examination of STEM Reform,” Review of Higher Education 38(4):479–506, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/584487.

¹⁸⁷ Accelerating Systemic Change Network, “Homepage,” https://ascnhighered.org/index.html, accessed August 24, 2020.

¹⁸⁸ American Association of Colleges and Universities, “2021 Institute on Teaching to Increase Diversity and Equity in STEM (TIDES),” https://www.aacu.org/event/2021-institute-on-teaching-to-increase-diversity-and-equity-in-stem-tides, accessed August 24, 2020.

¹⁸⁹ Association of American Universities, “Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative,” https://www.aau.edu/education-community-impact/undergraduate-education/undergraduate-stem-education-initiative, accessed August 24, 2020.

¹⁹⁰ American Association of Colleges and Universities, “Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL),” https://www.aacu.org/pkal, accessed August 24, 2020.

• • Programmatics: $3 million/year NSF-MPS; $2 million/year NASA STEM-Engage.¹⁹¹

N.6.5.2 Invest in Programs and Practices to Increase Inclusion and Persistence of Scientists from Groups Historically Underrepresented

Federal funding has created multiple programs to recruit, retain, and advance historically underrepresented people within the Profession, including Bridge Programs (Fisk-Vanderbilt, Columbia, Cal-Bridge, Inclusive Graduate Education Network [IGEN] Bridge); terminal master’s programs (e.g., Wesleyan); and summer research programs (REUs, CAMPARE¹⁹²). NSF is funding American Physical Society (APS) and AAPT’s new program, Effective Practices for Physics Programs (EP3) for responding to challenges and engaging in systematic improvements.¹⁹³ DOE is funding a Visiting Faculty Program¹⁹⁴ (VFP, formerly known as Faculty and Student Team [FaST]) to increase faculty and students at institutions historically underrepresented in research areas important to DOE. Last, the National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP), funded by NASA, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), NSF, and several national and private research institutions and organizations, has a growing list of student chapters. Such programs and organizations enhance access to doctoral education, as well as a sense of belonging and identity for physics students from underrepresented groups, which increase their persistence and success. However, agencies no longer offer funding for long-term sustainability nor institutional or agency accountability for the continuation of past successful programs. For example, PAARE¹⁹⁵ and MUCERPI¹⁹⁶ are no longer receiving proposals. Investments for programs that have shown progress in increasing the persistence of historically underrepresented groups are most successful if they are not time-limited but are supported for as long as they are effective.

In addition to support for such programs, there is a clear need to remove racial, gender, and other barriers to doctoral education in astronomy and physics, including those created through predominant admissions practices to doctoral education. For example, misuse of the general Graduate Record Examination (GRE) and Physics GRE (PGRE) in admissions decisions leads to disproportionate exclusion of scholars from underrepresented groups, especially women of color.197,198 These tests have large score gaps by race and gender identities of test takers, yet evidence shows that high scores do not help students to stand out in admission, only penalize otherwise competitive applicants.¹⁹⁹ Further, PGRE scores are not correlated with Ph.D. degree completion,²⁰⁰ nor do they foretell postdoctoral success.²⁰¹ Increasingly, astronomy

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¹⁹¹ Fund 30 groups per year to use complex theories of change to train instructors in RBIS and inclusive pedagogy.

¹⁹² CalPolyPomona, “Cal-Bridge Summer (CAMPARE),” https://www.cpp.edu/calbridge/summer-research/index.shtml, accessed August 24, 2020.

¹⁹³ Effective Practices for Physics Programs (EP3), “Homepage,” https://ep3guide.org, accessed August 24, 2020.

¹⁹⁴ Department of Energy, “Visiting Faculty Program (VFP),” https://science.osti.gov/wdts/vfp, accessed August 24, 2020.

¹⁹⁵ K.G. Stassun, S. Sturm, K. Holley-Bockelmann, A. Burger, D.J. Ernst, and D. Webb, 2011, “The Fisk-Vanderbilt Master’s-to-Ph.D. Bridge Program,” American Journal of Physics 79(4):374, https://doi.org/10.1119/1.3546069.

¹⁹⁶ P.J. Sakimoto and J.D. Rosenthal, 2005, “Obliterating Myths About Minority Institutions,” Physics Today 58(9):49–53, https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2117823.

¹⁹⁷ C. Miller and K. Stassun, 2014, “A Test That Fails,” Nature 510:303–304.

¹⁹⁸ J. Posselt, 2016, Inside Graduate Admissions: Merit, Diversity, and Faculty Gatekeeping, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

¹⁹⁹ N.T. Young and M.D. Caballero, 2020, “The Physics GRE Does Not Help Applicants ‘Stand Out,’” Physical Review Physics Education Research, https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2008.10712.

²⁰⁰ C.W. Miller, B.M. Zwickl, J.R. Posselt, R.T. Silvestini, and T. Hodapp, 2019, “Typical Physics Ph.D. Admissions Criteria Limit Access to Underrepresented Groups But Fail to Predict Doctoral Completion,” Science Advances 5(1), https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aat7550.

²⁰¹ E.M. Levesque, R. Bezanson, and G.R. Tremblay, 2015, Physics GRE Scores of Prize Postdoctoral Fellows in Astronomy, https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1512.03709.

Ph.D.-granting programs are removing GRE and PGRE requirements with no reported negative impact on the academic success of the admitted students.²⁰²

Goal 5, Suggestion 2: The panel suggests that the Profession remove barriers that impede student advancement and renew funding of previous programs with a strong record of retention and advancement of individuals from underrepresented groups.

Method, impact, and programmatics and cost to achieve this suggestion:

• NSF Division of Physics (PHY), Division of Astronomical Sciences (AST)
  • Method: Provide new (or renewed) funds for programs that recruit, retain, and advance historically underrepresented people to support entry into the Profession. Review impact and internal processes from past funded programs (e.g., PAARE, Fisk-Vanderbilt) to determine if their record in advancing individuals from underrepresented groups merits refunding and/or refinement.
  • Impact: Increases program longevity and sustains PI commitment.
  • Programmatics: $3 million per year to fund nine sites.²⁰³
• Academic Departments
  • Method: Provide funds to reduce or eliminate application fees for low-income and historically marginalized applicants. Eliminate requirements for the GRE and PGRE in admissions to astronomy and physics graduate programs.²⁰⁴ Replace the traditional admissions process with one that embodies the ideals of equity-advancing holistic review.²⁰⁵
  • Impact: Increases diversity in graduate programs.
  • Programmatics: Marginal department cost of effort to devise and implement holistic admissions process and cover application fees for targeted individuals.

N.6.5.3 Provide Broader Opportunity and Continual Training in State-of-the-Art Techniques

To ensure innovation at an emergent level, technical training programs in computational methods and instrumentation are needed for astronomers throughout their careers. Computational and data summer/winter schools²⁰⁶ and internships are logical training grounds, but some have been defunded (e.g., NSF Blue Waters Summer Internship), and they typically focus on the technical skills of early-career scientists.

Research experiences are a critical component of graduate school applications, yet access depends on institutional resources and faculty, which vary widely. Meanwhile, REU programs have become increasingly oversubscribed, necessitating selection criteria that balance previous research experience with how much an applicant has to gain from the opportunity.²⁰⁷ More technical and research opportunities are needed for students from Primarily Undergraduate Institutions (PUI), Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs; this includes Historically Black Colleges and Universities [HBCUs], Hispanic Serving Institutions [HSIs], and Tribal

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²⁰² Due in part to COVID-19, the GRE and PGRE were eliminated from most admission requirements this cycle.

²⁰³ Estimates based on previous PAARE funding ($1 million/site for 3 years).

²⁰⁴ Also recommended by numerous previous reports, most recently the Nashville Recommendations: https://tiki.aas.org/tiki-index.php?page=Inclusive_Astronomy_The_Nashville_Recommendations, accessed August 24, 2020.

²⁰⁵ J.D. Kent and M.T. McCarthy, 2016, Holistic Review in Graduate Admissions: A Report from the Council of Graduate Schools, Council of Graduate Schools, Washington, DC.

²⁰⁶ LSST Data Science Fellowship Program, LANL summer computational physics programs, Astro Hack weeks.

²⁰⁷ A.L. McDevitt, M.V. Patel, and A.M. Ellison, 2020, “Lessons and Recommendations from Three Decades as an NSF REU Site: A Call for Systems-Based Assessment,” Ecology and Evolution 10(6):2710–2738, https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6136.

Colleges and Universities [TCUs]), and Women’s Colleges (WCs), where many students study but fewer options exist, to increase their retention, graduation, and progression to graduate school and STEM careers.

Professional development is needed to keep astronomers current in the Profession’s changing technical and career landscape. The current lack of “computational [training], knowledge, and access across the nation is a critical hindrance to the diversity and therefore the success of the field”²⁰⁸ and a serious national security issue. Modern astrophysics demands computational literacy as a core competency, parallel in priority to math. Opportunities for observational training at modern facilities or developing technical skills to build state-of-the-art instrumentation are also limited. Training programs that address the planning, constructing, testing, and calibrating of new instruments are needed if complex projects are to be completed on time and at cost. More than 40 percent of astronomy Ph.D. recipients in 2015–2016 did not take postdoctoral positions, and many went into private-sector jobs.²⁰⁹ The Profession must respond to this trend and support a broad set of career pathways with an updated curriculum to include skills that are in demand.210,211

Goal 5, Suggestion 3: The panel suggests that the agencies fund PUI, MSI, and WC faculty and students in collaborations and research opportunities to access and engage in cutting-edge technological and data advancements, and that the Profession invest in expanded technical training pathways for all career levels.

Method, impact, and programmatics and cost to achieve this suggestion:

• NSF-AST, NASA Astrophysics Division (APD)/SMD, DOE Office of Science
  • Method: Create partnerships or training programs at MSI, PUI, and WC that facilitate long-lasting (5-year grants with administrative support) collaborations with major facilities (e.g., Vera C. Rubin Observatory, previously referred to as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope [LSST], Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument [DESI]), including National Laboratories (Fermilab or High Performance Computing [HPC] facilities). Increase agency-funded REU programs and paid internships through partnerships with local industry (e.g., Metcalf program at the University of Chicago, Tucson Initiative for Minoritized student Engagement in Science and Technology Program [TIMESTEP] program at the University of Arizona).
  • Impact: Access to computational resources leverages contributions of PUI-affiliates (faculty and students) and pan-STEM networks between PUI, MSI, and WC, and expands underrepresented students’ opportunities to participate in STEM careers and graduate school.
  • Programmatics: $2 million–$3 million per collaboration;²¹² $350,000 per year for expanded REU; and $500,000 per year to support five training programs.²¹³

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²⁰⁸ G. Besla, D. Huppenkothen, N. Lloyd-Ronning, E. Schneider, P. Behroozi, B. Burkhart, C.K. Chan et al., 2019, “Astro2020: Training the Future Generations of Computational Researchers,” white paper submitted to Astro2020: Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics, https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.04460.

²⁰⁹ P. Mulvey and J. Pold, 2019, Astronomy Degree Recipients One Year After Degree, American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD, https://www.aip.org/statistics/reports/astronomy-degree-recipients-one-year-after-degree, accessed August 26, 2020.

²¹⁰ Joint Task Force on Undergraduate Physics Programs: P. Heron and L. McNeil, 2016, Phys21: Preparing Physics Students for 21st-Century Careers, American Physical Society, College Park, MD, http://www.compadre.org/JTUPP/docs/J-Tupp_Report.pdf.

²¹¹ Effective Practices for Physics Programs (EP3), “Career Preparation,” American Physical Society and American Association of Physics Teachers, https://ep3guide.org/guide-overview/career-preparation, accessed August 26, 2020.

²¹² Estimates based on MSI Partnerships in NSF Division of Materials Research (DMR) Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) Program ($2–$3 million per collaboration).

²¹³ About seven new AST REU Sites awarded per year, $350,000/site for 3 years, 15 percent increase 350,000/year. Cost of training programs will depend on what the industry partner can provide in student salaries and administrative support.

• The Profession, Academic Institutions
  • Method: Expand technical training opportunities to include more than just early-career researchers. Embed computational training in standard curriculum with one first-year computer science course and one upper division course in computational methods, optimization, data science and/or statistics, with a focus on applications to physics and astronomy research.²¹⁴ Support faculty to develop new curricula through open-source platforms and communities of practice.
  • Impact: Programming is recognized as a core competency, parallel in priority to math, and needed for all career levels.
  • Programmatics: Low-cost. Work with computer science departments to facilitate implementation.

N.6.6 Goal 6: Cultivating Local and Global Partnerships

The demographics of the Profession reflect its values. Retention and participation of a professional community that comes from, interacts with, and returns to a diverse set of cultures can be achieved only by ensuring belonging for each of its members. Substantial, continuous effort is needed to enrich the culture of the Profession by ensuring that its members have the cultural fluency to advance values of both local communities and global needs. A re-envisioned model for engagement with communities at large, where ethical, sustainable, and healthy partnerships with local and global communities are held central, will ensure a more inclusive Profession and continued public support and trust.

N.6.6.1 Re-Envision “Outreach” and “Broader Impacts” as Partnerships That Enable Growth and Enrichment Opportunities for the Profession

Astronomy is uniquely positioned in the public eye as both an awe-inspiring and a humbling science. As such, the Profession has made great efforts to engage the public through Education, Broader Impacts, and Outreach (EBIO) programs, many associated with major missions and collaborations.²¹⁵ Engagement with the public has generated public support, which has translated into federal funding. Important strides have been made, making EBIO an excellent opportunity to connect more deeply with a broader community.²¹⁶ Including EBIO programming from conception stages of new astronomical endeavors, in partnership with EBIO professionals, would help integrate EBIO with the scientific team. Furthermore, EBIO programming could benefit from direction from the communities impacted in order to more effectively meet stakeholder needs.

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²¹⁴ G. Besla, D. Huppenkothen, N. Lloyd-Ronning, E. Schneider, P. Behroozi, B. Burkhart, C.K. Chan et al., 2019, “Astro2020: Training the Future Generations of Computational Researchers,” white paper submitted to the Astro2020: Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics, https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.04460.

²¹⁵ NASA education programs (Hubble Space Telescope [HST], Chandra, James Webb Space Telescope [JWST] planning). NSF Education & Public Outreach (EPO) programming for National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab), National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), LSST EPO. DOE programming for LIGO, DESC. PI basis, NSF Broader Impacts programming is an agency-led directive to members of the Profession to engage with communities.

²¹⁶ EBIO programs frequently have stated goals but are rarely held accountable to those goals; consequently, the impact of this programming is insufficiently evaluated. There are no procedures, guidelines, or means of assessment to ensure ethical treatment of those impacted by EBIO activities. See National Alliance for Broader Impacts, 2018, The Current State of Broader Impacts: Advancing Science and Benefiting Society, https://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/wysiwyg/filemanager/BRDO/Current%20state%20of%20Broader%20Impacts%202018.pdf.

However, there is currently an operating division between the dominant culture of the Profession, which reflects that of its predominant demographic groups, and cultural identities that are scarce within the Profession. Transforming the Profession into one that is multicultural, culturally fluent, and built on a partnership driven by equity-advancing values will enable equitable access and a sense of belonging for all. When individuals and communities are actively engaged ethically and with integrity, a “partnership” is established and community trust in science is strengthened.²¹⁷ Current EBIO programs and practices of engagement can be held to the ethical standards inherent to such partnerships.²¹⁸ Partnership recognizes that any person or community impacted by the Profession’s programmatics or methods is a stakeholder, including participants and collaborators in gathering and contributing data, assessing need and impact, and making decisions. As such, the need for partnership is not limited to EBIO but is important to any practice by the Profession where humans and/or communities are impacted.²¹⁹ Partnership provides avenues for enrichment, self-reflection, and education for the Profession. The practice of partnership fundamentally requires learning about cultures and perspectives not well represented in either party’s common experience through respectful engagement.

Goal 6, Suggestion 1: The panel suggests that the Profession reimagine community engagement and EBIO as partnerships. Partnerships are fundamental to the professional well-being of members and stakeholders and provide the foundation from which the Profession could be transformed to be more inclusive, multicultural, and innovative. Effective partnerships rely on a foundation of oversight and accountability for the impact of EBIO activities on stakeholders, as outlined in Goal 1, Suggestion 2.

Method, impact, and programmatics and cost to achieve this suggestion:

• NASA, NSF, DOE, and Institutions
  • Method: The panel suggests that EBIO²²⁰ be reframed as a partnership. Reframing necessitates measurable benchmarks and outcomes that would be reported back to the agency in order to evaluate the establishment and effective operation of partnerships. Benchmarks, outcomes, or reports thereof would be based on identification of stakeholders and assessment of desired impact and stakeholders’ needs in collaboration with stakeholders.²²¹ Outcomes would be

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²¹⁷ The NIH initiative All of Us (Precision Medicine Initiative) is a high-profile example of how the core values of partnership help build trust through transparency. See National Institutes of Health, “All of Us Research Program,” https://allofus.nih.gov, accessed August 24, 2020.

²¹⁸ Example manifestations of partnership are community-based participatory research (see Viswanathan et al., 2004, “Community-Based Participatory Research: Assessing the Evidence: Summary,” AHRQ Evidence Report Summaries, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK11852, accessed August 24, 2020); community engaged research (list of internal policies and external resources provided on Community Engaged Research by The Ohio State University, Office of Responsible Research Practices, https://orrp.osu.edu/irb/research-participants/community-engaged-research, accessed August 24, 2020); and community partnership in forestry practices (U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, “The Status of Community Based Forestry in the United States,” https://www.usendowment.org/the-status-of-community-based-forestry-in-the-united-states, accessed August 24, 2020).

²¹⁹ Citizen science programs are an example of astronomy research that has benefited from community engagement. For example, “Astro 2020 State of the Profession White Paper: EPO Vision, Needs, and Opportunities Through Citizen Science” and “Astro 2020 Infrastructure Activity White Paper: Citizen Science as a Core Component of Research Infrastructure” by Laura Trouille (2020), which make use of GalaxyZoo, https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/zookeeper/galaxy-zoo, accessed August 24, 2020.

²²⁰ It is understood that “engagement” encompasses any “Outreach,” “Broader Impacts,” or other programming or projects where stakeholders can be identified.

²²¹ For example, one could envision guidelines for Broader Impacts sections that include the identification of stakeholders, evidence-based assessment of need, and impact of programming on addressing these needs. This framework would be relevant on all scales, from partnering with individuals at local schools, to collaborative programs between institutions or community organizations, to large facility construction.

• • included in established partnerships as part of evaluation for funding renewals and new proposals.
  • Impact: Ensures that ethical and mutually beneficial partnerships are established between the Profession and stakeholders.
  • Programmatics: Cost for the formation of agency specific office, as described in Goal 1, Suggestion 2.
• NSF
  • Method: Broader Impacts in its current form can be readily reframed as partnerships. Both Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts need to be evaluated comprehensively and pass a threshold for the proposal acceptance.
  • Impact: All stakeholders are included in Broader Impacts programming. Consistent weighting and evaluation of Broader Impacts.
  • Programmatics: No-cost. Can be implemented in 1–2 years.
• Research Facilities, Including Large Ground-Based Facilities and Space-Based Missions
  • Method: The panel suggests that strategic planning for partnership programs (e.g., all EBIO efforts) begin at project/mission conception.²²² Further, partnerships ought to be properly staffed with personnel,²²³ including EBIO professionals, and driven by a vision created by both the EBIO team and stakeholders. The panel suggests that stakeholder leaders of partnership programs be integrated into the project/mission leadership structure with access to the decision-making bodies, and that there be regular discussion of partnership outcomes with the scientific team. Proposal review criteria would reward evidence-based plans to establish such partnerships.
  • Impact: Partnerships are integrated within the operation of the Profession.
  • Programmatics: Benchmark of about 5 percent of the operational budget invested in building partnerships with stakeholder communities.²²⁴

N.6.6.2 Build Inclusive Partnerships with International Stakeholders

Astronomy is a global, collaborative profession.²²⁵ The U.S. community must attend to the well-being of international members and partnerships or it puts ongoing scientific excellence at risk. Lack of cultural diversity and language barriers impede equitable inclusion in the Profession. In particular, institutions are accountable for ensuring the well-being of international participants by cultivating communities that do not erase cultural identity. Visa status and international political turmoil make international members vulnerable to abuse. Securing visas and associated documentation requires a significant time commitment and is an emotional stressor, thus impacting the mental health and research productivity of international members. During times of international distress, like the COVID-19 pandemic, consulates and international borders may be closed, disrupting visa applications.

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²²² The Rubin Observatory’s EPO efforts for the LSST are an effective example of integration of EPO programming at project conception. The Rubin Observatory LSST EPO team contracted outside evaluators to conduct a user’s needs assessment when designing their plans. EPO Design Document, Amanda Bauer, https://docushare.lsstcorp.org/docushare/dsweb/Get/LEP-31/LEP-31.pdf, accessed November 18, 2020.

²²³ Personnel needs may include technical staff (software engineers, web developers, IT staff—particularly in the era of massive data sets), education experts, social media expertise, and an assessment team that includes social scientists and community advisors.

²²⁴ Large scientific projects with such a level of investment are expected to result in highly positive socioeconomic impact. See M. Florio, 2019, Investing in Science, Social Cost-Benefit Analysis of Research Infrastructures, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

²²⁵ Many major collaborations have international partners, such as the LSST Dark Energy Survey Collaboration, Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), the International Space Station, and so on.

Goal 6, Suggestion 2: The panel suggests that the Profession promote global, culturally supported pathways into the Profession and provide training in inclusive community practice to all participants. The health of international collaborations could be enhanced by establishing and enforcing codes of conduct.

Method, impact, and programmatics and cost to achieve this suggestion:

• The Profession and Funding Agencies
  • Method: The panel suggests that funding agencies protect members of the Profession who are vulnerable owing to their international status. For example, institutions and professional societies²²⁶ could identify teams of individuals who are versed in institutional resources for international participants to form Institutional Support Teams that aid international scholars and their families as they adjust to U.S. culture. The panel further suggests that U.S.-based and international partners could collaboratively agree upon codes of conduct, methods to enact them, and repercussions for violations.
  • Impact: A Profession that supports international participants to enable scientific excellence.
  • Programmatics: No-cost. Could be implemented immediately.
• The Profession
  • Method: The panel suggests building culturally supported training pathways for entry into the Profession for scholars from regions of the world where astronomy is growing but engagement with the U.S. workforce is currently low (e.g., Chile, Mexico, South Africa). Healthy partnership programs would take into account the needs and cultural values of stakeholders. Examples include encouraging applications to graduate programs, developing predoctoral and postdoctoral exchange programs, and supporting summer schools and instructor training programs like PASEA.²²⁷ Partnerships with the stakeholder communities are critical for developing culturally informed programming, including EBIO activities run at international observational facilities. Professional societies might create forums for outcomes and cultural knowledge to be exchanged with and reported to the Profession. The Profession also needs to encourage students and scientific leaders to be trained abroad, given the wealth of knowledge and expertise that is available.
  • Impact: Increased participation from international communities within the Profession to advance scientific excellence.
  • Programmatics: $150,000/year based on average International Astronomical Union (IAU) Astronomy Development Grants.²²⁸

N.6.6.3 Build Sustainable Partnerships with the Global Community and the Earth

Standard practices in the Profession have a negative impact on the environment—more than the average global citizen—and significantly contribute to climate change. Ironically, even as we search for habitable worlds, the Profession’s large carbon footprint is decreasing the habitability of our own planet.²²⁹

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²²⁶ AAS could partner with the IAU to make resources available to support international scholars—for example, through the USNC-IAU committee, https://aas.org/comms/usnc-iau-committee, accessed November 13, 2020.

²²⁷ Pan-African School for Emerging Astronomers, https://www.astrowestafrica.org/about, accessed August 24, 2020.

²²⁸ Based on the approximate average for similar programming over 7 years for IAU Astronomy for Development Grants, https://www.iau.org/development/funding, accessed August 24, 2020.

²²⁹ N. Astron, 2020, “The Climate Issue,” Nature Astronomy 4:811, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-01216-9.

The carbon footprint of the Profession is unnecessarily large owing to travel to conferences, meetings, and observatories; high-performance computing; and facility construction.^230,231,232 The Profession has taken some steps to address this—for example, remote observing is becoming more common. COVID-19 forced a rapid response, in which the Profession has demonstrated responsible stewardship, notably through virtual conferences, panel reviews, and collaboration meetings (e.g., AAS 236th meeting). Remote conferences increase equitable access by removing constraints inherently associated with travel (e.g., dependent care, visa restrictions) and adding benefits (e.g., asynchronous participation, more affordable). These adjustments can be leveraged to build future models for responsible stewardship in the face of climate change. The Profession is often called the “gateway science” owing to the public’s fascination with astronomy. This status affords the Profession a unique opportunity to educate the populace in scientific literacy, including climate change, thus fulfilling a major need in the current sociopolitical environment where there is a distrust of science that has real-life consequences.

Goal 6, Suggestion 3: The panel suggests that funding agencies, professional societies, and private foundations reduce the Profession’s carbon footprint and other impacts on the environment. The panel suggests that the Profession increase engagement in initiatives that educate the public in the language of science with attention to climate change.

Method, impact, and programmatics and cost to achieve this suggestion:

• Funding Agencies and Funding Institutions
  • Method: The panel suggests that specific focus on reducing the carbon footprint be included in environmental assessments and mitigation plans in proposals for new facility construction, maintenance, and operation.²³³ Further, facility operators and institutions participating in large collaborations could consider both a carbon offset plan and an assessment of the carbon footprint associated with travel.
  • Impact: Assessment, quantification, and mitigation of environmental impact by the Profession.
  • Programmatics: Costs can be included in a facility’s planning process.
• NSF-AST, NASA-APD/SMD, Educational/College/University Institutions
  • Method: The panel suggests redesigning old and funding new initiatives and education programs to focus on climate change.²³⁴
  • Impact: Capitalizes on public interest in astronomy to educate large audiences on scientific language and climate change.

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²³⁰ L. Prichard, C. Oliveira, A. Aloisi, J. Roman-Duval, S. Hernandez, C. Pacifici, I. Momcheva, and STScI Women in Astronomy Forum, 2019, “Enhancing Conference Participation to Bridge the Diversity Gap,” white paper submitted to Astro2020: Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics, https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.10996.

²³¹ See A.R.H. Stevens, S. Bellstedt, P.J. Elahi, and M.T. Murphy, 2020, “The Imperative to Reduce Carbon Emissions in Astronomy,” Nature Astronomy 4:843–851, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-1169-1. Based on Australian astronomer emissions, but indicative of the carbon footprint of astronomers in general.

²³² S. Portegies Zwart, 2020, “The Ecological Impact of High-Performance Computing in Astrophysics,” Nature Astronomy 4:819–822, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-1208-y.

²³³ A summary of the benefits of combining Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act and the National Environmental Policy Act is given by the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, https://www.achp.gov/integrating_nepa_106, accessed May 16, 2020.

²³⁴ Although “any individual actions we take will pale in comparison to corporate and industrial pollution Astronomers have an ‘ethical obligation … that must not be ignored’ … we should not internalize environmental guilt; instead we must call for systemic change and fight against bad practice.” N. Astron, 2020, “The Climate Issue,” Nature Astronomy 4:811, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-01216-9.

• • Programmatics: No significant change in funding. Agencies would need to refocus priorities when assessing successful proposals.

N.6.7 Goal 7: Partnering with Indigenous Communities

The future health of the Profession depends upon developing and maintaining healthy partnerships with Indigenous communities. Optimally sited observatories are a necessary resource for the Profession; access to those sites is critical to their success. Many ground-based observatories²³⁵ are built on lands that have legal, cultural, historical, and/or sacred significance to Indigenous communities. Many large astronomy departments are hosted at academic institutions that have profited from similarly obtained land allotments.²³⁶ Despite the value of these resources, Indigenous stakeholders are the least represented in the Profession,²³⁷ suggesting that the Profession’s past and current efforts to engage with Indigenous peoples are ineffective. Growing tensions owing to such land usage are recognized on a global scale, which negatively impacts public and political support for the Profession. It is therefore critical to develop long-term, targeted, functional partnerships with Indigenous communities that explicitly recognize Indigenous sovereignty and personhood.

Building healthy partnerships with Indigenous communities necessitates the following: (1) culturally supported pathways for inclusion in the Profession; (2) equitable access to education, current and emerging technologies, and economic benefits of hosting an astronomical facility; and (3) responsible stewardship in recognition of the use of Indigenous lands by non-Indigenous entities. This last includes partnership with Indigenous communities in order to make reparations and to enter respectful dialogue about the construction of future facilities. The above provides a foundation upon which community values may be realized.

N.6.7.1 Mitigate the Negative Impact of Past Engagement Around the Summit of Maunakea as Part of a Larger Effort to Build a Functional Partnership with Local Indigenous Communities

Lack of an authentic partnership with Kanaka Maoli (the Indigenous people of Hawai’i) impedes the efficacy of the astronomy workforce, significantly risks facilities’ investments, negatively impacts Kanaka Maoli, and diminishes public support. It puts into question the integrity upon which scientific discovery is realized. The Profession has not practiced responsible stewardship as described by the equity-advancing values proposed in this report. This is manifested by the lack of guiding principles to be upheld by the University of Hawai’i (UH), the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) International Observatory (TIO), or the Profession as a whole, for the ethical practice of astronomy. Box N.3 gives a brief summary of the Profession’s

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²³⁵ The following is a non-exhaustive list of some of the most prominent U.S. observatory sites listed with the associated Indigenous community: Maunakea Observatories (Kanaka Maoli); Kitt Peak National Observatory (Tohono O’odham); Mount Graham International Observatory (Apache); Las Campanas Observatory, Cerro Pachón/Gemini South Observatory/Rubin Observatory (Diaguita); Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (Likan Antai).

²³⁶ For example, 10.7 million acres of Indigenous lands were allotted to 52 land grant universities through the Morrill Act and similar legislation to aid their economic development and growth. Institutions with astronomy programs that significantly benefit from these lands include Cornell, Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan State, Washington State, University of California, Rutgers, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Maryland, University of Massachusetts, University of Wisconsin, University of Arizona, and University of Minnesota.

²³⁷ There are approximately 6.8 million Indigenous people (U.S. Census Bureau, 2020) living in the United States (~2.09 percent total population), but on order of 10 hold Ph.D.s in physics and astronomy, https://worldpopulationreview.com/states/native-american-population, accessed August 2020.

activities on Maunakea in the historical context of engagement with Kanaka Maoli. It highlights the negative impact past modes of engagement have had on both the Profession and Kanaka Maoli, with the intent to learn from past mistakes and frame a pathway for a more equitable and collaborative future together for the benefit of all.

The misalignment between the Profession’s actions and Indigenous values has led to the current impasse. The situation on Maunakea in Hawai’i jeopardizes the following: (1) Economic prosperity through the potential loss of all investment in future observatories and access to current observatories. (2) Health and well-being of Indigenous astronomers who are forced to choose from a false dichotomy between cultural and professional values, thus creating both an unnecessary conflict within Indigenous communities and a narrative that counters any efforts toward inclusion of Indigenous people,^238,239 the least represented group within the Profession. Members of the Profession are forced to align for or against construction of TMT, which can be divisive within the scientific community when moral principles are not in alignment with science-driven goals. (3) Broadening participation and continued innovation because both the academic pursuit of excellent science and Indigenous practices are lost or impeded by ongoing conflict around access²⁴⁰ to the lands on and around Maunakea’s summit.

The following methods suggest a path forward that begins and ends with Indigenous stakeholders and protectors of the land. It relies upon the inherent integrity of the Profession to pause all construction, listen to Indigenous communities, and engage in ethical practices that build trust and fundamentally acknowledge Indigenous personhood. These methods are meant to serve as a foundation upon which future and current facilities, institutions, observatories, and observatory sites can assess investments in partnership with Indigenous stakeholders.

Goal 7, Suggestion 1: The panel suggests that funding agencies hold ground-based observatories accountable to a high ethical standard, particularly around the construction of TMT on Maunakea. A true partnership as defined above would redirect effort to identify stakeholders and assess their needs, values, and activities, especially in relation to the Kanaka Maoli.²⁴¹

Method, impact, and programmatics and cost to achieve this suggestion:

• State of Hawai’i and TMT Institutions, Held Accountable by Funding Agencies
  • Method: The panel strongly suggests that any new or continued construction on the summit of Maunakea be contingent upon having proactively established a pathway forward using a community-based approach that is based on consent and mutual agreement.²⁴² To ensure said pathway, the panel suggests, in addition to following guidelines developed in Goal 1, Suggestion 2, and Goal 6,

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²³⁸ H. Kaluna, M. Neal, M. Silva, and T. Trent, 2020, “A Collective Insight into the Cultural and Academic Journeys of Native Hawaiians While Pursuing Careers in Physics and Astronomy,” community input from submission, March 6.

²³⁹ A. Venkatesan, D. Begay, A. Burgasser, I. Hawkins, K. Kimura, N. Maryboy, L. Peticolas, G. Rudnick, D. Simons, and S. Tuttle, 2019, “Collaboration with Integrity: Indigenous Knowledge in 21st Century Astronomy,” Bulletin of the AAS 51(7), white paper submitted to Astro2020: Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics, https://baas.aas.org/pub/2020n7i020/release/1.

²⁴⁰ Cultural practices that require access to the summit and its surrounding lands can be unplanned and personal in nature, requiring unfettered and timely access.

²⁴¹ The NSF statement on August 13 (https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=301034) is an encouraging motion in the proposed direction with the hope that these efforts will be used to effectively engage with local Indigenous stakeholders and define a mutually beneficial pathway forward. Should a formal federal environmental review process begin, inclusion of local Indigenous stakeholder perspectives is critical for assessing outcomes and process.

²⁴² There have been proposals, such as those of Governor Ige in 2015 (see Box N.3), in reaction to demonstrations. The panel’s overarching suggestion is that the Profession position itself to proactively approach the coming decade, rather than continue down a trajectory that is increasingly reactive in nature.

• • Suggestion 1, the three methods outlined below. The panel further suggests that funding agencies not invest in future projects on Maunakea unless this and the following three methods are realized.
  • Impact: Allows time for respectful dialogue, which cannot occur under duress.²⁴³
  • Programmatics: No change in cost^.244
• TMT International Observatory LLC (TIO), University of Hawai’i (UH), and Other Facility Lease Holders on Maunakea’s Summit, Held Accountable by Funding Agencies
  • Method: Allocate funding in facilities budget for proactive, ecologically sound maintenance of current facilities and complete cleanup of decommissioned observatory sites.²⁴⁵ The panel suggests that funding agencies mandate annual reports on maintenance, cleanup, and other terms of land lease/occupation, as a requirement of any federal investment in TMT and in compliance with Goal 6, Suggestion 3.
  • Impact: Demonstrates that Indigenous voices have been heard on this matter and are respected, and thus intentional reparations are enacted.
  • Programmatics: Federal agencies can ensure compliance. Cost is $1 million/year for maintenance, $23.5 million/observatory for decommissioning and cleanup.²⁴⁶These costs will need to be verified and updated using independent estimates and in collaboration with the local community.
• TIO, Held Accountable by Funding Agencies
  • Method: Fund initiative(s) for stakeholders who have an interest in Maunakea, including Kanaka Maoli cultural knowledge holders, to open a respectful and continuous dialogue around informed consent, where Kanaka Maoli are included in the TMT/TIO leadership. Informed consent²⁴⁷ means an iterative process of proposal and review that addresses ethics and impacts on Indigenous persons and communities. Funding agencies can hold TIO accountable by making any federal funding for TMT contingent upon the ethical practices for partnership.
  • Impact: Provides a roadmap for the respectful development of future facilities that upholds the integrity of Indigenous people and the Profession.
  • Programmatics: Cost: $10 million initial efforts, 10 percent annual operating and maintenance costs—in addition to Community Benefits Package and Education and Public Outreach.
• Funding Agencies and Institutions
  • Method: Systematically determine whether there are Indigenous stakeholders and what their needs, values, and activities are prior to and during development of any new facility. Hold facility development to the same ethical standards as any partnership in the Profession.²⁴⁸ Within this framework, local stakeholders (especially Indigenous) would be included in planning, construction, maintenance, and decommissioning of facilities, as well as in defining benchmarks for accountability.
  • Impact: Funding institutions and landholders would create an ethics review board, in accordance with Goal 6, Suggestion 1, tasked with review and approval of facilities development, working in partnership with local stakeholders. Funding agencies can provide federally mandated and

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²⁴³ See Box N.3 for a brief historical accounting, and references therein that were provided by Kanaka Maoli to this panel, as evidence of Indigenous perspectives and experiences.

²⁴⁴ TMT declined to report delay costs in the report it provided to the panel. It is here assumed that these will not exceed current costs.

²⁴⁵ A. Witze, 2015, “Hawaii Prunes Mauna Kea Telescope Hub,” Nature 522:15–16, https://www.nature.com/news/hawaii-prunes-mauna-kea-telescope-hub-1.17688.

²⁴⁶ One to three of the 13 current observatories on the summit are projected to be decommissioned in the next few years, whereas the current lease mandates all 13 to be completely cleaned up by 2033. This cost is based on the estimate provided by TIO for a single observatory. The expected cost investments for maintenance, decommissioning, and cleanup were provided by TMT and are in 2019 dollars.

²⁴⁷ Defined in the Department for Health and Human Services Common Rule Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects.

²⁴⁸ Examples are literature surveys, stakeholder surveys, focus groups, cultural impact surveys like those required by the National Historic Preservation Act, and an evaluating committee that includes historians, environmental protection representatives, local community representatives, and sociologists.

• • professionally established ethical standards, protections, and guidelines for individual human, cultural, artifact, and environmental impacts from facilities development.
  • Programmatics: Included in construction and maintenance cost.
• The Profession and Funding Agencies
  • Method: Require proposals using observational facilities that have Indigenous stakeholders consider the societal impacts of the observatory and its use on those communities. The panel suggests that a mandatory educational module be included in the time application, where this module would be developed in collaboration with Kanaka Maoli and focus on societal impacts and the equity-advancing values outlined in Section N.5, “A Values Statement for the Profession of Astronomy and Astrophysics,” earlier.
  • Impact: Self-education of PIs on the process and impact of observatory construction on Indigenous lands.
  • Programmatics: Low-cost. Could be implemented immediately.

N.6.7.2 Build Functional Partnerships with Indigenous Communities and Culturally Supported Pathways for Inclusion for Indigenous Members of the Profession

The panel believes that there is a critical need to build long-term, functional partnerships with Indigenous communities. Lack of resources, often related to the limited availability of culturally relevant education systems, as well as poverty²⁴⁹ are major contributing factors to the broad education gap in Indigenous communities starting in early childhood.²⁵⁰ TCUs and Indigenous education centers are increasingly able to provide education through culturally relevant systems of study, but these same institutions are often severely underresourced. For example, such institutions may not have basic Internet access, technological infrastructure, or support for adequate computational literacy education and training. Students from under-resourced institutions suffer the consequences of inequitable access from the earliest career stages. The combination of under-resourced educational institutions and cultural marginalization within the Profession ultimately counters the inclusivity efforts of Indigenous scientists within the Profession. The addition of the optics of world-class facilities, occupied by non-Indigenous people, on Indigenous lands, can deepen distrust for the Profession in some Indigenous communities. Initiatives that aim to build mutually respectful and culturally relevant partnerships with Indigenous communities are shown²⁵¹ to significantly increase support for the Profession from local Indigenous stakeholders—and more broadly STEM—and to open culturally supported pathways for Indigenous youth to enter the Profession.

Goal 7, Suggestion 2: The Profession is accountable for promoting equitable, culturally supported participation. This requires a change in the Profession’s culture so that Indigenous contributions are appropriately credited and Indigenous people and their cultures and values are granted respect. The panel suggests that funding agencies increase the scope of engagement and funding for existing partnerships with Indigenous communities and new partnership initiatives. Indigenous participation can be supported using targeted funding for (1) fellowships that support astronomy students from Indigenous

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²⁴⁹ Indigenous communities experience more than twice the national poverty rate. See U.S. Census Bureau, “Poverty Status,” https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=B17&d=ACS%201-Year%20Estimates%20Detailed%20Tables&tid=ACSDT1Y2018.B17001C&vintage=2018, accessed August 24, 2020.

²⁵⁰ U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Indigenous Peoples, “Education,” https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/mandated-areas1/education.html, accessed August 24, 2020.

²⁵¹ A.S. Lee, S. Brummel, K. Ehret, S. Komperud, and T. LaCoursiere, 2020, “Building a Framework for Indigenous Astronomy Collaboration: Native Skywatchers, Indigenous Scientific Knowledge Systems, and the Bell Museum,” International Planetarium Society Conference Proceedings, https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.07270.

communities, (2) Indigenous-led research, and (3) partnerships and support networks between Indigenous educational centers and larger research institutions and collaborations.

Method, impact, and programmatics and cost to achieve this suggestion:

• The Profession, AAS Journals
  • Method: Self-educate about Indigenous methods of producing, curating, and sharing Indigenous traditional knowledge (TK), which include oral histories and protocols, in order to develop, in partnership with Indigenous communities,²⁵² standards for respectfully crediting and using TK (e.g., in journal articles and talks).²⁵³ The panel suggests that the Profession change language that reinforces adversarial or dismissive attitudes toward Indigenous communities and perspectives.
  • Impact: Lays groundwork to meaningfully and respectfully credit culturally significant Indigenous contributions.²⁵⁴
  • Programmatics: No cost. Can be implemented immediately.
• NSF and NASA
  • Method: Fund PIs located at TCUs, from Indigenous communities, or at institutions that predominantly serve Indigenous populations in partnership with Indigenous communities in order to develop culturally supported, Indigenous-led research and extended (5-year) research engagement through faculty and student training and mentorship,²⁵⁵ administrative support, and up-to-date technological tools and support. Optimally, these would include funding for efforts to build strong, long-term research partnerships with large institutions/big data centers/collaborations with the aim of developing culturally supported pathways for full participation of Indigenous people in science careers.
  • Impact: Provides equitable access and increases multimodal expertise.
  • Programmatics: $200,000/year to support two initiatives at $100,000/year per agency and implemented in 2–3 years.
• NSF, NASA, and DOE
  • Method: Fund Indigenous education centers in partnership with Indigenous communities. This could include building and maintaining a computational infrastructure to enable remote participation in education opportunities, conferences, collaboration, and training from within Indigenous communities.²⁵⁶ This includes computational facilities, AV equipment, and training, with Internet standards of an R1 institution.
  • Impact: Provides equitable access and amplifies Indigenous voices and approaches within the Profession.

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²⁵² For example, use Local Contexts, “Traditional Knowledge Labels,” https://localcontexts.org/labels/traditional-knowledge-labels, accessed August 24, 2020.

²⁵³ Standards and protocols set forth by the Global Indigenous Data Alliance through the FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) and CARE (Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, Ethics) principles are an emerging avenue for such endeavors, https://www.gida-global.org, accessed August 24, 2020.

²⁵⁴ A. Venkatesan, D. Begay, A. Burgasser, I. Hawkins, K. Kimura, N. Maryboy, L. Peticolas, G. Rudnick, D. Simons, and S. Tuttle, 2019, “Collaboration with Integrity: Indigenous Knowledge in 21st Century Astronomy,” Bulletin of the AAS 51(7), white paper submitted to Astro2020: Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics, https://baas.aas.org/pub/2020n7i020/release/1.

²⁵⁵ A.A. Venkatesan, D. Begay, A. Burgasser, I. Hawkins, K. Kimura, N. Maryboy, L. Peticolas, G. Rudnick, D. Simons, and S. Tuttle, 2019, “Collaboration with Integrity: Indigenous Knowledge in 21st Century Astronomy,” Bulletin of the AAS 51(7), white paper submitted to Astro2020: Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics, https://baas.aas.org/pub/2020n7i020/release/1.

²⁵⁶ Many Indigenous cultures value physical presence within their home community. In these cases, equitable access can be attained only when this cultural value is supported via remote participation.

• • Programmatics: Cost: $1 million/year per agency, implemented in 1–2 years.²⁵⁷
• NSF, NASA, and DOE, Private Foundations
  • Method: The panel suggests that private foundations create long-term, $50,000/year fellowships, from undergraduate to Ph.D., for students belonging to Indigenous communities. The panel further suggests that federal agencies create bridge fellowships for students from TCU and Tribal Community Centers.
  • Impact: Provides equitable access and amplifies Indigenous voices and approaches within the Profession.
  • Programmatics: $100,000/year per agency and $500,000/year from private foundations, implemented in 1–2 years.²⁵⁸

N.7 SUMMARY, BENCHMARKS, AND CONCLUSION

The panel has outlined a multi-faceted program to leverage funding to recognize, motivate, support, and hold accountable workplaces built on equity-advancing values; reimagine leadership to benefit from the multimodal expertise of our full community; use that leadership to end discrimination and harassment; remove barriers to education and training to ensure equitable access to knowledge and full participation in astronomy at all career stages; build meaningful partnerships with astronomy’s local and global communities in recognition that a truly inclusive astronomy is inseparable from every one of the spheres it inhabits; and partner with Indigenous communities in order to cultivate and sustain healthy partnerships (e.g., Goal 6) for mutual benefit.

Ultimately, data are needed to inform every stage of this program; this information has to be collected routinely, comprehensively, and with intention. The success of this more robust engagement with data, the panel suggests, depends on a dedicated office, in each agency, to oversee implementation and use the data repository to monitor progress toward realizing the goals.

N.7.1 Suggested Timeline and Benchmarks

The relationship to the goals is outlined in Table N.1.

• Year 1: (1) Set expectations for scientific conduct; (2) implement moderate, low-cost changes; and (3) assemble the resources and structures to plan for and support change.
• Years 1–3: (1) Adopt comprehensive program requirements; (2) rebalance funding priorities to expand prior and begin new programs; and (3) apply resources to support, review, assess, and hold accountable.
• Mid-decade: The panel suggests that dedicated agencies independently and in collaboration organize advisory board groups that can work with a National Academies–appointed mid-decadal panel to assess the progress and compare with initial benchmarks; preferably as a publicly available report to the advisory board groups. Findings would be used to update existing plans and inform directions for years 6–10.

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²⁵⁷ Grants would provide financial support for infrastructure and maintenance. This program is designed to equip and support all TCUs over a decade, with institutional needs widely varying. Costs have been calculated on the basis of 37 institutions, each of them being provided a total of about $500,000 over a decade.

²⁵⁸ Grants would provide financial support for 18 students per year in physics and astronomy.

N.7.2 Conclusion

The pursuit of science, and by extension scientific excellence, is inseparable from the humans who animate it.

This recognition, as stated in the introduction to this panel’s report, motivates the suggested work to systematically embed equity-advancing values throughout astronomical research, technical, and education programs. The necessary growth and change to reframe existing structures will not always be comfortable. However, astronomers have always asked big questions and pursued fundamental challenges. The goals stated here are no less worthy of our vigorous intellectual engagement and commitment than any of the other daunting problems we pursue, from the origins of life to the nature of dark matter and dark energy. Only by properly supporting the people who do the science can we maximize the return on the nation’s investment in fundamental research.

TABLE N.1 Timeline of Actions That Require Structural Changes