Contributions to Diversity Statements for Applicants

The School of Physical Sciences at UC San Diego has a strong interest in ensuring that all candidates hired for faculty appointments, regardless of personal demographic characteristics and lived experiences, share our commitment to excellence, access and Principles of Community. All candidates applying for faculty appointments within the school are required to submit a 1-2 page Contributions to Diversity statement. The purpose of the statement is to identify candidates who have the professional skills, awareness, experience, and desire to engage in activities that will advance our campus equity, diversity and inclusion goals.

The statement should outline the candidate’s understanding of, past contributions to, and future plans to enhance equity, diversity, and inclusion in higher education. When writing these statements, we encourage candidates to provide specific information on the motivation, duration, and impact of their outreach and mentoring activities.

The statement should outline the candidate’s understanding of, past contributions to, and future plans to enhance equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) within their department, campus, and/or discipline. When writing these statements, we strongly encourage candidates to provide specific information on the motivation, intended audience, duration, and impact of their various EDI efforts, which may encompass research, teaching, mentoring, service, and/or outreach activities.

Statements should include a well-articulated plan of contributing to programs that increase access and success of underrepresented students and faculty in the candidate’s department, campus, and/or discipline. We especially welcome candidates to describe how they have benefited from, contributed to, or created such programs, and/or served as a role model or leader in inclusive mentoring.

Additional information and guidelines on writing these statements can be found through the UCSD Center for Faculty Diversity and Inclusion.

Read a detailed explanation of how these statements are evaluated.

Example statements (redacted) from current UC San Diego faculty.

The following statement provides relevant motivation and context for these statements,
and explains how they fit into the overall mission and policy of the University of
California.

May and Tull Defend Diversity-Contribution Statements