{"id":71594,"date":"2020-11-24T12:34:24","date_gmt":"2020-11-24T17:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&#038;p=71594"},"modified":"2025-09-30T10:39:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T14:39:21","slug":"2020-herzberg-lecture","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/2020-herzberg-lecture\/","title":{"rendered":"2020 Herzberg Lecture: Focus on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-max  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n        \n                    \n                    \n            \n    <div class=\"cu-wideimage relative flex items-center justify-center mx-auto px-8 overflow-hidden md:px-16 rounded-xl not-prose  my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 bg-opacity-50 bg-cover bg-cu-black-50 pt-24 pb-32 md:pt-28 md:pb-44 lg:pt-36 lg:pb-60 xl:pt-48 xl:pb-72\" style=\"background-image: url(https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/162\/herzberg-lecture-1200w-1.jpg); background-position: 50% 50%;\">\n\n                    <div class=\"absolute top-0 w-full h-screen\" style=\"background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0.600);\"><\/div>\n        \n        <div class=\"relative z-[2] max-w-4xl w-full flex flex-col items-center gap-2 cu-wideimage-image cu-zero-first-last\">\n            <header class=\"mx-auto mb-6 text-center text-white cu-pageheader cu-component-updated cu-pageheader--center md:mb-12\">\n\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold mb-2 text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] cu-pageheader--center text-center mx-auto after:left-px\">\n                        2020 Herzberg Lecture: Focus on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                            <\/header>\n        <\/div>\n\n                    <svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"absolute bottom-0 w-full z-[1]\" fill=\"none\" viewbox=\"0 0 1280 312\">\n                <path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M26.412 315.608c-.602-.268-6.655-2.412-13.524-4.769a1943.84 1943.84 0 0 1-14.682-5.144l-2.276-.858v-5.358c0-4.876.086-5.358.773-5.09 1.674.643 21.38 5.84 34.646 9.109 14.682 3.59 28.935 6.858 45.936 10.449l9.874 2.089H57.322c-16.4 0-30.31-.16-30.91-.428ZM460.019 315.233c42.974-10.074 75.602-19.88 132.443-39.867 76.16-26.791 152.063-57.709 222.385-90.663 16.7-7.823 21.336-10.074 44.262-21.273 85.004-41.688 134.719-64.193 195.291-88.413 66.55-26.577 145.2-53.584 194.27-66.765C1258.5 5.626 1281.34 0 1282.24 0c.17 0 .34 27.596.34 61.3v61.299l-2.23.375c-84.7 13.718-165.93 35.955-310.736 84.931-46.494 15.753-65.427 22.076-96.166 32.15-9.102 3-24.814 8.198-34.989 11.574-107.543 35.954-153.008 50.422-196.626 62.639l-6.74 1.876-89.126-.054c-78.135-.054-88.782-.161-85.948-.857ZM729.628 312.875c33.229-10.985 69.248-23.523 127.506-44.207 118.705-42.223 164.596-57.709 217.446-73.302 2.62-.75 8.29-2.465 12.67-3.751 56.19-16.772 126.94-33.597 184.17-43.671 5.07-.91 9.66-1.768 10.22-1.875l.94-.161v170.236l-281.28-.054H719.968l9.66-3.215ZM246.864 313.411c-65.041-2.251-143.047-12.11-208.432-26.256-18.375-3.965-41.73-9.538-42.202-10.074-.171-.214-.257-21.38-.214-47.046l.129-46.618 6.654 3.697c57.313 32.043 118.491 56.531 197.699 79.143 40.313 11.521 83.459 18.058 138.669 21.059 15.584.857 65.685.857 81.14 0 33.744-1.876 61.306-4.93 88.396-9.806 6.396-1.126 11.634-1.983 11.722-1.929.255.375-20.48 7.769-30.999 11.038-28.592 8.948-59.288 15.646-91.873 20.147-26.36 3.59-50.015 5.627-78.35 6.698-15.584.59-55.209.59-72.339-.053Z\"><\/path>\n                <path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M-3.066 295.067 32.06 304.1v9.033H-3.066v-18.066Z\"><\/path>\n            <\/svg>\n            <\/div>\n\n    \n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n<p>Increasing diversity among genders, races and other metrics is very possible in post-secondary education, as long as everyone involved is committed to constant discussion about how to decrease barriers, according to Harvey Mudd College President Maria Klawe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Klawe spoke online Nov. 18, 2020 for Carleton University&#8217;s annual <a href=\"https:\/\/science.carleton.ca\/events\/herzberg-lecture\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gerhard Herzberg Lecture<\/a>, which emphasizes the relationship between science and society and seeks to address an aspect of science which has a pronounced impact on our daily lives. Similar to Harvey Mudd, Carleton&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sip\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">new Strategic Integrated Plan<\/a> includes a renewed commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"2020 Herzberg Lecture: Increasing Diversity in Computer Science at all Levels, with Dr. Maria Klawe\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qPdEVNd-DQk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The reason I care is I&#8217;m 69 years old,&#8221; Klawe told the audience on Zoom, &#8220;and when I grew up, I had a love of mathematics at a time when everyone said girls weren&#8217;t good at math. That really annoyed me. I spent much of my career trying to make it clear that anyone\u2014independent of gender, religion, race, background or any of these things\u2014can be good at pretty much everything.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>California-based Harvey Mudd, a science and engineering liberal arts college with about 900 students and 100 faculty, has seen a lot of progress in the past few years. For example, the student body is now about 50 per cent female, compared with 32 per cent in 2006. The non-Caucasian population stands at 69 per cent today, compared with 46 per cent in 2012. Changes in the computer science department are even more dramatic, Klawe noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-full wp-image-71597\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/maria-klawe-300w-1.jpg\" alt=\"Harvey Mudd College President Maria Klawe\" class=\"wp-image-71597\" srcset=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/162\/maria-klawe-300w-1.jpg 300w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/162\/maria-klawe-300w-1-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Harvey Mudd College President Maria Klawe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Creating a more welcoming environment came with a lot of adjustment for students and faculty alike, Klawe said. Everyone had to examine their biases, unconscious and conscious\u2014such as allowing certain students to dominate a classroom discussion and faculty learned to redirect individual student enthusiasm into office hour chats. There were worries among some faculty that emphasizing diversity would diminish the quality of education \u2014a fear that ended up being unfounded, Klawe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some particularly &#8220;painful&#8221; months came in 2017 amid student protests, she said. A report about student workload and faculty opinion of students was leaked to the campus student newspaper, <em>The Student Life<\/em>. At the time, the report seemed to indicate an excessive student workload, although the findings were not fully completed before the story appeared, Klawe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other worries of the era were the deaths of two Harvey Mudd students in separate, unrelated incidents, and a third death\u2014this one a suicide\u2014at a nearby campus. Klawe made sure to include time and space for the community to recover and help each other.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"not-prose cu-quote cu-component-spacing\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;There were difficult conversations . . . on what people&#8217;s experiences were, and it moved the whole college forward,&#8221; Klawe said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>The college has made many changes to recruit diverse faculty and students. For example, on the faculty recruiting side, committees are now trained in appropriate diversity and inclusion metrics to avoid various committee members &#8220;hiring people like themselves,&#8221; Klawe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For students, the admission materials have pivoted to include more diverse groups, the class focuses have changed to accommodate different perspectives (such as emphasizing discussion along with technical knowledge), and Harvey Mudd also uses tools such as internships and conferences to allow students to meet people who are similar to their own backgrounds, such as women or people of colour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Klawe emphasized that change does not happen in a hurry because &#8220;we live in a society that has stereotypes, and we all grew up in it.&#8221; She said that inclusivity requires constant effort and vigilance, as well as discussions with people from different backgrounds to best hone the work as time goes on.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"not-prose cu-quote cu-component-spacing\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;I think the long-term solution is we need to work on this for a long time, because it takes a long time to figure this stuff out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignfull wp-image-71355 size-full w-screen ml-offset-center cu-max-w-child-max px-4 md:px-6 lg:px-12\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"680\" src=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/162\/inclusion-hands-1200w-1.jpg\" alt=\"2020 Herzberg Lecture: Focus on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion\" class=\"wp-image-71355\" srcset=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/162\/inclusion-hands-1200w-1.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/162\/inclusion-hands-1200w-1-400x227.jpg 400w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/162\/inclusion-hands-1200w-1-300x170.jpg 300w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/162\/inclusion-hands-1200w-1-768x435.jpg 768w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/162\/inclusion-hands-1200w-1-700x397.jpg 700w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/162\/inclusion-hands-1200w-1-200x113.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n<p>&#8212;<br>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/our-stories\/\">More Stories<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Increasing diversity among genders, races and other metrics is very possible in post-secondary education, as long as everyone involved is committed to constant discussion about how to decrease barriers, according to Harvey Mudd College President Maria Klawe. Klawe spoke online Nov. 18, 2020 for Carleton University&#8217;s annual Gerhard Herzberg Lecture, which emphasizes the relationship between [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":71607,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[28],"cu_story_tag":[1930,1919],"class_list":["post-71594","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-community-partnerships","cu_story_tag-equity-diversity-and-inclusion","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-science"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/71594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/71594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97370,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/71594\/revisions\/97370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=71594"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=71594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}