Sponsored by the offices of the Chancellor, Provost, and Graduate Studies, the Diversity Dialogues on Graduate Education is a series of discussions designed to better understand and work on solving the needs of underrepresented graduate students. The dialogues have drawn around 200 attendees total, with key administrators in attendance at each dialogue. So far this year, there have been three Diversity Dialogues, each with a different focus.

The first dialogue discussed the needs and challenges of women graduate students in STEM, and included a focus on building career pipelines. The following dialogue focused on international graduate students and students with disabilities. The most recent dialogue regarded challenges for students of color and undocumented students.

All sessions are broken down into an initial presentation regarding results and feedback from graduate student surveys, a roundtable discussion or brainstorming session, and a concluding portion in which gathered ideas from both administrators and graduate students are voiced.

These dialogues are intended to identify best practices and solutions to the obstacles of underrepresented groups in graduate studies. In finding a space to link administrators and graduate students who identify with these groups, over time the dialogues will give way to better understanding of student experiences and needs. Administrative, faculty and student attendance are highly encouraged at these workshops, as more input increases administrators' understanding of student issues and likely will result in more effective strategies to enhance the recruitment and retention of a more diverse student population.

For questions or additional information, please contact the series coordinator, Amandeep Kaur, Graduate Student Assistant to the Vice Provost/Dean of Graduate Studies and Chancellor at ackaur@ucdavis.edu.