Who we are:

The Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) at the University of Connecticut is a community dedicated to scientific discovery, innovation, and education. This community is composed of people with diverse expertise, experiences, interests, values and beliefs, from many nations, ages, genders, sexual orientation, ability, and disparate economic, social, and ethnic backgrounds. We define our community as including undergraduates, faculty, graduate students, staff, and postdoctoral researchers.

We recognize that members of our community have experienced discrimination and disadvantages from historical and present-day injustices; we condemn these injustices and seek to rectify them to create a fair and inclusive learning and working community. We acknowledge that the land on which we work is the territory of the Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot, Eastern Pequot, Schaghticoke, Golden Hill Paugussett, Nipmuc, and Lenape Peoples, who have stewarded this land throughout the generations. We thank them for their strength and resilience in protecting this land and aspire to uphold our responsibilities according to their example.

 

Our values:

All members of the EEB community are expected to adhere to, and uphold ethical standards of behavior in all professional contexts within and outside of UConn. These ethical standards include:

• We value respectful, inclusive, and civil behavior towards people of all backgrounds. Everyone should feel welcomed, valued, and safe to pursue learning, inquiry, discovery, and teaching to achieve their diverse career goals.
• We expect openness to feedback, learning and growth from all members of the community.
• Everyone should be free of harassment, bias, and discrimination. We value action and accountability, in pursuit of justice, equity and inclusion, including anti-racist practices.
• Diversity of opinion, belief, ability, orientation, and experiences results in a stronger community. We value an awareness of how current events and social structures affect people of differing identities and strive for openness and respect for community members who may hold different cultural, political, religious and other values. Impact matters more than intent.
• Mental well-being is an important foundation for success, so we seek to provide support for achieving balanced mental health.
• Life balance is crucial for health and success, in and outside the workplace. We are people first, professionals second.
• Many members of our community must balance work with their personal responsibilities, including caring for their biological and chosen family members. We value the centrality of loved ones in our lives.
• We value contributions that support others; when we care for each other, we strengthen the community as a whole.
• The highest ethical standards are essential to scientific and career progress, including ethical research design, open and honest reporting of methods, data, and analysis.
• We value public understanding of science, and its application to solve societal and environmental challenges.

 

Our Mission:

Through living these values, the mission of the EEB community is to create benefits for our members, UConn, the scientific community, and society at large. These benefits include:

• Education and skills that form a foundation for scientific inquiry. These include, but are not limited to, understanding and critical evaluation of existing biological knowledge, skills in research design and implementation, data analysis, writing, and presentation.
• Scientific discovery advancing knowledge and tools to better understand the ecology, evolution, and biodiversity conservation. This is expressed in the form of publications, lectures, and presentations to the research community within UConn and beyond.
• Developing and contributing scientific understanding to address societal and environmental challenges.
• Transparency in processes and decision-making.
• Collaboration within and outside the department.
• The administrative framework to provide a safe, healthy, and productive working environment, including fiscal and managerial support to accomplish all departmental goals, and ongoing review to ensure that policies and practices align with our values.
• Professional development needed for workplace success in general, including skills, ethics and values.
• Mentorship and support for all members of the EEB community, at all stages, so they feel valued and encouraged to be successful, productive, and empowered to pursue their personal and career goals.
• Outreach, education, and engagement with the public to nurture an appreciation and understanding of the scientific process, ecology, evolution, biological diversity and the natural world.
• Engaging, recruiting, and retaining more people in the sciences, with an emphasis on improving infrastructure for greater participation and access for historically excluded groups.

 

We expect all members of the EEB department to be familiar with and apply the University’s Code of Conduct, the CLAS Strategic Plan and other university policies governing appropriate behavior and expectations.