MCB leadership met with student representatives on Wednesday, June 10th to identify actions to sustain and increase diversity within our program. As a result of our meeting, MCB commits to the following actions initiated by students and approved with overwhelming support by the MCB Steering Committee:

• MCB training faculty will now be required to complete the National Research Mentoring Network workshop.
• MCB orientation will now require implicit bias training for all incoming students.
• MCB commits to diversity in our seminar series. MCB will expand our current three year commitment to the BRiDGE seminar series into the future. We will change the seminar nomination process so that a committee including students will now review the list of potential speakers to ensure that the speakers reflect the diversity of the MCB community. To advance the mission of the BRiDGE seminar, we will reserve a seminar slot for an additional student-faculty co-hosted seminar by a Black, Indigenous, or Person of Color speaker annually.
• MCB commits to building a BRiDGE2, recruiting students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) by supporting travel expenses for students and faculty to visit HBCUs for seminars and recruitment efforts.
• MCB will continue to recruit underrepresented students at conferences, including ABRCMS, SACNAS, NOBCCHE and the MAC (minority affairs committee)-sponsored poster session of ASCB.
• MCB will continue to include a Diversity Panel for prospective students.
• MCB proposes to provide signing bonuses to incoming students to offset the costs associated with moving and beginning Graduate School, and to provide incentives to join the program.
• MCB will participate in the development and implementation of an annual climate survey.

MCB thanks the students who participated in this process and for their dedication to the program.