The Department of Political Science at Indiana University Bloomington is committed to prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion among our students, faculty, and staff. 

Our community is bolstered by the incorporation of people from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences, and our intellectual culture is enhanced by an environment that promotes and protects human dignity for all. Together, as a diverse community, we strive to represent and promote these values in our department.

The Political Science community is composed of people of different ability statuses, ages, biological sexes, cultures, genders, ideological views, nationalities, races, ranks, religions, sexual orientations, and socio-economic backgrounds. We collectively maintain this environment by encouraging intellectual diversity and facilitating open inquiry that is, nevertheless, respectful and constructive. Indeed, we believe that the benefits of a broad-based liberal arts education, and the principles of academic freedom, cannot be realized without such a commitment.

While this is true of all units in the College and Indiana University, it is particularly true in a Department of Political Science. Learning about -- and confronting -- the sources of ideological disagreements and social cleavages is a fundamental part of what we do in our teaching, research, and service. While we do not expect (or even desire) to reach consensus on every issue, we believe that critical inquiry into political systems and processes must be conducted while reinforcing dignity and solidarity at the most basic level.

This statement is intended to advance that agenda in the following ways. First, by establishing a commitment to an ongoing process of community-building premised on norms that are widely shared. Second, by publicly committing to continue recruiting and supporting people from historically underrepresented groups to study and work in our department, in order to augment the learning environment for all. Third, by delivering inclusive educational excellence, and by providing resources and participating in training that will facilitate awareness of these commitments and values, and how best to achieve them, in an iterative process that incorporates regular feedback from all constituencies in the department. This statement will thus be reviewed annually by the department's standing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee in order to incorporate feedback from all constituencies in the department.