The Department of Psychology is committed to actively promoting inclusion and belonging for every member of our community and in all arenas of department life. When members of our community fall short of this aspiration, we share a responsibility to do all we can to promote change and support healing.
This page describes what to do If you personally experience, witness, or are told by others about a bias incident within our community. These processes are open to all UW Psychology community members regardless of race, sex, or other identities.
What is a bias incident? We define a bias incident as any incident in which there is a perception that an individual within our community was treated differently based on their identity and the experience could produce harm. By "identity" we are referring to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, citizenship, sex, pregnancy, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, size, socioeconomic class, disability, veteran status, or other aspects of one's identity.
If you are involved in or know of a bias incident, we encourage you to consider these two options:
First, please report the incident to the UW Civil Rights Compliance Office. Report an incident here. This site also provides the University's description of why this reporting mechanism is important and what happens when a report is made. You may report anonymously if you wish. This centralized, UW-wide tool allows UW to respond appropriately to incidents, to track incidents over time to gauge how we are doing, and to improve how we respond. In addition to making a report, we invite you to seek local support and guidance from within our Psychology Department community. We really want to hear from and support you in this process, so please consider us. This may be:
- A member of our Diversity Advocacy Team (DAT) or the Psychology Chair. The DAT is a group of faculty, staff, and students who are trained to be supportive advocates for you in this process. They are not an investigative body. View DAT membership here.
- Any faculty or staff member who you trust.
What happens if you seek local support?
- Primarily we do not want members of our community to deal with these experiences alone and want to support you as much as possible. That said, how you engage with us is completely your choice.
- If you contact the DAT, a member of the DAT will confidentially connect with you, listen to you, help you understand the reporting mechanism, and explore additional options for what to do based on your goals. If you would like, the DAT can connect with the Psychology Department Chair to develop a voluntary response to the incident to promote change, support healing, or provide education to prevent future occurrences. The DAT does not collect data on bias incidents, is not associated with the Civil Rights Compliance Office's reporting and response mechanisms, and will NOT provide any response that is not desired by the reporter. Our goal is to hear more fully about and respond as well as possible to what is happening in our community.
How do I contact the Diversity Advocacy Team or Chair?
- We do NOT encourage e-mail communication, as it is not privacy- protected and is subject to public records requests.
- Fill out a note and drop it in the locked comment box in the Psychology Department Main Office. Blank notes are available next to the box or you can download from here. It will ask you for the date, your name and phone number (both optional), a description of your experience, and for the name of any particular DAT member, faculty, or staff member you would like to connect with (optional). That's it. If you leave contact information, a member of the DAT will get back to you within a week. (note: These notes will be shredded weekly.)