I actually do what I preach...I have POC high school students come to my lab at umass to mentor them in 1) what a STEM career can look like, 2) help them see how a STEM career is something they can do, and 3) help them get into more colleges with a lab internship on their CV. Basically give them opportunities that otherwise wouldn’t be afforded to them, unless they cane from rich families with connections. But by and large, I'm the one who does the heavy lifting trying to do outreach into area schools. The diversity initiative at umass is a joke in most ways that can have practical applications to ACTUALLY help out the local community. Basically all they have to offer is red tape and "oh that sounds like a good idea" but don't follow through. They COULD invest all the time and money from this street-naming campaign into expanding the diversity outreach people like me, and a few other labs, are already doing on our own time. Like I'd LOVE to have an admin assistant dedicated to communicating with area guidance counselors and interested research labs to match each other up with interested HS students. But I guess the street nane thing is FAR too important than expanding the "silly" notion of getting HS students in a school-to-STEM pipeline.

I also cannot explain enough how much this street thing is a big PR bandaid on a much larger UMass issue has with POC employees. I feel like it's a big distraction IMO....a big fat red herring. UMMS has an issue with department heads not promoting or hiring women/POC people when their CVs are top notch. Looking at top level leadership positions in departments, there is a lack of both women and POC....and that is definitely not due to a lack of excellence women and POC have on the job. There also is a great deal of ablism through UMMS leadership, that those who aren't neurotypical are not given promotions even though their work output clearly should be recognized. I can tell you in absolute terms that people in the UMMS community are not complaining about the street name. The biggest issues in the community right now are the anti-labor activities and institutionalized rascism internal to the medical center. I feel those issues are trying to be rug swept with this new street name PR campaign.