Advancing knowledge and practice wherever people interact with information and technology

Ollie Downs is a 5th Year MIDS student with a strong commitment to LGBTQ equality in data science.

The Paul Fasana LGBTQ Studies Fellowship supports graduate students at the School of Information whose research interests or studies are related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer studies in any field or discipline.

“As a non-binary person, my gender isn’t a 0 or 1. It’s not a 0.5 or an ‘X’ either,” said Downs. “It is my right to take up the digital space to define myself as ‘non-binary’ as much as it is my right to exist physically in a spatially unconstrained world as a gender-deviant person.”

GRE or GMAT scores are no longer required for applicants to all four of our graduate degree programs, effective Spring 2020. The School will make the submission of such test scores optional for all applicants.

I School faculty made this decision following the recommendation of the I School’s Diversity Working Group. Research indicates that standardized graduate entrance examinations are weak predictors of academic success in graduate school and that overemphasizing GRE and GMAT scores reinforces structural disadvantages to some demographic groups, particularly students from underrepresented minority and lower socioeconomic backgrounds.