The Diversity Committee welcomed Dean Dewey to our meeting and made introductions.

Dean Dewey lead the discussion on raising visibility of the Committee’s programming to the Library and the University Community.

The Dean remarked on our achievements last year and noted that she shared committee’s annual report with others.  She is proud of the committee.

The Dean discussed how the addition of the diversity residents coming to us this year would enrich the committee with their new ideas and perspective.

Ideas for expanding awareness of the Committee’s Programming

1. Web 2.0 presence for the Diversity Committee

Facebook page
YouTube channel
Twitter

2. Video tape programming

3. Open meeting presentations

4. Departmental diversity awareness discussions (issues relevant to the department)

5. Deans Newsletter

6. Trace: diversity research

7. SIS topics in Diversity

8. WRAPS Forum

9. Library Council Presentations

9. Incoming faculty and staff cultural presentations

10 Story telling (video/audio archive of student faculty and staff stories)

11. SACS

The committee is approaching it’s 10 year anniversary:
Where have we come and were do we want to go?

The lack of Library staff attendance may be influenced by environmental factors. We are understaffed and people have a hard time getting away.

With the ideas derived from our discussion with the Dean, the Committee will go forward with creating our goals for 2010-2011.

MAR 12/4/09

Spring 2010 Culture Corner

The new Culture Corner Display is set for December 14^th.  We will present a poster in the big cabinet on the first floor and books by or about the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates. Book wrangling is still in the planning stage.

We plan to have a ceremony to celebrate the collaboration of the Common Ground Book Club and the Culture Corner Jan 11^th.

Diversifi-  Planning

Hodges Auditorium is booked after 6 pm every Thursday for Spring Semester.  I there are sporadic Tuesday’s available. Feb 2 nd 4-6,  Feb 16^th 4-6, Feb 23^rd from 6-8.

We discussed finding an out of the library location.  The Music Auditorium may be a good choice.  I will check with the Music department and see what we have.  After we have a location and date we can recruit sponsors and start publicity.

Native American Student Association

Disscussion about having a NASA panel speak to student services about issues Native students have on campus.

Laurie mentioned events planned for next semester

WWII Code Talker, Keith Little?, is coming in January

April is Native American Heritage month

Discussion  about having another NASA panel in the spring maybe March.

Meeting with Dean Dewey

December 3^rd we are meeting with the Dean. Thura asks that we bring questions. The Dean has received our Annual Report.

Questions for the Dean

Shout out for the diversity committee at All Staff

Pertinent

Restructure

Library Staff Participation

The committee discussed options for more inclusion of the Library staff in the events produced by the committee.  The committee considered employing instruction components in the Library All staff meetings to broaden the awareness of diversity issues to the Library staff.

Ideas Shared

Take 20 style diversity talks

Ambassadors for diversity issues

5 to 10 min hot points at all staff

Video programming and post on the Diversity site

Committee Professional Opportunities

Send any conference information that is pertinent to the Diversity Committee.

BIC 2010- “Black in America: How Far We Have Come…Yet, So Far to Go”.

See Attached Information: http://omsa.utk.edu/files/Black%20Issues%20Call%20for%20Programs%202009%20Interactive.docx

We can brainstorm by email on the issues

MAR 11/17/09

Present: Thura Mack, Allison Roberts, Jerry Roberson, Laurie Roberson, Trisha Brady, Allison Sharp Bolorizadeh

1.      Announcements

Powwow at Crutch Park October 17, 2009

2.      Reflection on Let’s Talk About It programs

Hensley talk Oct. 13- Laurie and Jerry attended: it was a good group, but small.  The presentation went well. It was very interesting.

What’s Offensive panel Oct 1^st: also a small crowd, but extremely intriguing.  We want to do this again.

AR: what can we do to increase attendance to our events.  We currently post at Tennessee Today, @Tennessee, Beacon, Metro Pulse, WUTK, Knoxville News.  – Maybe more lead time to events. – More posters – White board directing to event

3.      Upcoming Culture Corner  (ideas, suggestions, etc.)

Highlight Nobel Piece Prize winners

Ideas for speakers? http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/index.html

4.      Brainstorm on Spring Let’s Talk About It programs

• Appalshop speaker: highlight services they perform and opportunities they provide http://appalshop.org/

• Homeless Organizations Panel: discussion about the homeless, issues they face, how to relate, help, support.  http://sites.google.com/site/kkchcoalition/

• Food and Culture: involve the new Culinary School, Ready for the World. Link with speakers focus on the culture of food.

• Diversifī: student  talent competition – contact student groups for support – cool prizes – sponsor ideas – Fresh Market, UT Bookstore, Square Room, Catalist, Glowing Body, Knoxville Visitor’s Center, Black Culture Center.

1. Plan for FEB – check calendars
2. round up sponsors
3. publicize
4. round up food
5. t shirts (need money?, make our own, donated)

5.      Other

• Welcome new member Allison Bolorizadeh
• Schedule Meeting with Dean Dewey

Concluded

Diversity Committee

I. Membership

List of ppl applying for our committee – we accept all of the applicants. Barbara will be informed.

Allison Sharp Bolorizadeh

Erin Moore

Dan Green

Ppl returning

Thura

Allison Roberts

Annazette McCane Houston

Laurie & Jerry Roberson

Rotating off

Jeanine Williamson

Marielle Veve

Sandy Allen

II. Volaware updates

a. JW has contact Connie Briscoe – director of Volaware – mental health awareness group. Distressed/distressing student helpline. Will come talk to us about Volaware in September…this will be a “Let’s Talk About It”

b. Future volaware events

1. Volaware street fare 11/7

2. Concert – 10/6

a. JW will probably attend the above functions. The theme is Poverty.

b. She can have posters rdy for the event.

ii. The library usually has presence at these functions.

III. We’ll host a welcome back thing in August

a. We usually pass out ice water and literature – last time we used cases of water.

1. We can pass out water during lunch….Tuesday the 25^th of August and the August 27^th

2. Allison will bring a banner we already have prepared.

3. Thura and Trisha will each bring two cases of water. Allison will supply an ice chest. Jeanine will make a financial contribution. Thura will accept it. Jerry will bring water (and has volunteered Laurie)

4. We’ll set up right on Melrose

5. If we can set a date on the volaware “Let’s Talk About It”, we can have promotional materials for that at our table at the welcome back.

IV. Let’s Talk About It – feat. Beverly Watts

V. Conflict – the timing of this allows us an hour…but there’s a retirement function at around the same time as the let’s talk about it.

a. Allison will get the let’s talk about it in the beacon, metropulse, and sentinel.

i. Trisha has created flyers, and some of them will go to the display that Shantrie is creating on the1st floor

ii. Allison will bring in some old child’s shoes…these can be part of the display (tossed over a phone line).

iii. Trisha has some other images of poverty Shantrie might use form when she was working on the posters.

1. We’ll eschew movies in favour of the welcome back activity – the movies will be depressing.

2. Advertising – hang flyers in Sociology, Poli Sci, the Golden Roast? TM and JW will help with hanging flyers.

VI. Reception for residents program completion

a. 8/24/09 – 10:30am in 605

b. There’s a committee planning the party

i. Gail Watson

ii. Sharon Boring

iii. Wanda Rosinski

iv. Melanie Feltner-Reichert

v. Sara Foster

vi. JoAnne Deeken

vii. Thura Mack

c. The theme is – “Sail away…but welcome to sail back!”

d. Trisha may be photographing the festivities

e. It’ll be a brunch – we can bring food.

VII. Allison Roberts will be the new co-chair of the committee – hopefully. TM will ask Barbara if it’s okay.

VIII. Volunteering Rocks – see the AgVet facebook and youtube..see Allison Roberts for details.

Diversity Committee Meeting 4-30-09

1. Thanks for helping with International Fest
2. Beverly Watts is available in August 6, 13, and 20 to talk about Poverty
3. Margaret Casado is here to tell us about her poverty project and how we can support her
   1. She’s on the task force for the campus, and the theme is poverty.
   2. Tahirah wanted to participate with our discussion today
   3. Poverty/economic disparity is a facet of diversity

i. Margaret brought handouts pertaining to collaboration between the task force and the diversity committee

ii. They’re working poverty into the curriculum and trying to get students to consider how poverty can play into their work and their lives.

1. There are some classes on social justice and the environment that poverty may fit into

2. We have the LOGS? program, but it’s not a library program, it’s just something that individuals have gotten involved in.

3. The members of the task force have been asked to talk to ppl in their units about their involvement

iii. “The Glass Castle” – book on poverty in Virginia, suggested reading

iv. There are things that the committee can/will do

1. Culture corner

2. 1^st floor display

3. Let’s talk about it

a. Beverly Watts from the human rights commission

b. Bharat Mehra from SIS has written on technology and poverty, so he might be a good speaker as well

i. Bring him in Spring 2010 – Margaret will get with him.

4. Film Series – Pursuit of Happyness, Slumdog Millionaire, a documentary out of Appleshop dealing with poverty in the mountains. Trisha will ask Greg Womac if we have Appleshop films

a. Will there be discussion before and after the films?

i. Unless we have a speaker after or a literary involvement, usually not

ii. We COULD have a set of questions for ppl to consider and have a discussion leader for the films

iii. Partner with ppl from soup kitchens and have them come by and tell us about hunger

1. Canned food drive – this could work at every even we do

2. We could get the Greek organizations to get in on canned food drives

3. Solicit leftovers from Panera, Einstein’s Bagels, etc.

5. Website for the life of the mind by Tahirah and Thura

6. Volunteer project?

a. Something dealing with literacy, reading, etc.

i. People will probably need to be screened before being permitted into school

b. Tahirah did outreach via Theory and Practice in Teaching Education (TPTE) in the form of a read-in

v. This is a yearlong endeavor, so we don’t need to do it all in one month. September = Volaware, October = Native American student activities.

vi. There needs to be a clear understanding of what the Diversity Committee is responsible for here

1. Let’s Talk About it – usually with light refreshments

2. Films – though getting discussion leaders might be tricky

3. Culture Corner

a. The next one is on this topic and we need to get started by the first week of June

b. Margaret Casado – the culture corner should be set up in time for incoming orientation groups

c. We need 100-150 books

i. Thura, Jeanine, Allison, and Damon will work on this

4. Display case

a. Shantrie, Tahirah, Jeanine, Thura, and probably Martha will help.

vii. Laurie is busy in June with Orientations, free in May. Jerry will probably be busy after July

viii. Is there a way to get students thinking creatively about how to address this problem? Build student engagement

1. JW – The NING site might be helpful in this

2. TM – The Life of the Mind does a lot of this

3. AR – Diversity Committee or Culture Corner might need a facebook page

4. See what other avenues to help with poverty are being explored on campus

a. Read up on “technology mitigates poverty”

i. Damon will ask Velynda about the cellphone she got – recycled bottle phone

1. Announcements
   1. Laurie – Native American Heritage Night. 2^nd annual on 4/20/09 @ McClung Museum @ 7:30. We will publicize this. Post Bills about the library and put it on our website.

i. Publicity materials will be sent to Allison Roberts (Jerry will send them to Allison)

1. International Festival next Friday. Schedule is as follows:

8:00-9:30      Damon Campbell, Thura Mack

9:30-11:00    Jeanine Williamson, Thura Mack

11:00-12:30  Trisha Brady, Joanne Deeken

12:30-2:00    Laurie Roberson, Jerry Roberson

2:00-4:00     Shantrie Collins, Allison Roberts, Marielle Veve

1. 1. Thura will fill in as needed
2. Support for Possum Queen (Trisha Brady vs Michelle Brannen) – to support staff activities within the library
   1. How can we support this?

i. Trisha will have a friend with a pet possum in

ii. Trisha will solicit funds from others within the library

iii. Possible bake sale

iv. This goes on til May 12^th, at which point the winner is crowned. This will happen during the Spirit Awards in the Hermitage room at the UC.

1. Marielle will email Laurie information RE the spirit awards and such.

2. Trisha will send updates to the committee as well.

1. Let’s Talk About it with Native American Students
   1. We’ll hold off on this til fall – during Native American month
   2. Jerry says that we should pick a day in October and he’ll take it back to the Native American Students – this way, the group will be aware.

i. 10/01 is the pow-wow

ii. 10/16 – McClung Cherokee days

iii. The 15^th would be good, but it’s during fall break..

iv. We could do ours on the 8^th.

1. This is now our tentative date. Midterms jump around depending on the teacher, so some students will be busy, others will not (so says Trisha).

1. Invite VolAware ppl to have a Let’s Talk About It
   1. VolAware helps students in crisis
   2. As suggested by Dean Maxine
   3. We could do this Summer of fall.

i. AR says it might be lost in the summer

ii. Jerry suggests doing this after the first test

1. Are we focusing this on staff or students? Staff.

a. Trisha suggests training for high stress situations when we’re not high stressed.

iii. Ppl from other branches and portions of campus would have a better chance of attending if it falls in the summer.

1. We also need to be aware of summer vacations and ALA

iv. Late August/Early September, when we’re gearing up but before things are in full swing

1. JW will check with VolAware for times in Early September and see what they have.

2. We could put this in the Beacon to publicize, but students mainly came for LGBT session and Beverly Watts.

3. JW wants this to be focused on staff – helping us help students.

4. We should also encourage our student workers to attend, as per JR

1. Collaborating with Margaret Casado on poverty issues
   1. Culture corner?
   2. Some other way of showing our support, as this is a diversity issue

i. How can we go beyond the culture corner? JR suggests:

1. there will probably be campus-wide activities related to this

2. There are schools in the immediate area with high rates of child poverty – maybe there’s something we can do RE a visit to the school (work with Tahira A Williams on outreach) possibly host a read in at the school.

3. Program to get books to the kids or do a fundraiser?

a. AR – will this be ongoing? It’s a large undertaking.

b. We can adopt a school or a class – do it on a small scale as per JR

c. We’d need a lot of approval to actually give books to kids, but it would be effective publicity for UT and for higher education in general

d. Encourage volunteerism of some sort.

ii. Margaret has not talked with TM or JW about this yet

iii. We’ll want to do something that’s not only meaningful, but that supports Margaret

iv. This could be a service learning opportunity (like the Baker Center does). Bob Kronick from College of Education sometimes brings in younger students and exposes them to UT. They’d be in the library for 45 minutes or so. Allison Roberts and Chris Durman have participated in this.

1. 1. This issue is already part of Ready For The World (The Glass Castle is the book that they’ll be reading)
   2. AR might develop a webpage resource for dealing with this
   3. We can also scour the web for outreach models and bring them back to the group

2/19/2009

Diversity Committee Meeting Notes

Announcements:

1. Debrief for the Black Issues Conference

2. Culture Corner (Completed)

3. Let’s Talk About It

4. Updates (Jerry Roberson)

5. International Festival

Announcements

I. Debrief for the black issues conference

a. TM: It was what I had hoped for, in that it created some unity and a different level of us getting to know one another on the diversity committee

i. Teresa Walker came and supported and brought drinks

ii. Shantrie and Damon attended

iii. Audience was small, but they asked a lot of questions

iv. Good experience overall

b. Jeanine feels the audience was receptive and asked a lot of questions

c. A lot of the questions were about ebooks and kindle (ebook reader) units

d. Quite a few people attended the conference overall

i. Diversity committee members that participated and/or attended and people from the library have been presented with plaques by Thura

e. We got invited to present at a conference on the 28^th (I-LEAD conference)

i. This has hopefully lead to another partnership

II. Student Recognition, Wed, 3/25/09 @ 2pm, probably in the staff room

a. Students that have worked here for two years or more.

i. They get to pick a book to be plated in their honor

ii. We try to get pictures of the students so that people will know who they are

1. This has sometimes been displayed @ the Melrose entrance

b. Diversity committee will help decorate

i. We’ll raid the closet and see if we’ve decorations from past occasions

ii. Trisha will see what kind of decorations they have in the Studio

c. We got $ for cake and punch from Barbara

III. Culture Corner is done and in alphabetical order

a. Usually in order by subject, but done in alpha due to time constraints

IV. Let’s Talk About it program ideas (Jerry isn’t here to do updates)

a. He talked to the Native American Students about a panel discussion, and they were receptive

b. We might be involved with a Ready for the World initiative in Albuquerque, as Trisha will be helping to teach people how to make a documentary

c. Anazette ideas for let’s talk about it

i. No burning issues

ii. There’s a dialog on campus about dealing with bias:

1. Gender

2. Sexual Orientation

3. Hate Speech

a. Do we have someone come in and talk about bias protocols?

iii. We are moving into Women’s (issues? History? Rights?) month, so this may be a pertinent topic

1. We’ll need to find a resource/person to come in and educate us on the topic

2. We will keep this in our thoughts and get in touch will Jerry and see what he can do

a. What kind of support will we need to pull this off?

i. PR

ii. Location

b. Bob Eldridge should be accessible to us

iv. Our Let’s Talk About It RE Melungeons (Wayne Winkle) was relatively easy to pull together

1. He was approachable, local, and did not charge

v. Appalachian film screening at the Tomato Head (Trisha Brady knows about this) – Appalachian Film Series Monday, March 2nd 7pm @ The Tomato Head Market Square,

1. Rural Appalachian poverty might be a good topic

vi. Campus Diversity and Intercultural meeting yesterday 2-18-09 touched on this as an issue

vii. The Heartland Series is in danger of being cancelled – there is a group forming to keep it going – Trisha Brady

1. Bill Landry could come. We have the entire series, and he would probably come in and speak.

2. There’s a Facebook group created for this, so we’d probably have an instant audience

3. Publicity would probably be easy

a. If we’re raising awareness, he’d probably come

4. We won’t necessarily take a stand, but we can provide a platform for Bill to educate people on the series

viii. We could use the Heartland Series as a let’s talk about it and use Jerry’s as the “other” LTAI

V. International Fair – Friday, 4/24/09

a. The Diversity Committee traditionally participates in this

i. We get a table and take turns staffing the table

ii. Took turns staffing, usually in pairs

iii. Only people on the committee can staff the table

1. Would we be willing to have the committee have a table for this year?

2. We can talk about this later, but it seems like most of us are interested in staffing the table.

a. Annazette can bring literature from disability services

b. Laurie can bring literature from her interests

c. We had a board and pins so people could come by and place a pin in their geographic region of origin

i. We should repeat this

3. The way Let’s Talk About It is going now, we’ve not gotten a flurry of people offering topics

iv. Annazette suggests letting people know that we exist as a committee

1. Are we on anyone’s radar?

a. Yes – a lot of the colleges use us as a model

2. How do regular people find out about us?

a. We’re a library committee – We’re linked under the UT page under diversity.

3. When we first made ourselves known 5 years ago, people helped us define diversity thru input. We get questions nationally even now.

a. We could probably shoot our upcoming events to interested parties if we email people that are affiliated with other diversity efforts (use the contacts from the people sharing the diversity page with us – we can use their contacts as our own).

b. Allison could search for contacts

c. This could be shown as outreach on our annual report

v. How aware are we of incidents of hate speech/graffiti?

1. Here, we take pictures of things prior to erasures, repaints

2. Some places record this data and make sure that the incident is public

3. The dean might come and speak to us about protocol for this kind of thing

vi. Protocol for stressed students?

1. How to deal with students dealing with distress/stress

a. Things should be reported, not simply observed

2. We might be able to make this a LTAI or a staff-only talk (as per JW). Others might want to attend and offer input, however (as per TB).

vii. How do we initiate this?

1. Contact Dean Thompson-Davis, have her explain it to us

2. We should be aware of these things, as people might look to us for information about these things

a. PR-wise, the university does not want to sweep things under the rug. From a diversity and equal-opportunity standpoint, we should be aware and make others aware.

3. As a committee, should we have Dean Davis talk to us? Do we have a role here? Can we be part of a solution?

a. Annazette feels like this could be a good first step.

i. Using our position to inform others and raise awareness of issues and the protocol is a good decision.

4. We could have an open meeting, Annazette’s staff could attend

a. Could tell us how to be a responsible citizen in these situations

i. Annazette feels that we should start within our group, then we could discuss it in a LTAI. The dean of student affairs could talk at the LTAI

b. Who will contact the dean of student affairs?

i. We’ve got nothing for March

ii. JW will contact her and see if she can talk to our committee at the next meeting.

viii. A LTAI featuring people that attended the inauguration and played a role could be viable as well.