8-28-08 Diversity Committee

Inviting outsiders is an opportunity to look at how and why we do what we do

Censoring minutes? No – the released transcript of the meetings are more of a highlight than censorship. We will continue to release our notes as we have done.

Getting to know you exercises!

Just for fun, think about diversity among members

Common ground

Uncommon ground

Campus Diversity Calendar

We tried to contact Eric Bledsoe the day of our last meeting, to no avail

Trying to get our events out there to the campus at large

Possibly piggyback onto existing events

possibly get onto the International House calendar

Committee technology features

Email

Can be set up to share the calendar with all members

so we can share available meeting dates

libdiv emails can go here rather than thru Thura

Back up info source

calendar and mail folders can be shared among members, as per Roger Weaver

Shared calendar is AR’s main concern

Listserv

Workable idea, Allison can create this – will email the credentials to the group

JR and JW agree

One place for information, plus it has an archive

As per AR, listserv would be a good place for our conversation

Will we need both?

Yes – both have specific features that can help us, says AR

New meeting dates proposed

We’ll only have these meetings if we’re working on a project

Meetings will be cancelled if we’re not

CMN committee

1pm 10/16/08 Pat Gozemba and Karen Kahn authors of “Courting Equaility” at the UC

Documenting GLBT Boston

Commission for LGBT people will need no funding, but promo and breakfast for authors events need planning

Possibly have a forum for people to speak or a breakfast

We might be able to work on other projects with them as well

TM suggests turning this into a campus wide Let’s Talk About It” during one of our regular meeting times rather than a breakfast

Committee is game for a campus-wide program.

Mary Greer room or Auditorium

JR – auditorium would be stark without a large crowd. Greer room can be adjusted depending on crowd size

Group is for Greer room

We could provide snacks

Cookies!!!

This will involve some promo work as well

The commission is trying to fill the day, as the main program is at night.

JR: does the commission have a PR dept for this, or will the onus be on us?

TB – we’ll need to do poster work for the film series anyway – may as well include info for this program on those posters as well

Donna Braquet is on the GLBT advisory commission – she might have ideas RE promo, numbers, venues, etc.

Films?

September – patriots day, deaf awareness month

October – GLBT –

Brokeback Mountain,

If These Walls Could Talk

Priscilla of the Desert,

3 films will suffice

We can show a film a week, Oct 7^th ,14th, 21^st

Unfortunately, time is constrained, as movies cannot be piped thru the building anymore due to the media center

Trisha will look into room availability

At or around 1pm

Thura will talk to Roger about the GLBT program to get a clearer sense of what needs to be done

Publicity can be held til we’ve a better idea of what’s going on – 9/11/08, we will discuss publicity

AR – partner with faculty, as there are classes around GLBT filmmaking – this could be extra credit?

Christine Holmund – Trisha knows her/will contact

AR can contact some faculty as well Rosa Thomas – who is doing a human sexuality course

Mid September promotion, so people can plan in advance.

Once this is done, we can begin planning November

Diversity Definition

include Gender identity in our diversity definition?

Unanimously approved.

AR will change this on the web page

JW – next steps

decide what other projects we want to do this semester aside from Oct LGBT

All of us need to bring ideas for projects to the next meeting

TM – we’ve got the culture corner running, but we need to think about the next incarnation

TM – Native American month = November. We should start planning for this soon

JR – we’ve always looked at obvious diversity issues (ethnicity is big)

Mary Papke talked about us all being part of a culture

We should look for less obvious fare

Geographic regions and original settlers?

International awareness

AR – there might be an Irish Heritage month. We’ve done Appalachian culture…it was 2 – 3 years ago past.

TB – we could do that again

Irish Heritage month is in March…programming for this?

Sometimes people appreciate having their cultures talked about

LEA will be doing student association – we won’t need to do the bulk of it as a committee. We will have time in March to do Irish Heritage

December? – last year, we did disabilities

It’s near a major Christian holiday – should we look at other cultures during that time that people might miss?

December is Universal Human Rights Month

http://www.va.gov/dmeeo/calendar/december.htm

December planning will be on our next agenda

A culture corner could continue to speak to the issue even after the programming has ended.

TM – the more global our project are, the more people we can attract

JR – is there any way to identify how many African students are here?

Connect with International House

Bill Dewey is a professor of African art – we can get him to do a presentation

TM – we need a 9/11 meeting to discuss projects

TM — If we can line up projects til December, we’ll be in good shape

Trunk and Treat? Mainly done by sororities and fraternities