Welcome Diversity Residents Rabia Gibbs and Kynita Stringer-Stanback to the Diversity Committee

Committee discussed options for a sister library connection in Haiti. The resource Allie was given was not clear and seemed targeted for individual professionals.
Haïti 2010:
http://haiti2010.blueshield-international.org/node/3
All members will help in finding resources.

Diversity Opportunities

Rabia Gibbs and Kynita Stringer-Stanback are exploring options with the ALA diversity grant and the Diversity Fair.

Upcoming Let’s Talk About It Options

Feminine Self Esteem

Food

Freedom of Speech: speaking out in other counties

Meeting adjourned to Erin’s going away party

-MAR

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.

Diversity Committee Meeting Minutes

Room 605- 3:00 p.m.- February 5, 2008

1. Meeting convened by Thura Mack.
2. All members attending:

Sandy Allen, Allison Roberts, Hannah Powell, Jeff French, Marielle Veve,

Trisha Brady, Shantrie Collins, Damon Campbell, Jeanine Williamson, Thura

Mack, and Sara Green

1. Announcements and Discussion:

1. 1. Thura began by talking about the Student Appreciation event we have scheduled for Monday, March 31 between 2:00 and 4:00. We combined the announcement of the time for this being set with commentary from members. Hannah had asked in LEA members could attend, but no one from that committee came due to illness. Hannah asked lots of questions in able to take information back to Hannah Barker from LEA who is helping the Diversity Committee this year with this event. One major area in question dealed with bookplates and who was to handle them. Thura explaned that we had a folder with information on procedures we would share with all LEA members who were helping with this event, and would pass on to LEA when they took over the event next year. Sandy also spoke up and commented that she thought Tech Services conducted the electronic bookplating. Thura talked some of procedures and explained the process for selecting and contacting students who were to be honored, and passed around draft for invitations to staff and faculty as well as a draft for the certificate we will give to student honorees. Hannah asked if Barbara’s Student Advisory Committee wasn’t also honored during this ceremony and Thura agreed to look into that. Barbara has granted the Committee $100.00 to purchase the cake, punch and other food for the event.
   2. Jeff French passed around a Thank You card hand written by a child recipient form the Angel Tree.
   3. Sara Green congratulated Jeanine on her Talk About It held in January on disabilities.
   4. Sara Green mentioned the Culture Corner. Out of all of the items mentioned in the catalog only 15 monographs were found, so it was decided to expand the theme of the new Culture Corner to include other tri-racial groups as well as the Melungeons. Sandy Allen is working on ordering more titles to be included as they arrive for this Culture Corner dealing with the Melungeon topic. Sara Green also stated that in conjunction with this Culture Corner the president of the Melungeon Association of America has graciously agreed to conduct a Talk About It on March 11 at 11:00 in room 605 at his own traveling expense.
   5. Sara Green mentioned the coming event with Pearl Fryer at AgVet and asked Allison Roberts to expound upon the basic information put out by the email. Mr. Fryer has a biographical film that will be shown at 7:00 in the Cox Auditorium on February 27. The Committee agreed to support this event with promotion through email and flyers advertising it. Mr. Fryer will lecture in the alcove at AgVet on February 28.
   6. Thura spoke about the coming Staff Development trip in May to Fayetteville Library. Because this is a historically Black college it was deemed necessary for there to be an effort made to create a collaborative project where the two institutions could mutually benefit from this trip. Hannah mentioned creating an online exhibit with unique materials from both libraries which was met with approval by the members present. This was considered to be the first step in creating a meaningful relationship between the two institutions.

4. The meeting adjourned.