Diversity Committee Meeting, April 19, 2001
Recorder: Maribeth Manoff
Present: Thura Mack, Becky Roller, Maribeth Manoff, Tiffani Conner,
Molly Royse, Anthony Smith
Absent: Joe Rader, Tamara Miller, Sandy Leach, Jill Keally, Dave McClure
Thura spoke about her decision, after consulting the committee via
e-mail, not to pursue funding for the Dogwood Festival Speaker Series.
Since the speaker was not going to address diversity-related issues,
and, as a result, committee members were "lukewarm" on the idea, it was
agreed that this decision was for the best. Molly noted that it was
good to know that the Dean is willing to provide funding for something
that we do decide is appropriate.
Molly made an announcement about the African-American Dialogue Brown Bag
Series. A luncheon on April 20 was to discuss the topic of "Reparation
for Slavery". Molly has attended other discussions in this series and
has found them valuable.
We discussed the fact we were in the middle of Diversity Week, and that
there was no central place to discover diversity-related events during
the week, or at any time. Maribeth made the suggestion that we might
want to consider being an "Information Clearinghouse" for events,
perhaps making the committee Web site a place where groups could make
their announcements.
Molly led a discussion of "The Giraffe and the Elephant" from R.
Roosevelt Thomas's book. We talked about our personal reactions, as
well as the points/lessons that Dr. Thomas draws from the fable.
Thura distributed "Our Committee Definitions of Diversity" and Tiffani
gave us a handout to help us think about the words "diverse",
"diversity" and "appreciation". Thura is prepared to facilitate a small
group exercise in which we come up with the committee's definition of
diversity. We will do this at the next meeting.
Tiffani presented her idea of creating banners in the library to
celebrate diversity. The "Love Your Libraries" banners attracted a lot
of attention; we could rotate different banners with quotes, for
example. The ALA @Your Library campaign could possibly be dovetailed
into this effort.
The next meeting is May 3rd, at 1:00, in Room 605. We will begin with
further discussion of banners, and continue with the Diversity
Definition Exercise.