Below are highlights from the May 31, 2001 Diversity Meeting.
Members present were: Jill Keally, Becky Roller, Molly Royse,
Maribeth Manoff, Tiffani Conner, and Thura Mack.
Recorder: Thura Mack
Tamara Miller, who had to leave for another meeting, stopped in briefly
to provide copies of the Committee's Strategic Priorities and Other
Goals and Ideas established at the May 17, 2001.
The Committee looked at Strategic Priority 1 -- Articulate the components
of an ideally diverse library in order to understand our preferred outcomes,
for example:
* Patrons and staff feel comfortable, respected, and valued
* Teams and branches work without barriers
* Everyone is welcome
We did a brainstorming activity in which each member was asked to
do the following concerning Strategic Priority 1:
Write down what makes you feel comfortable, respected, and valued.
(for example: making eye contact; feeling included; better
communication)
Identify things they considered to be barriers in our organization
(for example: "invisible" division between faculty and staff; lack of
appreciation for work performed; hierarchy; departmental prejudices)
All of the ideas were compiled and discussed. This activity was done in
hopes of developing items for the Diversity Inventory.
Other Items Discussed:
1. Having a Diversity Luncheon to introduce Diversity Committee members
to UT Libraries faculty and staff, with the Committee providing the
food.
2. Decided that June 2001 will be a planning month, with activities to begin
in July 2001.
3. Barbara Dewey, Dean, would like to meet with the Committee in the
near future.
4. Thura Mack and Molly Royse will look at diversity inventories from
other libraries to help in developing our diversity inventory. This
was a
request from Tamara Miller.
5. It is time for the Committee to set up another webpage. (Any volunteers
for this task?)
For those of you who attended the meeting, please let me know if I left
anything out of the above minutes.
Our next meeting is tentatively scheduled for Thurs., June 14, 2001,
Room 605, 1-2:30 p.m.
Thura Mack
Diversity Committee Chair