Diversity Committee - August 23, 2001
Notes
There was a discussion of a diversity-related conference to be held on campus Sept. 24-25 (in connection with First Year Studies and issues of diversity) and who was supposed to attend. Thura is going and will investigate.
Molly has registered for the online class in diversity issues.
There were a couple of corrections to previous minutes: the intended organization was ARL, not ACRL.
--And the correct name mentioned was Camille Hazeur
--In the matter of contacting other large libraries to see what diversity programs/commitments were in place, Anthony had contacted TSU and VUL, but had gotten no response yet. Thura agreed to contact Memphis and Nashville public libraries and UT Memphis library.
Issues for the Web subcommittee were discussed. What do we want on the page? Some suggestions: committee membership, an events calendar, readings and URLs [e.g., UCLA, Michigan, Iowa], and a place for anonymous suggestions.
Molly is planning a bookmark. What should be included?
We were to check sites of other "branches" of UT to see if other diversity pages can be found.
Thura called for quotations that address diversity that would suitable for the Dean to have at the bottom of her note cards that she uses for informal communications with campus and non-UT people. They should be submitted to Thura.
A number of questions and ideas were put on the table in the ensuing discussion.
A cooperative celebration of some stripe in connection with the opening of the Starbucks café might be an opportunity to wave the diversity flag. Thura has had discussions with Aubrey.
Does the campus have a "diversity week"? Theotis Robinson should know - or someone in the Office of Equity and Diversity. If yes, we should participate… just need to find out how.
The College of Social Work has a Minority Affairs Committee which would like to cooperate with us in programming.
An exhibit in the display case or elsewhere is a possibility.
Do we still have Campus-wide ethnos/national origin theme weeks or semesters?
Anthony discussed the multitude of calendars that exists on campus and the difficulty of finding out in a timely manner what events might inform diversity concerns. When we get a calendar up, we should perhaps include a disclaimer as to limitations of selection of items. Joe and Anthony will work on TRYING to find out what's going on of interest to us.
Surveying the attitudinal environment in which we work consumed the remainder of the meeting. Molly presented a first draft -- suggestion of format and samples of content. Having a third party mail and receive questionnaires is a preferred method of distribution and collection. How much demographic information do we need/can we profitably use? We have to be careful that the drive for data gathering does not endanger the staff's right to privacy. There will be a pilot survey in mid-September, employing SLA's who are 18 or older. The questionnaire will go to all staff by Oct. 16. Occasions for advanced notice should be exploited, e.g. Share News and the Training Newsletter.
Recorder: Joe Rader