Diversity Committee Meeting – August 25, 2005
Meeting
Present at this meeting: Linda Flynn, Gail Watson, Maud Mundava, Roger Weaver, Becky Roller, Molly Royse, Rita Smith, Kawanna Bright, Jill Keally, and Maribeth Manoff
Kawanna opened the meeting by asking Molly to update the committee on the status of the Brown Bags series. Molly informed the group that Thura had also been talking to Erica Clark about doing a session on her visit to China and approached Molly and Becky about doing a joint SDAC/Diversity Committee brown bag. Everyone decided that this sounded like a good idea and Molly and Becky will work with Thura to get it on the calendar but it will probably not be before mid-September.
Other speakers are also lined up and they are still working on getting a catchy name. Suggestions found on Diversity-L for names used at NCSU include Mosaic and Dialog at the Libraries. Roger also volunteered to speak. The timeline will be flexible and Becky and Molly will set up a calendar with open times. The former name was Cultural Enrichment Brown Bag Series and it was suggested that we not use the “D” word when promoting the series. When promoting we should also make it clear what the scope is.
Gail also asked if we could invite others on campus to come and talk as part of the series and Molly agreed that this was definitely a possibility. The committee should also keep an eye out for the Office of Diversity which is said to be putting together Diversity Workshops.
Maud then updated the committee on the Welcome Back Table, first by thanking everyone who volunteered to staff the table and also those who provided resources and candy to the event, including the dean who offered development funds to allow for purchasing of the five gift certificates given as gifts. Five members of the committee then drew names out of a bag at random to select the five lucky winners of the gift certificates out of the 130 plus students that stopped by the tables to enter the drawing.
Discussion the moved to Donna who announced that Women’s Equality Day was coming up on August 26th. She suggested that we should show Iron Jawed Angels in the Auditorium on the 31st in recognition of the 85th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment. The showing would be at 7 p.m. The committee agreed that it would be a good idea and Donna said she would get everything together. Kawanna suggested that she send a call out to the committee for help if she needed it.
Donna then spoke to the committee about the banners hanging in the UT done by a member of the Art faculty. The banners call attention to the Non-Discrimination Clause within his art work and are available to be signed. The banners currently post many signatures and Donna wanted to invite the committee to sign it as a whole. Since the committee as a whole was not present, it was suggested that we first wait to have the whole committee vote on whether to sign the banner as a group and then contact the Dean for final approval. Individuals were invited to feel free to add their signatures if they chose. The OED Welcoming statement (non-discrimination clause) is available on the OED Website: http://oed.admin.utk.edu/docs/welcoming_state.doc.
Donna then informed the group about the Lambda Student Group welcome back event that she was invited to host a table at. The event was scheduled to take place at a bar near campus (The Long Branch Saloon). There was concern about attending an off-campus event at a bar as a representative of the UT Libraries’ and it was suggested that we contact Barbara to see if there were any concerns related to her attendance. She would be attending the event with Bharat Mehra in support of their project and wanted to also take the opportunity to promote the Diversity Committee. Kawanna would check with Barbara on this issue.
Kawanna then spoke of the International/Intercultural Call for Proposals that had recently gone out over e-mail university-wide from Chancellor Loren Crabtree. She suggested that the committee consider options and opportunities for the committee to submit a proposal. Rita informed the committee that there was a possible proposal in the works with the Writing Center in the library. Many of the students who come to the center at night are international and it is suggested that an ESL Center would be a good idea. Maribeth suggested that we should make contact with the Writers in the Libraries program to see if we could work with them to bring an outstanding writer to the libraries for the next round.
Discussion then turned to business from the previous meeting, starting with finalizing plans for the residents. Rita, Molly, Becky, Maud, Maribeth, and Kawanna confirmed that they would be attending the Thursday lunch at Bistro at the Bijou. Kawanna would call to make a reservation for the group.
Maud, Linda, Becky and Molly all volunteered to work on the welcome reception scheduled for September 19th. Molly reminded Kawanna to check with Barbara to see whom she would like to invite from campus. Kawanna would check with Barbara to see what type of budget we have for the event.
Kawanna and Becky volunteered to work on the committee welcome reception for the September 8th meeting.
Discussion then moved on to the review/update of committee goals. Decisions were made to reword and alter sections of the Library Staff Enrichment, Outreach and Collaboration, and Recruitment sections of the goals. Kawanna will work on the revisions and send them out to the committee for final review and discussion at the September 8th meeting. Molly then suggested that we double-check the excerpts taken from the Libraries’ planning documents related to diversity and used on our mission page.
Some suggestions that came out during discussions included the development of a welcoming card with the contact information from the members of the committee, offering them contact options from all over the Libraries; remembers to include the Adult and non-traditional students into our collaborations; continuing to keep the committee’s web site updated; and developing a help sheet for search committees with tips on recruiting diversity into the search pool process.
A final announcement was that Maya Angelou would be speaking at the Tennessee Theatre on September 19th. Tickets were expected to be free though it is not showing up on the Tennessee Theater’s schedule as of yet.
Meeting adjourned.
Respectfully submitted by Kawanna Bright