Diversity Committee Meeting Minutes: November 19, 2015 at 1:00 PM, Room 150
Announcements:
- The 2016 meeting dates were sent in an email
- There is a subcommittee for the upcoming Black Issues Conference, they will communicate via email
Lunch and Learn Series:
- In good communication with speakers for Spring
- Possibly join with student organizations such as:
- Multicultural Grad Student
- Communication and Information
- Vol Update
- Student faith based groups- Megan will send out a list to the group so we can add to it
- Money left in the budget for advertising
- Look into radio spot on The Rock, in the past a $50 donation
- Megan will ask for click statistics from past online Beacon ad
- Lil’a will reach out to the Beacon to ask a student to cover the event for an article
Presentation on the Diversity& Inclusion in LIS conference:
- Keila recently attended the conference and came back with a very insightful presentation including these takeaways:
- The keynote speaker focused on micro aggressions
- Diversity in ILS is low compared to the US average with only 11% up only 1% in the past ten years
- Increased inclusion does not always equal social acceptance based on interviews with members of minorities
- Analyzing one’s own privilege helps to create a culturally competent professional
- Cataloging needs to expand subject headings to accommodate intersectionality
- Always start with questions, not assumptions
How to bring these themes to UTK:
- Strategic Planning and Steering committee is already focused on civility, diversity, and inclusion and is talking to leaders around campus
- A staff/ faculty training session
- Members of the Administration support this
- Possible topics:
- Accessing your privilege
- Implicit bias
- Need to make this different than typical HR training
- Target departments individually
- More than one session
- Address rank (faculty vs staff; tenure track vs not; etc)
- Understand these are sensitive subjects
- Make it mainstream
- Outside facilitator
Next meeting: No meeting in December. Next meeting is Thursday January 21 at 1:00pm in room 150
In Attendance:
Anne Hulse
Cathy Jenkins
Keila Zayas-Ruiz
Lili’a Neville
Megan Veneable
Melaine Allen
Michelle Brannen
Regina Mays
Sarah Holt
Seth Jordan
Thura Mack