Diversity Council ::: Meeting Minutes ::: April 28, 2006
Members Present: Bastow-Shoop, Berry, Burnett, Carter, Coston, Davis-Wallette, Holbrook, Johnson-Messelt, Kitch, Kostecki, Mallett, Miller, Peterson, Schnell, Spiering, Stack, Taylor, Thoennes, Trautman, Troop-Gordon, Ussatis
Announcements:
• Appreciation for service of outgoing Council members:
- Aaron Eichenberger
- Dante Miller
- Heather Nesmeier
- John Trautman
- Welcome to Melissa Mallet (2006-07 student body vice-president)
• President's Cabinet members have agreed to share the expense of an on-line sexual harassment training that will be available for all staff, faculty and students in 2006-07. The training includes Supervisory, Non-supervisory and Faculty as well as a module for students. The training will be customized with NDSU information.
• Over the summer Kristina will be developing an orientation program for new Council members; if there are suggestions, please send them to Kristina.
• Jaclynn noted that the Pow Wow on April 22nd was well attended.
• Kara announced that on Friday, May 5th, there will be a Tapestry of Diverse Talent Induction at noon, Prairie Rose Room; Dr. Kathleen Slobin will be inducted.
• Level II Anti-Racism Training was held April 20, 21, and 22nd; four NDSU people attended.
• D.C. noted that Gene and Sandy did presentations at the Extension Support Staff Conference in Bismarck this week.
Plan Review Teams - structure and membership; discussion of suggestions
• Sandy reviewed e-mail suggestions from team members.
• Volunteers to consider this over the summer and put together a report to bring back to the council at the first meeting in the Fall: Karla Theonnes, Ann Burnett, Gene Taylor; Sandy volunteered to convene the group. If there are others who would like to volunteer, please contact Sandy.
Discussion of Campus-wide diversity award
• Tapestry offers recognition but only to individuals. The group discussed other kinds of awards and how to go about planning, developing criteria, etc. Discussion included the idea of a group-unit award rather than an individual award that would focus on best practices. One source of possible recipients might be the best practices information from department annual reports.
• Volunteers to develope proposal to present to council at first meeting in the Fall: Dr. Schnell, Kara Stack, Malika Carter, Chuck Peterson; Malika agreed to convene the group.
Volunteers to plan bias report awareness campaign for the Fall
• Gene Berry, Bunnie Johnson-Messelt, Jaclynn Davis-Wallette volunteered to plan a campaign to create awareness about the bias reporting system in the Fall. Sandy agreed to convene the group.
Reports from subcommittees re: action steps for Diversity Council 2005-06
• The three subcommittees (Institutional Commitment (Schnell), Learning and Pedagogy (Burnett), and Recruitment and Retention (Holbrook)) have not met since the last Council meeting. Dr. Schnell indicated that he wanted to get their information into a matrix for the meeting. At that meeting we will review the 2005-06 Council action steps and accomplishments and identify 2006-07 steps and work groups.
Additional suggestions for potential new Council members:
• There was a discussion of alternative ways to involve students, including an e-mail rom Aaron Eichenberger, regarding past student involvement experiences.
• Suggestions included the need to do a better job of orientation; possible mentorship program (faculty to student), but it is important to continue to have student representation at this meeting; but it may work to have student also meet outside this meeting in order to get student perspective. Current members should make efforts to include students perspectives. Suggestion to involve students more closely on sub-committees so they feel more connected to the work that takes place.
• If there are additional suggestions, please let Sandy know so that new members can be appointed to begin serving in the Fall.
Sandy and the Provost met with President Chapman recently to discuss a request for next year's Diversity Council budget
Discussion about posters found on campus
• Two posters were shared with the Council members: one unofficial poster about employment of international people and the other an old version of the equal opportunity poster. Both should be removed if they are still on bulletin boards. Contact Sandy's office for the new EO poster.
Items for agenda for first meeting in the Fall
• Dr. Schnell, Kara Stack, Malika Carter, Chuck Peterson will present proposal on the campus-wide diversity award.
• Strategic plan subcommittee reports will be reviewed.
• Ad-hoc subcommittees on the bias report awareness campaign and plan review teams will report.
Remaining meeting date for Spring
• Friday, May 26, 2006, at 11:30 am in Meinecke - joint meeting with Anti-Racism Team
• Fall meeting dates/times
Please notify Linda Gill (Linda.gill@ndsu.edu or 1-8124) no later than Wednesday morning before the meeting date if you cannot attend so that she can adjust the lunch count.
NOTE CHANGE: Until Fall 2006, please send new items or information about events for the web page to Deb McDonough (Debra.Mcdonough@ndsu.edu).