Meeting Minutes
Diversity Committee
Meeting, April 11, 2006
Present: Eleanor Block (Chair), Eboni Francis, Linda Gonzalez, Deidra Herring, Beverly McDonald, Duke Morgan, Cyndi Preston, Virginia Reynolds, Charles Smith
Absent: Amanda Clark
"In acknowledgement of the rich diversity of The Ohio State University Library employees, the University Libraries Diversity Committee recommends the adoption of a policy to assure that no meetings will be scheduled on any major religious holiday that would preclude some employees from being able to attend. We also suggest that such holidays be noted on the Libraries' calendar in order to avoid conflict when scheduling departmental meetings."
Joe thanked the Committee for their recommendation.
It was noted that various calendars have different information about holidays. The Oracle calendar, for example, lists all information but it is given in small print at the bottom. Passover and Good Friday, however, are not listed in the corporate calendar. This caused a problem when the International Buffet (a part of the Libraries' Campus Campaign 2006) was scheduled on the first day of Passover. When the administration was made aware of the conflict, the date of the buffet was immediately changed. The people who schedule the rooms for meetings will be asked to say "Do you know that this holiday (the name of the specific holiday) is on your meeting date?" The committee also needs to decide how to respond to the people that originally contacted Eleanor about the problem with meetings on religious holidays.
Absent: Amanda Clark
Minutes
The minutes of the February 14, 2006 meeting were approved as written.YWCA Women of Achievement Award Luncheon
Dr. Karen Holbrook, President, Ohio State University, was one of the women honored at the 2006 YWCA Women of Achievement Award Luncheon on April 5, 2006 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. Since Dr.
Holbrook was honored for "her commitment to the elimination of racism and discrimination of all kinds," members of the Diversity Committee were among these people who represented the OSU Libraries at this luncheon. Eleanor Block, on behalf of the Diversity Committee, volunteered to send an email to Dr. Holbrook congratulating her on her YWCA award.
Meetings scheduled during religious holidays
The statement on meetings scheduled during religious holidays that the committee members unanimously approved at the February 14, 2006 meeting was sent to Joe Branin. The statement said:
"In acknowledgement of the rich diversity of The Ohio State University Library employees, the University Libraries Diversity Committee recommends the adoption of a policy to assure that no meetings will be scheduled on any major religious holiday that would preclude some employees from being able to attend. We also suggest that such holidays be noted on the Libraries' calendar in order to avoid conflict when scheduling departmental meetings."
Joe thanked the Committee for their recommendation.
It was noted that various calendars have different information about holidays. The Oracle calendar, for example, lists all information but it is given in small print at the bottom. Passover and Good Friday, however, are not listed in the corporate calendar. This caused a problem when the International Buffet (a part of the Libraries' Campus Campaign 2006) was scheduled on the first day of Passover. When the administration was made aware of the conflict, the date of the buffet was immediately changed. The people who schedule the rooms for meetings will be asked to say "Do you know that this holiday (the name of the specific holiday) is on your meeting date?" The committee also needs to decide how to respond to the people that originally contacted Eleanor about the problem with meetings on religious holidays.
Workshop on Diversity
Eleanor and Linda Gonzalez met with Pat Hall, the Assistant Director of the Multicultural Center, to continue discussing the possibility of the Libraries having a Spring Quarter 2006 workshop on diversity. Everyone is still very enthusiastic about the presentation but we still need to work out the date, the place (Pat Hall must tour the facility in advance), and the length of the workshop (i.e., full day or less). Because Pat Hall does not want to do this via email, Eleanor is now playing telephone tag with him.
Evaluations of resident librarians
Gerry Greenberg, chair of the Appointment, Promotion and Tenure Committee, has contacted Eleanor about the need for improved evaluation reports for the residents. The discussion that followed included the following topics: the need for an annual evaluation (required to get an increase in salary), whether or not AP&T should be involved in the evaluation, the importance of the FAR and whether or not the residents should do one FAR-like report and/or two half-year reports. We felt that AP&T should meet with the residents as AP&T does with the junior faculty. This discussion will continue at the next committee meeting.
Next meeting
The next meeting is scheduled for April 25, 2006 unless Eleanor cannot meet with Pat Hall before our meeting.