Meeting Minutes
Diversity Committee
Meeting, November 21, 2006
Present: Eleanor Block (Chair), Wendy Adcock, Linda Gonzalez, Deidra Herring, Rebekah Kilzer, Beverly McDonald, Cyndi Preston, Charles Smith
Absent: Amanda Clark, Eboni Francis, Duke Morgan
The following mission statement was proposed at the October 11, 2005 meeting: "The Diversity Committee is committed to recognizing an environment that welcomes, cultivates, values and celebrates the diversity of students, faculty and staff at the Ohio State University. The Committee plans and executes programs, training opportunities, and displays that promote understanding and invite the participation of individuals across the cultural spectrum, while exploring the differences and contributions that enrich all of our lives."
The mission statement from the October 11, 2005 meeting has been discussed at meetings and through emails. Are there any more additions, deletions and/or changes that need to be made to this statement? Hopefully the final version of our mission statement can be accepted at our next meeting.
We need to bring our copy of the Resident Librarians web site with our comments, corrections and suggestions to committee meetings. A goal for this year will be to revise this web site. Rebekah Kilzer worked with us on the web site. She will make the changes that we suggested at today's meeting and send the revised web pages to us.
Absent: Amanda Clark, Eboni Francis, Duke Morgan
Minutes
The minutes of the October 24, 2006 meeting were approved as written.Dr. Conrad's visit
Dr. Cecilia Conrad, Associate Dean and Stedman-Summer Professor of Economics at Pomona College, spoke at Ohio State University on November 8, 2006 on the topic "Beyond Recruitment: Institutional Transformation and Women of Color in the Academy." The next day all women faculty were invited to a luncheon with Dr. Conrad. From all reports, both events were well received.
"Facets of Diversity"
Rebekah Kilzer sent us an email about the 2005-2006 edition of "Facets of Diversity," the Ohio State University's annual diversity report. She wondered if the Diversity Committee would want to submit something for this year's report. Linda Gonzalez noted that the Libraries submitted a report last year but our information wasn't in the final compilation, perhaps because the editors weren't sure where to put us since the Libraries are neither teaching nor research. Linda will send us the information that she has compiled for this year's report. Hopefully something about the Libraries and diversity will appear in the 2006-2007 report.
OSU Libraries/Kent State School of Library and Information Science Fellowship
Linda Gonzalez talked to Joe Branin about the status of the OSU Libraries/Kent State School of Library and Information Science Fellowship. Joe feels that the fellowship is important and the Libraries want to do it if they can find money for it in the budget, perhaps in the budget for 2007-2008. In the meantime, Linda will look for a job description for the fellowship position. The Diversity Committee can make a proposal now asking that the fellowship be funded giving specifics (e.g., who, what, when, why) and emphasizing that the fellowship will be advertised nationally and not just limited to OSU.
Funding for Diversity Committee workshops
As Vice Chair of the Diversity Committee, Duke Morgan has been looking into possible future workshops. He wondered if the Diversity Committee could get its own funds to present programs and agreed to prepare a proposal for today's meeting. Since Duke was not able to be at today's meeting, discussion was postponed until a future meeting. Linda noted that the Staff Advisory Council does not have its own funding; SAC makes requests for funding on an event by event basis.
Resident Librarians
Now that Deidra Herring and Eboni Francis are regular faculty members, the Resident Librarian positions are vacant. Will we be filling these positions now or will we wait until the two-year program is finished in 2007? Linda Gonzalez talked to Joe Branin about this question and reported back to us. The Resident Librarian position is on hold for now because of finances; perhaps we can do something in Winter 2007 if the Libraries have the money. In the meantime, the Libraries, including the Diversity Committee, can look at the Residency program and discuss what went right and what needs to be changed. Eboni's and Deidra's input as the most recent Resident Librarians will be critical to this discussion. Cyndi Preston suggested that when the Libraries have the money they fill one Fellowship position and one Resident Librarian position. Deidra favors having two Resident Librarians at the same time; she found this very helpful during her residency.
Diversity Committee mission statement
The mission statement currently on our web site states that "The Diversity Committee is committed to creating an environment that welcomes, cultivates, values and celebrates the diversity of talents, abilities, cultures, backgrounds, and histories of students, faculty and staff at the Ohio State University Libraries. The Committee plans and executes programs, training opportunities, and displays that promote understanding and invite the participation of individuals across the cultural spectrum, while exploring the differences and contributions that enrich all of our lives."
The following mission statement was proposed at the October 11, 2005 meeting: "The Diversity Committee is committed to recognizing an environment that welcomes, cultivates, values and celebrates the diversity of students, faculty and staff at the Ohio State University. The Committee plans and executes programs, training opportunities, and displays that promote understanding and invite the participation of individuals across the cultural spectrum, while exploring the differences and contributions that enrich all of our lives."
The mission statement from the October 11, 2005 meeting has been discussed at meetings and through emails. Are there any more additions, deletions and/or changes that need to be made to this statement? Hopefully the final version of our mission statement can be accepted at our next meeting.
Diversity Committee web page
The Diversity Committee web site, especially the part on Resident Librarians, is severely out of date and needs to be updated. The mission statement is long and wordy and needs to be reviewed (see the discussion above).
We need to bring our copy of the Resident Librarians web site with our comments, corrections and suggestions to committee meetings. A goal for this year will be to revise this web site. Rebekah Kilzer worked with us on the web site. She will make the changes that we suggested at today's meeting and send the revised web pages to us.
Diversity Committee meeting times
Due to some schedule conflicts, all those in attendance at today's meeting said that they could meet starting at 1:15 p.m. instead of beginning at 1:30 p.m. That would make the new regular meeting time
1:15 p.m.-2:15 p.m. Once Eleanor hears from the members who were not able to attend today's meeting, she will try to adjust our meeting schedules.
Next meeting
The next scheduled meeting will be Tuesday, January 2, 2007, in Room 090, Science and Engineering Library. We will have reports from Duke Morgan and Charles Smith (Office of Minority Affairs), work on our web site some more, and brainstorm about upcoming programs.