October 13, 2015 Meeting of Diversity Committee

Harriet Green, minute-taker

• Approve September Meeting Minutes
• ClimateQUAL Updates
• Inclusive Illinois Open House
  • How it went and what we’ve gained.
• Campus Microaggression Events with Lori
  • An event was held on Oct. 6th
    • Are changes needed for the event on Oct. 28th
    • Other preparation for this event.
  • Stacy Harwood has contacted us regarding new findings for the Library.  We will meet with her on Oct. 26th, from 12 – 1 pm.
    • Preparation for this meeting.

Erik Chapman, Qiang Jin, Cindy Ingold, Cindy Kelly, J.J. Pionke, Harriett Green, Zoe Revell, Ben Riegler

Absent: Laila Moustafa, Ellen Swain, Heather Murphy

Harriett Green and Cindy Ingold, minute takers

• Approve September Meeting Minutes
  • September minutes were approved with changes.
• ClimateQUAL Updates
  • Cindy I. said that the first meeting of the ClimateQUAL Response Team was on Monday October 19. They are to come up with a set of recommendations by December 15, 2015. She shared the ClimateQUAL Summary Report with the GSLIS Diversity Committee after getting approval from Dean Wilkin.
• Inclusive Illinois Open House
  • How it went and what we’ve gained
  • Consensus was that Room 106 was more prohibitive to encouraging participation. We liked that we had plenty of room to spread out and share Library materials. A Braille atlas of the state of Illinois from the Map and Geography Library was a big hit. Next year, we will go back to having an event in the Marshall Gallery, but we will request more than one table be set up so that we can share library materials.
  • Upon request from a member of the Advisory Committee to the AUL for User Services, Cindy I. shared the comments recorded on the post it notes to the questions: “What Does Diversity Mean to You?” and “What Can the Library Do to Be More Inclusive?” The committee may invite JoAnn to the meeting for December.
• Campus Micro-Aggression Events with Lori
  • The October 6th event went well, with 11 people attending who weren’t committee members. Zoe, Cindy, and Ben attended from the committee. Lori had a good Powerpoint presentation that included clips from DVD series, “Ouch!” and internet videos, and good examples of what microaggressions are. The committee agreed to ask Lori for her slides to post on the website.
    • Attendees also asked during the workshop about what to do about micro-aggressions, but the workshop was focused on what they are and recognizing them. Lori will plan to leave more time in October 28th session for questions, and will ask for suggestions from others.
    • Zoe mentioned a theatre group on social justice issues called “Inner Voices” about which she had received information from Eva from RBML. She asked if the committee would want to host an event by the group, as they could demonstrate what to do in situations like these.
    • For October 28th, Zoe will book and prepare Grainger Commons. Cindy I. will introduce Lori, and will tell attendees that it will be an informational session. Erik will send out a reminder in advance to LIBNEWS.
  • Stacy Harwood – the committee will meet with her on Oct. 26 from 12-1 in room 106. Most committee members indicated that they will be available to meet with her. She would provide more materials for the committee, and committee members should bring any further questions they might have. Erik noted that we might want to let JoAnn know about the meeting and he may send an invitation to her. He will also ask Stacy if there’s any information she needs from us.
• Library Strategic Plan
  • There is no draft yet, but one being worked on.
  • Lisa will join us for first 20 minutes of Nov. 10 meeting. She also is holding a Strategic Plan office hour today at 3:30 and on the 30th at 10am. We will talk about diversity as it applies to the strategic plan, and how we can work together. Erik will contact Lisa closer to November meeting to remind her and ask about anything she needs.
• Inclusive Illinois Committee
  • Cindy I. reported that there is a new Inclusive Illinois committee that’s not a Chancellor-level committee, but under ODEA and this is the 2nd year. The committee has had 2 meetings, and Cindy I. attended the one in September. Cindy I. is on a new subcommittee for creating a diversity plan for the campus, and possibly also drafting new marketing and communications plan for diversity. It might be the overarching committee for the other diversity committees, given that it has representatives from all other committees. Cindy noted that the Inclusive Illinois committee members questioned if a diversity plan was worth drafting at this point—Menah Pratt-Clarke attended the first meeting and assured them that the diversity plan was worth doing, so that it would be ready for new administration.
  • Committee members consist of co-chairs Menah Pratt-Clarke and Tracy K? and a number of faculty and students
  • No diversity plan exists right now: A framework was drafted in 2013 for what a diversity plan should look like, titled “Pursuing Diversity Excellence: Stretches to 2030,” drafted by Chancellor’s Committee on Race and Ethnicity
• GSLIS Diversity Committee
  • Cindy I. and Erik met with GSLIS Diversity Committee: They wanted to implement a version of ClimateQUAL for GSLIS that would also include master’s and doctoral students. Cindy and Erik shared the Library’s ClimateQUAL summary report with them.
  • They would like to explore collaborations in general: GSLIS is holding an event next Wednesday on book censorship and diversity issues that we could add to staff calendar during Banned Books Week. Erik sent them the info about the next Micro-aggressions training on the 28th and GSLIS people may attend. They would like to regularly share information about their programs and events as well, and will contact Cindy I.
  • The GSLIS meeting was an open one and there was a graduate student interested in interacting with our committee. The committee discussed if our meetings are open and if graduate students could sit in on meetings. Cindy I. will invite the graduate student to the next meeting. We also can add information to the committee website about contacting us if they want to interact—Cindy I. updated the committee membership, and Erik and Zoe will edit the webpage.
• ADA events
  • Zoe will contact J.J. about getting the archives of the webinar recordings. GSLIS also may be hosting an event: Erik and Cindy I. will find out about upcoming spring events at GSLIS and ODEA, and the committee can try to schedule its events so that they don’t conflict. J.J. is also hosting a February 2016 exhibit on ADA.
  • The committee also would like to coordinate with IT to do an presentation on accessibility software in the library, what is available, a “petting zoo” type of event. The events could cover on how to set up our equipment so that it’s actually accessible and how to use the prinert. Zoe will talk to Library IT about scheduling someone to do the training.
• Hosting Diversity themed Webinars, etc.
  • The discussion postponed to November meeting.
• Other News and Updates
  • There were none.