Notes from the Wedge
Announcements
Strategic Planning - All planning groups should be tying up their action plans and be ready to share them within a week.

Crossroads of Ideas Lecture - Alice Goffman, author of On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City, will discuss Fatefulness in Everyday Life: a Sociology of Small Events on Tuesday, May 9 at 7:30 in the Forum.
Time Tips
 Sharing Time Management Tips

From Erica Gill: My favorite productivity resource is the Get-it-Done Guy's Quick and Dirty Tips podcast. Each podcast is roughly 5 minutes. 

I like to listen to this podcast while I clean, which leads to my second favorite productivity tip: pairing. When I'm faced with a task that I don't inherently enjoy, I pair it with something I do. It can be something small, for example, taking my laptop to a favorite table here in WID to work on a proposal. I think this is a commonly-used, but highly-effective strategy.
On Being a WIDite

This week's column is about bullying - a behavior that I hoped wouldn't occur in WID, but now I've seen it, so I need to comment. Bullying is defined as loud, aggressive, or denigrating behavior used to intimidate other people. Bullying behaviors include yelling, cornering a person in a confined space, a pattern of denigrating or ridiculing comments, pushing, shoving, or any threatening physical contact. Most bullying is by people in a position of greater power than those they intimidate.
 
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has a policy against bullying. The University is careful to indicate that bullying is beyond "the range of commonly accepted expressions of disagreement, disapproval, or critique in an academic culture." In other words, the policy is not intended to inhibit free expression or vigorous debate, which are essential to a strong academic environment, but seeks to ensure that all people feel equally free to participate without fear of threats or retribution. Bullying is not about making a point, it's about stifling alternative viewpoints, and is therefore antithetical to the entire premise of an inclusive intellectual community.

It is incumbent upon all of us at WID to stop bullying whenever it appears, to take the steps necessary to reinforce the value and the contributions of every person here; the alternative, to accede to the suppression or discouragement of people we care about - and whose ideas can make us better - is simply unacceptable.

In thinking about bullying, we also need to stretch beyond our sense of the usual, of what we as individuals might see as acceptable. For some, bullying is a terrifying reminder of experiences endured as children or in association with physical violence. Yelling or physically imposing behaviors in the workplace take on a sinister dimension that many of us can scarcely imagine. It shouldn't happen - ever - and I am calling upon each of us to make certain that WID is a place where our colleagues and friends can be certain they don't have to endure these kinds of interactions. Ever.

The process of defining WID's future and all of the creative work in WID must include everyone in our community. We cannot allow bullying or any behaviors that prevent some people from engaging to reduce the diversity of voices. If we lose certain voices, we reduce creativity. In contrast, environments that provide support and reinforcement and where people feel safe breed greater creativity and better productivity.

So let's all make WID as good as it can be. If you see someone being bullied, say something. Many people don't even realize when they are being bullies. Tell people how their behavior is perceived or how it makes others feel. If you aren't comfortable doing so, please ask someone else to do so. Beth, Kory, and I are always available to discuss how to handle such situations or to intervene to put an end to destructive behaviors
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