VOICES
January/February 2021
Happy New Year from the Office of
Diversity & Inclusion!
NEWS | JAN-FEB 2021

A message from President Katherine A. Rowe about Jan 6th's insurrection of the United States Capitol:

"Since before the founding of the United States, William & Mary has sought to advance democratic principles and practices. It is why we call ourselves the Alma Mater of the Nation. For centuries, those in our community have served this nation, as presidents, legislators, jurists, members of the armed forces, diplomats – and in countless other roles, many of which have gone unrecorded. Along with our nation, I watched in sadness and anger as insurgents invaded the U.S. Capitol in a direct attack on our democracy and an attempt to sow further distrust of our democratic processes..." Read more

"Natoya Haskins, associate professor of counselor education, has been named the first director of diversity and inclusion for the School of Education. “Equity and inclusion are at the heart of our work,” says Rob Knoeppel, dean of the School of Education. “It’s one of the highest priorities for our school as we move forward in addressing these issues in our community. Dr. Haskins brings a wealth of experience and passion for diversity..." Read more

"William & Mary today announced appointments in two areas of critical importance to university employees. 

The university will transform its mission-critical ombuds office into a team-based model, appointing three current employees who bring a deep understanding of faculty and staff professional pathways at the university. In addition, Samuel Hayes III has been named chief facilities officer..." Read more 

"William & Mary’s new Veteran-to-Executive Transition (VET) initiative will launch its first certificate program – “Flourishing in Life Transitions” – in May 2021. “Flourishing” will prepare veterans and members of the intelligence community to transition to high-level civilian management positions, while flourishing in their careers and personal lives..." Read more

"William & Mary announced today an unprecedented partnership with the Posse Foundation to provide full scholarships to diverse cohorts of students, many of whom will be the first in their families to attend college and many of whom may not have otherwise seen the university as an affordable option..." Read more

William & Mary has renewed its annual membership with the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD) so faculty can learn for free how to be their best selves in and out of the classroom. Membership includes 1) developing core skills (strategic planning, explosive productivity, healthy relationships, and work-life balance), 2) access to webinars and multi-week courses, and 3) numerous member resources. Learn more about NCFD's membership benefits here.

Click the Activate My Membership button to claim your membership!
Office of Diversity & Inclusion | SPRING EVENTS
Spring 2021 Events
Check out the Office of Diversity & Inclusion's Spring 2021 Courageous Conversations as we focus on our values of Excellence & Curiosity. Join us as we honor Black History Month, Women's History Month, and Asian & Pacific Islander American History Month. Click on the flyer to get a look at what's in store!

Note: Asian & Pacific Islander American History Month is celebrated in May. However, our office will be celebrating in April to accommodate for the academic calendar.
Black Excellence Panel Discussion | Wed. Feb 10, 12PM
For Black History Month, the Office of Diversity & Inclusion has invited four alumni to share their perspectives on curiosity & excellence. Join us this month as we engage in a wonderful dialogue and put our William & Mary values into action! Click on the flyer to learn more about the panelists!

William & Mary Black History Month Trivia |Tues. Feb 23, 11:30AM

Join the Office of Diversity & Inclusion for a game of trivia! Do you know everything there is to know about Black/African American history at William & Mary? Find out as participants will have the chance to test their knowledge as we celebrate Black History Month!

Student Diversity & Inclusion Symposium |Tues. March 2, 5PM

The Office of Diversity & Inclusion, in collaboration with Student Assembly and Center for Student Diversity, will be hosting the Student Diversity & Inclusion Symposium. Focusing on acknowledgement, compassion, & unity, we have invited Feminista Jones as the symposium keynote speaker, followed by a facilitated discussion where students can discuss ways that William & Mary can best embody efforts towards acknowledgement, compassion, and unity with regards to diversity, equity, & inclusion.
Diversity Recognition,
Nominate a Colleague!



The Office of Diversity & Inclusion welcomes campus community members to nominate a colleague to be recognized for a diversity-related program or project that furthers our commitment to inclusive excellence. To nominate a member of faculty/staff, please complete this form:


PAST EVENT - IGNITE Future Faculty Development Program

The Office of Diversity & Inclusion held it's IGNITE Program in November 2020 that provided participants with the opportunity for professional development and candid discussions with department heads, deans, and early career faculty members about life in academia. As a part of the experience, participants met with current faculty over Zoom to gain a greater awareness of research and teaching opportunities, discussed their career prospects and academic work, attended workshops, and presented a job talk.
“True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice."

-The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day | MLK Day of Service
After a long struggle, legislation was signed in 1983 to mark the birthday of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a federal holiday. Americans first observed the holiday in 1986. In 1994, Congress designated the holiday as a national day of service and charged AmeriCorps with leading this effort. Taking place each third Monday in January, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service is the only federal holiday observed as a national day of service — a "day on, not a day off." This day of service helps to empower individuals, strengthen communities, bridge barriers, address social problems, and move us closer to Dr. King's vision of a "Beloved Community."

The MLK Day of Service encourages all types of service, particularly projects that have a lasting impact and connect participants to ongoing service. The most successful projects connect to the life and teaching of Dr. King, meet a pressing community need, and include time to reflect on his teachings. Learn more at AmeriCorps MLK Day.
Join our panelists in a brave space discussion to strengthen our allyship at William & Mary. All Staff are welcome! Please join the discussion on Wednesday, February 17th, from 2:00-3:00 p.m. ET.

Our panelists for this roundtable discussion are:
  • Laura Shepherd, Associate Dean of Academic & Student Services, W&M Law School
  • Brian Baines, Senior Human Resources Business Partner, Mason School of Business
  • Shené V. Owens, Associate Director, Center for Student Diversity
Email staffassembly@wm.edu with any questions.


As students engage in leadership and work for positive social change at William & Mary, some choose activism and advocacy. The Office of Community Engagement, Student Leadership Development, and Student Unions & Engagement have gathered campus activism and advocacy resources which may help students navigate these methods on campus and beyond. This includes campus policies and resources, toolkits, and anti-racism, wellness, and voting resources.
Office of Diversity & Inclusion | JAN-FEB 2021
International Holocaust Remembrance Day
On November 1, 2005, the UN General Assembly adopted resolution 60/7 to designate January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day (IHRD). The date marks the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau and is meant to honor the victims of Nazism. The same resolution supports the development of educational programs to remember the Holocaust and to prevent further genocide.

Resolution 60/7 not only establishes January 27 as “International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust,” it also rejects any form of Holocaust denial. The resolution encourages member states of the UN to actively preserve sites that the Nazis used during the "Final Solution". Drawing from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the resolution condemns all forms of “religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief” throughout the world.

Learn more on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website.
Black History Month
Black History Month, or National African American History Month, is an annual celebration of achievements by black Americans and a time for recognizing the central role of African Americans in U.S. history. The event grew out of “Negro History Week,” the brainchild of noted historian Carter G. Woodson and other prominent African Americans. Since 1976, every U.S. president has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month. Other countries around the world, including Canada and the United Kingdom, also devote a month to celebrating black history.

Origins of Black History Month

The story of Black History Month begins in 1915, half a century after the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in the United States. That September, the Harvard-trained historian Carter G. Woodson and the prominent minister Jesse E. Moorland founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), an organization dedicated to researching and promoting achievements by black Americans and other peoples of African descent. Known today as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASAHL), the group sponsored a national Negro History week in 1926, choosing the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. The event inspired schools and communities nationwide to organize local celebrations, establish history clubs and host performances and lectures.

When Carter G. Woodson established Negro History week in 1926, he realized the importance of providing a theme to focus the attention of the public. The intention has never been to dictate or limit the exploration of the Black experience, but to bring to the public’s attention important developments that merit emphasis.

Each year, Black History Month is designated a theme by the ASAHL. This year's theme for Black History Month is the "Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity."

Black History at William & Mary | Did You Know?

  • The first African American to receive a PHD in History was Theodore Delaney.
  • The first full time African American administrator was Juanita Wallace
  • The Black Studies Program was first established in 1997.

Come to the Office of Diversity & Inclusion's Black History Month Trivia event to learn more about Black history at William & Mary!
The Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation
Join us for a Lemon's Legacies Porch Talk led by Jaaye Person-Lynn. Three of the five men credited with drafting the Declaration of Independence held slaves at the time the Declaration was drafted. As such, it is clear that the words, “All men are created equal,” did not apply to the enslaved population. The 3/5ths clause of the US Constitution, the Dred Scott case, Jim Crow Laws and the continued treatment of Black lives as inferior, including my conviction for delaying or obstructing a peace officer, all support the notion the status of the enslaved descendants has never changed... Event will be held on February 16 at 6PM. Register here Read more
Join Jajuan Johnson, Ph.D., our Mellon Postdoctoral Research Associate, for this Lemon's Legacies Porch Talk in conjunction with Let Freedom Ring Foundation and the Williamsburg Regional Library. Discovering your family roots is a journey, and this workshop will help with the process. This program will focus on resources ranging from oral histories to vital records and historic newspapers used to research African American family history. The workshop is designed for beginners but researchers at all levels are welcome. Event will be held on February 18 at 6:00 p.m. EST. Register here.

Learn more about William & Mary’s upcoming Memorial to the Enslaved through a discussion by the project’s key stakeholders. The final design, Hearth, by William Sendor, W&M ’11 was unveiled in 2020 and construction is slated to begin in 2021. Panelists include Jody Allen, Director of The Lemon Project; Chon Glover, Chief Diversity Officer; Susan Kern, Executive Director of Historic Campus; Ed Pease, architect and adjunct professor; Burt Pinnock, Principal, Chairman, Baskervill; and William Sendor, W&M ’11, designer.
The Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation has
a YouTube Channel!

The Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation has a YouTube channel! The channel has recordings of all Fall 2020 virtual events. Below are links to the videos.

 
The Lemon Project is also on social media: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
 
Sign up for our listserv at The Lemon Project listserv

Jason Reynolds is the New York Times bestselling co-author of Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, along with Ibram X. Kendi. Reynolds will discuss his book and answer questions from the audience.

In addition to his Newbery, Printz, and Edgar Awards, Reynolds was named as the Library of Congress’ national ambassador for young people’s literature in January 2020. Dr. Ibram X. Kendri thought him the perfect person to “remix” his book, Stamped From the Beginning, to reach a wider audience. After years of coaxing, Reynolds finally agreed, creating an “impressive and much-needed” book that draws a line from the first European slave traders to today’s Black Lives Matter movement. 

Presented by William & Mary Libraries and Williamsburg Regional Library as part of the One Book One Community program, an initiative that brings together readers in Williamsburg, James City County, York County and William & Mary for a shared reading experience. View the talk on YouTube on February 22nd at 7PM.
VIMS
VIMS Dive-In Committee Updates

Click on the VIMS Dive-In Committee updates from December and February to learn more about diversity & inclusion initiatives at VIMS!


The Dive-In Committee meets monthly. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, please contact the Committee at diversity@vims.edu. Also, updates on the Committee’s on-going work, upcoming events, and resources will be included in each VIMS Digest and through regular updates to the website.
DEI Initiative in the Geosciences! Geology Department & VIMS

URGE (Unlearning Racism in Geoscience) is an nation-wide NSF-funded initiative that serves to:  (1) deepen the community’s knowledge of the effects of racism on the participation and retention of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people in Geoscience, (2) draw on existing literature, expert opinions, and personal experiences to develop anti-racist policies and strategies, and (3) share, discuss, and modify anti-racist policies and strategies within a dynamic community network and on a national stage. Click here for more info.
 
The community participates in URGE via "pods" at their institutions-- including W&M! The pod is led by Chris Hein (VIMS) and includes 50 participants from VIMS and A&S, including undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, faculty and staff.
William & Mary Law School
The Law School’s Committee on Equity & Inclusion has made proposals to address inclusivity in the portraiture in the law school. A subcommittee is working with University partners to design exhibits that are more reflective of the community.
The Center for Racial and Social Justice has partnered with the Corley Institute for Diversity & Inclusion Education at George Mason Law to offer law students the opportunity to earn a certificate in Diversity & Inclusion. Nine students opted in and are enrolled in the eight-week program with students from law schools across the country.
The Law School Student Bar Association continues its Movement for Inclusive Excellence initiative. Over the winter break, the SBA hosted an Anti-Racism Mini-Series Group Discussion. Participants watched the Netflix mini-series “When they See Us”, chronicling the events surrounding the Central Park jogger case and the Exonerated Five.
"When I liberate myself, I liberate others."

-Fannie Lou Hamer

A Monthly List of Terms that Educate on Identity, Inclusion, and More:

  • Civil Rights Act of 1964 - prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Provisions of this civil rights act forbade discrimination on the basis of sex, as well as, race in hiring, promoting, and firing. The Act prohibited discrimination in public accommodations and federally funded programs. It also strengthened the enforcement of voting rights and the desegregation of schools, ending the application of Jim Crow laws. The Civil Rights Act was eventually expanded by Congress to strengthen enforcement of these fundamental civil rights.
  • Voting Rights Act of 1965 - The Voting Rights Act of 1965 expanded the 14th and 15th amendments by banning racial discrimination in voting practices. The act was a response to the barriers that prevented African Americans from voting for nearly a century.
  • U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) - responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person's race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, transgender status, and sexual orientation), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. The EEOC was created after the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
  • The CROWN Act - The CROWN Act, which stands for “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” is a law that prohibits race-based hair discrimination, which is the denial of employment and educational opportunities because of hair texture or protective hairstyles including braids, locs, twists or bantu knots; the Crown Act has been passed into law in California, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Colorado, Washington, and Virginia and has been passed by the US House of Representatives; DC has banned this form of discrimination through the passage of its DC Human Rights Act (1977)

January/February
Religious Holidays
New Year's Day (Jan 1)
MLK Day (Jan 18)
Int. Holocaust Remembrance Day (Jan 27)
Black History Month (Feb 1-28)
Lunar New Year (Feb 12)
Valentine's Day (Feb 14)


JAN
1 Feast of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of
God
2 Birth of Guru Gobind Singh
6 Epiphany
7 Feast of the Nativity (Orthodox
Christmas)
13 Lohri-Maghi
27-28 Tu Bishvat/Tu B’Shevat


FEB
2 Imbolc (Northern Hemisphere)
15 Parinirvana Day / Nirvana Day
16 Shrove Tuesday
17 Ash Wednesday
24 Ayyám-i-Há


The W&M APIM Alumni group consists of alumni who self-identify as Asian, Pacific Islander and Middle Eastern who are working to foster a greater sense of community at William & Mary.

A team of volunteer leaders from APIM Alumni and other alumni groups convenes throughout the year to have focused, action-oriented discussions on how to better serve alumni in these communities and encourage engagement, leadership and philanthropy. If you’re interested in the work of APIM alumni, find more details here.
ADDITIONAL WM EVENTS & NEWS

The Untethered, a troupe of BIPOC Theatre alumni, present their new work in "Homecoming”. This never-before-seen live online event series features performances of song, dance, spoken word and monodrama exploring the quest of diverse artists to carve out their own space at W&M and the American creative landscape. Followed by an open discussion from the cast, “Homecoming” is more than a performance, it is a “liberated unspooling of untold stories from W&M community”. Event will be held from Feb 18-21. Register here

To celebrate the upcoming Year of the Ox, William & Mary Confucius Institute and Sister Cities of Newport News have invited guest speaker Xin Ma from Christopher Newport University to present a special lecture on the traditions and trends surrounding Chinese New Year. The Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, is an annual holiday that falls on different days each year according to the cycle of the lunar calendar. Join us in exploring the exciting activities and customs that accompany this special holiday from your own home through Zoom! The event will be held at 7pm EST on Wednesday, February 10th via Zoom. Register here
A Thousand Words: Fight Against Racist Imagery

Steve Prince will take participants on a historical journey examining the power of racist imagery upon the psyche of America and the world.
Thursday, Feb. 11, 7:00 p.m. Register online to receive Zoom link. 

Join us for a keynote led by alumna Shuchi Sharma '92, M.A. '93, vice president for global diversity and inclusion at SAP, followed by panel discussion highlighting the importance of diversity in the workplace. Learn more and register. This program is part of the William & Mary Professionals Week. Learn more about all of the programs here. February 24, 12PM ET. Register Here

Join the Staff Assembly to discuss and process current pressing issues. Use this safe space as your opportunity to connect with your colleagues, share out, listen and ask questions. We are here to help and support you. Interactive Water Cooler Sessions are the 3rd Wednesday of each month. Register here
William & Mary Community News:
Have an upcoming program or event that you would like us to share? Send your information to 
Bobbi Jo Stevens (bcstevens@wm.edu) by the 20th of each month.