John Carroll University Division of
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
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Volume 3, Issue 19: May 20, 2021 |
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R.I.S.E.* Up Newsletter
*Reinforcing Inclusion through Skill-building and Education
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It is Commencement season! The word "commencement" means, of course, "a beginning," and even as our graduates begin the next stages of their lives, universities are turning their attention to beginning the work of the upcoming academic year: scheduling classes, planning events, enrolling incoming classes, and hiring new faculty and staff.
Hiring in academia can be a complex and fraught matter, especially considering the unique role played by tenure and academic freedom, and the need to balance competing interests and constraints. This week's headlines have been full of a controversial tenure decision at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which announced in April that prominent journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones had accepted their offer of a prestigious endowed faculty chair beginning this fall. However, the UNC board of trustees has made headlines this week due to their highly unusual decision to not grant Hannah-Jones tenure upon her appointment, despite university precedent.
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that many are seeing this case as "an ideological proxy war" in the battle over the political role of educational institutions in critically exploring the history of race in the United States. Hannah-Jones won a Pulitzer Prize last year for her work on the New York Times Magazine's groundbreaking series 'The 1619 Project,' which examines the history of the nation through a lens centering slavery and race. This series, reports the Chronicle, “has become a political lightning rod.” What’s more important is that this UNC decision has raised concerns of a "political litmus test" that is seemingly being imposed on hiring decisions out of deference to powerful donors and political leaders, a move that some are calling "craven and dangerous."
An article in Inside Higher Ed also points out the complexity surrounding this single instance that raises questions of inequity and justice. We can clearly see that instances like this bring attention to systemic barriers that remain within the academy, not just for people of color, but for any that have been excluded or marginalized on the basis of either identity or identity-based work. As DEI scholar Laura Morgan Roberts writes, "the cocktail of epistemic exclusion and plain old racism + sexism + classism + heterosexism + fatphobia + ableism + patriarchy have devalued, demeaned, dejected, disenfranchised, demoralized and darn near destroyed the lives and livelihoods of millions of brilliant Black women in the academy. And Still We Rise." Tackling these ‘isms’ is the charge for us all.
I draw attention to these recent events as we are in this season of commencement. No matter where we fall in our support of arguments related to this case, we all must build our awareness to all that is still prevalent in academic spaces, as we grapple with how to make those spaces more just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive. It takes the work of all of us together to ensure that “we all rise.” Grappling with these difficult discussions is how awareness builds, problems get confronted, and ultimately practices and policies can be changed -- creating systemic breakthroughs in the long run.
At the close of this semester, and the beginning of summer, planning, and soon a new semester, we are glad to have you as supporters in the work of R.I.S.E. Up! Although this is the last R.I.S.E. Up newsletter of the Spring 2021 semester, our work, just as yours, will continue into the summer. We will continue to bring up important conversations, relevant news and research, resources, and updates and events announcements on topics of diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the summer. Please encourage your friends, colleagues and students to subscribe.
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Sincerely,
Tiffany Galvin Green, Ph.D.,
Vice President for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
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Time is running out! Join the AAPI Heritage Month
Community Book Read now!
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There are still books available for our May Community Book Read: 2020 New York Times bestseller and National Book Critics Circle Award winner Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning. Korean-American poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong "fearlessly and provocatively blends memoir, cultural criticism, and history to expose fresh truths about racialized consciousness in America."
The book club will meet on Zoom on the following three Wednesdays, from 1:00-2:00 pm: May 26, June 2, and June 9. All participants will receive a link to download their own electronic copy of the book. Open to all students, faculty and staff. Spaces are limited, so register today!
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Earlier this week, members of the Jewish community celebrated the festival of Shauvuot, the Feast of Weeks, which celebrates the giving of the Torah to the community. We wish all our Jewish students, faculty, staff and community members a (belated) happy holiday - chag sameach!
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Congratulations to the Class of 2021! |
This weekend, we will celebrate Commencement exercises on Hamlin Quad for the John Carroll University graduating classes of 2020 and 2021. We are so proud of our graduates, who have overcome some significant odds in these last (very difficult) few semesters. Congratulations to all of our graduates! We are proud of you!
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R.I.S.E. Higher: Featured Article of the Week |
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The DEI Pathway to Promotion
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis says it's putting its policies where its mouth is, approving new promotion and tenure options based on diversity, equity and inclusion work.
Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed, May 14, 2021
Colleges and universities say they value diversity, equity and inclusion, but the faculty members doing this work are seldom recognized for it in any career-advancing way. That’s about to change at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. The Faculty Council there just overwhelmingly approved a new path to tenure and promotion centered on DEI work.
“This is about keeping us accountable... We’ve been doing all these other things, reading the research and trying to understand bias in promotion and tenure and how we can begin to close that gap. Fast-forward to now, we’re putting a policy in place that speaks to that change. We’re no longer just talking about this and discussing this, but we’re doing something about it.”
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Informal idiom, used as a greeting.
"It has been a long time since we last saw each other."
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Like last week's "Watching our Words" feature ("chop chop"), the unusual syntax of this common English phrase hints at its origins in another language. The syntax directly matches a common Mandarin phrase (好久不见, literally "long time no see"), suggesting to some that native Mandarin speakers may have been the originators of the English phrase in the late 19th century. One article points out, however, that "the literature of that era is rife with stylized English attributed to non-native speakers," which may mean that the phrase originated, not from any one linguistic group, but more generally as a form of mockery of non-native English speakers.
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The "Watching our Words" feature discusses words or phrases in common use in American English with derogatory or offensive origins or meanings. Do you have a word or phrase you'd like us to feature in "Watching our Words"? Drop it into our Suggestion Box and we will explore it in a future newsletter!
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Announcements from our network... |
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Join the John Carroll delegation
for the 2021 Annual Meeting of the
AJCU Conference on Diversity and Equity!
June 2-3, 2021 | Online | Free registration!
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This year, the AJCU Conference on Diversity and Equity (CDE) will be holding its annual meeting virtually. This year's meeting will focus on ways that Jesuit colleges and universities can become anti-racist institutions. Participation is free! This year's meeting will be hosted by Canisius College. |
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Infographic: Highlights from the Student Voice
Survey on Racial Justice
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Racial justice has gotten renewed attention in the past year, both within campus environments (even those functioning remotely) and in surrounding communities. That has impacted what students are experiencing and what they believe colleges should be doing, reveals the latest Student Voice survey, conducted by Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse and presented by Kaplan. The survey of 2,000 students was conducted April 5 to 15. |
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Quick takes: DEI in the headlines*
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Bucknell University, a small liberal arts school in Pennsylvania, is investigating an incident last week in which a group of men attempted to break into a residence hall for LGBTQ students. Residents say the men harassed and intimidated them and that they had to hold windows shut to prevent the men from breaking in. Many of the men had been identified as members of a fraternity that had been housed in the building before it was banned from campus in 2019.
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A recent survey by the nonprofit Leading Asian Americans to Unite for Change reveals that 8 in 10 Asian Americans feel discriminated against or disrespected in the U.S. Nearly 40 percent of White survey respondents, however, said they were not aware that anti-Asian hate crimes and sentiment are on the rise. The new report also shows that 42 percent of non-Asian respondents in the U.S. could not name a prominent Asian American.
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A new analysis from the Pew Research Center shows that graduates who are the first in their families to obtain college degrees earn significantly less money than those whose parents are college-educated. Researchers also discovered major disparities in graduation rates for these two groups.
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A committee responsible for planning events to mark the upcoming Tulsa Race Massacre centennial has ousted Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt from their ranks after he signed a controversial education bill May 7 banning teachers from introducing concepts related to critical race theory (CRT) in the classroom.
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President Biden signs anti-Asian hate crimes bill into law
The president signed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act into law Thursday following the bill's passage in the US House of Representatives by a 364-62 vote earlier this week. The law will, among other initiatives, direct the Justice Department to more speedily review pandemic-related hate crimes and expand data collection resources for tracking such crimes. "I believe with every fiber of my being that there are simple core values and beliefs that should bring us together as Americans. One of them is standing together against hate, against racism — the ugly poison that has long haunted and plagued our nation," said Biden before the signing. (via CBS news)
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Other articles we're reading this week ...
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