Volume 5, Issue 6: November 4, 2021
R.I.S.E.* Up Newsletter
*Reinforcing Inclusion through Skill-building and Education
Photo of Johnnetta B. Cole with quote. We are for difference. For respecting difference. For allowing difference. For encouraging difference. Until difference no longer makes a difference.
Dr. Cole is an accomplished educator, museum and art curator, noted speaker and author on issues of diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion, and a dedicated advocate for social justice.  She has paved the way for so many in her efforts to bridge across differences, study differences, learn from differences, teach about differences, while tirelessly advocating for differences. She is also one of my first role models, a mentor, and a close family friend. I chose this quote from her today not only for its connection to the work that I have been doing here at JCU, but also because it recalls to me a conversation that I had with Dr. Cole before coming to John Carroll. 

When I made the decision to join John Carroll in an inaugural role as Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, I consulted her. She has always encouraged me in the important work of social justice across all ranges of differences. As I told her about the University mission and commitment to social justice, she inquired what I was most excited about in this opportunity. I shared how I had a good feeling about the possibilities for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in fundamental ways. I was impressed and inspired by the core tenets of this Jesuit Catholic institution and I was hoping to have an impact. I was eager to know more about its history, its mission, and the many ways that a “faith that does justice” is lived out in the day-to-day workings of a university. Mostly, I was looking forward to learning and growing from the new people I would meet, the new traditions that I would learn, and the new interactions I would have in a mission-driven environment. 

And I have not been disappointed. Though we still have many ways to grow and enrich the ways we live out our commitment to diversity in every part of this institution, I can say that while I have been here, I have truly felt supported in the work that I was doing. Every rich discussion that engaged and encouraged new ways of thinking about the experiences of others; every opportunity to think about new ways to meet the changing needs of our community; every initiative started to bring more inclusion to JCU; has been received well and met with openness and willingness. In two years, we've made real progress, even in the middle of the turbulence of a pandemic and the many changes and pressures that have accompanied it. We can be proud that:

  • We've created an entirely new division designed to provide education, coordination and accountability on all matters relating to equity, inclusiveness, diversity, equal access, and the prevention of discrimination and harassment. 
  • We've revamped the Strategic Plan for Inclusive Excellence into a robust standing plan to help steer JCU's course forward towards a more inclusive future.
  • We've built networks of effective relationships, policies, and systems that are actively improving the ways we recruit, retain, and support an increasingly diverse staff, faculty, and student body; interact with donors and alumni; and live out our mission more fully throughout our community and region.
  • We've created the RISE series, a broad collection of workshops and programs to provide ongoing professional development and a community knowledge base on issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, cultural competency, and equal access.
  • Finally, and most importantly, we've brought together a terrific team within the DEI Division who work hard every day, with our campus partners, staff, faculty, alumni, and students, to make John Carroll a university where all people can feel they are welcome, they matter, their voices are heard, and they belong here. 

All of this has exceeded my expectations, and leaves me feeling encouraged and grateful. As I move on to explore other professional opportunities, I leave JCU this week confident in the knowledge that the efforts we are making here at John Carroll will continue to expand and bear fruit into the university's future. Diversity has become an integral part of the inspired future of JCU.   

We have much to be proud of. I am humbled and grateful for every person, and every effort, that have been a part of the work that we have embarked on over the last two years. Thank you for trusting me on this journey. I can only hope that I have made my mentor, as well as all of you, proud as well. I implore you to continue this important work, both individually and as a community, until "difference no longer makes a difference." I truly wish you all the best!
Headshot of Tiffany Galvin Green
Sincerely,

Tiffany Galvin Green, Ph.D.,
Vice President for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Division Announcements
Join us for a farewell reception
TODAY, Thursday, November 4, 3:30-5:00 pm | AD 144
headshot - Tiffany Galvin Green
All members of the JCU community are invited to join us for a farewell reception to wish Tiffany Galvin Green all the best as she leaves the university this week. Please feel free to drop in to the University Lounge (AD 144) from 3:30-5:00 pm today, Thursday, November 4 to say goodbye and good luck!
Live Poetry Reading by Tomás Q. Morín
TONIGHT, November 4, 7:00 pm | Rodman A
Tomás Q. Morín is the award-winning author of the memoir Let Me Count the Ways, as well as the poetry collections Machete, Patient Zero, and A Larger Country. He is translator of The Heights of Macchu Picchu by Pablo Neruda. He teaches at Rice University and Vermont College of Fine Arts.

This event is sponsored by the Program in Peace, Justice and Human Rights; the Center for Student Diversity & Inclusion, and the English Department. All are welcome. CSDI will be hosting a giveaway of five copies of Tomas's recent book, Machete! 
First Generation College Student Celebration
November 8 | 12-1 pm | CSDI Lounge
promotional image for First Gen Student Celebration
Join the Center for Student Diversity & Inclusion on November 8 for a luncheon in honor of those who are the first generation in their families to go to college.

All students, staff and faculty members who are first generation college students are welcome to attend! Scan the QR code to learn more, or visit the CSDI website at www.jcu.edu/inclusion.
Celebrating Diwali
Nov. 4-9, 2021
Circle of lit lamps for Diwali
Today begins the five-day festival of Diwali, the Festival of Lights. This festival is a major celebration across India and the global Indian diaspora, marked by religious celebrations in Hindu, Jain, Sikh and other traditions, and incorporates many rituals and practices centered on light, joy and abundance. Diwali's many lights symbolize the victory of good over evil and light over darkness.

This Saturday from 7-10 pm in the LSC Conference Room, all JCU students are invited to join the South Asian Student Association and Student Union Programming Board for a Diwali Celebration, featuring delicious traditional Indian dishes, henna tattoos and a dance group performance followed by dance lessons.

We offer our best wishes for a very happy Diwali to all who are celebrating this week!

Photo credit: Imanushkasingh on Wikimedia Commons
Promo image for LGBT 101 program November 10
Promo image for Trans 101 program December 3
Join us for LGBTQIA+ Safe Zone Trainings!
November 10 and December 3
We are offering TWO live, online SafeZone training workshops this fall for students, faculty and staff. All members of the community are encouraged to join us!

LGBT 101
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
3:00-4:00 pm - Virtual via Zoom
facilitated by the LGBT Center of Northeast Ohio

Trans 101
Friday, December 3, 2021
2:00-3:00 pm - Virtual via Zoom
facilitated by OutSupport Medina
"Un-Silencing the Black Catholic Past: The Political Struggles of Black Catholic Nuns in the United States"
Tuesday, November 16, 2021 | 6:30 pm
in-person: Rodman A / livestreamed via Zoom
photo of Shannen Dee Williams speaking at a podium
As part of our campus celebration of Black Catholic History Month, we are pleased to welcome Dr. Shannen Dee Williams, Associate Professor of History at the University of Dayton, to the JCU campus to offer a guest lecture on Tuesday, November 16.

Dr. Williams is a historian of the African American experience with research and teaching specializations in women’s, religious and Black freedom movement history. In this talk, she will share insights from her forthcoming book, Subversive Habits: Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African American Freedom Struggle (Duke University Press, April 2022).
black and white photo of a group of nuns in long habits and bonnets marching in a Civil Rights protest holding signs reading SNCC - One Man One Vote and We March for Freedom and Equality for All Men
Specifically, Williams will consider how the master narratives of women’s religious life and Catholic participation in the Black freedom struggle fundamentally change when the lives and experiences of African American nuns are taken seriously.

The event will feature door prizes for in-person attendees, including pre-purchased orders for copies of Subversive Habits. A dessert reception will follow the event.

This event is free and open to the public. Please join us!
collage of photos and flyers from past Mandel grant funded projects
Call for Proposals: Mandel Grants

The Mandel Grant Review Committee is now inviting proposals for funds to support creative programs and ideas designed to build a campus culture of inclusion, dialogue and respect. Proposals are considered on a rolling deadline until funds are exhausted.

Small grants (up to $2,000) from the Mandel fund may be requested by students, staff or faculty. All requestors must be able to demonstrate that their proposed program fits into the University Strategic Plan for Inclusive Excellence.

Whether your idea considers speakers, trainings, panels, intercultural experiences, the visual or performing arts, a service project, a class program, or other programs or events that meet the goals of the Mandel Grant Fund for Conversation and Inclusion, we want to hear from you!
Staff of Color Employee Resource Group Luncheon
Friday, November 19 | 12-1 pm | Schott Dining Hall
silverware_blue.jpg
All staff of color are invited to attend this event for conversation and community building. Lunch will be provided! We will meet right outside the dining hall, at noon. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to Selen Zarrelli azarrelli@jcu.edu.

The Staff of Color Employee Resource Group’s mission is to ensure a welcoming, inclusive, and supportive community for racially diverse staff at John Carroll University.
Banner reads Congratulations to our new DEI Champion Badge Recipients with image of blue badge
We are pleased to welcome two more Champions to the rolls of our DEI Champions badge earners for 2021-22!

The following two staff members have earned BLUE badges this week:
  • Emily Sherwood, Director of Community Standards, Office of the Dean of Students
  • Fr. James Bretzke, S.J., ProfessorTheology and Religious Studies

The DEI Champions program recognizes members of our faculty and staff for their contributions to the university's diversity, equity and inclusion goals and initiatives.

*Note to current participants in the Champions program: check your points to earn your badges! Several people have participated in recent DEI events but have not yet added their points for those events to their total in Canvas. Give yourself credit for the many great things you are doing!
Trans Day of Remembrance
November 22 | 5-7 pm | Marinello Little Theatre
promotional image for Trans Day of Remembrance 2021
Transgender Day of Remembrance is marked every year on November 20. It honors the memory of transgender and gender-nonconforming people whose lives were lost in acts of violence over the previous year.

Join CSDI and Campus Ministry for a vigil honoring the dignity and value of each and every life lost to anti-transgender violence this year. Scan the QR code to learn more, or visit the CSDI website at www.jcu.edu/inclusion.
R.I.S.E. Higher: Featured Article of the Week
In Return to Campuses, Students with Disabilities Fear They're Being "Left Behind"
Many are having to press their universities for accommodations —
or drop classes entirely 
Stephanie Lai, The Washington Post, November 1, 2021

Many students welcomed the return to in-person learning, but the change has revived pre-pandemic difficulties and created new ones for some students with disabilities. Some lamented the reduction of online instruction, which allowed them to read closed captions during lectures in real time, turn their cameras off when needed, and watch recorded lectures at home and at their own pace, among its benefits.

Losing that flexibility... has brought them physical and mental distress — and the feeling that they’re being forgotten. “I have to work 10 times harder than my classmates just to be able to succeed, and yet I’m not being supported."
Announcements from our network...
The Chronicle of Higher Education presents
Virtual Event: The Lessons from Making First Gen a Priority
Tuesday, November 9 | 2:00 pm | online
promotional image for First Generation webinar event
Colleges have prioritized enrolling and graduating first-generation-college students. But who are those students? And what do they need?

Far from a monolithic entity, first-generation students reflect many different identities, beyond the simple identifier of being the first in their families to attend college. In the first event of a series, “What It Really Takes to Be a Student-Centric Institution,” The Chronicle of Higher Education meets with leaders in student affairs and academic services to discuss their efforts to best serve first-generation students — and how that experience has influenced the way they approach their work with the student population at large.
Cleveland Museum of Natural History Centennial Speaker Series
Bellen's More Than Peach:
Revolutionizing Classrooms—Starting with Crayons
November 5, 7:00 pm | in-person and live streamed
Promo image for Centennial Speaker Series with photo of Bellen Woodard
The Cleveland Museum of Natural History welcomes "The World’s 1st Crayon Activist," Bellen Woodard. Ten-year-old Bellen is a young entrepreneur dedicated to affirming empathy and teaching tolerance in schools through multicultural crayons and other inclusive products. She is the founder of Bellen’s More Than Peach™ Project, which aims to get multicultural crayons into the hands of every student in every classroom so that no kid feels “disincluded," and to grow the classroom experience for all students.
Author Min Jin Lee comes to "Authors Center Stage"
Tuesday, Nov. 9, 7:30 pm | Case Western Reserve University
Headshot of Min Jin Lee alongside the cover of her book Pachinko
Min Jin Lee is next up in the Cuyahoga County Public Library "Writers Center Stage" series! The award-winning author will visit the Maltz Performing Arts Center on the campus of Case Western Reserve University on Tuesday, November 9 at 7:30 p.m. 

Lee's novel, Pachinko, was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction and was named by The New York Times as one of the 10 best books of 2017. Former President Barack Obama also chose Pachinko for his reading list, calling it "a powerful story about resilience and compassion." 

In-person event tickets $30; Virtual (live streaming) tickets $15.
Other articles we're reading this week ...