Volume 6, Issue 6: March 10, 2022
R.I.S.E.* Up Newsletter
*Reinforcing Inclusion through Skill-building and Education
Photo of smiling Black woman with gray shoulder length locs. Quotation reads - No soldier fights harder than a woman warrior for she fights for total change. For a new order in a world in which she can finally rest and love. Barbara Omolade Ph.D.
We are now in the month of March, usually a time for celebration in our division as we mark Disability Awareness Month and Women's History Month.

However, the usual rhythms of our spring celebrations have been drowned out this month by the drumbeats of war, and the last two weeks have been sobering ones. As the JCU community has worked our way through midterms and headed into spring break this week, many of us are finding it more difficult than usual to focus on our work, study or play while our siblings in Ukraine are suffering so terribly.

Support for Ukraine (and for the thousands of courageous Russians who are risking their freedom to protest their government's actions) is everywhere right now. My local bakery has drawn a big black "X" over the labels "Russian tea biscuits" and "Russian black bread" in its glass cases. My neighbors have pasted blue-and-yellow flags to their front doors. Our students are rapidly planning fundraisers to support Ukrainian refugees, and organizing informative panels to help their classmates understand what is happening there.

I am heartened by these expressions of solidarity, even when they are silly (the tea biscuits, after all, are not to blame for the actions of governments). But at the same time I wonder, why is it that we don't always see such an outpouring of American support when other people suffer? It is, unfortunately, not uncommon to read newspaper stories of armed conflicts and atrocities all over the globe. But it is clear that the war in Ukraine has captured the attention and empathy of the American public in ways that other recent international conflicts have not. Why?

There are many good reasons why this particular conflict could be resonating so closely with Americans, whether for political reasons, reasons of specific circumstance, or for personal reasons, such as family connections. However, I would also encourage each of us to examine closely – and, perhaps, painfully -- the role that race, class, and culture could possibly also be playing in our own personal emotional responses to current events.

In her book The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias, social psychologist Dolly Chugh cites research findings in psychology and neuroscience that show how our brains rank people as "more human" or "less human" based on how much like ourselves we perceive them to be. If our brains perceive someone as "not like me," we are quicker to see them as less human and as "other," and to apply group stereotypes to categorize them, a process the researchers describe as "perceptual dehumanization." If our brains fail to recognize a person's full humanity, in Chugh's words, "we are less likely to feel their suffering in the same way we would feel it for someone we identify with more closely."

This process (which Chugh calls "otherizing") is, I suspect, an uncomfortable truth sitting at the heart of this story, and the growing media narratives from U.S. and European journalists over the past several days corroborate that suspicion. One CBS foreign correspondent reporting from Kyiv said on air, for example, that Ukraine “isn’t a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan, that has seen conflict raging for decades. This is a relatively civilized, relatively European — I have to choose those words carefully, too — city, where you wouldn’t expect that or hope that it’s going to happen.” Another reporter explained his shock at the circumstances: “These are prosperous middle class people. These are not people trying to get away from areas in North Africa. They look like any European family that you would live next door to.”

The Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association (AMEJA), in a statement released last week, states that these and other reporters’ statements reflect “the pervasive mentality in Western journalism of normalizing tragedy in parts of the world such as the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. It dehumanizes and renders their experience with war as somehow normal and expected.” The AMEJA also points out that this kind of otherizing bears a tremendous human cost, when international interest and concern can determine so much about how quickly (and how much) aid is made available.

The bias here has not, sadly, been limited only to problematic commentary about “civilized” cities and class markers; some commentary is also explicitly racial in nature. In fact, one interviewee even told a TV camera how particularly horrible it was to see “European people with blue eyes and blond hair being killed.” This is also happening amidst certain reports coming in from along the Poland/Ukraine border stating that African students, as well as other non-Ukrainians of color trying to return home, are experiencing what appears to be racially disparate treatment from officials at the border while trying to leave the country.

So considering the many observable racial and cultural biases informing the narratives we are hearing around these events, should we argue that this outpouring of American concern for Ukrainian victims of war is somehow misplaced or incorrect? Absolutely not. On the contrary, I think we have a valuable opportunity right now to build upon this moment of solidarity.

We have the opportunity right now to notice where we might have been holding back from expressing solidarity with other victims of violence before now.

We have the opportunity right now to notice where our biases and stereotypes about culture, class, ethnicity, language, race, or religion might actually be encouraging our best human impulses now, and to notice where they might have been holding us back from expressing empathy for others before now.

And we have the opportunity to decide, right now, to start looking past our biases, to see others as just that little bit more human – a decision which would, in turn, make each of us a little more human too. I believe that if enough of us genuinely make this commitment to the work of deepening our empathy in all parts of life where it is needed, we can ultimately bring the human family, as Barbara Omolade says, to the condition of “total change, a new order in a world where [we all] can finally rest and love.”
Megan Wilson-Reitz

Wishing you peace,
Megan Wilson-Reitz, M.A.
Interim Manager for DEI Programs
Division Announcements
Disability Awareness Month Lunch-and-Learn
Wednesday, March 16 | 12:00-1:00 pm | Dolan A 202/203
Flyer for Disability Awareness Month lunch & learn
All students, faculty, and staff are invited to join us on March 16 for a lunch-and-learn event to celebrate and learn about Disability Awareness Month and explore ways to be a disability ally.

Participants will:
  • Learn about the impact of Covid-19 on students' well-being and students with disabilities
  • Learn how to utilize current JCU resources, including Student Accessibility Services, University Counseling Center, Care Team, and other community resources

BOAZ Lunch will be provided. Disability Awareness stickers and phone stand holders will be available as free giveaways.

If you have questions or additional accommodations needs for this program, please contact the Student Accessibility Services Office at sas@jcu.edu.

Faculty and staff members can receive 15 DEI Champions points for attending this program.
Safe Zone Training Returns
March 14 and 21, 3-4 pm | virtual via Zoom
promo image for Trans 101
Back by popular demand! We are pleased to announce that our partners at the LGBT Center of Greater Cleveland and OutSupport Medina are returning to offering two of our most popular virtual Safe Zone training programs again this spring. Please join us - and encourage your students, colleagues, friends, and classmates to attend.
promo image for LGBT 101
Monday, March 14, 3-4 pm
Trans 101 - a workshop for allies
facilitated by OutSupport Medina

Monday, March 21, 3-4 pm
LGBT 101 - a workshop for allies
facilitated by the LGBT Center of Greater Cleveland

Faculty and staff members can receive 15 DEI Champions points per SafeZone workshop they attend.
The Management and Human Resources Major at JCU presents:
Mental Illness and Friends
Tuesday, March 15 | 8:00 pm
Donahue Auditorium, Dolan Science Center
Mental Illness and Friends, created and hosted by Deena Nyer Mendlowitz, is a live comedy talk-show combining stand-up, improv, and open, honest dialogue with other artists dealing with mental health issues. Nyer Mendlowitz, who lives with anxiety and suicidal ideation, begins each performance with a new opening monologue, seamlessly weaving mental illness, real life, and laughter together. Each month she invites other comedians, improv artists, actors, and often a musical guest to perform and share a bit of their own mental health history. The hour-long show closes with an improv set based on topics discussed that evening. The results are hilarious, honest, enlightening, empowering, inspiring and leave both the performers and audience feeling a little more connected and understood. The show has played all around Cleveland and has been featured in USA Today and on NPR.

This program is presented as part of Disability Awareness Month and is co-sponsored by the The Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion; Ginn Institute for Corporate Social Responsibility; The Office of Student Accessibility Services; The Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; The Counseling Center; and the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), with support from the Mandel Fund for Conversation and Inclusion.

Faculty and staff members can receive 20 DEI Champions points for attending this program.
I Only Got Here by Luck: Impostor Syndrome Workshop
Tuesday, March 15 | 2:00 pm | virtual via Zoom
Promotional flyer for Wayfinders workshop on Impostor Syndrome
Join the Wayfinders Program for a virtual event with Jessica Daniels, LPC and Leya Belvanis, from JCU's Counseling Center, to learn about Impostor Syndrome and how to combat the thoughts that go with it.

Scan the QR code or click the link below to log into the Zoom room.

Faculty and staff members can receive 15 DEI Champions points for attending this program.
From Labs to Literature: An exploration of purpose, identity and passion with Nicola Yoon
Tuesday, March 22 | 6:00 pm | virtual via Zoom
Promo Banner for Nicola Yoon event
Nicola Yoon is the author of the novels The Sun is Also a Star; Everything, Everything; Instructions for Dancing; and Blackout. Ms. Yoon majored in electrical engineering but followed her passion for writing after taking a creative class she took as an elective. Ms. Yoon will discuss identity exploration, developing a passion for writing, and advocacy for representation in literature and media.

All attendees will be entered in a drawing for a chance to win one of several of Nicola Yoon's books, signed by the author!

Faculty and staff members can receive 15 DEI Champions points for attending this program.
International Transgender Day of Visibility
Wednesday, March 30 | 12:00-1:00 pm | Student Center Atrium
Abstract image of two people waving a pink blue and white trans pride flag. Text reads March 30 - International Transgender Day of Visibility. Remaining text describes event in same terms as described in newsletter text.
Join the Center for Student Diversity & Inclusion in the Student Center Atrium during the lunch hour on March 30 to celebrate the accomplishments of transgender and gender-nonconforming people while raising awareness of the work that still needs to be done to achieve trans justice. Stop by for giveaways, snacks, music and other goodies! 
SAS and CSDI present:
Movies with a Mission: Temple Grandin
Wednesday, March 30 | 2:00 pm | CSDI Lounge
Event flyer with image of the movie poster for the film Temple Grandin. Close up of actress Claire Danes with short curly hair and a Western-style shirt smiling broadly. Words read Autism gave her a vision. She gave it a voice.
Join Student Accessibility Services and the Center for Student Diversity & Inclusion to promote Disability Awareness and celebrate Women's History Month at our "Movies with a Mission" screening of the film Temple Grandin, starring Claire Danes.

Temple Grandin is an autistic woman who is a leading scientist in the humane livestock handling industry.

Join us in the CSDI Lounge (at the far end of the Jardine Room hallway) for our movie screening on Wednesday afternoon. Light snacks will be provided.

Faculty and staff members can receive 15 DEI Champions points for attending this program.
Wayfinders program featured in University Heights magazine
The Winter/Spring 2022 issue of the University Heights city magazine, Mosaic, features a story by our own Daniella Flores about CSDI's Wayfinders program. Click the image to read the feature article, or visit the Mosaic website to read the entire issue.
Students: Apply today to be a MELT Mentor!
MELT logo - Match Empower Learn Teach
MELT mentors engage in direct contact with historically underrepresented students in order for them to become successful and fully engaged in all aspects of their educational experiences at John Carroll University. The Peer Mentor contributes to the advancement of first-year students by aiding in their academic, emotional, and social adjustment, and personal development.

If you are looking to be a leader on campus and meet new people apply now! This is a PAID position for the 2022-23 academic year. Applications are due March 16.

If you have any questions email aaviquivil@jcu.edu or visit the CSDI office above the bookstore.
Three new DEI Champion badges this week!
Banner reads Congratulations to our New DEI Champions Badge Recipients - with photos of Laura Atkins and Megan Connor beside a Gold Badge and Brooklynne Elliott beside a Blue Badge
We are very proud to announce three new DEI Champion badges among our JCU staff this week!

Leveling up to GOLD badges this week:
  • Laura Atkins, Assistant Provost for Academic Success
  • Megan Connor, Director of the Writing Center

Earning a BLUE badge this week:
  • Brooklynne Elliott, Human Resources Associate

Are you a member of the DEI Champions program? Have you updated your participation points lately? Log on to the Canvas page and let us know what initiatives and programs you've been part of lately, so we can recognize you publicly for your efforts!

Our DEI Champion Badges recognize our faculty and staff members for their participation in diversity, equity and inclusion efforts here at JCU (and beyond). All members of the JCU faculty and staff, including part-time and temporary staff and graduate assistants, are eligible to become DEI Champions.
CSDI-sponsored film at the Cleveland International Film Festival
March 30-April 9 - in person at Playhouse Square
April 10-17 - streaming online
Promotional flyer for Cleveland International Film Festival screening of the film Accepted
The Center for Student Diversity & Inclusion is privileged to sponsor the film Accepted at the 46th annual Cleveland International Film Festival.

The film, at once uplifting, shocking, and thought-provoking, exposes the mounting pressures of the college application process and the ethical conflicts intertwined with trying to guarantee someone a successful future.

CSDI will provide tickets to students, faculty and staff wishing to attend.
Come visit our new display:
"Nine Tips for Having Conversations about Race"
Photo of Darion Harmon next to his Nine Tips display case
Take a moment to stop by the first floor of the Administration Building this week to admire the display case outside the DEI Division office, featuring a new display "Nine Tips for Having Conversations About Race" adapted from Ijeoma Oluo's book So You Want to Talk About Race.

The display was designed and constructed by Darion Harmon, our terrific Corporate Work-Study Intern from St. Martin de Porres High School. Come by and admire his work!
R.I.S.E. Higher: Featured Article of the Week
When RAs of Color Take On
Emotional Labor for Their White Residents
Fernanda Zamudio-Suarez, The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 8, 2022

[A recent study has found that] RAs from marginalized communities often end up taking on more emotional labor than they bargained for. Many times, it’s at the service of their white peers or at the expense of their own mental health.

The researchers also found that when RAs planned programming around race, diversity, and inclusion, they felt campus administrators assumed that the programming would make the mostly white residents uncomfortable. At many predominantly white institutions, students are treated as customers who shouldn’t be made uncomfortable.
Announcements from our network...
The InterReligious Task Force on Central America and
the Social Justice Institute at Case Western Reserve University present
Liberation Lab:
A Social Justice Teach-In on Abolition & Environmental Justice
Sat., March 19 | 11:00 am - 3:00 pm | virtual via Zoom
Banner shows an image of a chain being broken apart by a sprouting plant. Words read Liberation Lab - A social justice teach-in on abolition and environmental justice - Sunday March 19 11-3 pm
The 22nd Annual Social Justice Teach-In is a great opportunity for high school and college students--as well as people of all ages-- to learn about critical human rights issues and to practice hands-on organizing and communication skills to work for peace, justice and human rights—here and across the hemisphere.

In pre-pandemic times, this annual event attracts up to 850 attendees per year, mostly from area high schools and colleges, providing participants with information, practical skills, and resources to support social justice programming at their schools, places of worship, and other community groups. Many JCU students, faculty and staff have attended and benefited from this annual event over the past two decades!

This year's event is VIRTUAL, allowing participants from all over the world. Click below to register now. Students are always free!
Register now for the
Stand Against Racism Challenge
starts April 4th
Reads STAND AGAINST RACISM CHALLENGE with abstract image of three women of different races standing with their arms around each other.
Previously known as the 21-Day Racial Equity and Social Justice Challenge, the 2022 Stand Against Racism Challenge presents 21 days of all-new activities that will challenge you to explore how racial and social injustice impact our community, to connect with one another, and to identify ways to dismantle racism and other forms of discrimination.

Wherever you are on our social justice journey, this is an exciting opportunity to dive deep into racial equity and social justice. Launching Monday, April 4th, join thousands of participants and YWCA across the country and accept the Stand Against Racism Challenge by registering today! 
Other articles we're reading this week ...