John Carroll University Division of
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
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Volume 4, Issue 3: June 24, 2021 |
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R.I.S.E.* Up Newsletter
*Reinforcing Inclusion through Skill-building and Education
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This time of year, our campus is busy preparing for the next academic season. Our campus is busy with family tours, introducing prospective students to our campus, as well as New Student Orientation, welcoming those students who will join JCU as new students in the fall.
While new students are still continuing to enroll for fall semester, the numbers so far tell us that the Class of 2025 will be more diverse than previous entering classes at JCU:
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BIPOC students represent 19.7% of our entering class so far, an increase over our usual average of approximately 14%.
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We have more first-generation college students, who represent 22.8% of the class, in comparison with previous years, when first-generation students were generally 17% or fewer.
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We expect to see a greater diversity in religious affiliations when our students arrive on campus: students identifying as Roman Catholic represent 41% of the class of 2025, lower than the typical JCU entering class, whose Catholic students tend to represent 51% or more of the class.
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Lastly, our Student Accessibility Services office is reporting a five-fold increase in requests for disability accommodations typically made at this time of the year compared with previous years, which may mean that this incoming class of students will be more diverse in terms of disability as well.
I offer these few facts to reiterate how much our entire community needs to turn its focus to ensuring a student experience that supports a greater diversity of backgrounds. Each of these numbers represents a person -- individual students who will arrive on this campus in the fall bringing their unique identities and backgrounds. They need -- and deserve -- to experience JCU as a place of belonging and inclusion.
We are excited to embrace the growing diversity of our students. We have the opportunity this summer to begin preparing to embrace every one of our students in their whole human personhood, their value and their dignity, embracing all of their many identities, with particular attention to those whose identities may be marginalized or underrepresented, in keeping with our mission of "faith that does justice."
This has been a year of many changes. As we transition from a year of many pandemic-initiated adaptations, we can anticipate making yet more adaptations to a "new normal." JCU is moving forward under new leadership, with refocused priorities on the value of who we are as a community and institution and the promise of how much better we can become.
In our Summer Community Book Read of the book The Person You Mean To Be last year, we learned about the importance of working from a "growth mindset” to focus on always building and becoming better. This lesson is even more pertinent to us today, as we embrace our growing diversity and lean into the need to be ever more adaptable. All of this makes us a better faculty, a better staff, a better student body, and a better JCU.
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Sincerely,
Tiffany Galvin Green, Ph.D.,
Vice President for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
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Congratulations to Selen Zarrelli,
New Assistant Director of the
Center for Student Diversity & Inclusion!
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We are pleased to announce that Selen Zarrelli has been hired as the new Assistant Director of the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion.
Selen Zarrelli, MBA (she/her/hers), began working at JCU in 2018. Her most recent role was Program Coordinator for Wayfinders Program. Before joining JCU, she worked in the staffing and hospitality industry as a Staffing Specialist and Recruiter. Selen received her MBA from the Boler College of Business here at JCU. Her B.B.A. is in International Relations from Ege University, Izmir (Turkey), and she studied Political Science at Universiteit van Gent at Ghent (Belgium).
Selen volunteers her time in projects such as ISupportTheGirls and Mentoring Immigrant and Refugee Youth. She has also participated in projects such as My Urban Library, Cultures in Globalism, and Human Rights through the European Union. She is the Vice-Chair of Recognition for JCU's Staff Council and co-facilitator of the Working Parents and Guardians Employee Resource Group, as well as the facilitator for Women of Color Employee Resource Group.
Please join us in congratulating Selen on her new position!
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CSDI and the Wayfinders Program present:
Energy Healing 101
June 30, 11:00 am EST | Virtual
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Take your early lunch break with CSDI for a workshop that focuses on energy healing with AmariYah (she/her &they/them) at Fluid Journey. AmariYah is an energy healing facilitator who is inspired by Granny’s golden remedies, restorative presence and love. She shares that “healing is an active, vital part of life. Allow me to be a part of your journey.” Check her out of more offerings at her website here: https://www.fluidjourney.com/
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Congratulations to our first DEI Champion! |
We are pleased to announce our first recipient of a DEI Champion badge at JCU: Diane McTier, Administrative Assistant in the Office of University Mission & Identity, receives a blue badge for her contributions this week. Please join us in congratulating Diane and thanking her for her commitment to this work!
The DEI Champion Badges are designed to encourage, support, and recognize faculty and staff participation in diversity, equity and inclusion efforts here at John Carroll University, while also raising awareness of the many opportunities available for each of us to participate in this work. All JCU employees are encouraged to join Diane and our other colleagues who are signed up already and earning points towards their own DEI Champion badges.
There are three levels of badges:
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BLUE = 100 points
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GOLD = 300 points
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MOSAIC = 500 points
More information about how individuals and departments can earn points can be found online on the DEI Champions Canvas site. Individuals can register on Canvas right away in order to start earning points towards their badges.
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Faculty/Staff Pride Event: Collaborative Learning Puzzle
Tuesday, June 29, 2-3pm | virtual
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A few spots are left for our faculty/staff Pride month activity next week! This activity puts colleagues into small teams to solve a collaborative puzzle designed to help teams learn more about LGBTQ2S+ activists/leaders, gay rights, and the actions that we ourselves can take to foster a safe and open working community. Facilitators from HELMlife will be on hand to work with each team and to answer questions about the program content.
Participants can earn up to 20 DEI Champion points for this program.
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June 18 Afternoon of Reflection Honoring Juneteenth |
Thanks to the many members of our faculty and staff who attended our Afternoon of Reflection Honoring Juneteenth on Friday, June 18. Participants engaged in an afternoon of thoughtful reflection and discussion about how each of us can help move JCU towards being a more anti-racist institution.
Leaders are available to facilitate programs for individual departments, work teams, divisions, or student groups using the AJCU Anti-Racism Examen, "Eyes to See." For more information or to arrange a program specifically for your area, please contact diversity@jcu.edu. |
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R.I.S.E. Higher: Featured Article of the Week |
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Black professors push a major university
to diversify and confront racism
Concerns aired by Penn State’s Black faculty members are part of a broader racial reckoning in higher education.
Nick Anderson, The Washington Post, June 16, 2021
When Gary King came to Pennsylvania State University in 1998, records show, fewer than 3 of every 100 full-time faculty members identified, like him, as Black. A medical sociologist with expertise in race and tobacco smoking, King rose on the academic ladder. He gained tenure and promotion to professor of biobehavioral health and African American studies.
Yet during King’s time at Penn State, the Black share of full-time faculty members on the flagship campus here has barely budged.... One day some years ago, King said, he urged an administrator, who was White, to help recruit more Black professors and other faculty members of color.
“He looked at me and said, point blank, ‘Yes — if they’re qualified,’” King recalled.
King said he was stunned at the not-subtle suggestion that many job candidates from underrepresented minority groups are not qualified. He was stunned, too, that an administrator would dare say that to him.
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Idiomatic phrase. A timid, anxious person.
"He's afraid to walk to the bus stop by himself; he's such a nervous Nellie!"
"These students are all nervous Nellies; they can't sleep for worrying about the exam tomorrow."
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The term "nervous Nellie" is often used to describe people who express fear or anxiety.
The term apparently originated in the late 1920s as a negative reference to the perceived timidity of Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg.
The word "Nellie," once a common woman's name, is an archaic slur (similar to "Nancy") addressed toward gay men. The term "nervous Nellie," therefore, draws upon stereotypes of gay men as being insufficiently masculine. It is also misogynistic, framing anxiety as a feminine characteristic and then using that perceived femininity as an insult meant to emasculate men.
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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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Cleveland's Jewish community addresses rise in antisemitism |
Our partners at the Jewish Federation of Cleveland are asking for all members of the local community to show support for and solidarity with the Jewish community in the face of a troubling rise in antisemitic incidents and sentiments in recent weeks.
This weekend, clergy at many local synagogues will be addressing this issue from their pulpits. Some synagogues and other organizations will be hosting events and programs in response. Here is a brief list of opportunities to participate:
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The State of Hate:
Marking the 150th Anniversary of the Ku Klux Klan Act
Sunday, June 27th at 3:00 pm ET. | online | free & open to the public
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This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Ku Klux Klan Act, also known as the Civil Rights Act of 1871. Yet, violent acts of racism, antisemitism, and xenophobia fill our news channels and media feeds with increasing alarm, begging the question: how has our country really changed in 150 years?
The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage hosts a discussion with featured speaker Avery Friedman, a premiere civil rights attorney and CNN commentator, to understand how hate groups like the KKK rise to power, what role they play in American culture today, and how the law is used to protect victims of hate. Then, Leon Bibb, primetime news anchor for WKYC in Cleveland, takes the conversation even deeper, with a one-on-one interview on the state of hate. Plus, hear special remarks from Marcia Fudge, the 18th Secretary of U.S. Housing and Urban Development.
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St. Louis Black Repertory Company presents: Do I Move You?
streaming online through June 30
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We are saddened to hear of the untimely passing this week of Dr. Jonathan Smith, Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion at (fellow Jesuit institution) Saint Louis University.
The St. Louis Black Rep's mainstage production this month is an original work based on a collection of Dr. Smith's poetry, combined with music and dance, inspired by Jazz, religion, love, family, and some of the greatest musicians of our time.
We invite our community to honor the memory of our colleague by viewing the production, which streams live on Vimeo June 15-30. Tickets to access the livestream are free.
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The Inkubator: Cleveland's Free Annual Festival for Writers and Readers
July 11-25 | online | free registration
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This two-week online conference, comprising workshops, readings, panel discussions, craft talks, open mics, and a keynote address, is a public celebration of writing in Cleveland. Each day from July 11-25 will feature a new program or event open to the public and available online.
Author Claudia Rankine gives the keynote address on July 24 at 7 pm, discussing her writing and featuring a reading of her book Just Us: An American Conversation, which uses essay, poems, and images to urge us to break silences around race and white supremacy.
Other festival workshops include:
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Ethical Representation in Writing with DEI expert Dr. Deborah L. Plummer (July 18, 7 pm)
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Convictions: Creative Writing/Performing Workshops in Prison with a panel including JCU's own Zachary Thomas (July 19, 7 pm)
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Creative Risks: A Conversation with Viet Thanh Nguyen and Thrity Umrigar (July 23, 7 pm)
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Community discussion about what whiteness means in Cleveland - hosted by the Anisfeld-Wolf Book Awards in advance of Claudia Rankine's keynote about her book Just Us. (July 24, 2 pm)
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How Storytelling Can Lead to Social Change with members of OPAWL - Building AAPI Feminist Leadership and OBG - Other Brown Girl (July 25, 3 pm)
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Quick takes: DEI in the headlines |
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The U.S. Department of Education announced last week that Title IX protections, which prohibit sex-based discrimination in education, extend to transgender and other LGBTQ students. The department's announcement is based on its interpretation of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that extended protections guaranteed under the Civil Rights Act to LGBTQ individuals. The new Title IX decision is a significant departure from Education Department policies under the Trump administration, which threatened to withhold federal aid from schools that allowed transgender athletes to participate in sports and argued that transgender students were not entitled to discrimination protections. The Department of Education has announced that it expects to release proposed amendments to Title IX regulations in May 2022.
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The Supreme Court ruled unanimously last week that Philadelphia was wrong to end a Catholic group’s contract to provide foster-care services because the organization refused to work with same-sex couples. It was the latest victory for religious organizations at the increasingly conservative court, and the second time it has ruled against governments trying to enforce an anti-discrimination law protecting LGBTQ rights against those claiming religious liberty.
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Wage gaps have only widened between Black and White workers, according to a a new report from The Conference Board, even those of otherwise comparable backgrounds and qualifications. In 2010, for instance, Black men with a bachelor’s degree or higher earned 18 percent less than White men. By 2019, that gap had grown to 24 percent, driven by the striking underrepresentation of Black workers in high-paying industries and occupations. The full report, "Mind the Gap: Factors Driving the Growing Racial Wage Gaps and Solutions to Close Them," is available as a free download.
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Video of the Week:
The New Normal, June 18: When George Floyd died, people across the United States started to look more critically at how white supremacy affects all of us. In this episode, we talk to mental health experts and scholars about why understanding your whiteness and the ways that white supremacy benefits you is an important part of becoming self aware.
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Other articles we're reading this week ...
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