John Carroll University Division of
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
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Volume 4, Issue 2: June 10, 2021 |
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R.I.S.E.* Up Newsletter
*Reinforcing Inclusion through Skill-building and Education
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Around the world, June is recognized as LGBTQ+ Pride Month.
Pride Month commemorates a tipping point in queer history — the Stonewall Uprising of June 1969, where police clashed for nearly a week with those protesting law enforcement raids on LGBTQIA+-friendly bars in Manhattan. We celebrate Pride every June to acknowledge the courage of these early leaders in the movement for LGBTQIA+ rights and freedom, and to recognize the remarkable accomplishments of this movement over the past 40+ years since Stonewall. This month's Pride celebrations are about recognizing the resilience of a community to unite in the face of uncertainty -- a lesson all of us stand to learn from those who came before us in the many movements for human rights and dignity that we build upon today.
Recognition of the events of June 1969 also means acknowledging that the movement began very far from the celebratory Pride events we see today. Stonewall was actually a riot led by queer people of color, fighting for their right to gather safely and with dignity. Pride month was born out of a struggle.
For many in the LGBTQIA+ community, the events of the last year are a painful reminder that the struggle is not yet ended. Our featured article today (see below) describes the particular challenges of the pandemic for LGBTQIA+ youth and young adults, many of whom have been forced to lock down with families or communities that do not accept their identities, and others who faced new risks to health or employment. In addition, in recent months more than 100 bills have been introduced in 33 states in an attempt to curb the rights of transgender people across the country. And just this week, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a court document expressing its desire to “vigorously” defend a policy that allows private, federally funded religious institutions the right to discriminate against LGBTQ students.
There is still much to fight for in terms of LGBTQIA+ rights. Here at JCU, we remain committed to honoring the rights, dignity and full personhood of our LGBTQIA+ students, faculty and staff, and to promoting a broad range of DEI goals to make us a more welcoming, supportive environment for all people.
What's important to recognize is that you don’t have to identify as LGBTQIA+ to celebrate Pride. Pride can, and should, be celebrated by all, even if you identify as straight or questioning or don't identify at all! Watch for a list of "10 Ways Everyone can Celebrate Pride" in our next newsletter. One great way our employees can celebrate Pride this month is to join us on June 29th for a fun virtual collaborative-learning puzzle experience for faculty and staff to learn more about LGBTQIA+ history, advocacy and current events. See below for more details.
In this week's newsletter, I'm pleased to announce our new DEI Champions Badge Program and our upcoming Juneteenth celebrations -- don't miss those announcements below!
As always, if you have ideas, questions, or suggestions for me, please don't hesitate to drop them into our Suggestion Box. Happy Pride!
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Sincerely,
Tiffany Galvin Green, Ph.D.,
Vice President for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
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Announcing the 2021-22 DEI Champions Badge Program
for faculty and staff!
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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.
All members of the JCU faculty and staff (including part-time and temporary staff and graduate assistants) are eligible to become DEI Champions.
DEI Champion Badges are awarded at three levels of participation:
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BLUE badges = 100 points
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GOLD badges = 300 points
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MOSAIC badges = 500 points
Participants receive their badge as soon as they have earned the requisite number of points. Once participants earn a badge they are encouraged to include it in their JCU email signature and to list it as a professional recognition/award on their CV and annual performance evaluation. Badge earners will receive recognition on the DEI division website and during our year-end awards celebration.
Participants can earn points towards their DEI Champion Badge by participating in programming, training, education, and strategic initiatives connected to our institution's DEI goals. All points must be earned between June 1, 2021 and May 31, 2022 in order to count towards the 2021-22 badge.
Departments are also eligible to earn department-level badges through collective efforts that can be added to a department's website. To inquire about signing your department up for the DEI Badge program as a unit, please contact diversity@jcu.edu.
Here are a few examples of some things participants can do to earn DEI Champion points:
- Participate in a community book read = 40 points
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Attend a program in our RISE series = points vary
- Attend a DEI-related social or community-building event = 10 points
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Complete Title IX responsible employee training = 20 points
- Publish or present on a DEI-focused topic (e.g. academic/professional research or writing) = 50 points
Many other examples and opportunities are listed online on the DEI Champions program site. Individuals can register on Canvas right away in order to start earning points towards their badges.
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Join us next week for "Freedom & Hope: An Afternoon of Reflection Honoring Juneteenth"
Friday, June 18, 12:00 pm
Dolan Atrium
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The Office of University Mission and Identity and the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are pleased to announce our first annual Afternoon of Reflection for faculty and staff in honor of Juneteenth.
Our program will be held IN PERSON on the afternoon of Friday, June 18, beginning with lunch at 12:00 noon in the Dolan Atrium. All faculty and staff (full time and part time) are invited to participate.
The afternoon's program will follow the discussion process laid out in " Eyes to See," AJCU's new Anti-Racism Examen. This program will qualify for a half-day of Mission Leave as well as up to 40 DEI Champion points.
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Faculty/Staff Pride Event: Collaborative Learning Puzzle
Tuesday, June 29, 2-3pm | virtual
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All faculty and staff are invited to join the DEI division and the Q@JCU Employee Resource Group to participate in a fun professional-development and community-building program in honor of Pride Month.
This learning puzzle program will encourage teams to find out more about the history of the LGBTQ2S+ movement in North America in a fun, collaborative way while focusing on important topics like 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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TWO more spaces are left in
the Juneteenth Community Book Read!
Tuesday, June 15 & Tuesday, June 22, 12:00-1:00 pm
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Time and space is running out for you to join the Juneteenth community book read! We have two more books left. Register today to join us!
Our book selection is Harvard historian (and Pulitzer Prize winner) Annette Gordon-Reed's new essay collection On Juneteenth. All participants will receive a copy of the ebook upon registration.
We will meet on two Tuesdays from 12-1 pm (June 15 and June 22) to discuss the book. Open to all students, faculty and staff. Participants can earn up to 40 DEI Champion points for this book read.
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R.I.S.E. Higher: Featured Article of the Week |
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Last year was brutal for mental health.
For LGBTQ youth, it was a crisis.
Isolation and culture war politics made it especially difficult for LGBTQ young people, according to therapists.
Anne Branigin, The Lily, May 28, 2021
Throughout the last year, Jacqueline Gomez harbored doubts that she or her loved ones would make it out of 2020 alive.
An 18-year-old high school senior living in Nebraska, Gomez’s daily routine was turned upside down by the pandemic. She found herself particularly distraught by the news.“It seemed every month, the world was burning,” Gomez said. “You thought it couldn’t get worse, but then the next month came and then something worse happened.”
The daughter of a meatpacker, Gomez worried for her family’s safety when covid outbreaks were reported in meatpacking plants. As a Mexican American who is genderfluid and bisexual, she was also troubled by relentless reports of police brutality and racial trauma; the election, too, reminded her that to some, she was just a rallying point on a political campaign.
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"keep it on the down low (/D.L.)" |
Slang phrase. To keep something a secret.
For example: "It hasn't been announced yet, so keep this one on the down low." Or, "The party's a surprise, so keep it on the D.L."
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The phrase "keep it on the down low" is often used today as seemingly harmless slang for "keep it secret." However, this phrase actually originated as a specific reference to sexuality: "The D.L." described Black men in publicly heterosexual partnerships who also secretly had sex with men. The term was later adopted by some Black men who were openly gay but who rejected white gay culture. The phrase carries the weight of social stigma, especially from the 90's and early 2000's, largely rooted in the belief that some men's secret relationships "on the down low" bore primary responsibility for the increase in HIV/AIDS infections at that time among Black women.
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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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A Virtual Celebration of Catholic LGBTQ Pride
Sunday, June 13, 3:00-4:00 pm ET
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New Ways Ministry, an organization educating and advocating for equality and justice for LGBTQ Catholics, will host.a virtual Catholic LGBTQ Pride prayer service this Sunday, June 13. The theme will be “From the Smallest of Seeds. . .” which refers to the gospel reading for the day, Mark’s account of the parable of the mustard seed. Mary Kay Hunyady, RSCJ, an openly lesbian religious sister, will offer a reflection. Registration closes Friday, June 11 at 3:00 pm.
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Celebrate Freedom at Cleveland Public Library |
Cleveland Public Library will host a week of exciting events to commemorate Juneteenth, running June 12-June 19, 2021. Events include lectures, dialogues, spoken word events, panels, art and much more. |
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Free Webinar: Leadership in Pursuit of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Thursday, June 17th at 2:00 pm ET.
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Higher education institutions are facing greater obligation than ever before to be drivers of equity and inclusion in American society rather than accelerators of existing inequity. Inside Higher Ed will host a webcast exploring:
- Attempts to diversify the college presidency itself
- Collaborations among colleges to attack this problem
- Evidence of why many Black and brown students lack faith in their colleges’ leaders
- Advice from those who have blazed trails into higher ed leadership for future generations who might follow them
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Shedding White Fragility and Working for Racial Justice
Thursday, June 17th at 7:00 pm ET.
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FutureChurch hosts Andrew Lyke, Catholic ministry consultant and author, for a virtual evening lecture on the topic of white fragility in the Catholic Church, encouraging white Catholics to enter into "brave spaces" with Catholics of color where we can together confront the devastating effects of white supremacy as people of faith. |
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Quick takes: DEI in the headlines |
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A open letter published this week, signed by scores of leading academics, artists, athletes and other public figures, decried the "failure of courage on the part of the Board of Trustees" of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who made headlines by deferring a tenure appointment for Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, reportedly for political reasons. The letter asks all "people of conscience" to "decry this growing wave of repression and to encourage a recommitment to the free exchange of ideas in our schools, workplaces, legislatures, and communities."
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Several recent studies based on federal data show that FEMA, the government agency responsible for helping Americans recover from disasters, often helps white disaster victims significantly more than people of color, even when the amount of damage is the same. Not only do individual white Americans often receive more aid from FEMA; so do the communities in which they live, according to several recent studies based on federal data. White people in counties with significant disaster damage that received assistance from FEMA saw their personal wealth jump years later, while Black residents lost wealth in the same time period. (Photo by John Middelkoop on Unsplash)
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Other articles we're reading this week ...
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Race on Campus: What We Know — and Don't — About Race and Sexual Assault (Chronicle of Higher Ed, June 1, 202
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Was This Antiracist Task Force Set Up to Fail? (Chronicle of Higher Education, June 4, 2021)
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Where Does the Bizarre Hysteria About ‘Critical Race Theory’ Come From? Follow the Money! (Inside Higher Ed, June 3, 2021)
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Race on Campus: Bipoc, Minority, or People of Color? (Chronicle of Higher Ed, June 8, 2021)
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Legislating Against Critical Race Theory (Inside Higher Ed, June 9, 2021)
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What the pandemic has stolen from Black America (Washington Post, June 6, 2021)
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Nonwhite Students Are Majority of Amherst's Admitted Class (Inside Higher Ed, June 7, 2021)
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