Weekly Three 10/21/2020
Greetings Miami Community
Here is the “weekly three” from the Office of Institutional Diversity.
One: Freedom Summer Art
I would like to give a shout out to Dr. Stephanie Danker, Associate Professor of Art Education, for a project that she, senior art education major Jasmine Floyd, and their colleagues on the College of Creative Arts (CCA) Social Justice Task Force created to celebrate freedom summer ‘64. This project not only aligns well with our Freedom Summer ‘64 award, but also exemplifies the type of experiences we want to create and maintain here at Miami to make our community members more culturally conscious. The project was implemented in fall 2020 and the student submissions are quite striking. I encourage you to take a look when you have a moment. (Excerpts from the slideshow will be available soon on the Art Education website.) Kudos to Dr. Danker and the CCA social justice task force for their great work!
Two: DEI Implementation Updates
Prioritizing Work
The DEI implementation team is hard at work on advancing the recommendations from the DEI Task Force. The team recently met and has collapsed the work into four “buckets”: structure of DEI at Miami, lived experience of community members, responding to incidents of harm, and external relations. Implementation team members are divided across these four areas. The DEI Task Force recommendations were divided among these four buckets to help focus our work. The team has begun reaching out to community partners to start working towards examining how to see the recommendations to fruition. Of course, work will be prioritized to reflect the urgency and ease of a given recommendation. Stay tuned for more specific updates.
DEI "Behind the Scenes" Town Halls
Past town hall sessions can be found at DEI Video Series. We also encourage you to register for our next town hall session with EMSS Admissions personnel, which will take place on November 17th at 3:00 p.m. The hope for this session is to gain a better understanding of the factors influencing the recruitment of a diverse student population in our community. Please submit your questions prior to the session so that the panelists can adjust their presentation accordingly.
Three: Civic Engagement in a Plural Society
Civic Engagement
I’ve spoken the past few weeks about being civically engaged. This past week, Dr. John Forren joined me for a conversation about his work promoting Civic Engagement
Voting and Programming
Student life and the Menard Family Center are offering programming and content related to the voting and being civically engaged. I encourage you to tune in. Of course, please do not lose sight of the responsibilities and consequences as a member of our community.
Love and Honor,
Anthony James Jr.