Committee on Diversity and Inclusion Archives - 91��Ƶ News

CODI hosts racism, anti-racism and belonging discussion for 91��Ƶ faculty and staff

91��Ƶ communications — Tue, 01 Sep 2020 16:40:54 +0000

On August 19, faculty and staff from 91��Ƶ gathered for a required online session on “Racism, Anti-Racism, and Belonging” hosted by the Committee on Diversity and Inclusion. The session was one of several on the agenda for 91��Ƶ’s annual faculty/staff conference.

“There is the national context right now with Black Lives Matter, a global pandemic, economic distress, and these contexts impact us here. There’s also an 91��Ƶ context,” said Professor Kathy Evans, who co-chairs the committee with Celeste Thomas, director of Multicultural Student Services. “91��Ƶ is a predominantly white school. A white space in a society that carries a history and a legacy of white supremacy. This is our context. We can’t avoid that or try to minimize that. We have to confront that.”

While the session was intended for all faculty and staff, Evans said. “we realize that 91��Ƶ is a predominantly white space and that we each show up to this work with a variety of backgrounds and experiences. We hoped this session would provide some foundational concepts that would help us have more effective ongoing conversations.”

The 91��Ƶ community continues to interact with the context of the Black Lives Matter movement as the semester begins. Recently, Jacob Blake joined the many others of Black victims of police violence who were remembered at the March on Washington on Friday. The Black Student Alliance facilitated virtual participation in the march, and some faculty integrated the event into their course curriculum.

Evans encouraged participants in the August 19 training to attend the march, as well as an Aug. 23 “Race Matters” presentation led by SGA and BSA for students and all community members. CODI also hosted a follow-up discussion session for faculty and staff to delve more into the material presented during their training. CODI will also host more opportunities for ongoing conversations throughout the year.

One lesson in the Committee on Diversity and Inclusion training was the difference between “inclusion” and “belonging,” and why institutional leaders need to prioritize “belonging” for students of color.

“Belonging is something qualitatively different. It’s the actual feeling of belonging. It’s the feeling that you’re part of something,” Evans said. In contrast, the act of “inclusion” requires a dominant social group to extend an invitation – meaning that belonging isn’t intrinsic to that space.

Other concepts defined in the presentation included individual, institutional, and systemic levels of racism. The training also included video clips created by 91��Ƶ students of color speaking about their experiences on campus.

Evans and co-host Professor Tim Seidel told participants that the one-hour session was meant to facilitate discussion, prompt reflection, and pose questions – not offer trite answers.

“Expect inconvenience. Expect discomfort. Examining assumptions and practices with a racial lens can be really uncomfortable, really time-consuming, conflict-ridden, even,” Seidel said. “This is a journey. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. One that we need to engage with commitment, persistence, and steadfastness.”

Students, grads reflect on Ramadan

91��Ƶ communications — Thu, 14 May 2020 12:38:47 +0000

Right now, many 91��Ƶ students and alumni – wherever they’re waiting out the coronavirus pandemic – are observing the month of Ramadan. The ninth and holiest month in the Islamic calendar, Ramadan is a time during which Muslims fast each day and observe various practices of self-reflection, connection to God, and generosity.

This year, the month began for many Muslims on the evening of April 23 (the first day of fasting is determined by the sighting of the new moon) and will end at sundown on May 23. 91��Ƶ’s Committee on Diversity and Inclusion issued a special newsletter in April for the 91��Ƶ community in conjunction with the .

“Just as our Christian friends celebrate Easter and our Jewish friends Passover, this time of the year is holy to our Muslim friends,” said CIE director and CODI member Timothy Seidel. “In this newsletter, Muslim students were invited to share reflections. Their generous responses offered insights about Ramadan and its meaning to them and to our 91��Ƶ community.”

“Celebrating Ramadan is an opportunity to highlight the importance and value of religious diversity, religious literacy and interfaith engagement and inclusion at 91��Ƶ,” said senior Elena Bernardi, a peacebuilding and development major who served a practicum with CIE during the spring semester and co-wrote a short essay on religious diversity for the newsletter.

In addition to a list of resources, students and graduates took the opportunity to share common practices, as well as how the annual celebration personally impacted them.

“Typically, fasting begins around dawn and ends at sunset,” Maha Mehana MA ‘19, GC ‘20 explains. “To prepare and begin their fast, Muslims usually eat breakfast right before dawn, pray, and bless their fast. While fasting for the rest of the day, they refrain from eating, drinking, smoking, and engaging in any sexual activity.”

Then, at sunset, “families break the fast with the iftar, traditionally opening the meal by eating dates to commemorate Prophet Mohammed’s practice of breaking the fast with three dates. They then adjourn for the Maghrib prayer, the fourth of the five required daily prayers, after which the main meal is served,” says Mehana.

Hosam Hadid, who graduated with an MS in biomedicine this month, describes Ramadan as a month to “recharge our souls so that we don’t lose sight of our creator for the next 11 months. It is a month of submission to the one above.”

This year is the second time he’s observed Ramadan while enrolled at 91��Ƶ.

“I can confidently say that I’ve never felt so celebrated and included the way 91��Ƶ’s Center for Interfaith Engagement has made me feel,” Hadid says.

Aminata Wallet Mohamed ‘18, now a graduate student in conflict transformation, says that the fasting keeps observers in “a state of constant spiritual awakening.”

“The purpose of Ramadan is to purify the body and mind, and to better understand the difficulties of the poorest. According to the tradition, healthy people must fast except for children who have not reached puberty, pregnant women, the sick and the elderly,” she says.

As in many religious traditions, fasting for Ramadan is not just a physical practice, but a spiritual and emotional discipline.

“It invites us to be more considerate towards giving to those in need, avoiding wrongdoings, being humble, and complete submission to God,” says Muhammad Akram, who graduated with an MA in conflict transformation this month.

For some, what they decide to eat once night falls is another intentional decision.

“Ramadan for me now is all about cleansing for my body and my soul. I try to eat healthy everyday, and eat only plants based foods. I also try to be more present every day to see the beauty surrounding me,” says undergraduate student Fatimah Subhi.

New student lounge, ‘The Royal Treatment’ barbershop and salon, opens on MLK Day

Lauren Jefferson — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 17:40:47 +0000

On Friday afternoons and other days on demand, senior Mark Loving III opens an informal barbershop in his campus apartment at 91��Ƶ. Guys and a few girls, too, line up for a fresh look for the weekend, issued with the staple of joking, gossip, wisdom and counsel.

Soon, though, he’ll perform his craft in a proper barber’s chair with a proper mirror in 91��Ƶ’s newest student space. Modeled after a barbershop and salon and dubbed “The Royal Treatment,” the space will be managed by the Black Student Union (BSU).

Scott Eyre, lead residence director, jokes with senior Jess Washingon, secretary of Black Student Union, and Celeste Thomas, director of multicultural student services. Jourdyn Friend, BSU vice president, is not shown.

“This is much more than a barbershop. This is a sanctuary,” said senior Jourdyn Friend, BSU vice president, during a special evening preview of the room. “Your hairdresser is more like a counselor, there to talk about your problems, because you’re there so long you might as well. This space is progress towards recognizing not just the majority but also the minority. This is a symbol of our voice being heard.”

The grand opening of “The Royal Treatment” – which includes two barber’s chairs, a hairwashing station, television and two comfortable couches, all enlivened by a bright wall mural celebrating African and African-American culture – was Monday, Jan. 21, at 11:45 a.m. during the university’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day celebration. The ceremonial ribbon-cutting was followed by a barbershop talk with local barber Tyrone Sprague. During past MLK Days, a visit to Sprague’s downtown barbershop for some history, legend and lore was a much-loved 91��Ƶ tradition.

“We’re so pleased that Mr. Tyrone Sprague will be coming to help us celebrate the opening of our very own barbershop and salon,” Celeste Thomas, director of multicultural services and senior advisor to the president for diversity and inclusion, said prior to the event. “Just like his barbershop has been for years, I know this place is going to be full of joking and laughter and wisdom, a place where people can literally and figuratively let their hair down, where they can come and have a good time and be relaxed and comfortable.”

A major ‘milestone’

For the sneak preview hangout last week, though, it was Loving who did the barbering honors in front of a group of student-representatives from BSU and Latino Student Alliance invited by Thomas and lead residence director Scott Eyre. Both Thomas and Eyre sit on 91��Ƶ’s Committee on Diversity and Inclusion (CODI), a 17-strong group that advises, consults and educates the 91��Ƶ community.

Black Student Union co-president Jakiran Richardson and Latino Student Alliance co-president Ariel Barbosa look at artwork for the mural with Scott Eyre, lead residence director.

BSU members called “The Royal Treatment” a major milestone in the university’s history. Senior Jessica Washington, the club’s secretary, said she never imagined “something like this” when she arrived on campus four years ago. “This is a real blessing.”

BSU co-president Jakiran Richardson, a sophomore, views the new space as the university’s way of showing empathy and understanding for students of color who must adapt to a predominantly white campus culture. “We understand what you’re going through,” he translated. “Here’s something to show our appreciation for you being here and that we are about who you are.”

Erick Camodeca, associate cross country and track and field coach, took advantage of the preview to relax in the barber’s chair while getting a “temp fade” from Loving. Also a member of CODI, Camodeca might be new to the campus – he arrived last summer – but his experience at four other universities has given him a critical eye.

The new space, he said, “sends out a message that this university does care, that we are making a commitment to diversity and to our students.”

The barbershop is “all about community, which is one of 91��Ƶ’s core values,” Camodeca added. “What a better place to have a barbershop where people can come in of all diversities and backgrounds and share an experience and learn something.”

A measure of support for the room was the wild success of its crowdfunding campaign. More than $2,600 was raised by donors to purchase sinks, chairs and other amenities and decorations.

‘A meeting place’

Historically, the African American barbershop and salon was, and still is, a meeting place, “a place where mothers take daughters, where fathers take sons, a family place, a place of confidentiality and gossip, with people coming in and out, selling this and that,” Thomas said.

“Not to mention food,” added Friend to general laughter. “You can get your dinner there.”

Senior DeVantae Dews, who served in leadership of Black Student Union for three years, talks about how plans for the new lounge began.

The barbershop was also a place where “planning happened through the Jim Crow era and the civil rights movement,” Thomas said.

“It’s still definitely a place where dreams are fostered,” said former BSU co-president DeVantae Dews. Dews found Sprague’s barbershop downtown when he first arrived from Lynchburg as a first-year student. Over the years, time spent with Sprague reflecting on the civil rights and Black Lives Matter movements, along with a host of other topics, were important to his own outlook and activism.

“Those conversations gave me hope and vision for what I believe the next movement is to come,” Dews said, “and so I can only imagine how much wisdom will be poured down through our generations here in this place, and what this space can do – for reflecting on the growth that’s happened here at 91��Ƶ and the planning we can do to make more change to help make this campus a better place for everyone.”

‘All hair types’ welcome

Eyre, the residence director, appreciates the new space as an opportunity to learn about and appreciate cultures different from one’s own. The barbershop and salon is rooted in his own learning experience, which began when female students using hair straighteners in the dorms repeatedly set off fire alarms.

“The reaction of some white and white Mennonite students who didn’t understand what was going on helped me admit that I didn’t know either,” Eyre said. “With a lot of grace, Celeste answered questions and shared about African American hair and hairstyling and the processes involved, and I realized that 91��Ƶ could do better in providing and creating spaces in support of our students.”

Barber Mark Loving finishes up a cut for Coach Erick Camodeca.

The barbershop and salon will be a familiar cultural space to many African American students, he said, but white students “will have to figure out how they fit in,” a fair experience considering that African American and minority students make that effort constantly at 91��Ƶ, he said.

The cozy room in University Commons is located in a former office donated by the Student Government Association. Students at the sneak preview event said they were confident the space would quickly become a campus hangout.

The ambiance brought back memories for Ariel Barbosa, co-president of Latino Student Alliance, of going to the barbershop with her dad, who has both African and indigenous Brazilian heritage. That same feeling of “being at home there” in the barbershop of her childhood is one she hopes will be shared here. “I’m excited that students are at the center of this project,” she said. “I just envision this as a space that will be one of true diversity, where people of all hair types will find a place.”

For Dews, who had worked on the initial plans for the space several years ago, sitting in the new lounge gives him “great hope,” he said. “And if I am hopeful sitting here, think of how a freshman would feel … I believe this is the small fruit of the harvest of what God wants to do on this campus when looking at diversity, reconciling between racial and social economies and all the other social constructions that try and divide us. This is just the beginning of what can happen on this campus.”

Committee on Diversity and Inclusion Archives - 91����Ƶ News