View the meeting slides here: DC_EOA_9.11.19

Thank you to the great group of folks who joined our conversation last week with Roni Sue and Gabe Merrell from OSU’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Access (EOA). A short recap of the session can be found below, and you can view EOA’s slide deck from the link at the top of this page.

During our conversation with EOA, we defined and discussed the two sides of their unit: 1) Equal Opportunity (sexual misconduct, violence, discrimination, bullying and retaliation response), and 2) Access (accommodations, accessibility, affirmative action and equitable hiring processes). We also contrasted their services with other campus resources, such as Disability Access Services and the Office of Institutional Diversity’s bias incident response process. Throughout these conversations, we identified and considered some of the unique challenges that our off-campus, community-focused work can present. Please view the slides above for more information about EOA and other OSU units who are here to support your work, and to support you as an employee. Our office, as well as Gabe and Roni, welcome your questions or comments. Please do not hesitate to reach out at any time!

What’s next? We’re looking forward to another in-person workshop and team meeting on Wednesday, October 9. If you have not already registered, please do so now by following the link below. This workshop will be co-facilitated by Ana Lu and OSU’s Director of Institutional Education for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Jeff Kenney. Jeff has delivered this impactful workshop to a variety of audiences, including a session for President Ed Ray’s University Cabinet leadership group in June. We are very fortunate to have this opportunity to sustain and deepen our ongoing equity conversation .

The Role of Whiteness in Educational Leadership workshop (followed by team meeting) | REGISTER HERE by September 27
Workshop Pre-reading: White Fragility, by Robin DeAngelo
Date/Time: Wed., Oct. 9 | 9:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Location: Hallie Ford Center, Room 115, OSU Corvallis Campus
Session Goals:
– Develop shared language and understanding of issues of race and racism in organizational leadership
– Explore a contemporary conceptual framework for individual and organizational anti-racist learning, development, and action
– Consider and negotiate the distinctions between ‘whiteness’ and ‘white people’ and the necessity to mutually personalize and de-personalize anti-racist organizational development
– Consider and negotiate the distinctions between ‘whiteness’ and ‘white people’ and the necessity to mutually personalize and de-personalize anti-racist organizational development
– Reflect upon our personal stakes in realizing an anti-racist organization

If you have any questions about last week’s meeting or the upcoming workshop, please let us know.

In partnership,
Your DEI team

View the meeting slides here: DC 6.12.19

Thank you to those who attended last week’s team meeting and participated in our second conversation of Module 2: Identity and Expression. 

For pre-work, we viewed this webinar, hosted by our our colleagues at The Ohio State University and University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Services, and used our meeting to continue the conversation about how to support our LGBTQ+ colleagues and program participants. In the previous sentence, “colleagues” is intentionally listed before “program participants”. Both are equally and incredibly important, but please take a moment to consider that if the spaces and programs we create are not safe for our adult employees to show up with their full identities, they are even less safe for our program participants, especially youth.

At the start of our meeting, we heard from Dr. Marilyn Lesmeister, Associate Professor in the College of Public Health and Human Sciences, Volunteer Development & Risk Management specialist, and now interim 4-H Program Leader, who shared a newly created document that addresses some of the frequently asked questions around this topic: 4-H Practices for Inclusion of All Individuals of All Gender Identities, Gender Expressions, Sexual Orientations, and Sexes. This document provides helpful youth programming information, from general definitions to guidance around dress codes and sleeping arrangements. It is in the final stages of review before it will be shared with the 4-H Program and larger OSU community. You have a received an emailed copy of the draft and are invited to share any thoughts or feedback with Dr. Lesmeister.

Taking inspiration from the document mentioned above and the pre-work webinar, the rest of our conversation covered topics such as dress codes at camps and in schools, gender binary stereotypes and the importance of using pronouns to help affirm different identities. We appreciated a faculty member’s comment (and the resulting conversation) about the need for dress codes to be directly connected to a safety issue (i.e. Close-toed shoes only in a lab setting), rather than a socially constructed gender stereotype (i.e. A girl’s only option for formal attire at camp being a dress or skirt).

Regarding pronouns, we talked about the somewhat recent movement to include pronouns in email signatures or as part of a verbal introduction, and shared different ways we have done this or seen it done. It was wonderful to hear many of us with dominant identities, such as cis-gender, realize aloud that by noting our pronouns, we are not only identifying ourselves, but training others not to make assumptions and normalizing the practice of letting people self-identify (and most importantly, respecting self identification). If you could not attend the meeting, please take a few minutes to talk to an office mate or fellow Diversity Champion about the webinar and ideas shared above. Please also keep in mind that these meeting recaps are a short snippet of a rich and deep conversation. The greatest benefit of our month meetings is the practice of engaging with each other around, often challenging, topics of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Summer break: Our next team Zoom meeting will be September 11 (calendar invite coming soon), but please keep an eye out for a small amount of pre-work in July and August. During these next two months, our office will be conducting the County Civil Rights reviews in our South and East regions, so we may see some of you in that capacity!

If you have signed up for the June 26: Navigating Bias event, we will see you next week! Otherwise, do not hesitate to reach out at any time with your questions or comments.

In partnership,
Your DEI Team

View the meeting slides here: DC 5.8.19
Thank you for joining us on Wednesday for our first team meeting of Module 2: Identity and Expression! You can find the meeting slides at the top of this post, and a short recap below.

April Media Club debrief: Thank you again to everyone who participated, and shared their experiences from last month. You will find the links and information for each Media Club in a separate post below.

Intro to Module 2: Identity and Expression: We defined identity as the qualities, beliefs, personality, looks and/or expressions that make a person. A psychological identity relates to self-image (one’s mental model of oneself), self-esteem, and individuality. We used the Diversity Wheel below to think about how we identify ourselves in each category. For practice, you can try to identify the dominant group for each identity category in your programs, office and/or community. How can different contexts affect this?

We shared resources that will help you continue to explore identity, such as our team Box folder, and DEI Event Calendar. For a full list of resources, view the meeting slides at the top of this post.

Upcoming Meetings
June 12: Regular Team Zoom meeting
Please watch this video and come ready for a conversation about how to support our LGBTQ+ program participants and colleagues.

June 26: Navigating Bias in Learning and Working Environments workshop
View the Workshop Flyer and follow this link to register. A calendar invite will be sent to those who register.

If you have any questions, please contact Analu.Fonseca@oregonstate.edu or Elsa.Curtis@oregonstate.edu. We appreciate working with you!

Below you will find the media shared in our April Media Clubs. Please post any additional resources/comments in the comments section of this post! 

Growing as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Champions
Host: Tina Dodge Vera, tina.dodge@oregonstate.edu, (541) 730-3541
Summary: This group was invited to view videos related to DEI each Monday in April. Videos range in length from 20 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes and are meant to inspire reflection in DEI champions.

Week 1: Why aren’t there more black people in Oregon? A Hidden History by Walidah Imarisha
Week 2: Dr. Robin DiAngelo on White Fragility video
Week 3: Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story TedTalk
Week 4: Beyond Seats at the Table: Equity, Inclusion, and Collective Impact. A presentation by Vu Le, Executive Director Rainer Valley Corps

DEI in Local, Regional, and Community Food Systems
Host: Lauren Gwin, lauren.gwin@oregonstate.edu, (541) 737 1569
Summary: This group reviewed online articles and videos related to DEI in the local, regional, and community food systems movement, which were sent each week by Lauren, and discussed by the group over email and at a group Zoom meeting at the end of the month.

Week 1: Bobby J. Smith II, 2019, “Building emancipatory food power: Freedom Farms, Rocky Acres, and the struggle for food justice.” Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development.
Week 2:
1) FoodCorps: 3 Hard truths that will help your organization undo racism article
2) Farmworkers Who Pick Your Halo Mandarins Organize a Massive Labor Strike article
Week 3:
1) Agroecology: Vision, Practice, Movement video
2) The Dark Side of Innovation for Family Farmers, blog post from Agroecology Now!
Week 4: Voices of the Food Chain Project , Sharing stories of the country’s 20 million food workers, in their own words.

DEI in Technology and Youth STEM/STEAM Education
Host: Victor Villegas, Victor.Villegas@oregonstate.edu, (541) 737-8255
Summary: This group reviewed online articles and videos regarding diversity, equity and inclusion in technology and youth STEM/STEAM education. During the month of April, Victor sent links to an article or video at the beginning of each week, and participants discussed by email or 1:1 with Victor.

Week 1:
1) Thomas Franco: A Blocked Pathway: What it Means to Be a Minority in STEM video
2) Richard Tapia encourages underrepresented minorities in science video interview
Week 2: Rethinking Museum Visits: Issues of Representation and Accessibility article
Week 3: Reimagining publics and (non) participation: Exploring exclusion from science
communication through the experiences of low-income, minority ethnic groups
Week 4: MacArthur Geniuses: Overcoming Barriers to STEM Education, Hosted by Benetech & The Commonwealth Club

Facilitator Handout: C-RRR 2019[1]

Diversity Champions:

Thank you for a great meeting last week! I hope you enjoyed hearing from our guest facilitator, Maria Chavez-Haroldson, as much as I did. Your comments and participation during the meeting reminded me of how lucky we are to share this time and hear from colleagues we may not regularly have the chance to work with. The more I hear about the great impact you are all having around the state, the more inspired I become.

C-RRR OVERVIEW
If you attended last week’s meeting, you’ll remember that “C-RRR” stands for Cultural Responsivity, Cultural Relevance, and Cultural Reinforcement. As a refresher, please view the PDF of our facilitator’s handout at the top of this page. PROMPT: As you review Maria´s C-RRR concept, please think about your own Extension program and role. What audience is your program relevant and responsive to?

APRIL MEDIA CLUBS
Sign up by Tuesday, March 26 by emailing elsa.curtis@oregonstate.edu with the name of the club.
Remember that during the month of April we will have a different format. Take advantage of the opportunities below to participate in smaller, themed discussion groups guided by one of our Diversity Champions. Please sign up for the topic that speaks to you in this moment. We will have more opportunities to do this, so please e-mail me if you have suggestions, or want to volunteer to lead a club in the future.

Media Club: Growing as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Champions
Host: Tina Dodge Vera, tina.dodge@oregonstate.edu (541) 730-3541
Summary of activity: This group will be invited by email to view videos related to DEI each Monday in April. Videos range in length from 20 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes.  The videos are meant to inspire reflection in DEI champions. After watching the videos, participants are welcome to reply-all to the email to share your thoughts and questions, or reach out to Tina directly with any questions.

Media Club: DEI in Local, Regional, and Community Food Systems
Host: Lauren Gwin, lauren.gwin@oregonstate.edu (541) 737 1569 (and DC members who are also in the Extension CFS Working Group)
Summary of activity: This group will review and discuss online articles and videos related to DEI in the local, regional, and community food systems movement. In April, Lauren will email a link to a relevant article or video at the start of the week. After you read or watch, please reply-all to the email to share your thoughts and questions. At the end of April, we will have a Zoom meeting to discuss what we observed and learned.

Media Club: DEI in Technology and Youth STEM/STEAM Education
Host: Victor Villegas, Victor.Villegas@oregonstate.edu (541) 737-8255
Summary of activity: This group will review and discuss online articles and videos regarding diversity, equity and inclusion in technology and youth STEM/STEAM education. During the month of April, Victor will email a link to a relevant article or video at the beginning of the week. After review, you can reply-all to the email or connect with Victor 1:1 to share your thoughts and/or questions about what you read or watched. At the end of the month, there will be a Zoom meeting so members can discuss their observations and what they learned.

Do not hesitate to reach out with any questions during the month of April. Otherwise, I’ll see you for our next meeting on Wednesday, May 8, 10am – 11am!

-Ana Lu and the DEI Team

View the Meeting Slides here: 2.6.2019

Hello, Diversity Champions!
Thank you for your participation in our team meeting on February 6. We had over 30 people join us from all around the state for this second monthly meeting focused on race and culture.

COURAGEOUS CONVERSATIONS FIELD GUIDE: PART 1

Part one of the Courageous Conversations About Race Field Guide (CCAR) is centered around the idea that passion is an essential characteristic of racial leadership. The chapter provides guidance around how to have effective conversations about race: We need to exercise passion, practice and persistence. Courageous Conversations offers a protocol and strategy for school systems to eliminate racial achievement disparities. By utilizing this strategy and learning the protocol, we will develop racial understanding, participate in interracial dialogue about race, and identify/address racial issues in our systems. A courageous conversation is one that engages those who don’t want to talk, sustains the conversation when it gets uncomfortable or diverted, and/or deepens the conversation to the point where authentic understanding and meaningful action occurs. We will exercise our use of the CCAR thorough our Diversity Champions journey, so please continue to read the book at your own pace.
During this session, participants shared their experiences with the concept of race around the following prompts:
1)  How did you become aware that you had a race?
2)  Describe your relationship with race in the past? More recently?

TEAM COMMUNICATION

In addition to commenting on this blog and participating in team meetings, we want to encourage all of you to connect with each other in your day-to-day work. The listserves below were made with this in mind, so please use them to share ideas, events and opportunities as you see fit!

• Email your 2019 cohort: diversitychampionteam@lists.oregonstate.edu
  • This email list contains ONLY those who signed up for the current, 2019 program. Use it to share articles, events and anything relevant to our meetings. You can also comment on these blog posts to share thoughts and ideas.
• Email your community: diversitychampions@lists.oregonstate.edu
  • This is a broader contact list that includes past Diversity Champion members, as well as current members and others who have shown interest, but haven’t participated in the DC program yet. Use it to reach a wider audience of people in our division who are interested in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

COMING SOON/NEXT STEPS

• Feedback from this meeting let us know it would be helpful for everyone to have a contact list of their fellow Diversity Champions. We are working on this and will let you know when it’s posted to the website. IMPORTANT: If you would prefer not to be listed, please let us know! If we don’t hear from you, we will include your information on the contact list.
• Our next monthly meeting will be Wednesday, March 6 at 10am. Please keep an eye out for calendar invites coming your way soon, and be sure to view the media below before the meeting:
  • Robin DiAngelo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=8&v=DwIx3KQer54
  • Chimamanda Adichie TED talk “The danger of a single story”: https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story/transcript?language=en
• Keep reading your Courageous Conversations Field Guide books. There will not be other formally assigned readings, but the content will be very valuable as you continue this program.

Thank you for your participation!

Ana Lu, and the DEI Team

View the Meeting Slides here: DC 1.9.2019

Welcome!

We are so excited to have such an energized and diverse group of Diversity Champions for 2019!

During this first meeting, we introduced ourselves, debriefed the Introduction to Courageous Conversations training at the Extension Annual Conference (EAC), and reviewed the upcoming year’s program and resources available to the team.

EAC Debreif:

Participants expressed that the Introduction to Courageous Conversations session was personally meaningful, and helped shed light on the impact of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in our job as Extension Professionals and community conveners. However, many participants expressed the urgency of placing DEI at the center of our organization’s professional development and not as an added training that conflicts with other sessions and (mandatory) program meetings.

The team expressed how deeply impactful it would be to expand the Courageous Conversations training and protocol to other (or all!) aspects of our organization, not just the Diversity Champions team. There was feedback that when these types of training are voluntary, instead of required, it can end up feeling like we are “preaching to the choir” and not reaching the people who need it most. This propagates the inequitable trend of DEI work being done by a small number of overworked people, rather than spread out equally within our organization.

2019 Program & Team Resources:

You can find an overview of the upcoming year here, and visit the links below to start exploring our team resources. In addition, be sure to visit our website to check out the Statewide Resource Maps and DEI Events Calendar.

• Listserves: https://lists.oregonstate.edu/
• Team Blog: http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/diversitychampions/
• Team Box Folder: https://oregonstate.box.com/s/nim6vte6815wa30ggegfjrs5s4xa9wul
• Kanopy streaming service: https://guides.library.oregonstate.edu/c.php?g=562121&p=3869582
• OSU Media archives: https://media.oregonstate.edu/
• Diversity Highlights (in ConnEXTions weekly E-Newsletter): http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/extconnextion/#010818tag5

FYI: Registration for the Black Minds Matter course (that Rita shared at the end of our meeting) can be found here: https://oregonstate.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4PkAbgZOk9vJf8x
Black Minds Matter: Oregon State University’s Corvallis Campus is a broadcast site for the Black Minds Matter course. Black Minds Matter is a 10-week public course that focuses on addressing issues affecting Black student success in secondary education. Click this link to register or to sign up for more information about upcoming courses. Contact Email: AA.AAESS@oregonstate.edu.

Other Key Takeaways:

• To continue participating on this year’s team, you must fill out a membership form by next Friday, January 18.
• If you need a copy of the Courageous Conversations Field Guide book (Author: Glenn Singleton, 2^nd edition), please email elsa.curtis@oregonstate.edu.
• If you did not attend the Courageous Conversations session at this year’s or last year’s Extension Annual Conference, let you know so we can get you up to speed with the protocol.
• Next meeting is Wednesday, February 6, 10am – 11am. Please read part one of the book prior to this meeting. A calendar invitation will be sent out to team members after program registration closes on January 18.

We can’t wait to work with you!

-Ana Lu, and the DEI team

View the meeting slides here: Diversity Champions 6.19.18

Diversity Champions:

Thank you to everyone who joined us yesterday for our June meeting. If you missed out, or would like to revisit the session content, this blog provides a short recap. As an introduction, please watch the video below from author Robin DiAngelo about deconstructing what it means to be white. It is a bit longer than the usual videos we share, but I assure you it is worth your time, and will help move you into a more open and conscious head space.

Welcome & Introductions:
We were honored to have Ruth Jones joining us in Ballard Hall to share her valuable insight and recent experiences working with the Oregon Center for Educational Equality. Ruth is a brown Latina from Mexicali, raised in California and an Oregonian for the past 13 years. She is a mom of 4 adult children and has a loving, energetic dog who she loves dearly. Ruth is very passionate about the work she does serving the Latinx community and coaching administrators and educators around the work of equity and inclusion with our marginalized populations.

Chapters 8 & 9:
Our conversation focused on how to keep us all at the table for these courageous conversations. We explored the working definition of race (Chapter 9) and shared different perspectives of what that means to each of us, and how that has changed during our work with the Courageous Conversations Field Guide. We were excited to learn about the different ways our colleagues have been using their newfound knowledge and curiousity in their program areas and realms of influence. We also acknowledged the amount of work left to be done. As Ruth said, this type of change truly takes a village.

Homework/Reading for July’s meeting:
Chapter 10: Let’s Talk about Whiteness
Chapter 11: How Racial Equity Leaders Eliminate Systemic Racal Disparities
Please remember to keep journalling on your own and talking with your fellow Diversity Champions about your experiences.

Annoucements:

• Please remember to fill out this Doodle Poll to let us know your availability for the Mentorship Training with Jeff Sherman. If you have any questions about travel costs or the training itself, please reach out to me directly.
• PLEASE NOTE: Our July meeting will be re-scheduled to July 24^th (no longer on July 17). Please keep an eye out for a calendar event in the next week.

Thank you again,

Ana Lu

View the meeting slides here: Diversity Champions 5.15.18

Diversity Champions:

Thank you to everyone who joined us in Ballard Hall or by Zoom for our May monthly session! If you could not attend, this blog post provides a short recap. I am available for any questions you may have and also encourage you to connect with other Diversity Champions to help you process the reading and to expand your awareness of the different racial experiences of your friends and colleagues. Remember, this space is a personal, as well as organizational, growth opportunity for all of us. The best indicator of how inclusive Extension is lives in each one of us.

Welcome & Introductions:
We were delighted to have Rodrigo Ruiz Corona, 4-H/Juntos Outreach Coordinator for Clackamas County Extension, joining us for this session. Rodrigo has been participating as often as possible in our Diversity Champion conversations and is always excited to be in vibrant and challenging spaces. His background is in History and Sociology, however, his true passion lies in appreciating the ways in which we are all similar, different and unique, as well as placing the natural world at the center of learning and teaching in his work. This passion led Rodrigo to work for the Center for Diversity and the Environment facilitating Equity, Diversity and Inclusion trainings for individuals and organizations in the environmental field. Currently, he leads experiential youth development programs for immigrant families. An immigrant himself, he has always been interested in the ever-changing demographic landscape in the United States, the crafting of identity and the meanings associated with different waves of immigration over time in this continent. We were very lucky and honored to hear from Rodrigo about his unique experiences.

Homework Activity review
After our last session, we asked you to journal on the following topic: From 1 – 100%, how much of my life is impacted by my race?

• We talked about our insights as a group and encourage you to find another Diversity Champion to share your experience with. Talking through this activity with others is a great introduction to this month’s reading, especially Chapter 7: Engaging Multiple Racial Perspectives. Each of us were brought into this world where the social construct of race was already in place, therefore we have different experiences navigating it.
• Compass check: Which quadrant(s) did you find yourself in while journaling on the topic above?

Chapters 6 & 7

Our conversation focused on Keeping the Spotlight on Race and Agreeing to Engage Multiple Racial Perspectives. Both conditions are essential when engaging in productive conversations that advance our understanding and bring us closer as a community.

• Our reading helped us understand the pervasive way that the social construct of race has seeped into our psyche and therefore our daily lives. We looked at examples from the media that use the construct of whiteness as the standard and the aspiration. They portray people of color with a negative connotation. View the meeting slide link at the top of this post to see these examples (taken from google images).
• Next time you are reading a magazine or watching television, try to use your racial consciousness to identify the hidden messages in which whiteness is socialized.
• In our session, we heard from people online and in the room about their unique racial experiences. This is always what is at the core of the conversation and makes our hour together fly by. Food for the soul.

See you on June 19 for our next meeting!
Homework/Reading: Please read Chapters 8 & 9 before our next meeting.

Upcoming Sessions:
June 19: Review Chapters 8 & 9  (C.C.A.R.)
July 17:   Review Chapters 10 & 11  (C.C.A.R.)
August 21: Review Chapters 12 & 13  (C.C.A.R.)
September 18: Mentorship training with Jeff Sherman
October 16: Intercultural Communication Module
November: 2018/19 Diversity Champion registration open
December: Extension annual conference (Social Justice Initiative and Search Advocate trainings most likely available)

Please stay tuned for details about the upcoming sessions. You each are developing a very keen awareness that will definitely  manifest itself in the work and programs of our division.

Thank you again,

Ana Lu