The SILS Diversity Committee met on Tuesday, March 27th. Topics on the agenda are as follows.

• The committee had a conversation involving several items concerning the Diversity Certificate that students can earn:
  • Brainstormed for future guest speakers, webinars, and panels to organize
  • Discussed ways to bring student awareness to the importance and advantage of the certificate, such as a diversity component in boot camp,
  • Updated resources on the Diversity Certificate Sakai page
  • Began discussion on the best platform for Diversity Certificate candidates to communicate with each other (most likely a Facebook page, or the Sakai forum
  • Pronouns have been removed from the working on the certificate itself
• It has been confirmed that students can change their names on class rosters through Connect Carolina. Instructions on how to do so: When you log in, look near the bottom of the page under the “Personal Information” section. There is a link called “Names”. Once you click on that, you can add a new name and set it to be your preferred name. Your preferred name should show up on class rosters.
• The committee worked to update the SILS diversity statement. The revised statement must now be voted on by staff and faculty. While refreshing the statement is a start, the committee recognizes that integrating the commitment into the daily activities of SILS will require more than changing language.
• The committee continued the discussion of best practices for faculty to include diversity statements in their syllabi. There is the possibility of sharing a short article from two professors at Brown University on a simple strategy for faculty to include diversity statements in their syllabi. The committee also discussed the findings of Stephen Krueger (MSLS ’17) his masters paper titled, “Diversity and Inclusion Education at the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill”, where he examined 115 syllabi of SILS courses for evidence of diversity and inclusion and found them to be lacking.
• The committee discussed a list of avenues for advertising in order to reach underrepresented communities when there are open faculty positions.

The SILS Diversity Committee met on January 16^th with several items on the table:

1. Updated the existing diversity statement with small revisions to be more inclusive and politically correct.
2. Discussed ways that faculty can and should be embedding diversity into their curriculum, such as making sure to assigned readings are written by diverse peoples, including the diversity statement on syllabi, and reaching out to diverse speakers when inviting guests into the classroom. In general, faculty should be aware of who they are making visible to their students.
3. Discussed ways to promote the diversity certificate to SILS students. One method may be to email students who have started the certificate in order to encourage them to complete it. Another strategy is to build a sense of community by holding 2-3 informal student gatherings during the semester. The committee also discussed adding preferred pronouns to the diversity certificate application, and perhaps update the wording on the certificate itself.
4. Began discussion on ways to retain diverse faculty and educate students, faculty and staff on the difficulties of being a minority in the academic environment. It is more difficult to get published if you have an ‘ethnic’ name, and faculty of color, especially women tend to get unbalanced reviews that on the lower end on student evaluations.

The SILS Diversity Committee met on Wednesday, October 11, 2017 to discuss goals and opportunities for the new school year. The main topic of discussion was on ways to begin the process of imbedding and integrating diversity into the day-to-day activities of SILS. We would like to bring to the forefront of everyone’s mind an awareness of what diversity is, its importance and benefit to us as individuals and as a part of a larger institution, and how we are always active participants.

Suggestions were as follows: Help faculty to integrate diversity into their syllabi, class discussions, and individual interactions with students. Speak to SILS student organizations about sponsoring diversity events. Further and actively promote the SILS Diversity Certificate to current students. Coordinate with other campus organizations to plan and sponsor diversity events and training. Update the SILS diversity statement and renewing the diversity statement poster (have you seen it?).