Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Newsletter

Monday, September 23, 2024

Dear Golden Eagles,

It’s wonderful to see the university bustling with great energy as another academic year has gotten underway. The Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion was hard at work over the summer was hard at work, preparing for the new year. I’d like to share with you some updates about what we’ve been planning.

I’m proud to say the Restoratives Practices Initiative is in its third year! During the 2023-2024 academic year the Restorative Champions conducted over 30 community building circles, presented at the diversity conference and during NEST training. The champions also developed an implementation plan for the University, which includes possibly incorporating restorative practices into the student conduct, bias incident, employee relations and community policing processes. In May in 2024, the champions completed Tier 2: Responding to Harm Circles training. They will continue to work with the CDS to further develop their skills and prepare to address acts of harm. OEDI also hosted another Tier 1 training in June with 11 members of the faculty and staff completing the training. We have over 20 restorative champions at Brockport.

Dr. Carl Davila (History) and Dr. Ismael Souto Rumbo (Modern Languages) have been selected as the 2024-2025 Faculty Diversity Fellows. Dr. Davila’s project, “Every Story to Be Heard”, focuses on promoting dialogue and mutual recognition between Arab, Muslim, and Jewish people in relation to the Palestine/Israel conflict. Additional information about Dr. Davila’s project is forthcoming. Dr. Souto’s, fellowship focuses on assessment. Specifically, Dr. Souto and I will work together to review and revise assessment tools to determine the effectiveness of program and services offered by OEDI.

Community Conversations have returned! With a tension filled election season in full swing and continuing wars/conflicts around the world, opportunities to engage in difficult conversations with civility are sorely needed. Reinforcing our Better Community Statement, Community Conversations is one of many efforts underway that provides members of SUNY Brockport the opportunity to engage in difficult dialogues about hot button topics, as well as gain valuable skills needed for civil discourse. We have scheduled several conversations for the fall semester, the first of which took place on Friday, September 6^th. We hope you will join us for future conversations.

Fall Community Conversations:

• October 8, 3:30pm -5:00 pm
• October 29, 11:30 am – 1:00 pm
• November 7^, 2:30pm – 4:00 pm

Student Union, Leadership and Activities (SULA) is also providing students, staff, and faculty the opportunity to participate in difficult conversations via the Deliberative Dialogues Program. Deliberative dialogues are a product of the National Issues Forum Institute (NIFI) and seek to give folks the opportunity to talk about issues in a respectful manner. They strongly emphasize listening to one another and exploring unbiased facts to find where our interests overlap and how we can work together toward a shared future.

There are three deliberative dialogue sessions planned for October. Students may sign up for Deliberative Dialogue Spring 2025.

Faculty, staff and graduate students, SULA is looking to increase the number of moderators and is offering Deliberative Dialogue Moderator Trainings.

If you’re interested in getting trained to moderate deliberative dialogue sessions and haven’t done so already, please sign up for the Deliberative Dialogue Training. You will see that there are two trainings to choose from. Each will have the same content presented. More information can be found on the NIFI website.

The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights has provided new guidelines to colleges and universities on how to respond to and address acts of discrimination due to race, color, national origin, shared history, and ethnic characteristics. Specifically, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of the 1964 prohibits discrimination based on the items listed about, including Islamophobia and antisemitism at institutions receiving federal financial assistance. Under the new guidelines, SUNY Brockport must respond to, end, prevent and eliminate any hostile environment due to discriminatory harassment, in a timely, effective, reasonable, and consistent manner. We must also provide supportive measures for those who report an act of discriminatory harassment. Reports can be made using the existing Bias Incident Reporting process.

Finally, I’d like to share more good news. SUNY Brockport through the OEDI applied for and is one of 22 institutions awarded a SUNY Interfaith/Meditation Space Mini-Grant. The purpose of the grant is to “develop and/or enhance space that serves as an interfaith prayer, meditation, and reflection room for students and employees to use on campus”. We were awarded over $5900 to enhance the interfaith prayer room we have on campus, as well as to re-establish an interfaith council. Additional information to follow.

Note: My annual message about observing religious holidays and accommodations is forthcoming.

Upcoming OEDI Events:

• 9th Annual Multicultural Mixer September 30, 2024
• Brown Bag Lunch and Learn Series:
  • October 18, 2024
  • November 22, 2024