Dr. Kevicha Echols and Dr. Juan Morales-Flores continue as the co-facilitators of the Diverse Faculty Interest Group and are responsible for organizing the meetings, planning the agenda, selecting reading materials, and updating the wiki page. We scheduled three meetings for the Spring 2015 semester: 4/1, 4/28, and 5/26. We decided to go back to one meeting per month because the two meetings were taking up quite a bit of time for both facilitators.

We returned to a book we previously used, Presumed Incompetent: The Intersection of Race and Class for Women in Academia. There were many chapters left to cover that were of value to the group so we felt it was a good idea to revisit the chapters we hadn’t previously read.

April 1st, 2015

The reading for this meeting was Chapter 18 – What’s Love Got to Do with It? Life Teachings from Multiracial Feminism.

April 28th, 2015

For this meeting we read chapter 10 – Silence of the Lambs. This particular chapter resonated with many members who are untenured faculty. The idea that some feel they cannot speak up about certain job related conditions or issues because of the status of being untenured was shared among a few members. However, when and when not to speak up or speak out was also something to think about in our classrooms as well. The author mentioned their experience being a faculty member of color and female speaking on issues of race and gender; some members have faced such decisions and base it on whether or not it can serve as a teachable moments. By the end of the meeting we were glad to have discussed this issue because it has been something several members have considered and we’re thankful that the DFIG is one place where faculty and staff members can feel safe sharing their concerns, whether they are tenured, or not.

May 26th, 2015

For our last meeting we didn’t assign any readings and had our end of the semester soiree.  This was the least attended meeting we’ve had. However it was still a fruitful meeting with those of us that attended. We also discussed suggested readings for the fall.

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