On Friday, March, 12th, 2021 James L. Moore III, Vice Provost for Diversity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer at the Ohio State University sent the following message Ohio State's diversity officers.

Dear ODI Colleagues and Partners:

Warmest greetings! I hope that you are taking advantage of the recent warm weather to shake off the winter and rejuvenate your spirit.

As we begin to move toward a brighter future, it is important to realize the toll the global pandemic has taken on our society. One troubling trend that we have seen in major American cities is an increase in hate crimes and violence targeting Asian, Pacific Islander, and Desi Americans (APIDA) because of the pandemic.

In recent weeks, several shocking videos, depicting violent assaults against Asian-Americans, have emerged on social and other news media. Further, a recent report from the California State University’s Center for the Study of Extremism and Hate found that hate crimes against Asian Americans have spiked by more than 150 percent in the largest American cities last year. Sadly, we are not immune from these incidents in our own region.

I urge everyone to support the APIDA community at The Ohio State University and to speak up if you witness discrimination rooted in racial bigotry against any group. Now is the time to dig deep and find our common humanity as citizens of this world, as we seek to move forward toward a shared destiny of greater inclusion and understanding.

Thank you for the support you provide for the abiding values of greater diversity, equity, and inclusion at The Ohio State University and beyond. As we talk the talk, we must also show that we will walk the walk, both in our lives at this university and elsewhere.

Pamela Thomas, Program Manager for Student Success and a member of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion will be retiring from CFAES in May. Her last official day will be May 31st. Pamela joined CFAES in 1997 and has served in a variety of capacities in the college. Most recently she was instrumental in the development of a new study abroad program focused on multicultural students. She advised the Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS) student organization since her arrival in 1997. Pamela has always demonstrated commitment and dedication to student success, and she will be missed. Please feel free to reach out to Pamela and extend your well wishes. At Pamela’s request, we will have a celebration to recognize her years of service once we are able to gather in person.

We are pleased to announce that we have two of our office's webinars available for viewing on our YouTube channel. You can watch "Introduction to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" and "Introduction for Microaggressions" by clicking here.

Each month we will be celebrating the diversity of the CFAES student body by highlighting one student (undergraduate or graduate) and one of our colleagues who are working to make CFAES and the community a welcoming place for all people. Do you know someone who you think should be featured? To submit a nomination for the DEI Student Spotlight and the DEI Faculty and Staff Spotlight, please fill out this form.

For the April DEI Student Spotlight we are featuring Siddhartha Bora who is PhD candidate in the Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics (AEDE). Siddhartha was recently awarded the 2021 William E. Krauss Director’s Award for Excellence in Graduate Research for his lead-authored paper entitled "The Rationality of USDA Forecasts under Multivariate Asymmetric Loss". 

This month's DEI Faculty and Staff Spotlight features Dr. Jera Niewoehner-Green who is an assistant professor and program coordinator for the Community Leadership major and Leadership Studies minor in the Department of Agricultural Communication, Education, and Leadership (ACEL).

For a full list of our Spring 2021 webinars, please visit our professional development webinars page.

LOCATION: Zoom

DATE AND TIME: Thursday, April 1st, 6:00-7:30PM

You’ve strategized and come up with a plan, now it’s time to execute it! In this session we will highlight best practices for preparing the soil and planting techniques and cover tips and tricks for planting a garden that fits your abilities.

Presenters: Laura Akgerman and Pam Bennett.

LOCATION: Zoom

DATE AND TIME: Friday, April 2nd, 1:00-3:00PM

What does it mean to have privilege? What is oppression? How do your social identities, such as race, gender, class, religion, sexuality, etc. grant or deny you privilege? How can we use privilege to transform systems that perpetuate social inequity? This 2-hour interactive webinar will explore these questions, providing participants with an opportunity to delve into their social identities - a process that reveals how we all have and lack privilege simultaneously.

LOCATION: Zoom

DATES AND TIME:

Wednesday, April 7th, 11:00AM-12:15PM

Thursday, May 6th, 2:00-3:15PM

This 75-minute training provides an overview of best practices for recruiting a diverse candidate pool. Although this program primarily focuses on faculty searches, much of the content applies also to staff searches. Participants will examine the role that various forms of implicit bias can play in screening applicants and identify ways that intersecting social identities create an unlevel competitive job market. Strategies for targeted recruitment of historically underrepresented minority applicants will be addressed. CFAES requires that all individuals serving on a search committee complete this training every 2 years.

LOCATION: Zoom

DATE AND TIME: Thursday, April 22nd, 1:00-2:30PM

All too often we witness subtle comments or behaviors rooted in bias that cause harm to others, many times directed toward people in vulnerable populations. Have you ever been in a situation like that and wanted to say or do something, but didn't know what to do? Anyone can become an active bystander and learn to address explicit and implicit bias. In this 90-minute, interactive webinar, we will explore some of the most common forms of bias and identify tools you can use as an active bystander to interrupt bias in daily life.

While the large majority of Black people who are killed by police in the United States are young men, Black women and girls are just as vulnerable to police brutality and have been the targets of police violence for decades. Unfortunately, the public’s understanding of police brutality against Black women is rather limited and many Americans have the perception that Black women are somehow protected against police violence. This article looks at some of the Black women have been key voices in the struggle to end this cycle.

Administrations are considering the upcoming fall. What sorts of equity issues are at play with a return to “normal”? Some higher education experts think we should be talking about how to open up “better” rather than returning to “normal” in order to better meet the needs of low-income students and students of color.

All scientists can play a role in reversing the trend of severe underrepresentation of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Here are ten simple ways PIs can develop antiracist policies and take action to promote racial diversity, equity, and inclusion in their lab, discipline, and the broader scientific community.

Finding viable solutions to social problems requires that we reconfigure the relationships between those who hold power over communities and those who are impacted by how that power is used. This article looks at how to rebuild community power and how to use it as a tool to find solutions to problems a community may be facing.

The global response to COVID-19 has meant and increase in xenophobia, which is a fear, prejudice or hatred of people from other countries. Unfortunately, throughout history, fear of disease and racism have gone hand in hand. In the months since COVID-19 has been circulating, Asian-Americans and Asians around the world have experienced heightened levels of verbal and physical aggression.

This workshop discusses the impact COVID-19 is having on Asian/Asian American communities both here at Ohio State and nationwide. We'll begin by discussing the ways in which anti-Asian racism has manifested since the pandemic, and the impacts the rise in anti-Asian racism has had on Asian and APIDA communities. Our dialogue will then shift to highlighting the history Asian Americans have with this type of racial oppression. We'll then address how we can raise awareness of the ways others can strive for allyship with our APIDA students, friends, loved ones and colleagues.

Join us in community as we address this important facet of the COVID-19 pandemic and formulate ways that we can each play a role in interrupting bias and creating safe and inclusive communities.

Register here: https://osu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYqfu-prD0vHNQAwPS8xgZ7TK6Ks_FWhG_O

The series wraps up on Wednesday, April 14th. All events are free and open to the public. 

Register here: https://osu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_G5u-PxvlTmCvNujNGc7Mww

The Society of Fellows Digital Dialogues series brings together artists, scholars and activists working in a range of disciplines aligning with our current theme of Human Rights: Pasts and Futures. Areas of expertise include studies in art, performance and activism; critical human rights; disability; incarceration; Indigeneity; environmental justice; intersectional rhetorics; migrant and refugee rights; race and citizenship; and sexuality, among others.

In our final dialogue, panelists consider the political utility of human rights frameworks for addressing questions related to carceral systems, including the policing of space, citizenship, identities and difference. Panelists will address the explosion of the prison population in the United States and its link to the technologies of enslavement and also reflect upon the limits of carceral feminism and its turn to policing to resolve gender-based violence. Finally, panelists will consider the role of the arts and humanities in abolitionism and in imagining alternatives to carceral systems.

Read more: https://globalartsandhumanities.osu.edu/events/digital-dialogue-six

Listen Courageously is an immersive virtual workshop designed to make participants more aware of their listening blocks and better able to engage in heart-centered conversations that lead to understanding. The workshop was created following the success of Juliana Tafur's award-winning documentary "List(e)n," which brings together three sets of individuals with opposing viewpoints across three hot-button issues, to listen to each other, connect at a human level and transcend their differences. The film's lessons, as well as the filmmaker's 4-year listening journey, are all unpacked during the sessions, in a compelling program with valuable takeaways on how to engage in positive dialogue across differences.

Read more: https://odi.osu.edu/listen-courageously-workshop

With the 2021 publication of The SAGE Encyclopedia of Trans Studies, a timely question is, what is the state of trans studies now and in the future? Join us for a panel of leading scholars in the field to discuss this topic. The panelists are all contributors to the encyclopedia, and attendees will be given free access to their entries.

Read more: https://www.umass.edu/diversity/events/state-trans-studies-2020s

The Women’s Place (TWP) is pleased to host the Ohio State Advocates & Allies for Equity Initiative (A&A), which involves men in the crucial work of promoting gender equity. TWP is expanding this program and invites men and male-identified staff and faculty to join as new Advocates, one of the program’s core leaders for creating positive culture change at the university.

The Advocates & Allies initiative uses two designations to refer to participants:

To date, more than 450 men have committed to being allies for building a more equitable environment at Ohio State. Advocates can help to continue growing these partnerships.

Through a workshop model designed by The Women’s Place, Advocates introduce male colleagues to evidence-based skills and strategies that work to remove barriers for women and other underrepresented faculty, staff, and students. For Spring 2021, all Ally sessions are delivered virtually. Advocates lead Ally sessions and encourage continual learning through periodic meetings with other Advocates. The Women’s Place asks that Advocates commit to volunteer with the program for a minimum of one year; longer term participation is always welcome.

You can become an Advocate by attending a two-part virtual orientation hosted by The Women’s Place:

New Advocates should complete both parts of the training. Please register for these sessions by 5:00PM on Monday, April 5th. If you are interested in becoming an Advocate but have a scheduling conflict, please contact the Advocates & Allies GAA, Mariana Miguelez Gomez, to express your interest.

Read more: https://womensplace.osu.edu/event/2021/4/advocate-gender-equity-training

Please join Dean Amy Fairchild, former New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett and local and state health leaders.

Dr. Mary T. Bassett has dedicated her career to advancing health equity. She is currently the Director of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University and the FXB Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Prior to joining the FXB Center, she served as New York City's Commissioner of Health from 2014 to 2018.

Read more: https://cph.osu.edu/events/what-we-can-do-about-racism%E2%80%99s-role-health-inequities-conversation-former-new-york-city-health

The Ohio State University Nisonger Center and the Ohio Developmental Disabilities Council are excited to bring you the award-winning "Hearts of Glass" documentary! Click here to learn more.

Previously scheduled to debut in April 2020 at Gateway Film Center in collaboration with several local community partner agencies; we are excited to announce you can now participate VIRTUALLY in April 2021! This event will begin with exclusive access to view the documentary during the week of April 9th – 17th, 2021 and include a virtual panel discussion via Zoom on April 15th 2021 4:00-5:00pm.

This film showcases the employment of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and highlights the importance of competitive wages and inclusive employment in a vertical greenhouse.

We hope you’ll join us for this exciting event!

Advanced registration is required.

Stream the film using this link.

Register here to join the film discussion: https://osu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_TDCINKiBSWqa3KsWL8RINw

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