Month: September 2016

From: Antonio Farias
Date: Friday, September 16, 2016 at 2:36 PM
To: Campus Community
Subject: Annual Report on Sexual Violence and Next Steps in Promoting Equity & Inclusion

Dear campus community,

I write to let you know about next steps in promoting equity and inclusion on our campus that include a new committee structure, an overview of sexual assault on campus in 2015, and efforts to continue the work to diversify our faculty and staff. The President’s Equity Task Force completed its charge and made its recommendations, and now we will build on that momentum. Already we have members of our community working on staff diversity, Title IX, and accessibility. Now a new Wesleyan University Equity & Inclusion Steering Committee is being formed to coordinate these efforts and others such as the Resource Center and the recruitment and retention of faculty and staff.

The Equity & Inclusion Steering Committee is comprised of the vice president for equity & inclusion, the faculty vice chair, the WSA president, and the chair of the Board of Trustees’ Campus Affairs Committee. This Steering Committee will build on the work of the Equity Task Force—including following up on its call to collaborate with students on the Resource Center—report on progress in all related areas, and make actionable recommendations on how to continue to build a more equitable and inclusive campus community where all may thrive. We are eagerly looking for volunteers to work with the Equity and Inclusion Steering Committee. Click here to sign-up now, and please encourage others to do the same.

Reports of sexual violence at Wesleyan decreased in calendar year 2015; you can find the annual report on Wesleyan’s Response to Sexual Violence here. The work is far from done, and we are continuing to improve our support for survivors, as well as our reporting and adjudication procedures. Each and every one of us must strive for a campus free of sexual assault, and I take this opportunity to issue the reminder that all faculty and staff, except those who have confidential status, are required by law to report incidents. While nearly all faculty and staff have undergone a two-hour Title VII/Title IX workshop, our goal is for 100% participation. We continue to update our website as a resource for information on reporting incidents and accessing resources.

Wesleyan is rolling out a new program for opportunity hires that should enhance efforts already underway to increase faculty and staff diversity. We will miss staff and faculty who have recently gone on to other positions, and we will work to ensure that all our employees can flourish here and contribute to the rich living-learning environment that our students count on. I encourage you to visit http://equity.wesleyan.edu/, where you’ll find timely data and communications pertinent to campus climate and culture concerns, including trend lines on employee diversity over the past five years.

Our collective embrace of the work ahead will enable us to build a university where all may succeed, and with that in mind we encourage you to join us for a yearlong conversation on Love and Justice, which will begin with a campus dialogue at Memorial Chapel, September 19^th at 4:30 pm, with professor David Kyuman Kim, on the topic of Love & Justice: A Radical Love Approach. RSVP here.

Best wishes this semester,

Antonio Farias

Vice President for Equity & Inclusion/Title IX

A diverse staff and faculty is only the beginning of a long-term process of ensuring the difference we bring to the workforce is seen as a value-add.  In order for diversity to work, all members of the campus workforce must feel a sense of belonging and that they can thrive professionally and as human beings who can contribute to the educational mission of the university. This data serves as a baseline from which to continue the dialogue.

Click to download work force demographics data

Welcome back from what I hope was a productive and rewarding summer. I invite you to join us for an interactive town hall discussion with Professor David Kyuman Kim on the topic of Radical Love, to be held on Sept 19th.  Please encourage colleagues and your students to attend what will be the start of a yearlong conversation around “Love & Justice.”

Warm regards,

Antonio Farias

V.P. for Equity & Inclusion/Title IX Officer

Love & Justice: A Radical Love Approach

Explore the idea of Radical Love and how, if we embrace it, the world will change.

SAVE THE DATE: Sept 19, 2016

Memorial Chapel, 4:30-6 pm

Refreshments and conversation with Prof. Kim to follow immediately after in the Zelnick Pavilion.

Please RSVP by clicking here.

David Kyuman Kim is a teacher, cultural critic, philosopher of religion, and scholar of race, religion, and public life. In 2003, Kim joined the faculty of Connecticut College where he is Professor of Religious Studies and American Studies. He has also taught at Harvard University, Union Theological Seminary, and Brown University. Published widely on religion and public life, political theory, and the Asian American religious experience, Kim is author of Melancholic Freedom: Agency and the Spirit of Politics (Oxford, 2007), and co-editor of The Post-Secular in Question (New York University Press, 2012) and Race, Religion, and Late Democracy, a special issue of The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (Sage, 2011). With John L. Jackson, Kim is co-editor of the Stanford University Press book series RaceReligion.

What is Radical Love?  Read on…

“This radical love fosters community and emerges through it. Radical love is a love that gives the benefit of the doubt, that affirms and questions, that holds its skepticism at bay to allow a raw thought to develop, that understands accountability not as a zero sum game, that doesn’t draw lines in the sand, that doesn’t believe in (to borrow a phrase from Edward Said) solidarity without criticism, that understands that rifts can heal and that we need not divide ourselves from one another during that healing. It also understands that there may be moments when toxicity reaches such a level that, out of self-care and self-love, one has to pull back and find new alliances. A radical love can foster and enrich community.” http://www.browndailyherald.com/2015/11/04/rodriguez-on-teaching-radical-love-and-community

Click here to download event flyer