OED News

Welcome to OED News!

I’m very pleased to welcome you to the inaugural issue of OED News, the Office for Equity and Diversity’s new internal e-newsletter. OED News will be published once a month, and will give all of us chance to share our work, our accomplishments, and a sense of what’s happening in Morrill Hall, Klaeber Court, and McNamara.

The goal of OED News is twofold: building communication and building community. Bridges are fragile things: we often talk about building bridges in equity and diversity work, and I know that each of your units--and each of you--is dedicated to that work. But in the flurry of daily activities we sometimes we neglect the bridge that connects us: that we are all part of the Office for Equity and Diversity. My hope is that this newsletter will become an important bridge in keeping us all connected to each other.

OED News is published using the University Libraries' "UThink" blog tool, which allows for a good deal of two-way communication. I encourage you not just to read this newsletter every month, but to contribute to it as well. Use the "Comments" link at the bottom of each entry to post a comment, or e-mail oednews@umn.edu to contribute items you’d like published in the newsletter. And any suggestions you have for making this publication better and more meaningful to you are also welcome and strongly encouraged.

I look forward to seeing you at the OED all-staff meeting on October 20. As always, I thank you for your hard work and dedication to making this University a better place.

All the best,
Rusty

Posted by oednews at 8:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A few weeks ago, I was asked by the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder to contribute to its annual Martin Luther King Jr. issue, which will publish in mid-January 2009. Specifically, I was asked to share my thoughts on the election of Barack Obama as our nation’s first African-American president, and what this meant for the future of race relations in America. I wanted to share these thoughts with you as well; you can read the submission by clicking on the "Continue reading" link below. I look forward to your own thoughts, comments, and ideas: post a comment to this blog by using the “Comments�? link below, or e-mail me at barcelo@umn.edu.

I wish each of you a very happy New Year, and I look forward to our continued success in 2009.

All the best,
Rusty

Continue reading "Rusty's Reflections: December 2008" »

Posted by oednews at 1:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Many thanks to each of you who attended our OED all-staff meeting on Thursday, February 26. As always, I appreciated the chance to talk to you and to hear your good ideas in rolling out our vision across campus.

As I mentioned in my opening remarks, the presentation that Kris Lockhart, Louis Mendoza and I made to the Regents on February 12 was very well received. You can read my piece of that presentation here.

The Regents' support is especially gratifying now, as we await details of looming budget cuts. But I’m also feeling confident, or at least hopeful, that we can turn this defining moment into an opportunity to remind our University colleagues of the critical importance of our work and to enlist their active engagement.

As I told the Regents, “The economic crisis has not punctured our aspirations. In fact, it’s a powerful motivator. It makes our work all the more urgent.” I heard no argument from the Regents on this or any other point. Especially in these uncertain times, the Regents’ vote of confidence is heartening. It doesn’t mean the road ahead will be smooth, but it does mean that we will have important allies and friends with us on that road.

All the best,
Rusty

Posted by oednews at 3:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On April 17, I was pleased to give the keynote address at the University of St. Thomas' Symposium on Race, Inclusion, and Culture. I spoke about "Diversity and Democracy: Intersections and Interrogations," and since all of us in OED work at these intersections every day, I wanted to share a bit of that address with you. Here are a few of my concluding remarks:

"...I find it interesting and ironic that throughout history, social justice movements have often been viewed as anti-democratic, when in fact they are anything but. In my days of student organizing and activism, we challenged the “establishment” orthodoxies that kept people on the margins, kept communities entrenched in poverty, ravaged our environment, and militarized our foreign policy.

"But we never, ever posed a challenge to democracy. Indeed, we were struggling to fix democracy with more democracy, and to make our institutions more democratic. After all, isn’t questioning the status quo the most patriotic thing you can do in a democracy?

"Whenever I hear voices raised for equity, or the chants of liberation movements, I think of the courage it takes to advance social justice against sometimes overwhelming “establishment” opposition, or to advance institutional diversity in a way that strikes at the heart of traditional academic structures and orthodoxies.

"I’m also reminded of educator and cultural critic Henry Giroux, who said, “Democratic societies are noisy. They’re about traditions that need to be critically reevaluated by each generation.” It’s that continuous process of interrogation at the noisy intersection of our differences that makes institutional transformation possible.

"When our differences collide, we need to interrogate ourselves, each other, and our institutional systems of power and privilege—courageously, noisily, and shoulder to shoulder—until diversity has as much support, as much importance, as much legitimacy, as any other institutional priority; and diversity is woven into everything we do.

"I chose my life’s work because I believed that diversity was central to democratic institutions. I knew that to keep democracy on track toward its highest purpose, we needed to challenge the status quo and dismantle systems of institutional exclusion and bias. And I knew then, as I know even better now, that each new generation must take on that challenge anew, and rethink strategies for generations yet to come."

As the semester comes to an end, I want to thank each and every one of you for the hard work you do every day, challenging the status quo, dismantling systems of exclusion, and keeping democracy on track. As always, I welcome your own reflections and encourage you to e-mail me at barcelo@umn.edu.

All the best,
Rusty

Posted by oednews at 4:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Colleagues,

As I write this, the sun is shining, students are enjoying the warm weather on Northrop Mall, and the University has settled into summer: a less frenetic--although no less busy--time for us all.

This summer is offering some new challenges, and I'm sure that the University's budget situation is as much on your mind as it is on mine. Balancing our newly-reduced budget means that life in the future will look a bit different for all of us, and our all-staff meeting on July 15 will be devoted to discussing the specifics of this different future.

This will be an important conversation, one that will help us to ensure that our individual and collective commitment to equity and diversity at the University continues to move forward. With each of you doing the excellent work that you do, I have no doubt that it will.

Our meeting on July 15 will also be an opportunity for us all to formally welcome our new colleagues from the Graduate School Diversity Office, who officially joined OED as of July 1. The GSDO staff is already well-known to many of you, and I know that you'll be as excited as I am for all of us to work together to further the University's equity and diversity goals.

I look forward to seeing you on July 15. In the meantime, enjoy your summer, and don't hesitate to be in touch at barcelo@umn.edu.

Best,
Rusty

Posted by oednews at 1:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)