AALANA
Faculty & Staff
Association
Executive Board
THE MOSAIC
AALANA Faculty & Staff Association
Newsletter
President
Eulas Boyd
“A PORTRAIT OF DIVERSITY AT RIT”
FALL QUARTER
VicePresident
Delmonize
Smith
Administrative
Assistant
Stephanie
Paredes
Assistant
Administrative
Assistant
Gwen Gause
Treasurer
Freddie Cox
Assistant
Treasurer
Natasha
Rogers-Dailey
2012
A Message from AFSA President
Greetings Collegues,
To borrow a literary phrase with
some poetic license, “It is the best
of times, it is the worst of times.”
RIT is steadily moving up the national rankings in recognition and
quality. Currently, RIT is more diverse in students and staff than ever before: two AALANA vice presidents, two AALANA deans, an associate dean, an assistant dean,
and a host of AALANA faculty and
staff. The MCAS Center has a full
staff, the RSDC/RIT Scholarship
Program is in its third successful
year, and RIT has scholarship programs with the Syracuse City
Schools and Buffalo City Schools.
The Future Stewards initiative is
growing, engaging native and other students, meeting with the Leadership of Sovereign Native American Nations, conducting research
programs and receiving New York
State C-STEP funding. RIT has also
received five year funding for
McNair and NSF/LSAMP to assist
underrepresented students. Your
continued support in these and other issues is appreciated.
As we celebrate these positive indicators of institutional progress,
we keep in mind the dramatic
losses of AALANA faculty. The
failure of significant amounts of
AALANA faculty to achieve tenure
prompted a letter to the president
and provost from the AALANA
Faculty Advisory Council, led by
Associate Dean Chance Glenn.
There are many issues to be resolved at the staff level around
hiring, promotion, and work environment. There is litigation currently active with complaints against
RIT, which involve AALANA faculty
and staff, among others.
In conversation with a senior RIT
official familiar with the formal
and legal complaints against RIT,
it was stated, “ We would like an
opportunity to resolve these issues
before they reach legal confrontation.” While respecting an individual’s right to formal and/or
legal redress, AFSA would welcome participating in meaningful
and effective initiatives to resolve
these issues. It is up to AFSA to be
a part of the solution.
Eulas Boyd
President of AFSA
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November is Native American Heritage Month
Information courtesy of the Bureau of Indian Affairs,
U.S. Department of the Interior
What started at the turn of the century as an effort to gain a day
of recognition for the significant contributions the first Americans made to the establishment and growth of the U.S., has resulted in a whole month being designated for that purpose.
One of the very proponents of an American Indian Day was Dr.
Arthur C. Parker, a Seneca Indian, who was the director of the
Museum of Arts and Science in Rochester, N.Y. He persuaded
the Boy Scouts of America to set aside a day for the "First Americans" and for three years they adopted such a day. In 1915, the
annual Congress of the American Indian Association meeting in
Lawrence, Kans., formally approved a plan concerning American
Indian Day. It directed its president, Rev. Sherman Coolidge, an
Arapahoe, to call upon the country to observe such a day. Coolidge issued a proclamation on Sept. 28, 1915, which declared
the second Saturday of each May as an American Indian Day and
contained the first formal appeal for recognition of Indians as citizens.
Artwork by:
Aweñheeyoh Powless
Onondaga Nation,
Eel Clan.
WE
ARE
RIT
NOVEMBER
In 1990 President George H. W. Bush approved a joint resolution
designating November 1990 "National American Indian Heritage
Month." Similar proclamations, under variants on the name
(including "Native American Heritage Month" and "National
American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month") have been
issued each year since 1994.
For more information visit:
nativeamericanheritagemonth.gov/about/
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Native American Heritage Keynote
With an angelic voice of bluebirds singing, Radmilla Cody,
traditional Navajo recording artist, Indie Award Winner, multiple Native American Award Nominee and international performer, continues to maintain Navajo culture by recording
music that children sing with pride and lyrics the Dine elders
can be proud of. Radmilla is a biracial woman who continues
to touch the lives and heal the hearts of her supporters.
Miss Cody is of the Tla’a’schi’i’(Red Bottom People) clan and
is born for the (Naahilii) African-Americans Radmilla is the
46th Miss Navajo Nation. As a biracial person she attempts to
communicate positive messages about her dual identity as
children who are biracial or multiracial still bear the brunt of
prejudice.
In 2010, Radmilla was selected for NPR’s 50 Great Voices, a
year-long series featuring singers from all over the world.
Recently, Radmilla was awarded the "Black History Makers
Award 2012" from Initiative Radio.
Radmilla is grounded on a renewed foundation. “The Creator
has given me the strength to look forward in life, to embrace
the beautiful and the positive.”
Radmilla Cody
My Two Worlds
November 29, 2012
5:00 pm-7:00 pm
Vignelli Center
Artwork by:
Aweñheeyoh Powless
Onondaga Nation,
Eel Clan.
NOVEMBER
*REGISTRATION REQUIRED
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Rev. Dr. Marvin McMickle to Speak
4
Friends of Educational
Excellence: Helping Students
Succeed
Purpose: To benefit Friends of Educational Excellence (FREE) Partnerships
Rev. Dr. Marvin McMickle,
President, Colgate Rochester Crozer
Divinity School (CRCDS)
Place: Colgate Rochester Crozer
Divinity School, 1100 Goodman
Street South, Rochester
Tickets: $25 in advance, $30 at the
door
“Everybody Needs Somebody
Sometime”
Tuesday November 13 at 7pm
Available online at
www.freepartnerships.org
RACE EXHIBIT COMING TO ROCHESTER
Recognizing this
unique and nationally-renown exhibition at the center,
special programs
designed for discussions and activities
pertaining to race
will be brought
forth, engaging the
Rochester Community.
RACE: Are We So
Different?, developed by the American Anthropological
NOVEMBER
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Association in collaboration with the
Science Museum of
Minnesota, is the
first national exhibition to tell the stories of race from
the biological, cultural, and historical
points of view.
The educational
goal of the exhibit
is to help individuals
of all ages better
understand the origins and manifestations of race and
racism in everyday
HERITAGE
MONTH
life by investigating
race and human
variation through
the framework of
science
http://
www.rmsc.org/ for
more info
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2012-13 Minett Professor Named
Kevin Williams, department head of Materials Science in Kodak Research Laboratories, was appointed the 2012–2013 Minett Professor
at Rochester Institute of Technology. He joined the university on
Oct. 1 and serves in the School of Chemistry and Materials Science
in RIT’s College of Science.
The Minett Professorship is designed to bring distinguished Rochester-area multicultural professionals to the RIT campus to share
their professional knowledge and experience with RIT’s students,
faculty and staff for one academic year. Appointments are made by
RIT President Bill Destler and Kevin McDonald, RIT’s vice president
and associate provost for diversity and inclusion.
Williams will present a special topics graduate course in the college, work with a faculty team to redesign aspects of the materials
science program and support the college’s efforts to increase enrollment and further current students’ academic careers in STEM
disciplines.
“We are thrilled Dr. Williams has accepted the nomination as this
year’s Minett professor,” McDonald says. “As a manager, an organic
chemist, former Harvard fellow and holder of numerous patents,
Dr. Williams brings a set of experiences to the position that we
haven’t had before.”
WE
ARE
RIT
Joining Kodak in 1992 as a chemist in the dye research laboratories,
Williams rose in the company to lead its materials science department. He has 30 U.S. patents, including several in the company’s
digital technology field. Williams, a West Irondequoit resident, has
served as a member of the American Chemical Society, National
Organization of Black Chemist and Chemical Engineers, and the Research Scientific Council. He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry
from Lincoln University, Pa., and a doctoral degree in organic
chemistry degree from University of Pittsburgh.
Since 1991, the first year of the professorship, 22 community members have served as Minett professors, including Rochester City
Court Judge Teresa Johnson; G. Peter Jemison, artist and site manager of Ganondagon State Historic Site; and James Norman, president and chief executive officer of Action for a Better Community.
Credit to: Michelle Cometa , University News
NOVEMBER
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EVENTS FOR NOVEMER
NOVEMBER MARKS NATIVE HERITAGE MONTH
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EVENTS FOR NOVEMBER
NOVEMBER MARKS NATIVE HERITAGE MONTH
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The Research Corner
Dr. Laurie Clayton
Director, Assessment & Research Management
Division for Diversity & Inclusion
ASSESSING CAMPUS CLIMATE
RIT’s Inclusive Excellence Framework guides our campus in applying, integrating and assessing diversity efforts and inclusive excellence practices into the core of the institutional
enterprise to realize the educational benefits of diversity. Our Framework includes the following:




Access and Success
Enrollment
Academic Performance
Recruitment/Retention
Hiring Practices


Education & Scholarship
Learning Opportunities
Multicultural Competencies

Campus Climate and
Intergroup Relations
Organizational Environment


Institutional Infrastructure
Strategic Planning
Stakeholder Engagement
The campus climate dimension highlights creating and sustaining an organizational environment that acknowledges and celebrates diversity and employs inclusive practices
throughout our daily operations. Our objective is to build a supportive and respectful climate that values differing perspectives and experiences. RIT assesses its campus climate
through various student, faculty and staff surveys which typically are conducted on a biennial schedule. Each survey provides us with the opportunity to gather evidence to inform
leadership and our community of stakeholders.
Student perception of the RIT college environment is measured through two surveys The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and the NoelLevitz (NL) Student Satisfaction Inventory. The following graph
illustrates a comparison of the 2010/2012 NL survey results which
reflect an increase in student’s perception of our commitment to
under- represented populations across ethnic group respondents.
NOVEMBER MARKS NATIVE HERITAGE MONTH
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The Research Corner
Several questions on this
spring’s 2013 NSSE survey
will measure first-year and
graduating student’s perspectives and discussions
with diverse groups.
Three climate studies within the past decade have
gathered faculty, staff and
student perception of our
campus climate to determine the general sentiment
of working, living and
learning within our community. The 2003 RIT Climate Study: Perceptions of
Faculty, Students
and Staff (38% overall response rate) found that 2/3 to ¾ of respondents genuinely supported racial and ethnic diversity. The same ratio of respondents perceived increases in
efforts to break-down barriers between racial and ethnic groups on campus. The 2009
survey (27% overall response rate) found that 90% of respondents agreed RIT is an institution which actively promotes diversity while less than 50% agreed that RIT has a
strong commitment to its GLBT employees. As a result of these findings, a Taskforce of
RIT Climate Study/GLBT Employees was initiated with recommendations pending in the
fall, 2012. In the spring of 2012, the Office for Diversity and Inclusion partnered with the
Department of Human Resources to facilitate the 2012 RIT Faculty and Staff Engagement
and Climate Survey; achieving a 55% overall response rate. Reporting of university, college and division—level results will begin in the 2012 winter quarter. Further analysis and
a comparison of results will allow us to use the information in an intentional and deliberate
manner in our decision-making processes to achieve a more diverse and Inclusive RIT
community.
NOVEMBER MARKS NATIVE HERITAGE MONTH
BUILDING
UNITY THROUGH
COMMUNITY
AFSA 2012-2013 Meeting Times
Mark your calendars for AALANA Faculty/Staff Association meetings.
They will be held in the Campus Center, Room 2650 from 12 pm- 1pm.
1/7/2013 Mon
12:00 PM
1:00 PM Room 2650
2/4/2013 Mon
12:00 PM
1:00 PM Room 2650
3/4/2013 Mon
12:00 PM
1:00 PM Room 2650
4/2/2013 Tue
12:00 PM
1:00 PM Room 2650
5/6/2013 Mon
12:00 PM
1:00 PM Room 2650
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