MyLU Insider

Emily Bowles

Author: Emily Bowles

Experiential Learning Funding Applications are online now!

The Center for Career, Life, and Community Engagement’s experiential learning funds help support students’ summer internships, service, and volunteerism. For students interested in opportunities with small presses, large research labs, professional orchestras, global NGOs, and much more, these funds can alleviate barriers related to living costs and travel.  That means students will be able to pursue projects that matter to them in intentional, supported ways. Applications opened on January 1.  They are available online now. The deadline to apply is April 3. Please share this opportunity widely with students, and encourage them to meet with Career Advisors in the CLC if they have questions. We can’t wait to see the projects, service, volunteerism, and internships that this year’s recipients take on!

Nominations for the 2019-2020 D and I Champion Awards is now open!

Once again, the Office of Diversity & Inclusion will recognize the extraordinary individuals who serve as role models for our efforts to create a more inclusive Lawrence. These individuals use their personal power, talents, position, and influence to help the University achieve inclusive excellence in the execution of its mission. Annually four awards are given: one to a student, faculty, staff member, and a community partner.

Criteria

Each award recipient has demonstrated exemplary achievement in one or more of the following areas:

  • Promoting intergroup, cross-cultural understanding
  • Fostering the academic and personal success of groups that have been underserved and underrepresented in higher education   
  • Creating a campus climate that encourages and supports the expression of diverse perspectives and ways of being
  • Helping to prevent harassment, bullying and illegal discrimination
  • Contributing to efforts that foster greater diversity among Lawrence students, faculty and staff

Nominations

All Lawrence students and employees are eligible for the award and can make nominations. Community partner award nominees can be from any location or sector. Nominees can be groups or individuals in any of the categories (i.e., student, faculty, staff member and community partner).

Nominations should include:

  • a letter of nomination not to exceed 2 pages addressing the aforementioned criteria,
  • an additional letter of support from someone other than the person making the nomination, and
  • the nominee’s resume or curriculum vitae.

In the case of a group nominee, provide the official mission/purpose and history of the group along with a description of its membership.

To submit a nomination, please send the above-mentioned items to div-inclusion@lawrence.edu.

Selection

An ad hoc committee made up of a subgroup of the President’s Committee on Diversity Affairs (PCDA) will choose the award recipients.

Deadline

Please submit nominations by Friday, April 3, 2020. 

Cultural Competency Lecture Series–Call for 2020-2021 proposals

The Cultural Competency Lecture Series provides faculty, staff, students, and community members the opportunity to learn about topics that will increase their ability to live and work well with people they perceive to be different in some significant way.

For 2020-2021, the Office of Diversity & Inclusion is soliciting proposals from faculty and staff that address issues relevant to our campus and community.  Although the title of the series refers to “lectures,” we prefer interactive presentations that engage participants.  Recent topics have included accessibility as inclusion; social class, silence, and solutions; non-binary gender and bathrooms; environmental justice; cultural appropriation; and controversial art. 

If you would like to facilitate or co-facilitate a lecture during the 2020-2021 academic year, please send a title, brief abstract, and a description of your related work on the topic to the Office of Diversity & Inclusion by Friday, March 13 by emailing div-inclusion@lawrence.edu.

Non-Binary Gender and Bathrooms

A Cultural Competency Lecture by Helen Boyd Kramer

Tuesday, 11/19 at 11:15 in the Warch Campus Center’s Hurvis Room

Bathrooms are often unsafe spaces for trans and non-binary people, including students, faculty, and staff. This lecture will illustrate some of the basic issues and the ways we can change our culture to make sure everyone can use the facilities safely.

Learn about the Cultural Competency Lecture Series here, where you can also RSVP for the lecture.

To find out more about Lawrence’s commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion, see the recently updated list of gender inclusive restrooms on campus.

Bullying in the Academy: A Faculty Community of Practice Discussion on Thursday, November 7

The first Faculty Community of Practice Discussion of the 2019-2020 academic year will address the issue of bullying in academia.  A faculty community of practice discussion is a facilitated peer dialogue that allows members of the professoriate to share practical knowledge about an area of common interest or concern that can be applied to work on campus to enhance teaching, learning and the employee experience.    

The following pre-reads will inform our discussion:

The meeting will take place on Thursday, November 7 from 4:30 p.m. until 6 p.m. in the Warch Campus Center’s Hurvis Room.    

RSVP on the Diversity & Inclusion website: https://www.lawrence.edu/info/offices/diversity-and-inclusion/get-involved/faculty-community-of-practice

LIFT UP Reception

On Tuesday, November 5 from 5:30 until 6:30 p.m., please join organizers of our new Employee Resource Group LIFT UP (Low Income/First-gen Talent Unpacking Privilege) for a reception in the Pusey Room. 

The group welcomes all faculty and staff who identify as either/both of these to enjoy a happy hour full of opportunities to mingle over light refreshments.  The gathering will provide space to discuss issues of socioeconomics, privilege, and class that we encounter every day while fostering stronger social support networks. 

LIFT UP is a group designed to address issues that employees who identify as having experiences as a low-income and/or first-generation student, while also dismantling silence and stereotypes surrounding these issues so that students and others find strong, positive models of strength, resilience, and success. 

Learn more on the Employee Resource Group page.

Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years

Enjoy a screening of the film Audre Lorde The Berlin Years, 1984-1992 in the Warch Campus Center Cinema. Many of you are familiar with Lorde’s work through gender studies, feminism, and ethnic studies.

She was also the catalyst who ignited the Afro-German movement in West Germany and after the fall of the wall in 1989. Learn about Lorde’s time in Berlin and her importance to German Studies.

For a sneak peek of the film, check out this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eMvnxxFhbM

The screening is co-sponsored by the Diversity & Intercultural Center, Film Studies, German Studies, Gender Studies, and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

Fall Employee Resource Group Gathering

On Tuesday, October 22 from 5-7 p.m., Lawrence’s Employee Resource Groups will come together for fall festivities and fun in the Diversity & Intercultural Center.  Enjoy food catered by a local POC-owned restaurant.

The groups represented will be the Professionals of Color, Emerging Professionals, Pride (LGBTQIA+), and Global Employees of Lawrence (GEL).  Learn more about the ERGs on Diversity & Inclusion’s website: https://www.lawrence.edu/info/offices/diversity-and-inclusion/get-involved/employee-resource-groups

RSVP for the event here: http://go.lawrence.edu/13545

Every Term Needs a Plan–a workshop for faculty and staff

On Thursday, October 24 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in Hurvis, faculty and staff are invited to participate in a workshop facilitated by Dr. Angelique Davis and organized by the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity. 

This workshop will help participants take time out of their schedule to identify personal and professional goals, create a strategic plan to accomplish them, and identify the types of community, support, and accountability necessary to have the most productive and balanced term ever. 

To learn more or register, visit D&I’s website: https://www.lawrence.edu/info/offices/diversity-and-inclusion/get-involved/every-semester-needs-a-plan