DRUM Autumn 2014 by Yolanda zepeda

DRUM About Diversity and Inclusion at the Ohio State University

Special Issue:

Commemorating The 50th Anniversary of The Civil Rights Act

NOV

2014

Disability Rights as Civil Rights By L. Scott Lissner

What Can ‘Diversity’ Mean Faculty By Maurice Stevens

Title IX Protects Gender Non-Conforming Students By Tayo Clyburn

The DRUM Circle Editorial Team Robert Bennett, III Tayo Clyburn Kim Kovarik Lauren Seligman Yolanda Zepeda

Welcome Commemorating 50 years of Civil Rights

Art Director Jacinda Walker

This year, our nation commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Widely considered to be the most important piece of legislation of the 20th century, it marked a turning point in the narrative of identity and difference in this country. The legislation certainly made a difference to my family in terms of where my siblings and I were allowed to go to school, where my parents were permitted to work, and where we were welcomed to stay on family vacations.

Contributors Curtis Austin Delia Fernandez Keith Kilty L. Scott Lissner Yalidy Matos Cheryl Staats Maurice Stevens Lawrence Williamson, Jr. About The DRUM The Office of Diversity and Inclusion publishes DRUM annually. We have chosen DRUM as our moniker because it embodies the spirit and purpose of this magazine. The drum is a fundamental cultural vehicle and a means of communication for groups around the globe. Drumming is ceremonial, marking important cultural milestones, changing seasons and harvests, and it is used to inspire courage and excitement in a call to battle or action. In more recent times, drum circles are employed as a platform for meditation and community building. Submissions, press releases and other inquiries should be directed to: Yolanda Zepeda, Assistant Provost Office of Diversity and Inclusion 154 W. 12th Avenue Hale Hall, Room 300 Columbus, OH 43210 Zepeda.3@osu.edu

Cover Photo

“Diorama of Lunch Counter Sit-Ins Protest,” is part of a permanent exhibit at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. The exhibit, entitled “Standing Up by Sitting Down: Student Sit Ins 1960,” includes the original Greensboro, North Carolina Woolworth’s lunch counter where four college students from North Carolina A&T protested. Established in 1991, the National Civil Rights Museum is located at the former Lorraine Motel where civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968. Photo by Adam Jones

By Valerie B. Lee, PhD Vice Provost and Chief Diversity Officer, Office of Diversity and Inclusion Vice President, Office of Outreach and Engagement

While many consider the benefits to be more symbolic than actual, there is no doubt that, together with the host of antidiscrimination acts that followed, the Civil Rights Act created a comprehensive framework for the pursuit of social justice. It is from this framework that the mission of Ohio State’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion flows. From our historical roots in racial unrest and student protests, our vision of diversity and inclusion has expanded to embrace the multiple dimensions of inclusion embedded in the Civil Rights Act and its corollaries. The legacy of student activism continues. Like the 1961 sit-in at the segregrated Woolworth depicted on our cover, a 2012 student sit-in at the Ohio Union protested hate crimes on campus. In this issue of the DRUM, we review milestones in the civil rights struggle and reflect on gains achieved and challenges that remain. We also highlight some of the campus events planned in observance of the 50th anniversary and recognize students and faculty who received ODI awards for academic excellence, community engagement, and diversity leadership. Our work in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion continues to move forward the agenda and spirit of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. As we strive towards inclusive excellence, we invite all to be a part of our journey.

Yours in the struggle,

AUTUMN 4 2

Disability Rights as Civil Rights: Parallels, Intersections and Diverge

In and Around

Reflections on the Civil Rights Act

At the Frontier of Desegregation

Improving Lives

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Celebrating Ohio Civil Rights Champion

Celebrating Thirty Years of the Morrill Scholars

The Original OSU 34, A Legacy of Activism

Kirwan Institute Addresses Implicit Bias

Zamone Sawyer: Leadership Initiatives for Women of Color Participant (LIWOC) Participating in LIWOC was one of the best decisions I have made as an undergraduate, and through LIWOC, Zamone continues, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve gained new friends, gotten closer to faculty and most importantly, have been inspired to continue to work hard to become the best possible student, leader and woman that I can be.

in and Around Mentoring, tutoring, and outreach and engagement activities at the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

One: Ohio State alumna and founder of the Center for Healthy Families Donna James received the inaugural Student Parent Professional Achievement Award at the ACCESS Student Parent Support Symposium. (with Dr. Valerie Lee) Two: Sayan Manna, Brandon Norman, Andrew Benson, and King Collins (l-r), served as mentors for the Morrill Scholars Program 2014 Distinction Scholars Early Arrival Program. Three: The Perspectives on Access, Inclusion, and Disability Conference addresses the full spectrum of disability issues and is presented annually by the Ohio State ADA Coordinator with a generous endowment from the Ethel Louise Armstrong Foundation (L-R, L. Scott Lissner, Dr. Mary Lee Vance, Paul Grossman, Lois Harris) Four: Leadership Initiatives for Women of Color Mission STEMPossible program opened the world of science to 29 students from Columbus City Preparatory School for Girls. Supported by the American Association of University Women, the program partnered with eight Ohio State colleges.

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Five: “Everyone must have the courage to care and the courage to do more,” said DeMaurice Smith, Executive Director of the National Football League Players Association, in his keynote at the 9th annual Todd A. Bell National Resource Center on the African American Male Luncheon and Fundraiser. Radio One and Motorist Insurance were key sponsors.

Eight: The Young Scholars Program (YSP) Samuel Dubois Cook Summer Academy is a two-week, Ohio State residential program for Young Scholars entering grade 12th grade. Now in its 26th year, Scholars learn about collegiate life and explore careers and college majors.

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Nine: Mayor Julián Castro (San Antonio, TX) was awarded the 2014 William H. Watson Memorial Award at the 20th Annual Conference on Diversity, Race and Learning, cosponsored by Honda of America Manufacturing and the Ohio State College of Nursing. (L-R, Rose Wilson-Hill, Mayor Brad Sellers, Mayor Julian Castro, Mayor Michael Coleman, Dr. Valerie B. Lee)

}

~ Six: The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) Program is under the direction of Dr. Barbara Fink, Ohio LSAMP Alliance Director and Faculty Fellow in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. The 11-institution, $3.5 million National Science Foundation project seeks to increase underrepresented student success in STEM. Seven: The 44th Graduate/Professional Student Recruitment Initiative (GPS) is Ohio State’s premier post-baccalaureate diversity recruitment program and serves as a pipeline for the Graduate School Fellowship competition.

Ten: The Office of Diversity and Inclusion sponsored 26 students (Young Scholars, Morrill Scholars, Bell National Resource Center) on a trip to Brazil to study “Afro-Brazil Culture & History.” International Affairs and African American and African Studies partnered to offer the course.

Autumn 3

Commemorating

50 years

of Civil Rights

Disability Rights as Civil Rights: Parallels, Intersections and Divergences By L. Scott Lissner, ADA Coordinator This year is the 50th anniversary of the college in the world established for Bureau and the WPA headquarters. Civil Rights Act; next year is the 25th people with disabilities. These actions eventually ended the anniversary of the American’s with flagging of applications and led to the • 1924: The Commonwealth of Virginia Disabilities Act (ADA). The difference employment of 1,500 individuals with passed a state eugenics law that in the dates begs the question, “Are physical impairments. allowed for sterilization (without disability rights different from civil consent) of individuals with a variety of • 1948: University of Illinois at rights?” The full answer would require conditions including those identified Galesburg disabled students’ program a book; the short and unsatisfactory as “feebleminded, insane, depressed, was officially founded to serve answer is the separate and parallel civil mentally handicapped, epileptic, disabled veterans. The program rights laws protecting various groups and alcoholic.” Three years later the moved to its current home on the (race, national origin, gender, disability, Supreme Court decision in Buck v. Urbana-Champaign campus where veteran status, sexual orientation) are Bell upheld the forced sterilization of it became a prototype for disabled an artifact of history and evolving social people with disabilities in over thirty student programs and independent perceptions. The mid-depth answer focuses on the common experiences of exclusion and bias alongside the differences inherent in medical conditions that cause disability. In a case involving forced commitment to an asylum and its deplorable conditions, Judge Devine of the New Hampshire District Court summed up the need for different approaches to achieving equity: “Indeed, attempting to fit the problem of discrimination against the handicapped into the model remedy for race discrimination is akin to fitting a square peg in a round hole.” (Garrity v. Gallen, 522 F. Supp 171, 206 1981) In an effort to quickly provide a sense of the critical parallels and differences, I offer an idiosyncratic sampling of milestones in the development of disability rights in America. As you read this timeline I ask you to consider what dimensions and experiences this history shares with race, gender, national origin, and sexual orientation.

Lyndon B. Johnson signs the 1964 Civil Rights Act on 7/2/64 as Martin Luther King, Jr., looks on. 7/2/64.

states, ultimately sanctioning the forced sterilization of over 60,000 people with disabilities. The last eugenics law was repealed in 1974 in Virginia.

living centers across the country.

• 1961: The American National Standard Institute, Inc. (ANSI) published American Standard Specifications for “Making Buildings Accessible • 1935: The League for the Physically to, and Usable by, the Physically Handicapped in New York City was Handicapped” and produced by the • 1864: The U.S. Congress authorized formed to protest discrimination by University of Illinois. This standard the Columbia Institution for the the Works Progress Administration became the basis for subsequent Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb and (WPA). The Home Relief Bureau of New architectural access codes. the Blind to confer college degrees. York City was stamping applications President Abraham Lincoln signed the • 1962: Ed Roberts, who was denied of individuals with obvious disabilities bill into law, and what is now known as admission to the University of with “PH.” Members of the League Gallaudet University became the first California because of his quadriplegia held a sit-in at the Home Relief

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and use of an iron lung, sued to gain admission, and James Meredith sued to become the first black person to attend the University of Mississippi. • 1965: The Voting Rights Act of 1965 provides protections for minority voting rights, including assistance for those with disabilities.

protections were included as Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1972, gaining passage but limiting coverage to federally funded programs and services. Due to concerns over funding the independent living provision of the bill, President Nixon used a pocket veto to kill the bill while Congress was out of session.

language interpreters or Braille. Disability advocates initiated a lawsuit and a series of demonstrations across the country to pressure the Carter Administration into implementing the rights they had been promised. On April 4th of 1977 there was a protest at the San Francisco Health Education and Welfare offices. Concerned about the image of “medically fragile” protesters using wheelchairs and walkers, officials invited the advocates into the lobby to discuss their concerns. They stayed until April 28th, triggering congressional hearings, forcing the administration to sign the regulations and making the 504 sit-in the longest occupation of a federal building in U.S. history.

• 1966: The EEOC publishes “Guidelines on Discrimination Because of Religion,” • 1973: The Rehabilitation Act was reintroduced and passed Congress requiring employers to accommodate after a bitter debate about funding the reasonable religion needs of their the independent living provision. In employees. In 1972 Congress explicitly March of 1973 Nixon vetoed it because included reasonable accommodations of religious practices and beliefs in Title of the cost of the independent living provision. Lacking the votes to VII of the Civil Rights Act. override the veto, advocates reduced • 1970: The Physically Disabled the independent living section to a Students Program (PDSP) was founded feasibility study. With those changes by Ed Roberts and others at UC Nixon signed the bill in September • 1988: The Fair Housing Act was Berkeley. Focused on community living, of 1973 with no public discussion amended to include individuals advocacy and personal assistance of Section 504. This significant with disabilities. services, it evolved into the first Center antidiscrimination provision went • 1990: The Americans with Disabilities for Independent Living. virtually unnoticed amidst a funding Act was passed extending the civil debate. The U.S. Department of Health,

Indeed, attempting to fit the problem of discrimination against the handicapped into the model remedy for race discrimination is akin to fitting a square peg in a round hole. (Garrity v. Gallen)

Education and Welfare was designated as the lead agency for writing the regulations.

• 1971: Ohio Representative Charles Vanik introduced legislation to amend • 1975: Education of All Handicapped the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include Children Act (now the Individual’s with people with disabilities; Hubert Disabilities Education Act) was passed. Humphrey introduces the bill in the This law established today’s special Senate. Despite considerable support education system and forbade schools — 60 Representatives and 20 Senators from refusing to educate individuals were cosponsors — the amendment with disabilities. stalled in committee because of concerns that opening the Civil Rights • 1977: Four years after passage Act to amendments would open it up of Section 504, the implementing to attack. regulations had not been signed. The delay was again about money • 1972: To avoid the risk associated and the potential costs of providing with amending the Civil Rights Act, accommodations such as sign the disability antidiscrimination

rights protections of Section 504 beyond the government and to private businesses and employers in the same fashion as the Civil Rights Act. I will stop my history here with a summary of the ADA’s mandate and a question. In short, the ADA guarantees equitable treatment, first by forbidding discrimination on the basis of disability and second by providing for reasonable accommodations (ramps, interpreters, Braille…). Is disability a separate conversation or facet of a larger conversation?

Autumn 5

Commemorating

50 years

of Civil Rights

At the Frontier of Desegregation: Mendez v. Westminster By Delia Fernandez and Leticia Wiggins, History Seven years before the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez and four other families sued the Westminster School District in California for their discriminatory practices in school segregation. Though not pitted as a monumental case in the larger Civil Rights

The Postal Service issued a 41-cent Mendez v. Westminster commemorative stamp in 2007. The stamp was illustrated by Rafael Lopez and designed by Ethel Kessler.

prohibited them from successfully registering at the “white” Westminster Elementary. California, during this time, was by no means an egalitarian place – severe discriminatory practices existed. The state administered internment camps for Japanese Americans during the war, and Mexican Americans were the target of the Zoot Suit riots in this same era. Emblazoned by the schools’ segregation policies they experienced in Westminster, California, Mexican American Gonzalo and his Puerto Rican wife, Felicitas, both American citizens, decided to take action. They passionately rallied support among other Mexican Americans families, many of whom served in World War II and still faced discrimination despite their patriotic duty. With four other families, Mendez filed a classaction lawsuit against four Orange County school districts on March 2, 1945, calling for desegregation on the behalf of 5,000 other Mexican and “Latin descent” children who had been similarly treated.

The opposition pointed to education as under the jurisdiction of the state and the segregated schools as Story, Mendez vs. Westminster (1948) is an essential addition necessary to the assimilation of predominantly Spanishspeaking Mexican children. These claims did not hold to the greater Civil Rights story that rests on Mexican up against the truth of the situation. The school’s poor Americans’ fight for equality and recognition as equal conditions and the fact that most of the children spoke fluent citizens under the law. English, led Judge Paul J. McCormick on March 18, 1948 to rule for the plaintiffs. He argued that the school districts In the late 1940s, the small farm town of Westminster, policies assumed an “inferiority among [the children] where California boasted a population of white and Mexican none exists,” thus violating the equal protection clause and farmworkers and two elementary schools: the “white California’s segregation law. school,” Westminster, and “the Mexican School,” Hoover. These schools, Sylvia Mendez and her two brothers Though the school district appealed this ruling, the Court found, were not equal. As Sylvia Mendez later testified, of Appeals upheld the legislation. The court did not go the Hoover school resembled a shack, and teachers filled so far as to declare separate as unequal, but shortly after it with cast-off books from the Westminster School. When Thurgood Marshall argued Brown v. Board using Mendez Sylvia’s aunt took them to register for the upcoming school v. Westminster as precedent. This push for desegregation year, school officials, upon noting the Mendez children’s came nearly a decade before school desegregation is dark complexions, directed the Mendez family to enroll in Hoover. Neither their excellent command of English nor their mentioned in textbooks and is an incredibly important piece of Mexican American and Latino history. American citizenship mattered because their appearance

Wynton Jordon: Morrill Scholars Program and Bell National Resource Center The Morrill Scholarship lifted a huge financial burden off of the shoulders of my family, and I was provided some great advisors in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion who helped me make good academic decisions early along in my college career, remarked Wynton.

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Introspect

1332 word story too long needs to be 600 to fit pics

What Can ‘Diversity’ Mean for Ohio State Faculty in the Coming Century? By Maurice Stevens, ODI Faculty Fellow and Associate Professor, Comparative Studies Often when we think about the work of enhancing diversity or inviting inclusion in higher education and other social institutions, we consider its success or failure to be a referendum on institutional will or the investments of individuals among the institution’s leadership. And while this may sometimes be true on some levels, approaching what is otherwise a very interesting question from an either/ or perspective often assumes and reinforces oppositions that are actually not conducive to responding in meaningful or lasting ways. In addition to being polarizing and tending to encourage parties to take on a defensive posture, these oppositional framings also tend to shape how solutions are imagined, to shape and delimit the framing of solutions. If it’s a question of caring, for example, then all we need to do is advocate for empathy; if ignorance is the issue, then education should take care of it; or if it’s a question, simply, of demographics and quotas, then all the institution needs to do is admit or hire more people from group X.

that, indeed, we must be. To be anything other than agile will leave us lagging behind our institutional peers because the excellence of our institution, its level of capacity, its resilience, and the very robustness of its character simply depend on the capaciousness of its diversity and its ability to enact inclusion in every way possible. The promise in achieving this level of capacity by maximizing variety and diversity among students, staff, and faculty, is that we will be able to recognize and act on newly emergent innovations and opportunities for learning and growth that were unnoticed or unavailable before.

This is not to say that none of these analyses are correct or that the strategies for addressing them at one or another scale are not locally effective. However, our current context and the future that we make by our current actions and investments require something more than our habitual judgments and limiting patterns of thinking. In a landscape of legal, political, economic, and cultural shifts, enhancing diversity and inviting inclusion among OSU faculty is a complex puzzle requiring a practice of complex response. I believe, though, that we are up to the challenge and

Rather than getting bogged down in what diversity and inclusion has meant for faculty here at Ohio State, I want to wonder, to dream even, about what diversity and inclusion might also be in the wonderfully complex institution of The Ohio State University in the coming years. This imagining requires making two important shifts in our thinking. The first has to do with how we view OSU as an institution. The second is in our basic understanding of “diversity” itself.

as ordered, complicated, complex, or chaotic. Instead of thinking of a system being in one or another of these “states” though, I imagine large systems as possessing facets that represent each scale all at once. Some units are ordered systems where questions have clear answers and protocol or patterns of administration details how to address them. Some units are more complicated, and their challenges possess a sense of cause and effect relationship, and there are given responses, even if the local system isn’t aware of them. At the same time, and usually at different scales, an institution like OSU is also complex, and we aren’t

In a landscape of legal, political, economic, and cultural shifts, enhancing diversity and inviting inclusion among OSU faculty is a complex question requiring a practice of complex response.

My thinking about large institutions draws upon the Cynefin model that thinks about organizations or systems

necessarily aware of cause and effect, except in retrospect. Responding to emergent challenges in a complex system requires complex responses based in sensing emerging patterns and possibilities and responding to what has not yet fully developed. Every response is a social experiment that must be assessed and analyzed. However, this is precisely the place from which new possibilities can develop, if we have the capacity to recognize them, the courage to enact them, and the commitment to remain invested and follow through over time. continue on page 8

Autumn 7

Recognize, enact, and follow-through — scale of a Dean’s strategic planning, for which leads us to the second important example, there may not be a solution shift in thinking. at the ready even when there is a sense that a solution is somewhere We simply must stop treating “diversity” “out there,” and we simply haven’t as a noun or an adjective describing come across it. Often the complicated a state of affairs. When we imagine it system challenge will require seeking as a noun, we get limited to ordered outside expertise. A consultant may be system thinking. We count bodies as if brought in for assessment and advice. they were beans or merchandise. We Complicated systems, because they wonder where we can acquire more, don’t have best practices to rely on, will or how we can store “those” people. also often have to turn to “promising We get mired in stories about why we practices.” These are relatively new don’t have enough of this or that kind practices that have proven effective in of faculty member, or why they don’t some cases but for which we still have stick around. We spend all kinds of relatively little data. Some promising energy creating narratives explaining practices that might enhance diversity our state of affairs, narratives that are among Ohio State faculty over the almost always built on the foundation of next years could include cluster limiting beliefs. hiring, expecting that broad-based hiring initiatives (like the Discovery Envisioning what diversity can also Themes initiative, for example) will be in the coming years will depend include a particular proportion of hires on our thinking of diversity as a verb, from among groups that have been as a practice. We do diversity, we historically under-represented here enact inclusion, we be that which we at OSU, or developing relationships intend to cultivate. By becoming a with faculty development programs place where diversity is done, OSU like the Mellon Mayes Graduate will become a beacon for faculty, Initiatives Program. staff, and students who understand and value the profit that comes These kinds of efforts to do diversity from the generative capacities of are not overly difficult. With careful institutions doing diversity. Indeed, it is planning, skillful execution, and the power of collective wisdom found commitment to outcome (taking the in diverse communities that can long view), they will be effective. What create new solutions to increasingly is perhaps most interesting and most complex challenges. daunting, in some ways, is engaging the doing of diversity and enactment There’s been quite a bit of good of inclusion in the institution as thinking done about what diversity complex system. can also be in relation to “ordered” systems. When operating in the realm In the complex system there are no of ordered systems, determining, ready answers. Cause and effect are executing, and following up on what not certain, so no outside expert can are the current best practices is the be brought in to “fix” things. Complex best path forward. systems require those of us who are on the ground, in the trenches, with From the perspective that engages sleeves rolled up, to come together with more complicated systems, at the

and assess what’s happening and what patterns are emergent and to do so in dialogue. Bold leadership, long view investments, anticipating cultural shifts and leading by example, these are the responses complex systems and the challenges they pose require of us. We must be authentic in our practices of diversity, and we must be innovative in our thinking about it. Doing diversity in a complex system necessitates that we think about diversifying our institution at every level and that we undertake different ways of doing diversity at different scales of operation. Asking ourselves “what can it mean to do diversity across all categories of strategic planning?” is a start. Wondering for ourselves “what does doing diversity look like across our structures of shared governance?” is another step. And perhaps most importantly, allowing ourselves to be much more fluid in how we understand the categories of social differentiation we generally connect with diversity (things like race, class, gender, sexuality, and so on). That is, that we understand and value that these categories are connected and inform one another, and that at different scales and levels of order, diversity simply means different things. If we do and be diversity in these ways over the coming years at Ohio State, we will not only come to recognize and value the remarkable diversity that already takes place at our institution, but we will come to be known as a community in which people are enacting and learning from a meaningful investment in diversity and inclusion, that the Ohio State University is an institution that possesses the capacity to achieve true eminence because it is a place where diversity thrives!

Rebecca Plumage: ODI Morrill Scholars Program The resources provided by the Office of Diversity and inclusion my freshman year helped me to remain confident that I could be successful at a school so far away from home and also reassured me that at a school with 50,000+ students, there were people truly dedicated to helping me be successful and achieve my goals.

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Commemorating

50 years

of Civil Rights

The Original OSU 34, a Legacy of Activism By Lawrence Williamson, Jr., Director, Frank W. Hale, Jr. Black Cultural Center, Office of Diversity and Inclusion Many individuals have made noteworthy contributions to the Civil Rights Movement. Young activists such as John Lewis, Julian Bond, Fannie Lou Hamer, Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture), Harry Edwards, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Angela Davis and Jesse Jackson took action to end segregation and to break down the walls of racial oppression and injustice. Student activists such as the Greensboro Four (Ezell Blair, Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil and David Richmond) sat-in at the lunch counters and other public accommodations to force the owners to reverse their policies of racial segregation in the Southern United States. Although many of us are aware of the countless historical and national events that helped to shape and frame the Civil Rights Movement — one of the most significant and successful social movements in the modern world — few of us are familiar with the events that led to the transformations of our local colleges and universities in Ohio. When we think of student activism nationally in relationship to Ohio, we often do not think about the Civil Rights Movement. What frequently comes to mind is the May 4, 1970 shooting at Kent State University and the killing of four and wounding of nine Kent State Students by the Ohio National Guard. As significant as this tragic event was to the national student movement, The Ohio State University student movement by the original “OSU 34” is equally and historically as important to the Civil Rights Movement as the sit-ins and marches of the 1960s and the Kent State University shooting incident of 1970. The interaction between the original OSU 34 students and Ohio State administrators helped to shape higher

education in Ohio. Their stances on insufficient student housing and discrimination in campus/off campus housing, lack of academic funding available to Blacks, the absence of coursework relevant to the Black experience in America, and the repeated excessive force applied by OSU Campus police on Black female students were monumental. As a result of their activism, these Black students faced felony charges, expulsion

Y. Newton, David Phears, Ralph E. Robinson, Ronald Sanders, Clementine A. Shearer, Irvin Shurod, Ingrid Lorraine Smith, Calvin C. Sowell, Jr., Harold Ward Strickland, Jeffrey Turner, Linda M. Weems, Charles E. Williams, Cassandra Denise Wilson, Emery Yawn, Jr., Carol A. Young, and Cynthia M. Zachary. These 34 students are one of the reasons why we have an Office of Diversity and Inclusion, an African American and African Studies Department,

Campus activism today: Responding to racist graffiti on campus, students, faculty and staff marched to a Board of Trustees meeting in April 2012 where they presented demands including a hate crime alert system. Following a sit-in that closed the Union for five hours later that day, University Police issued the first Hate Crime Alert, and the No Place for Hate Task Force was commissioned. Photo by Sam Cooler, samcooler.com

from the university and social recrimination from both the White and Black communities.

and a Frank W. Hale, Jr. Black Cultural Center on the campus of The Ohio State University.

As the Office of Diversity and Inclusion celebrates 44 years of service and the Hale Black Cultural Center observes 25 years of being in existence, we would like to acknowledge these 34 students because they were grounded in the foundation of the civil rights philosophy: Marilyn Mary Brown, Carey Jerome Cosey, Thomas Davis, Eric Earley, John Evans, Ronald Flagg, Arvie J. Flowers, Silvers A. Grant, Jeannie A. Graves, Emerson M. Harewood, LaQuita O. Henry, Ernest Jacob Hopkins, Asenath M. Johnson, Gloria G. Jones, William T. Kilgore, Darryl G. Lambert, Dana T. Middleton, Brenda C. Mitchell, Sherry

We in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion want to celebrate the contributions of the many students, faculty and staff who have contributed to the establishment of these offices and departments. As we celebrate 25 years of the Hale Black Cultural Center, we will be identifying more and more of the faculty, staff and students who helped to establish the Center’s legacy as a part of our Ohio and The Ohio State University Civil Rights’ past history.

Autumn 9

Commemorating

50 years

of Civil Rights

Title IX Protects Gender Non-Conforming Students By Tayo Clyburn, PhD, Executive Director, Special Assistant to the Vice Provost of Diversity and Inclusion When she was around three years old, my niece, Savanah, started calling me Uncle Tiffani (“Tiffani” being my legal name, which she used until very recently. She is now eight years old). I never questioned it, enjoying watching her sort through the complexities of gender on her own. Then, one day when I was in town for a family visit, she asked me, “Uncle Tiffani, are you a boy or a girl?” Startled but not wanting to circumvent her process, I responded, “Well, what do you think?” She explained her confusion to me, “Well, you look like a boy, but you have these,” she cupped her hands and held them out in front of her chest to signify breasts. She continued, “My mommy has these, and she’s a girl.” “Yeah. That’s a tough one,” I said, and then I asked her, “Do you think it’s possible for someone to be a boy AND a girl?” She was silent for a moment, chewing things over, and then she vigorously nodded her head up and down. “Well, there you go!” I said, “That’s me!” Of course, the spectrum of gender non-conforming identities is much broader than simply being both “boy AND girl” and is more than I can detail here, but for the purpose of this essay, I’m using gender non-conforming to describe individuals whose gender identities and presentations differ from those that society expects of them. While definitions are useful, at the time it felt unnecessary to lecture my niece about the wonders of gender diversity. I simply was heartened not only by her ability to grasp that gender is much more than meets the eye but also by her comfort with new possibilities and the way that she intuited a name for me that embraced them. But fast forward two years and my niece began to call me “Aunt Tiffani” or, more often, “Tiffani” and now, “Tayo.” By my reckoning, that shift signaled that, despite having a gender-bending Uncle Tiffani, Savanah was showing signs of having been influenced by the same range of gender socialization processes that impact all children. Her parents, grandparents, and extended family members were already teaching her how to decipher gender markers. In addition to these influences, when she turned five years old, she began kindergarten, a threshold that often marks the institutional and systemic reification of gender as a marker used to categorize behavior. It is my sense that Savanah was told both at home and in school that it wasn’t possible to have an “Uncle Tiffani” only an “Aunt Tiffani,”

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and feeling that Aunt didn’t fit quite right, she landed on “Tiffani” as a low risk solution. The gender socialization process in the United States is relentless and unforgiving. It begins early, most often through familial contact and is reinforced via extra-familial social, cultural, and institutional means. While gender socialization is a lifelong process, at a very early age children develop a sense of what it means to be a gender insider and outsider and that there are consequences, positive and negative respectively, for each. They also learn that policing the gender identities of others is a part of claiming insider status. So, for example, when one boy tells another that he “throws like a girl,” or when one girl tells another that she “dresses like a boy,” the children hurling the insults are validating their understanding of gender, reassuring themselves that they are doing it right. The children on the receiving end of such gendered insults come to understand that somewhere along the way they have gotten it wrong. Some of these children eventually internalize gender norms and conform accordingly, others pretend to conform to avoid further corrections, others try to conform but are simply unable to “pass” effectively, and still others embrace their transgression of gender norms, reaping the rewards that come from self-awareness and suffering the consequences of being read as different. In K-12 settings, the stakes around conforming to gender norms are very high. The Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network’s (GLSEN’s) 2011 National School Climate Survey reports that 58.7% of gender nonconforming students experienced verbal harassment compared to 29% of their peers. More specifically, GLSEN’s 2009 report about the experiences of transgender students showed that 90% of transgender students surveyed reported being verbally harassed for their gender identity, about 39% heard school staff speak negatively of someone’s gender orientation, and less than 11% reported personnel intervening when they heard derogatory remarks about a student’s gender identity. These alarming rates of harassment severely impact the performance of gender non-conforming students. GLSEN’s 2011 survey showed that almost half of students reported skipping class or entirely skipping school because they felt unsafe. Moreover, experiencing heightened rates of harassment

and unable to find community and support, gender nonconforming students often report feeling isolated and ostracized. As GLSEN’s 2011 survey reports, students who are repeatedly harassed have lower grade point averages than those who have experienced harassment less often, as well as lower educational goals.

Recent trends in the interpretation of Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 forecast that educational institutions must become more proactive in providing safe spaces for gender non-conforming students. While for many Title IX conjures thoughts of women’s collegiate athletics, the language of the statute is much broader than that: “No person in the Research around gender non-conforming students on United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded college and university campuses is sparse—with very from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be few exceptions, institutions of higher learning currently subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” In fact, Title IX was created to fill a small part of the gap left 2011 National School Climate Survey by Title II and Title of VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Gender, Non-Conforming Students Report which did not cover sex discrimination, and recently schools and gender nonconforming students are looking to the statute for guidance and protection respectively. On April 29, 2014, the United States Department of Isolation, Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) Lower GPA issued a document to provide guidance and Lower to educational programs to clarify and Report skipping Report being Educational class or school support compliance with Title IX. In verbally Goals because they abused this document, the OCR confirmed the feel unsafe law’s coverage of gender nonconforming students: “Title IX’s sex discrimination prohibition extends to claims of discrimination based on gender identity or failure to conform to do not track their matriculation and attrition. However, stereotypical notions of masculinity or femininity and OCR existing recent research, media stories, and the shared accepts such complaints for investigation.” experiences amongst LGBTQ students, faculty and administrators do indicate that more and more students With the rise of self-identified gender non-conforming are self-identifying outside of the man/woman gender students on college campuses as well as an increase in binary. In the 2010 State of Higher Education for Lesbian, research that supports anecdotal evidence about gender Gay, Bisexual & Transgender People report, researchers identity-based harassment and discrimination, colleges reported that participants who identified as transmaculine, and universities must be proactive in preventing such transfeminine, and gender non-conforming experience harassment by creating gender inclusive policies and safe higher rates of harassment than their peers (Rankin, campus spaces. Although the legal landscape has long Weber, Blumenfeld, & Frazer). At colleges and universities shaped how universities think about diversity, compliance across the country, gender segregation is still the norm is only the beginning. In order to nurture an atmosphere and gender non-conforming students remain a vulnerable inclusive of difference and then leverage difference population. and diversity as components of institutional excellence, academic institutions must welcome, embrace and even celebrate the gender diversity of their communities.

Bryan Quijada: Young Scholars Program and Latino and Latin American Space for

Enrichment Research (LASER) This [YSP] support system helped me with the college transition, and it will help me expand my horizons once I’m on campus by offering intellectually promising opportunities that I plan on taking advantage of to grow as a person, he stated.

Autumn 11

Milestones in the

Civil Rights Struggle

Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington

The Civil Rights era encompasses a decadeslong struggle for equality for all people in the United States. The struggle engaged many groups with widely varying points of view and interests, but at its heart was the dismantling of Jim Crow segregation and racism in America. The achievements of civil rights legislation touched key institutions such as schools, jobs, voting, and immigration, but progress has not been linear. This timeline captures some of the milestones that shaped the tumultuous era. Students staged a sit-in at Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, NC

1954

1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat

Brown v. Board of Education 12 odi.osu.edu

1957 Civil Rights Act of 1957 created a Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice and a Civil Rights Commission in the executive branch

1960

1961

1963

Freedom Rides began as an effort to test new federal laws

Civil Rights Act of 1964 signed into law

Comptonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cafeteria Riot was one of the first recorded transgender riots in U.S. history

1964

1965

Freedom Summer registration campaign Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed discriminatory voting practices

1965 1966

1967 Age Discrimination Employment Act

Fair Housing Act

1968

1969 Stonewall Riots in New York Cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Greenwich Village launched LGBT movement for civil rights.

1990 Americans with Disabilities Act

Autumn 13

Detailed Facts in the

Civil Rights 1954: Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruled that racial segregation is unconstitutional. 1955: Rosa Parks arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white person, sparking the year-long Montgomery Bus Boycott. 1957: Civil Rights Act of 1957 created a Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice and a Civil Rights Commission in the executive branch to protect voting rights.

1965: Elementary and Secondary Education Act provided for equal education access for children from low income homes, rural Native American, homeless, migrant, and ESL students. 1965: Higher Education Act increased federal resources for student aid programs. 1965: Social Security Amendments of 1965 established Medicare and Medicaid programs for the aged and poor.

1957: Little Rock Nine attended Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, under the protection of the U.S. Army.

1965: Immigration and Nationality Act abolished the national origins quota system in favor of skills- and family-based preferences.

1960: 4 North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College students staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, NC.

1965: President Johnson issued Executive Order 11246 enforcing Affirmative Action.

1961: Freedom Rides began as an effort to test new federal laws that banned segregation in interstate travel. 1963: Martin Luther King, Jr. arrested and writes his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” 1963: Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. 1963: 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, AL, took lives of four girls. 1964: 24th Amendment banned poll taxes. 1964: The murders of three voter registration volunteers in Mississippi launched the Freedom Summer registration campaign. 1964: Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in public accommodations 1965: Bloody Sunday saw 600 peaceful demonstrators in the Selma to Montgomery violently attacked by Alabama state troopers.

1965: Race riots erupted in the Watts section of Los Angeles. 1966: Black Panther Party founded in Oakland California by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. 1966: Compton’s Cafeteria Riot in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco was one of the first recorded transgender riots in US history. 1967: Age Discrimination Employment Act prohibited employment discrimination. 1968: Civil Rights Act of 1968, known as the Fair Housing Act, barred racial discrimination in housing 1968: Shirley Chisolm, the first African American woman elected to Congress, also became the first to run for president on the Democratic Party ticket (1972). 1969: Stonewall Riots in New York City’s Greenwich Village launched LGBT movement for civil rights. 1990: Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 banned discrimination in employment, public services, public accommodations, and telecommunications.

1965: Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed discriminatory voting practices including literacy tests Legend: lLaw lPerson lProtest lEvent

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Commemorating

50 years

of Civil Rights

Kirwan Institute Addresses Implicit Bias By Cheryl Staats, Research Associate, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity As we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, many will reflect upon our nation’s profound transformation in the ensuing half century. While by many measures explicit discrimination has waned since President Lyndon B. Johnson signed that momentous legislation, evidence suggests the widespread persistence of discrimination at an implicit level. Known as implicit or unconscious bias, these unconscious mental associations can affect our understanding, actions, and decisions outside of our awareness, thereby contributing to enduring discrimination, even among well-intentioned individuals with egalitarian intentions. Beyond just a psychological phenomenon, extensive scholarly literature emphasizes the real-world effects of these subtle biases. Recognizing the importance of these implicit cognitive processes, the research at OSU’s Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity examines how unconscious bias can operate in conjunction with structural racialization to yield inequitable outcomes, even in the absence of explicit discrimination.

Our signature implicit bias publication, “State of the Science: Implicit Bias Review,” disseminates knowledge about the cognitive forces that unconsciously influence individual behavior and contribute to various social disparities. By tracking the latest

As an interdisciplinary engaged research institute at OSU, the Kirwan Institute works to create a just and inclusive society where all people and communities have the opportunity to succeed. Our work highlights how both structural racialization and cognitive forces can serve as powerful barriers that impede access to opportunity. Looking to raise awareness of implicit bias and contribute to this burgeoning research field, my colleagues and I shed light on the dynamics of implicit bias and its importance through publications, research projects, and collaborations.

research and trends in the field, this annual publication connects numerous audiences to the latest scientific work on implicit bias across a range of domains, including employment, education, criminal justice, and health care. Several Kirwan Institute research projects and collaborations explore the implications of implicit bias for specific fields. For example, in May 2014 Kirwan released a package of reports and multimedia materials that uplift implicit racial bias as a possible contributing factor to the persistent

racialized disparities that exist in K-12 school discipline. In the health care realm, Kirwan has partnered with the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) to produce a forthcoming monograph and video series dedicated to examining unconscious bias in seven different areas of academic medicine ranging from medical school admissions to faculty mentoring to health care delivery. Moreover, our work is also reaching a younger population, as Kirwan serves as a partner institution for “Look Different,” a multi-year MTV campaign designed to help Millennials recognize and respond to bias. Finally, upcoming Kirwan Institute work will deepen the research, engagement, and awareness of implicit bias in fair housing and fair lending, with a focus on crafting strategies to counter this phenomenon. As convincing research evidence accumulates, it becomes difficult to understate the importance of considering the role of implicit racial biases when analyzing societal inequities. The Kirwan Institute remains committed to raising awareness of the distressing impacts of implicit racial bias and exposing the ways in which this phenomenon can create and reinforce racialized barriers to opportunity. While the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act provides a fitting occasion to reflect upon many of the ways in which explicit discrimination has declined, we must continue to address the robust and pervasive implicit biases that linger, even in light of egalitarian intentions.

Autumn 15

Commemorating

50 years

of Civil Rights

College of Social Work Commemorates 50 Years of Change The College of Social Work is commemorating important milestones in the nation’s response to poverty, inequality, and civil rights. Under the theme, “50 Years,” a series of events and activities will engage the campus and the community to reflect on the achievements and failures in social welfare policy and practice. Keith M. Kilty, Professor

Emeritus of Social Work, leads the planning committee, and he publishes a blog featuring critical perspectives. A list of events and the 50 Years blog are online at csw.osu.edu/about/50-years/.

The following is an excerpt from the “50 Years” blog by Professor Keith M. Kilty.

Fifty Years Later

It was a time of change, but that change did not come without a price. We saw police dogs launched at civil rights demonstrators. We saw four little girls die in a church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama. We saw the Freedom Riders challenge segregation. We saw more and more American “advisers” deployed to Vietnam. We saw the JKF and LBJ administrations prop up dictatorships. We saw fire and smoke rise over Watts and then other American cities, in what some called riots and others called urban insurrections. We saw a president tell us that men would walk on the moon before the end of the decade. We saw a Buddhist monk set himself aflame. We saw the requirement to sign a loyalty oath to get a student loan. We saw women and children on welfare marching in the streets demanding an adequate social safety net open to everyone. We saw a president sign the Equal Pay Act. We saw the murder of Medgar Evers and too many other civil rights activists. We saw people demanding their right to vote. We saw young men burning their draft cards. We saw powerful social movements – for civil rights, for women’s rights, against war, for gay rights late in the decade – begin to emerge. And we saw the resistance of those who wanted everything to stay the same. But profound changes in American society occurred. Because of the courage of those at the bottom and their allies, political leaders responded – sometimes with repression – including police actions, arrests, and imprisonments – and sometimes with change through legislation and the courts. Keith M. Kilty is Professor Emeritus of Social Work at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. He is also director of “Ain’t I a Person,” a documentary about poverty in America (www.aintiaperson.com). The full essay is online at csw.osu.edu/about/50-years/.

Jacyna Ortiz: Young Scholars Program The Office of Diversity and Inclusion has really been a second home for me, she says. The staff and students offered an unbelievable amount of support at the university while the workshops and extra-curricular activities of the program helped me to grow as a student academically and personally.

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Commemorating

50 years

of Civil Rights

Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act By Curtis Austin, Associate Professor, African-American & African Studies Anniversaries are good opportunities to reflect on the importance and significance of past events. This anniversary certainly fits that description. Fifty years ago this past summer, Congress passed the momentous Civil Rights Act of 1964. That action represented a watershed moment in world history and a testament to the work, dedication, and sacrifice of so many people who fought to make America live up to its stated creed of “Liberty and Justice for All.” Many of us know that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 not only outlawed discrimination based on race, gender, religion, and national origin, it also ended discrimination in the area of voting. In the fifty years since this law was passed, Blacks, women, the disabled and other minorities made tremendous gains in the areas of housing, education, and employment. Today, millions of Americans can be seen reaping the benefits of this law. More Black and Brown people attend college than ever before. An increasing number of minorities can be seen as the owners and CEOs of major companies and multinational corporations. Women of all races made significant gains in education and employment, and Americans with various disabilities now enjoy federal and state protection from discrimination in a range of areas including education, employment, and public access. It is clear that without this landmark legislation that little in the way of social progress could have been made. This law made it virtually impossible for overtly racist politicians, biased employers, and members of groups like the Ku Klux Klan to function successfully. The nation has come a long way indeed. Unfortunately, we still have a long way to go before we can say with any level of honesty that we have achieved true equality for all citizens. Despite the passage of the Civil Rights Act, schools across the country remain segregated, particularly in northern and mid-western cities. Nearly all-Black and nearly all-White schools remain the norm. New challenges like the mass incarceration of Black and Brown people have arisen and made it impossible for poor communities to thrive. Supreme Court decisions over issues in states like California, Texas, and Michigan have made it increasingly difficult for non-White people to gain

access to higher education. And while certain provisions of the Civil Rights Act was designed to prevent the arbitrary denial of the vote, a slew of laws over the past several years have reversed this legislation, and they are making it much more difficult for Black, Brown, and poor people to register and vote.

Civil Rights activists Mac Arthur Cotton and Bob Moses pose with college-age student activists at an event commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act in Mississippi.

Fortunately, Americans have a history and a blueprint from which they can learn to struggle against these measures. So, as we remember and honor those who sacrificed for and died in the struggle for civil and human rights, it is also important to learn from their actions. Equally important to remember during this 50 year retrospective is the idea that young people must see themselves as shapers of American life and history. Like the nation’s young people who made Mississippi’s Freedom Summer successful in 1964, today’s youth have the power and energy to build a movement that will end voter discrimination and the overall war on the poor that is currently disguised as a war on drugs. Already thousands of protesters in cities across the U.S. have begun to voice their opposition to these developments. The question now is whether the people of the United States will allow a continued roll back of civil rights advances or whether they will take a stand to fight for the principle of “Liberty and Justice for All.”

Autumn 17

ODI Awardees The Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) celebrates the academic excellence and community engagement, the service and leadership, and the accomplishments of Ohio State students and staff in promoting diversity at the Second Annual Honors Reception on Monday, April 14, 2014. ODI award recipients were recognized. Education Abroad Scholarships • Azubike Akunne: Afro-Brazil Culture and History Program • • • • •

• Deedra Thompson: Afro-Brazil Culture and History Program

• Chyna Mitchell: Afro-Brazil Culture and History Program Kavian Anderson: Afro-Brazil Culture and History Program • Kenisha Baldeo: Francophone Studies Senegal Mykalah Anderson: Afro-Brazil Culture and History Program • Kurubel Belay: European Cities and Sustainable Urban Planning Practices Asia Barker: Afro-Brazil Culture Program and History Program • Ginae Bluitt: Brazil Global May Taneya Foster: Afro-Brazil Culture Program and History Program • Serena Chang: Costa Rica Dance Le’Asia Gaines: Afro-Brazil Culture Program and History Program

• Kierra Ross: International Affairs Scholars Bolivia Program • Clair Salzman: Freshman Global Lab Program • Madeleine Smith: Exploring the Historical Landscape of a Greek Island Program • Ciara Travis: Western Tradition and Contemporary Issues in Corfu, Greece • Chloe Williams: Global May Uganda Program • Savannah Wise: Sustaining Human Societies and the EnvironmentAustralia and Fiji Program

Undergraduate Research Grants • Cruz Bonlarron-Martinez: Resistance and Economic Crisis in Puerto Rico • Steven Elzein: Antibody Response to Organ Transplant

• Marc’El Jessie: Afro-Brazil Culture and History Program

• David Danesh: Field Experience in Global Public Health - China

• Shannon Hibbard: Alpine Proglacial Environments

• Donald King: Afro-Brazil Culture and History Program

• Alixandria Davis: Culture, Society, and History of South Africa Program

• Daniel Moussa: Traumatic Brain Injury

• Sean Love: Afro-Brazil Culture and History Program

• Annelise Del Rio: Tropical Ecology Panama Program

• Willie Love: Afro-Brazil Culture and History Program

• Universe Ewunetie: International Field Study in Ethiopia Program

• Chelsea McCoy: Afro-Brazil Culture and History Program

• Marianne Iskander: Field Experience in Global Public Health in China

• Chad Mitchell: Afro-Brazil Culture and History Program

• Jamie Luster: China Public Health Program

• Dayvon Nichols: Afro-Brazil Culture and History Program

• Britanny Lynner: Fundacion Jose Ortega y Gasset in Toledo, Spain Program

• Brandon Norman: Afro-Brazil Culture • Miranda McClendon: International and History Program Field Study Program in Ethiopia • Mark Reese: Afro-Brazil Culture and • Erinn Pinckney: Fisher Summer History Program Internship Abroad Program • Jonathan Rodriguez: Afro-Brazil in Australia Culture and History Program • James Prather: Spain Global • Charles Swan: Afro-Brazil Culture Internship Program and History Program

18 odi.osu.edu

• Meera Nagarajan: Nutrition Status of Food Pantry Clients • Hannah Ortega: Indexical Features in Speech Perception • Cristina Ortiz: Regenerative medicine

Graduate Research Grants • Julie Cyzewski: Post/colonial Literature and the Cultural Politics of Soft Power: The BBC, Regional Broadcasting, and Publishing in the West Indies, West Africa, and South Asia • Jessica Rea: Seeing what you can do: The effect of imagery perspective on stereotype threat • Anindita Sengupta: India’s Transnational Surrogacy Industry

LIWOC Honoree Renata Baptista

Graduate Research Grants (continued) • Christopher Torres: Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior Awareness and Habit Strength of Hispanic Children in Puerto Rico • Leticia Wiggins: La Mujeres in the Heartland: A Revolt of Chicana and Latina Women in the Midwest Borderlands, 1972 • Se Jeong Yang: Korean-American Adolescents’ Ethnic Identity with Multilingual Competence

ODI Unit Honorees • Renata Baptista • Daysha Bogin • Ciera Butts

Education Abroad Scholarship Recipient Kavian Anderson

Graduate Student Research Grantees

The Leona Smith Undergraduate Leadership Award

• Whitney Gordon, African American and African Studies

• Sadé Lindsay and Deija McLean

• Tiffany Graves Medicine

Leadership Initiatives for Women of Color Undergraduate Student Award • Renata Baptista

Charles Hancock YSP Travel Abroad Scholarship • Kenisha Baldeo

LASER/Humanities Graduate Fellows for 2014-15 • Leticia Wiggins, History

• Mosheh Clark

• Jessica Rutherford, Spanish and Portuguese

• Dr. Elena Foulis

• Randi Lopez, English

• Margaret Knisley • Alexis Pannell

Graduate/Professional Student Travel Grant

Ruth C. Bailey Award for Multicultural Engagement

• Felicia Boakye-Dankwah, Public Health

• Jane Newland

• Grace L. Johnson, Director of Study Abroad in the Office on International Affairs

• DeLayna Green, Education and Human Ecology • Tiffany Halsell, Education and Human Ecology • Adan Hussain, Education and Human Ecology • Sara Kersten, Teaching and Learning • Danny Kim Lee, Education and Human Ecology • Pranietha Mudliar, School of Environmental and Natural Resources • Victoria Munoz, English • Maria Soto, Spanish and Portuguese • Erin Tobin, Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies • Mao Vang, History • Hannah Vidmar, African American and African Studies • Alessandra Wollner, English

• Mariah Barber, Education and Human Ecology

• Ashley Dallacqua, School of Teaching and Learning • Brad Freeman English

Autumn 19

Todd A. Bell Resource Center Improving Lives Through Biomechanics and Buckeye REACH By Robert A. Bennett, III, Special Assistant to the Associate Provost, Office of Diversity and Inclusion Annually the National Science Foundation (NSF) recognizes outstanding graduate students who have demonstrated potential for significant achievements in science and engineering research with its Graduate Research Fellowship Program. This year, Justo Juvian TorresRodriguez, a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering at The Ohio State University was awarded the prestigious grant. As a result, NSF will cover his graduate school expenses along with a yearly stipend to cover living and academic expenses. Torres-Rodriguez is from Cayey, Puerto Rico and he attended The University of Puerto Rico – Mayagüez Campus (UPRM). While an undergraduate at UPRM, Torres-Rodriquez developed a method for acquiring accurate Trans-Tibial amputee biometry measures to allow researchers and medical professionals to efficiently study amputee tissue mechanics and to enhance research practices for this population. For these purposes, he recently finished a manuscript on Tran-Tibial Amputee

biometry and 3D modeling. “Ever since I was a child, I always liked to help others with their problems, so resolving these challenges and disabilities to enhance the quality of life of others is my life’s passion,” states TorresRodriguez. From this statement, it is apparent that this passion drives him to conduct research in topics like amputee biomechanics. Thus, it is no surprise that the Cayey native plans to use his engineering background to research objects or devices that can improve the quality of life for others. Ever since his days at UPRM he has aspired to develop his skills in biomedical engineering to become an expert on biomechanics, specifically in imaging, design and finite element analysis of biological tissues and implants. The secondyear PhD student clarifies that, “With this background, I would be able to provide generalizable knowledge to promote the creation of viable solutions for people with disabilities and certain medical challenges.” For this reason, he selected OSU to continue his graduate studies in biomedical engineering. While at OSU, Torres-Rodriguez has been actively conducting research in otitis media and Eustachian tube dysfunction. Otitis media is the most common disease to affect children in the U.S. and Eustachian tube dysfunction is thought to be the principal cause for recurrent

otitis Media. Torres-Rodriguez’s work is directed towards understanding the mechanical conditions under which the Eustachian tube operates and to discover ways to improve Eustachian tube dysfunction diagnosis and treatment in children and adults. In addition to his academic achievements, Torres-Rodriguez is committed to outreach. He recently became part of the Buckeye REACH program at OSU, which organizes trips for OSU students to travel the Department of Youth Services facilities in an effort to motivate and build relationships with local youth. It is through this initiative that TorresRodriguez has used his experiences in the classroom to motivate youth to improve their conditions and take advantage of the opportunities available to them. In addition, he is a volunteer for the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and participates in programming geared towards Hispanic students as a way to reach and motivate them to become enthusiastic about this work and biomedical engineering in general. In all, Justo feels good about his future prospects. He states, “I am certain that my proposed research, the educational environment and the research resources at OSU will enable me to transform into an adept and inspiring biomedical engineer.”

Taylor Stepp: Morrill Scholars Program Taylor said, I knew that [the Morrill] scholarship might be my only venue to attend my dream school.

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Commemorating

50 years

of Civil Rights

Celebrating Ohio Civil Rights Champion, the Honorable Louis Stokes By Yolanda Zepeda, Assistant Provost, Office of Diversity and Inclusion Louis Stokes is the first African American to represent Ohio in the United States Congress. He served fifteen consecutive terms and throughout his Congressional career, he fought for civil rights and social and economic justice. Elected to Congress in 1968, Stokes became the first African American to win a seat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee. A cofounder of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1969, Stokes served on a number of congressional committees including Appropriations, Intelligence and Ethics. In 1976, Stokes chaired the House Select Committee on Assassinations where he conducted hearings on the deaths of Martin Luther King, Jr. and President John F. Kennedy. The Office of Diversity and Inclusion at Ohio State leads a statewide alliance that pays homage to Stokes’ national leadership. The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and promotes science and technology participation among underrepresented students across Ohio. Stokes’ work in the area of health led to his appointment as a member

When I started this journey, I realized that I was the first Black American ever to hold this position in this state. I had to write the book. There was no book. Basically what I said to myself was that I was going to set a standard of excellence that would give any successor something to shoot for. “Stokes Era Comes to an End,” Plain Dealer 1.18.1998

of the Pepper Commission on Comprehensive Health Care, and he was the founder and chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus Health Braintrust. The Louis Stokes Health Scholars program, sponsored by the UnitedHealth Foundation and administered by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc. (CBCF) awards scholarships to students who plan to enter the health workforce.

the Louis Stokes Health Sciences Center at Case Western Reserve University, and buildings at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and the National Institutes of Health. Mr. Stokes is the recipient of 26 honorary doctorate degrees from colleges and universities, and he is a recipient of the Congressional Distinguished Service Award.

Mr. Stokes has received numerous awards and honors that recognize his national leadership and strong commitment to public service. Named in his honor are the Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Administration Hospital, the Louis Stokes Annex of the Cleveland Public Library,

Meilaysia Carter: Young Scholars Program Meilaysia said, If it were not for YSP, I would not be able to say that I am a Buckeye. Everything in the YSP program helped prepare me to succeed at Ohio State.

Autumn 21

Excellence Through Diversity Celebrating 30 Years of the Morrill Scholars Program By Lauren A. Seligman, Director for Advancement, Office of Diversity and Inclusion From a first-generation American student to a family legacy of alumni, graduating from The Ohio State University is a meaningful accomplishment. While the education and opportunities it presents are invaluable, the cost can be prohibitive. As one of the premier merit-based scholarships in the U.S., the Office of Diversity and Inclusion’s Morrill Scholars Program or MSP (formerly known as the Minority Scholars Program) rewards academically exceptional students actively engaged in diversitybased leadership and service activities who will serve as student ambassadors and champions of academic excellence and diversity. For S. Alice Mong and the Gamble family, the Morrill Scholars Program offered the opportunity to live their life’s dreams and assure a Buckeye family legacy.

After moving from Virginia to Maryland, the family finally settled in Mansfield, Ohio when Alice was a junior in high school. Mansfield became the place where her life was forever changed. “It was in Ohio that we felt the most at home as a family,” Alice said. The opportunities in Mansfield for Alice’s family required perseverance. Her father had the chance to establish a restaurant here, and Alice recalled, “At the time, Mansfield had two Cantonese restaurants but no restaurant specializing in Szechuan and Northernstyle Chinese cuisines, which are my father’s specialties.”

Mansfield also introduced Alice to Ohio State; her father had heard about the school through a friend who graduated from there in the 1950’s. When Alice applied and was awarded the Morrill Scholarship, she knew she would be The Mong Family able to stay in college. “I was grateful Born in Taiwan, S. Alice Mong’s family and delighted to be offered the Morrill wanted a better life that would allow Scholarship as I had to work to earn my them to broaden and expand their tuition and board. As first-generation opportunities. Due to her father’s career immigrants with limited savings, my change from dentist to chef and her parents were not able to help me fully parent’s quest for better educational finance my college tuition and living prospects, Alice moved to the United expenses,” she said. Alice received States in the early 1970’s. The Mong’s her Bachelor’s degree in 1986 in journey began when they arrived in International Studies with a minor in Williamsburg, Virginia, but the transition French and a capstone in International from Taiwan to the U.S. posed some Business. And like many of her fellow difficulties. “The challenge for me was MSP scholars, Alice continued her primarily language. At first, I did not education, receiving a joint Executive speak any English; however, as a tenMBA from Northwestern University’s year-old and eager to fit in, I was able to Kellogg School of Management and the learn the language within the first year in Hong Kong University of Science and the United States.” As the oldest of three, Technology in 1999. Alice, who became fluent in English, turned into the family translator. “Over As a result of her degree, Alice worked the years, as we moved to new places with the State of Ohio Department of in the United States, these challenges Development’s International Trade were minimized as we had friends and Division, representing Ohio to promote neighbors to help us adapt.” trade in East and Southeast Asia. Later

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she was named executive director of the Committee of 100 and the director of the Museum of Chinese in America. She lives abroad as executive director of the Asia Society Hong Kong Center. She feels strongly that her career opportunities were made possible through the college education

provided by her scholarship. “The Morrill Scholarship Program was meaningful to me because it recognized and supported my dream of completing my college education, thereby fulfilling not only my own dreams but those of my parents.”

The Gamble Family Bill Gamble’s family history is deeply embedded in Hispanic roots and education, with both sides of his family “about as different and diverse as you can get.” His maternal grandfather and grandmother – from Mexico and Spain respectively – didn’t graduate from high school, while his paternal grandfather, Byron Gamble, began the legacy of being a Buckeye. In the 1930’s, the Great Depression had taken over the economy, but it had not taken away the determination of Byron to finish his education. Byron graduated

Bill recalls how his love for Ohio State inspired him to attend the school. “I always followed Ohio State because of the love my grandfather and aunt had for the university. My grandfather would always tell me stories about his experiences at Ohio State, and I always wanted to follow in his footsteps.” Bill not only graduated from Ohio State but also met his future wife, Twila, at the university. “We were introduced by a mutual friend at the library in Sullivant Hall,” he recalled. Twila, who grew up near Columbus, also loved everything about Ohio State – “the traditions, athletics, and academics.” But despite

Twila’s nieces, Amanda (Communications and Spanish, 2007) and Twila (Communications, 2006). It isn’t surprising that Bill, who is a sales technical leader at Cadence Design Systems and Twila, an adult financial education coordinator for a financial institution, raised their daughter to love the Buckeyes, even while living in Texas. Morgan, a senior studying psychology, attends Ohio State not only as a fourth generation student, but also as a Morrill Scholar: “When I was offered the scholarship I felt excited, relieved and honored. I was relieved that the cost of going to college out-of-state would no longer be an issue and excited that I could fully commit to Ohio State knowing that.” Receiving the Morrill Scholarship meant that Morgan could be involved with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, which allowed countless opportunities such as group studies and seminars. Even though the Gambles live in Texas and Alice Mong resides in Hong Kong, each has remained supportive of Ohio State, generously giving back to the Office of Diversity and Inclusion with the Gambles also donating to student athletes. Their support allows the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and Ohio State to create a diverse campus community that is inclusive of students engaged in leadership and service.

These are just two of the many stories from the past 30 years of how the Morrill Scholarship Program has made the dream of receiving a degree from The Ohio State University a reality for thousands of students. While the in December 1933 with a bachelor’s Morrill Scholarship Program challenges degree in agriculture, one quarter early that love, she chose to attend another students to persevere in their education by taking an astonishing twenty-six credit in-state university to “experience something different.” Once Twila realized and champions academic excellence hours to “finish and start earning some that she made a mistake, she transferred and diversity, the Morrill Scholarship money as this was a very hard time recipients are also an inspiration to their to Ohio State. In 1985, she and Bill financially.” Fifty years later, Bill would families, community, and the university. follow in the footsteps of his grandfather graduated with bachelor’s degrees in Journalism and Electrical Engineering, and Aunt Beth – who received her BS For more information about the Morrill respectively. Eight days after graduation, and MS in the 1970’s – and go to Scholarship Program or the Office of the two would marry. They would later Ohio State. Diversity and Inclusion, please see give birth to a daughter, Morgan, who odi.osu.edu. would continue her family’s legacy of Growing up outside of Ohio due to his becoming a Buckeye, as would two of father’s involvement with the military,

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ODI Signature Events For details on all of these events, visit odi.osu.edu. November 13, 2014, 5:00 PM

Conversation on Race, Writing and Culture with Zadie Smith Zadie Smith

November 27, 2014, 11:45 AM

Ohio State University’s Annual Thanksgiving Dinner Tom Davis Special Events Gym, RPAC

Mershon Auditorium, The Wexner Center The President and Provost’s Diversity Lecture & Cultural Arts Series and the Humanities Institute present British novelist, essayist and short story writer Zadie Smith

Thanksgiving Dinner brings together the campus community of students, faculty and staff unable to return home for the long holiday weekend.

April 13 - 14, 2015

March 5, 2015

President & Provost’s Diversity Lecture and Cultural Arts Series Presents Congressman Louis Stokes

Multiple Perspectives on Access, Inclusion, and Disability Annual Conference The Ohio State University Columbus Campus

Faculty Club

Under the theme “Celebrate Our Progress and Write Our Future History,” the 15th annual Multiple Perspectives conference is an ongoing exploration of disability as a reflection of the human condition seen through multiple lenses (theory, discipline, social constructs, personal experience, shared experience).

The President and Provost’s 2013-14 Diversity Lecture and Cultural Arts Series presents Louis Stokes, former Ohio congressman and Civil Rights Era leader.

May 4 - 5, 2015

May 27 - 29, 2015

Fawcett Conference Center, 2400 Olentangy River Road, Columbus, Ohio

Access Collaborative Student Parent Symposium, “Supporting Those Who Support Student Parents in Higher Education”

National Conference on Diversity, Race & Learning

“When Academe Meets Corporate: STEMing the Global Landscape of Education, Diversity & Inclusion” is the theme of the 21st annual NCDRL. The conference offers an examination of diversity as a concept, and its implementation in higher education, the corporate world, and the larger community.

24 odi.osu.edu

The Blackwell Hotel, 2110 Tuttle Park Place, Columbus, Ohio This nationally-acclaimed event is for those who support student parents in higher education. It addresses best practices, challenges, program models, and collaboration with community resources to help single parent, low-income students and their families succeed in higher education.

Commemorating

50 years

of Civil Rights

August 16-November 30

Celebrating Civil Rights: Library Exhibits and Programs Remembering the March: Civil Rights, Cartoons, & Comics Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum: Friends of the Libraries Gallery 1813 N. High Street, Columbus, OH 43210 • cartoons.osu.edu In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum will present The Long March: Civil Rights in Cartoons and Comics from August 16 – November 30, 2014. The exhibit presents the story of the Civil Rights Movement and its impact through original editorial cartoons, comic strips, and comic books drawn from the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum’s collections. It will also include artwork drawn by Nate Powell, for March, Congressman John Lewis’s graphic memoir, a New York Times Bestseller co-written by Andrew Aydin, about his experiences as a leader and activist in the movement. The exhibit explores the tensions, struggles, and victories from multiple perspectives, including mainstream daily newspapers and the black press.

September 15-January 4

November 15, 2014, 7:00PM

Thompson Library Gallery 1858 Neil Avenue • Libraries.osu.edu

Griffin East Ballroom, Ohio Union

Remembering the Act: Archival Reflections on Civil Rights in 1964

The Ohio State University Libraries celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in the Thompson Library Gallery with Remembering the Act: Archival Reflections on Civil Rights in 1964 from September 15, 2014-January 4, 2015. As viewed through the lens of library Special Collections, this exhibit explores the historical and cultural ramifications of the landmark federal bill that prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. In particular, it offers little-known insights about the Ohio politician who was instrumental in passing the legislation through Congress. It also provides a frank appraisal of the prevailing racial inequalities faced by minority residents of Columbus and African American students at The Ohio State University in the decades prior to the bill’s enactment

An Evening with Congressman John Lewis, Nate Powell and Andre Aydin

The graphic novel, March: Book One tells the early story of Congressman John Lewis who co-scripted the book with Andrew Aydin and which is illustrated by Nate Powell. The artists and Congressman Lewis will be on campus to speak on September 15, in partnership with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

Michael Gundich: Young Scholars Program Being selected as a Young Scholar meant that I had a chance in a place where the majority of the kids never graduate high school, let alone go on to attend college. Not a guarantee, but a chance through YSP that could be earned if I truly applied myself in school, completed community service requirements, and attended all of the meetings and events, he stated.

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DRUM The Ohio State University Hale Hall, Suite 300 154 West 12th Avenue Columbus, OH 43210-1132 odi.osu.edu

DRUM magazine provides an inclusive and multipurpose vehicle for communication, celebration and call to action.

The Ohio State University is not responsible for the content of this publication. This publication does not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the staff.

Dr. Valerie Lee presents the ODI Kente stole to Donna Brazile at the 2014 MLK celebration

Excellence through Diversity The Ohio State University Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) is one of the oldest and most prominent offices of its kind in the nation. Founded in 1970, ODI has supported the recruitment, retention and success of students, faculty and staff who enhance the diversity of The Ohio State University. Individual, corporate and foundation funding is essential to our mission. If you would like to find out more about supporting the important work of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, please go to: odi.osu.edu/alumni/ make-difference