UC Irvine: Panel on Title IX and Student Activism

February 22, 2022

The Office for Diversity and Inclusion would like to draw your attention to a panel event held by the University of California, Irvine: Title IX and Student Activism. This panel will focus specifically on how student voices can be most impactful in effecting change related to sexual assault on campus.

From their website:

Whether protesting outside fraternity houses, coordinating walk-outs or gathering 50,000 signatures to petition a rollback of the Trump administration’s Title IX rules, the past year saw a continuation of student activism against sexual violence on college campuses. Does amplification of this issue lead to substantive change? How do universities balance speech and due process in their efforts to combat sexual violence and foster cultures of safety, respect and accountability?

Join Tommy Jung, member of UC’s Title IX Student Advisory Board, Danésha Nichols, Director, Harassment & Discrimination Assistance and Prevention Program at UC Davis, and Suzanne Taylor, UC’s Systemwide Title IX Director for a discussion of these important and challenging questions.

More information about the topic and panelists can be found on the UC Irvine National Free Speech and Civic Engagement website.

This virtual event will be held on Wednesday, 2/23, at 3:00 PM ET (12:00 PM PT). Please register in advance through this form. You may also email questions to the panelists prior to the event at freespeechcenter@uci.edu.

Roxane Gay: With One “N” Women’s Herstory Opening

February 21, 2022

Wed, Mar 9, 7:00 pm

Vaccination or negative COVID-19 test required for all patrons age 12+.
Masks required. General Admission. Limited capacity.
Please review our full Covid policy.

Join us for an evening with Roxane Gay, author and cultural critic whose writing is unmatched and widely revered. Her work garners international acclaim for its reflective, no-holds-barred exploration of feminism and social criticism. With a deft eye on modern culture, she brilliantly critiques its ebb and flow with both wit and ferocity. Her New York Times bestseller, Bad Feminist, is universally considered the quintessential exploration of modern feminism.

Presented by the UConn's Women's Center
in partnership with Jorgensen's ongoing Arts & Activism series

Co-sponsored with Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts, African American Cultural Center, Asian American Cultural Center, Puerto Rican Latin American Cultural Center, Rainbow Center, Native American Cultural Programs, Middle Eastern Cultural Programs, Office for Diversity and Inclusion, Undergraduate Student Government, and Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies.

This is a free event, but tickets are required (2 per person) through the Jorgensen website. You can register for the event here

President’s Task Force on Combating Sexual Violence

February 18, 2022

Dear Huskies,

When we last spoke, our community was seeking to understand how to do more to support our students. Over the past several days, many of you have contacted me to express the need for myself and other University leaders to more thoroughly examine the impact of sexual violence upon our community. As a result, I have created and appointed members to the President’s Task Force on Combating Sexual Violence and Supporting Our Students.

The President’s Task Force on Combating Sexual Violence and Supporting Our Students is charged with evaluating how the University of Connecticut educates, prevents and responds to sexual violence. This includes how students are educated on the topics of sexual violence, the standard of consent, healthy relationships, incapacitation, and bystander programs.

The experience of reporting an assault, evaluating next steps, and seeking counseling and support is deeply challenging and impactful upon involved students. This committee will also be charged with the intentional review of all relevant procedures designed to support students who are participating in the process of reporting sexual violence including how policy, process, Title IX obligations, and support are easily shared with students.

I am particularly grateful to Eleanor JB Daugherty, Claire Dutton, a graduate student in the Neag Higher Education and Student Affairs Program, and Mason Holland, an undergraduate student leader who serves as President of Undergraduate Student Government, for agreeing to lead this effort and serve as co-chairs. I believe it is essential that this work be led jointly be students and university leadership. I look forward to reviewing their work at the conclusion of the spring semester.

Task Force Members include:

Luz Burgos-Lopez, Assistant Dean of Students
Kimberly Caprio, Director of Title IX Compliance, Deputy Title IX Coordinator
Anne D’Alleva, Dean of the School of Fine Arts
Nathan Fuerst, Vice President for Enrollment Planning & Management
Kathleen Holgerson, Director of the Women’s Center
Tysen Kendig, Vice President for Communications
Jamie Kleinman, Associate Professor in Residence
Gerald Lewis, Chief of Police
Jenn Longa, Assistant Dean of Students for Victim Support Service & Bystander Initiatives
Eboni Nelson, Dean of the UConn School of Law
MaryAnn Perez-Brescia, Coordinator of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Letissa Reid, Associate Vice President, Title IX Coordinator, ADA Coordinator
Hans Rhynhart, Associate Vice President of the Division of Public Safety
Sofia Rodriguez, Chief of Staff for the Undergraduate Student Government’s President
Irio Schiano, Graduate Student Senate President
Leslie Shor, Associate Dean for Research & Graduate Education, Associate Professor
Sabrina Uva, President of the Student Government Association (Stamford Campus)
Grace (Zehui) Wang, Undergraduate Student

I am grateful to each of them for agreeing to serve on this task force and support our work on behalf of those impacted by sexual violence. Together, I am confident that we can continue to thrive as a compassionate, student-centered institution.

Sincerely,

Dr. Radenka Maric
Interim President | University of Connecticut

Dr. Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar Presentation at the Mark Twain House

February 16, 2022

UConn's Director of the Center for the Study of Popular Music, Dr. Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar, will be presenting TONIGHT on "Zora Neale Hurston: You Don't Know Us Negroes and Other Essays."

From The Mark Twain House website:

Spanning more than 35 years of work, the first comprehensive collection of essays, criticism, and articles by the legendary author of the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston, showcasing the evolution of her distinctive style as an archivist and author.

Hurston’s writing articulates the beauty and authenticity of Black life as only she could. Collectively, these essays showcase the roles enslavement and Jim Crow have played in intensifying Black people’s inner lives and culture rather than destroying it. She argues that in the process of surviving, Black people re-interpreted every aspect of American culture–“modif[ying] the language, mode of food preparation, practice of medicine, and most certainly religion.”

This free online event takes place at 6:30 PM on Wednesday, February 16th. Register at MarkTwainHouse.org/Events/

bell hooks’s Legacy of Love and Liberation

February 15, 2022

The Center for Excellence in Teaching in Learning (CETL) is proud to present a three-part series, "What's Love Got to do With It? bell hooks's Black People & Love."

This series will have three virtual events:

February 22: Salvation: Black People & Love (12:00 - 1:30 PM)
March 8: Communion: The Female Search for Love (12:00 - 1:30 PM)
March 22: All About Love: New Visions (12:00 - 1:30 PM).

Spots are limited. Register for all three at the CETL Workshops website. Reads for each session will be sent to the registrants.

Global Health Symposium – “Connecting People, Place, and Health”

February 10, 2022

Global Health Spaces on Campus (GloHSOC) is organizing our 5th Annual Global Health Symposium: Connecting People, Place, and Health. This symposium will feature keynote speakers, panelists who are experts in global health, and breakout sessions with professionals across the world. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet and connect with experience new perspectives on global health.

GloHSOC is united by a common goal to create an open forum for discussing issues related to the health of individuals around the world. W believe that global health is a diverse field with complex problems that require innovative and interdisciplinary solutions.

This virtual event will be held from Friday, March 25th through Sunday, March 27th. Please register in advance.

Inspired by History: Using Internment for Social Justice

In June 2019, Japanese American former incarcerees and their descendants gathered at Fort Sill, in Oklahoma, to protest the proposed separation of migrant children from their families and migrant detention more broadly. The site had previously served as an American Indian boarding school that forcibly assimilated and separated children from their families, an Apache prisoner of war camp, and a Japanese American internment camp run by the U.S. army during World War II.

Tsuru joined forces with United We Dream, Dream Action Oklahoma, Black Lives Matter, Indigenous Environmental Network, Women’s March Oklahoma, the American Indian Movement – Indian Territory, and others. Together, they succeeded in shutting down the site before it opened.

Among these protesters was Chizu Omori, former Poston incarceree and documentary filmmaker. Omori joins us with Mike Ishii, a Tsuru for Solidarity co-founder, to share how the history of Japanese American incarceration inspires their activism today. Christina Heatherton, assistant professor at Trinity College, will provide local context on Connecticut anti-racist organizing. Join us on Wednesday, February 23 at 2pm to commemorate Day of Remembrance, the anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066 which enabled the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans.

This virtual vent will be held on Wednesday, February 23, at 2:00 PM. Please register in advance for this webinar.

Highlighting Black Voices: Dr. Kara-Aretha Graham

February 9, 2022

Please join UConn Community Outreach and UConn Dialogue Initiatives in welcoming Dr. Kara-Aretha Graham in the second installment of Highlighting Black Voices.

Dr. Graham joined the University of East London in 2020 as a lecturer in Sport, from Texas Tech University where she was a Post-Doctoral research fellow. Dr. Graham completed her Ph.D. in the College of Education and Kinesiology and Sport Management department, at Texas Tech University. Her dissertation focused on the experiences of female student athletes, using sport psychology practices to better understand their wellbeing. She was a NCAA Division one Student athlete at the University of Iowa. Held a coaching position at Missouri State University and was part of a $24,000,000 research grant that was awarded to Texas Tech.

This event will be held via WebEx on Monday, February 28th, from 1:00 to 2:00 PM.

Join us as we discuss with Dr. Graham her lived experience as a Black woman in athletics and academia, her research, and her future.

Black voices matter.

Navigating Graduate School with Disabilities

The UConn Graduate School, the UConn Center for Students with Disabilities, and the Office for Diversity and Inclusion invite the graduate education community to join us in a virtual panel this month, "Navigating Graduate School with Disabilities."

The panelists will be graduate students and graduate faculty who will share their experiences of navigating academia with a disability. We have also invited University staff from the Center for Students with Disabilities and Human Resources who are familiar with the accommodations process for grad students and grad assistants to share information and answer questions.

This event will be held via WebEX. on Thursday, February 10, from 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM. Please REGISTER in advance. A virtual link will be emailed after registration.

For more details and to register for the event, click here.

Captioning and ASL interpreters will be provided at the event. If there are other access elements we can help with, please contact: cinnamon.adams@uconn.edu

Statement from the President Addressing Sexual Violence

February 7, 2022

To the UConn Community:

As your president for seven days and faculty at UConn for 12 years, I place student well-being and success as my top priority.

Given discussions that have been taking place over the last several days among members of the university community, mainly on social media, I’m writing to you today about sexual assault and intimate partner violence on our campuses.

As you know, UConn cannot (and would not) discuss individual students or specific cases publicly. But there is a great deal we can say more broadly. First and foremost: I want you to know that the health, safety, and well-being of all of our students is our highest priority. UConn abhors sexual violence in all its forms and does its best to provide victims with compassionate care, resources, and much-needed support in the face of their trauma.

We also have a solemn and serious obligation to do all we can to combat, prevent, and address sexual assault in our community through the most effective strategies. We want to eradicate sexual violence. But policies and procedures alone will not achieve this. We need to work together to continually shape a culture on our campuses that is rooted in respect, awareness, supporting one another, and an extreme intolerance towards any form of sexual violence. Because our population is ever-changing, this work is never-ending and we can only be successful by working together.

No one should stand alone. To me, that is the unresolved question for our university: “What more must we do to support victims and increase education and awareness throughout our community?”

This question touches all of us, and I will need your help. In the same manner with which I participated in the President’s Task Force for Mental Health and Wellness and the Climate Action Task Force, I have asked Dean of Students Elly Daugherty to join me in bringing together students, staff, and faculty to assess our current educational programs for students (including orientation and online trainings), how we support victims of sexual violence, and the university’s processes regarding sexual assault and intimate partner violence. Determining what more we can do will be an essential question for me and my administration.

Finally, I want to mention that, in addition to serving as administrators at UConn, many of us are also parents. The safety and security we want for our students is the same safety and security we would want for our own families. Every student should know that you are not alone. I care about you and am here to listen or help in any way I can, as are many others at UConn.

For more information on resources and reporting sexual assault, harassment, stalking, and intimate partner violence at UConn, visit our Office of Institutional Equity website.

Sincerely,

Dr. Radenka Maric

Interim President | University of Connecticut
Office of the President: 860.486.2337

president@uconn.edu

Twitter: @UConnPresident

Instagram: @UConnPres

UConn is a great university.

But it’s more than that. A top-ranked research institution, with campuses and staff across Connecticut, built to inspire the global community that is UConn Nation. UConn’s talented students exceed expectations. Our expert researchers, faculty, and alumni drive Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship (CIE) for a better tomorrow. We fuel the State’s economy and are committed to benefiting the greater good. This is UConn.

STUDENTS FIRST, UCONN ALWAYS.