Week of February 17-21

Volume 12, Issue 3

“Laws made by common consent must not be trampled by individuals.”  

—George Washington (Today, February 17, is President’s Day. Learn more about George Washington.)

February 1–28 (Learn more)

Student Spotlight: Dasani Thomas

Dasani is majoring in sociology, minoring in child and adult advocacy, and graduating in May 2026. She is a student worker in the Office of Student Billing and is president of Collegiate Women in Progress. Dasani is a peer mentor for the Promising Scholars program, a competitive scholarship program supporting the success of outstanding minority and first-generation college students. She shared that this role is very important to her, as her own first semester as a student was challenging. With the support of her faculty and peers, she was able to find her place at IUP and has been named to the Dean’s List multiple times. She is so pleased now to encourage and assist first-year students on their college journey. We thank you, Dasani!

Staff Spotlight: Rachel Sternfeld

Rachel is a faculty member in the Department of History, Philosophy, Political Science, and Religious Studies and enjoys bringing the perspectives of other countries and of people outside the United States to the IUP campus. She is a political scientist with regional expertise in the Middle East, especially the Arab states, and has lived in both Egypt and Syria. Rachel is a member of the Asian Studies Committee and the Pan-African Studies Committee, as the Arab world spans these two continents. (As part of the latter, she will give a talk this week on the civil war in Sudan for a Black History Month Lunch and Learn. See below.) Rachel has held various positions in APSCUF and currently serves as the IUP representative to the statewide Legislative Assembly, as chair of the IUP Membership Committee, and as the IUP APSCUF delegate to the Indiana-Armstrong Central Labor Council (CLC). Since 2020, she has served as president of the CLC, a local organization that brings union members from all sectors together to support one another and the working people of the two counties more broadly. We thank you, Rachel!

Digest issues are emailed every Monday morning. Send all information concerning your event to social-equity@iup.edu, and we will include it in the appropriate weekly issue. Please be sure to enter your event in the online DIVERSITY, STUDENT, and CENTRAL CALENDARS so that it will receive wider marketing and achieve greater attendance.

Elise Glenn

Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer/Title IX Coordinator

B-17 Delaney Hall

social-equity@iup.edu

title-ix@iup.edu