Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
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| Dear Community,
The start of a new year provides an opportunity to welcome our newest members to the Silver community and welcome back our returning students and colleagues. The beginning of the semester offers a reflective moment to offer care as we continue to learn, work, and grow together in the community. The Silver mission reminds us to advance social justice efforts and community care as we navigate the pandemic with grace, compassion, and empathy. Let us continue our anti-oppressive practices in our daily work and our interactions with one another.
The beginning of the year provides opportunities to reconnect and recommit to humanity with:
The DEI newsletter offers resources, information, and tools to help our collective action to build transparency, accountability, trust, and community at Silver. I wish you a restorative spring semester.
Sincerely,
Richeleen Dashield
Director, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
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| TransparencyHow, when, and to whom are we communicating important information? Are we only communicating when it is easy or also when it is not?
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Making Antiracism Institutional at SilverReflections by Chris Ferrara, Director of Strategic Communications, Kate Hogan, Senior Graphic Designer, & Laura Morrison, Associate Director of Communications of the Office of Communications (silver.communications@nyu.edu)
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| How does the communications team advance social justice in its work?
The communications team at Silver is committed to a fully inclusive approach and practice. We are responsible for developing and implementing Silver’s internal and external communications, from our website, news stories, and social media posts, to our Scholarship & Impact and Inside Silver e-newsletters, and much more. We also consult with and assist School leadership and other departments across Silver to promote clarity, transparency, and accountability.
We work with staff, students, and alumnx across the School. We are mindful of our power in shaping the School’s narrative and are intentional in seeking to elevate and amplify the voices of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and members of other historically marginalized communities. We share out about and show up at events sponsored by BIPOC and other marginalized community members and we also volunteer on the School’s Social Justice Praxis Committee and Antiracism Seminar for Staff Work Group.
How does the communications team hold itself accountable to anti-racist practice?
As three white, cisgender women, we are acutely aware of our positionality, privilege, participation in white supremacy, and our personal responsibilty to work to dismantle racism and other forms of systemic oppression within ourselves, NYU Silver, and the wider society.
Toward that end, we strive to educate ourselves through trainings, presentations, readings, and other resources, and all three of us hold ourselves accountable through active participation in Silver's Faculty and Staff White Accountability Group, NYU’s White Administrators Talk Race (WATR), and NYU Administrative Management Council’s (AMC) Brave Conversations, a space where meaningful dialogue around the topic of racial equality and equity takes place. We are also developing our facilitation skills and seek opportunities to engage in this work at Silver and more broadly at NYU.
We recognize that combating white supremacy within ourselves and society is lifelong work and we have considerable room to grow in our antiracist practice. We strive to learn from mistakes and missed opportunities and to do better.
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| TrustHow are we following through on our responsibility to antiracism? What actions are we taking to ensure all members of the Silver community are protected against bias?
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Climate SupportNYU Silver is committed to building a community where every person is valued, welcomed and supported by campus-wide collaborative efforts that advance diversity, equity, and inclusion.
In the event students do experience harm as a result of identity-based bias, discrimination, harrassment, and/or retaliation, our Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, in collaboration with many community partners, has developed a Silver Climate Support Protocol for Students. It is designed to empower the person who has been targeted by facilitating community care and restorative resolution, providing support in reporting to NYU’s Bias Response Line, as well as offering peer assistance in navigating both the University- and School-level processes.
Below are some frequently asked questions regarding the Climate Support Protocol.
What kinds of support can I expect from Silver’s Climate Support Protocol?
Our Silver Climate Support Team members are available to meet with students, faculty, and staff to discuss your experience, provide guidance on using the NYU Bias Response Line, and to help guide you through procedures, available resources, and a resolution plan. Our Silver Peer Advocates are also available to help you navigate this journey. In addition, we have restorative justice consultants to offer healing circles for individuals, groups, and classes. You belong; you matter; and we care.
To whom should I report an incident?
If you have experienced or have witnessed harm due to identity-based bias, discrimination, harassment, and/or retaliation, you should contact the Bias Response Line where you will be able to submit reports without providing identifying information.
Whom should I contact to access Silver Climate Support?
For Students: Please contact Richeleen Dashield, our Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion ( rad9975@nyu.edu) or Courtney O’Mealley, our Associate Dean, Student Affairs ( courtney.omealley@nyu.edu).
For Faculty and Staff: Please contact Richeleen Dashield, our Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion ( rad9975@nyu.edu), Evelyn Kleinbardt, Director, Administrative Services ( evelyn.kleinbardt@nyu.edu), and Robert L. Hawkins, Associate Dean, Academic and Faculty Affairs, ( silver.oafa@nyu.edu)
Who should I contact in case of an emergency?
In case of an emergency, please call 911, Public Safety at 212-998-2222, or the Wellness Exchange at 212-443-9999.
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Real Conversations!Real Conversations! is a drop-in wellness group for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) students from the BA, MSW, DSW, and PhD programs. To advance Silver‘s Action Against Racism, Dr. Tiffany Llewellyn of the Student Health Counseling & Wellness Services, Peer Advocates - Aadya Bhatia and Gerri Connaught, and DEI Director Richeleen Dashield provide socioemotional support for students. If you need a supportive network, please contact us at (insert alias email). BIPOC students may register for Real Conversations below to attend the sessions planned for Mondays at 5 pm.
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| CommunityHow are we creating an environment for healing and working together? Are we resisting isolation and allowing ourselves to be seen?
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White Accountability Group
There are currently two cohorts of the Faculty and Staff WAG. The first group meets every other Tuesday from 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EST, with the next meeting on Tuesday, February 1. This group completed Layla Saad’s Me and White Supremacy last year and now covers different DEI related topics each month. The second group meets every other Friday from 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM EST, with the next session on Friday, February 4. This group is currently reading and reflecting on the journaling prompts in Me and White Supremacy.
If interested in joining a Faculty and Staff cohort, please email silver.fs.whiteaccountability@nyu.edu.
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Community Spotlight Reji Mathews, Senior Clinical Social Worker at Counseling & Wellness - NYU Student Health Center & Silver Adjunct Assistant Professor
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Reji Methew is a Silver alum and has been a clinical adjunct associate professor for 10 years. She is also a senior clinician on campus at the NYU Student Health Center. Professor Mathew hosts the podcast, Intersectionality, Disability & The Expressive Arts, so that other disabled clinicians know they are not alone and can find their way in the field.
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A Conversation with Isabel Wilkerson: Grappling with Race and Caste in America
Pulitzer Prize-winning author of New York Times bestseller The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Isabel Wilkerson, will be recognized as the inaugural winner of the NYU/Axinn Foundation Prize. Wilkerson will be in conversation with Professor Rachel Swarns of the NYU Carter Journalism Institute.
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Latinx in Social Work Discussion Series
Holding the Weight of Whiteness
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On January 27, authors from the best-selling book Latinx in Social Work came together for a panel discussion on “Holding the Weight of Whiteness,” hosted by Richeleen Dashield, MBA, SPHR, and Luisa Lopez, MSW. The authors reflected on their experiences as minorities in the field of social work, the burdens they carried as students of color in predominantly White institutions, and how aspiring social workers of color can take back their narratives to assist and strengthen their communities.
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Mornings at Silver: Restoration, Advocacy, and Wellness
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Mornings at Silver is a live online presentation series led by Professor Pia Raymond. This series focuses on strengthening self-reflection and self-care. Each presentation counts towards 2 CE contact hours approved by NYSED and ASWB/ACE.
Join Professor Raymond for upcoming presentations:
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Dr. Eric Rice: Speaker for Constance and Martin Silver Center on Data Science and Social Equity
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On February 4, the Constance and Martin Silver Center on Data Science and Social Equity will be hosting guest speaker, Dr. Eric Rice of USC, who will present on scholarship in the field of data science for social equity impact and enhanced research training for NYU Silver PhD students.
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| AccountabilityHow are we holding each other accountable for antiracism?
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Silver Antiracism Staff TrainingDay of (Un)Learning
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On January 13, the Silver Antiracism Staff Training Workgroup hosted the Day of (Un)Learning, which focused on the lived histories of Indigenous peoples in the United States and the effects of oppressive, colonial practices that persist in our institutions and systems. Logan Jacobs, Program Coordinator of the NYU-Yale American Indian Sovereignty Project at NYU Law, and Silver’s Director of Career & Professional Development, Sooah Kwak, led this insightful training. A recording is available as well as a resource packet. Also, listen to the introductory playlist inspired by Indigenous North American artists.
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Tolerance and Risk - A Conversation with NYU Professor Mitra Rasteger
February 7, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
Mitra Rastegar is a clinical associate professor of liberal studies at NYU. In her 2021 book, Tolerance and Risk: How US Liberalism Racializes Muslims, Rastegar explains how representations of tolerable or sympathetic Muslims produce them as a population with distinct characteristics, capacities, and risks and circulate standards by which the trustworthiness or threat of individual Muslims must be assessed. On February 7, Rastegar will host a virtual conversation exploring these discourses as a component of the racialization of Muslims.
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Insight into Diversity: New Law Requires California Colleges to Update Records of ‘Deadnamed’ Transgender StudentsAt the start of January, California became the first state to enforce public institutions to update the records of students who have legally changed their names and gender.
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First row (left to right): Richeleen Dashield (Director, Office of DEI), Liz Galimore (Administrative Aide II), Sharifa Amin (Social Work Intern)
Second row (left to right): Aadya Bhatia (Silver Climate Peer Advocate), Gerri Connaught (Silver Climate Peer Advocate), Lilia Vidal (Social Work Intern)
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| Share Antiracism Resources!If you have antiracism resources you would like to share for the next edition of the newsletter we have limited spots available. Please email silver.DEI@nyu.edu with the subject "DEI Newsletter Submission."
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