Updates from CODI

A warm welcome to the first of what will be a monthly newsletter brought to you by the Committee on Diversity and Inclusion (CODI)!

Each installment of the CODI newsletter will include a brief update on the most recent initiatives that CODI is working on and will highlight upcoming events and activities that promote diversity and inclusion on campus or in the local community. We also intend for this to be a source of learning by sharing new resources available in the library and including educational pieces related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. We welcome feedback and suggestions for content and hope that this becomes a helpful resource for EMU. 

As co-chairs of CODI, we hope to continue the good work that has gone on before us - promoting initiatives that further EMU’s commitment to becoming a campus that is just, equitable, and that fosters a sense of belonging for every student, staff, and faculty member. We are encouraged by the students, staff, and faculty members who have reached out to share ideas, to partner with CODI on initiatives, and to work for a more just and equitable campus. Some things we have worked on recently include:

• Hosting a webinar on supporting first-generation students of color in higher education

• Planning events for educating faculty and staff

• Promoting other events that educate campus community about diversity and equity

• Envisioning and applying the recently approved Diversity and Inclusion Plan passed last year 

• Gathering campus data related to diversity and inclusion 

• and more.

We are interested in your ideas. If you have things that you think would make this a more inclusive and welcoming campus, we want to hear from you. Reach out to us at codi@emu.edu and let us know what you’re interested in working on!

With excitement,

Kathy Evans & Erick Camodeca

CODI Co-Chairs

Things We Need to Know

“Our immigrant plant teachers offer a lot of different models for how not to make themselves welcome on a new continent. Garlic mustard poisons the soil so that native species will die. Tamarisk uses up all the water. Foreign invaders like loosestrife, kudzu, and cheat grass have the colonizing habit of taking over others’ homes and growing without regard to limits. But Plantain is not like that. Its strategy was to be useful, to fit into small places, to coexist with others around the dooryard, to heal wounds. Plantain is so prevalent, so well integrated, that we think of it as native. It has earned the name bestowed by botanists for plants that have become our own. Plantain is not indigenous but “naturalized.”

- Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

On October 14, a student-led initiative gathered together students, staff and faculty to discuss ways in which EMU can stand in solidarity with Indigenous Peoples, both with our campus community, regionally, and around the world. The lunch conversation, hosted on Indigenous People’s Day, used the Mennonite World Conference’s “Declaration of Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples” as insupration to guide the conversation. The time together generated many creative and practical ideas for how the EMU community can intentionally center the voices of indigenous people on our campus and ways we can build meaningful and reciprocal relationship with native peoples in our region and beyond. 

Tala Bautista and Yasmiene Mabrouk, as well as other students, have been cultivating a relationship between EMU and the Monacan Nation, who are headquartered in Amherst County in the Blue Ridge Mountains and is one of the few American Indian tribes that were not fully displaced from their ancestral homeland. You can learn more about our neighbors to the south by visiting their website or by paying them a visit.

With that in mind, we want to bring attention to National Native American Heritage month! Since 1990, Congress has designated November as National American Indian Heritage Month which aims to recognize and celebrate Native Americans. Such recognition dates back further with state and organizational recognition of indigenous peoples days and commemorations occurring at the turn of the twentieth century. Dr. Arthur C. Parker, a Seneca Indian and co-founder of the Society of American Indians in 1911, organized American Indian Day beginning in 1915.

As we recognize the importance of this month, may we commit ourselves to an ongoing practice that will deepen conversations within the EMU community to: bring about new ways of understanding, help us understand our limits and our gifts, and to cultivate a presence that heals wounds.

If you would like to be more involved in this work on campus, contact us at codi@emu.edu.