In this issue:
-
Getting ready for MLK Social Justice Week
-
Poet, activist Nikki Giovanni to speak at Pitt
-
UPSIDE, CJC award-winners announced
-
Campus climate survey begins Jan. 16
-
Meet OEDI’s Jennifer Sinclair
|
|
|
|
May we use 2023 as a year to serve
The beginning of the spring semester provides the opportunity for us to prioritize our focus on the year ahead and on our new year’s resolutions. I hope the start to your year has been positive.
While we’re focusing our attention on our goals, I encourage all of us to think about ways we can serve our community (and beyond) to advance equity, inclusion, accessibility, and opportunity for everyone. As we prepare to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. next week, may we be reminded that service to others was central to his message.
In a famous sermon delivered in 1968, just two months before he was murdered by an assassin, Dr. King urged his church congregation to avoid the “Drum Major Instinct”—the feeling that we should be leading a parade in our own honor, with all eyes watching us. Dr. King pointed out that the Christian Bible’s definition of “greatness” doesn’t include fancy clothes, a fine home, or other material wealth; instead, he said, the greatest among us are those who are called to serve the less fortunate.
By that definition, Dr. King was saying that every person can achieve greatness, because everyone has the capacity for service. So as we remember Dr. King on Monday, let’s all reflect on the various ways we are currently serving, and preparing to serve, the community both on- and off-campus.
The University has traditionally encouraged each of us to mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day by volunteering in some service to the community. We encourage you to support MLK Social Justice Week activities at Pitt.
Before we know it, February will be here, and we’ll be observing Black History Month. The theme this year, as selected by a national group of historians and scholars, is “Black Resistance.”
The theme represents an opportunity for each of us to reflect not just on the history of struggle for equity, humanity, and social justice, but also on the need for contemporary efforts to promote progress. The need for Black resistance to confront injustice and encourage activism, social justice, and racial equality is alive and well.
Throughout 2023, may we be reminded that when we answer the call to resist oppression in all forms and act against intolerance, we are performing a greater service to humanity, just as Dr. King encouraged us to do.
Your OEDI team is excited about the semester ahead and the opportunity—and need—to advance our work. While the values of social justice inform our activities all year long, next week is a welcome opportunity to gather and celebrate those values, as well as the life of Martin Luther King Jr., who made the ultimate sacrifice to uphold them.
I’m looking forward to our time together this semester and the various events we have planned across our campuses next week and beyond. I look forward to celebrating social justice and honoring Dr. King’s legacy with you next week.
Sincerely,
Clyde Wilson Pickett
Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion
Chief Diversity Officer
|
|
|
|
Celebrating MLK Social Justice Week
|
|
In partnership with the Division of Student Affairs, the Office for Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion is proud to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
King once said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” Pitt annually commemorates Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a day of service, which reminds each of us how much work remains to fulfill King’s dream.
On Monday, students, faculty, and staff from throughout the Pitt community will be volunteering their time to help a wide variety of non-profit groups and causes.
Other events include:
Monday: The 2018 documentary “King in the Wilderness” will be screened on the Bradford Campus.
Tuesday: Poet and activist Nikki Giovanni will speak at 7 p.m. in the Connelly Ballroom of Alumni Hall.
Wednesday: Pitt’s annual social justice symposium will be held as a hybrid event. This year’s theme is “From Surviving to Thriving: Culturally Relevant Emotional Wellness.”
Thursday: A luncheon in the William Pitt Union will honor winners of the Creating a Just Community Award and UPSIDE Award.
The School of Social Work and the Black Girl Equity Alliance will screen “On These Grounds.” A panel discussion will follow.
Friday: The Center on Race and Social Problems will screen the film “How Does It Feel To Be a Problem?” at the Frick Fine Arts Building. A community dialogue will follow.
Register for these and other events
|
|
Award-winning poet to speak here Tuesday
|
|
As a child growing up in Knoxville, Tenn., and Cincinnati, Ohio, Nikki Giovanni always seemed to be suffering from colds and allergies that kept her home from school. That turned out to be a happy accident, she said, “because it meant I could read the books I wanted to read.”
Giovanni’s mother had a well-stocked library, filled with books by Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, Paul Laurence Dunbar and other significant Black authors, Giovanni wrote on her website recently.
“My dream was not to publish or to even be a writer,” she said. “My dream was to discover something no one else had thought of. I guess that’s why I’m a poet. We put things together in ways no one else does.”
Giovanni, a seven-time winner of the NAACP Image Award, will speak in the Connelly Ballroom of Pitt’s Alumni Hall at 7 p.m. Jan. 17 as part of a week-long slate of events to mark Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Social Justice Week. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Clyde Wilson Pickett, the University’s chief diversity officer and vice chancellor for equity, diversity & inclusion will serve as moderator.
Tickets are free but registration is required
|
|
Luncheon will honor social-justice champions
Colleagues from across the University will gather Jan. 19 in the Assembly Room of the William Pitt Union to honor this year’s winners of the Martin Luther King Jr. Creating a Just Community Award and the University Prize for Strategic, Inclusive, & Diverse Excellence.
|
|
The ‘Race & ... ’ Initiative
Created in 2016, the University Prize for Strategic, Inclusive, & Diverse Excellence is presented each year to the outstanding school, division, initiative, or program area making a significant contribution to increasing diversity and inclusion. The UPSIDE award recognizes efforts to increase access and participation in all aspects of the University.
This year’s winner is the “Race & ...” Initiative of the Office of Faculty Diversity & Development and the Office of Health Sciences Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion. “Race & ...” is an intensive, multi-disciplinary effort to increase participation, education, research, and outreach to, and by, minorities, women, and other under-represented groups. The work has included strong progress in recruitment and retention of Black, Hispanic, and Latinx faculty and staff; as well as the organization of the ongoing “Race & ... ” Lecture Series; the “Race & ...” Research Collaboratories; the annual Race@Work summer retreat; and the “Race & ...” Conference.
|
|
Michele Reid-Vazquez
The Creating a Just Community Award debuted in 2014. It recognizes Pitt faculty and staff members who have made outstanding efforts to create a more just, equitable, and inclusive University community.
This year’s recipient is Michele Reid-Vazquez, associate professor in the Department of Africana Studies. She is the founding director of the Center for Ethnic Studies Research and leads the Afrolatinidad Studies Initiative. She serves as the faculty advisor for the Latinx Student Association and the ADDverse+poesia Poetry Collective. She is also the host and executive producer of the podcast “Dialogues in Afrolatinidad,” launched in 2021.
|
|
Campus climate survey opens Jan. 16
|
Beginning next week, all members of the Pitt community will be asked to express their opinions on how the University is upholding values such as equity, inclusion, diversity, and accessibility.
The University has commissioned the Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium to conduct a “Diversity and Equity” study of all students, faculty, staff, and administrators.
A link to the survey will be found in your University email beginning Jan. 16, and responses are due by Feb. 10.
It’s the first time Pitt has ever done a campus-wide survey of this scope and nature.
Answers will be anonymous and completing the survey should take about 15 minutes.
Learn more at diversity.pitt.edu.
|
|
|
|
Meet Jennifer Sinclair
Jennifer joined OEDI on Dec. 12 as executive assistant to Clyde Pickett, vice chancellor and chief diversity officer, after previously working in a similar role at the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf in Edgewood.
From her office on the 18th Floor of the Cathedral of Learning, Jennifer is also supporting other members of the OEDI staff. A 2003 graduate of the University, she was born and raised in Pittsburgh and currently resides with her spouse and their children, ages 9 and 12, in the South Hills.
Her hobbies include photography, hiking, and traveling — the family has visited 16 European countries, and spent one year living in Sweden, where they saw the Northern Lights and met William, Prince of Wales, and his wife, the former Kate Middleton.
|
|
|
|
“Freedom House Ambulance: The FIRST Responders”
7:30 p.m. Jan. 16
WQED-TV (13)
This new 30-minute documentary explores the rise and fall of Freedom House Ambulance, America’s first EMT paramedic service, comprised solely of Black men and women recruited from Pittsburgh’s Hill District neighborhood. Freedom House Ambulance was a pioneer in pre-hospital and CPR care. Despite its success, racism and power dynamics in Pittsburgh shut down Freedom House in 1975, leaving its legacy almost lost to history.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Pittsburgh Racial Justice Summit
Jan. 20-21
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
616 N. Highland Ave.
The Pittsburgh Racial Justice Summit is an annual conference which looks at the current needs of our community to create ways to dismantle systemic injustice.
Registration
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
12 noon Jan. 26
Center on Race and Social Problems
Room 2017, Cathedral of Learning
Dr. Mosopefoluwa Lanlokun, assistant professor of pediatrics in the School of Medicine, will present “Health Disparities in Asthma Care.”
Registration
|
|
|
|
|
|
K. Leroy Irvis Black History Month
February 2023
Across campus
Black History Month is celebrated annually during the month of February to acknowledge and celebrate the important contributions of people of African descent to our nation's life and culture.
The University’s celebration is named in honor of K. Leroy Irvis (right), a Pitt Law graduate and civil-rights attorney who served as the first Black speaker of Pennsylvania’s General Assembly. This year’s theme is “Black Resistance: Agency and Power of the Lived Experience.”
Read more
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
February 2023
City-County Building
414 Grant St.
Throughout the month of February, the University of Pittsburgh Library System and the City of Pittsburgh’s Office of Special Events will present a series of programming and historic displays in the City-County Building’s grand lobby. Visit the city’s website for more information.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Follow us on social media—tag us with #PittDiversity
|
|
|
|
