Fy 2019-2020 Annual Report
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~ OFFICE OF DIVERSITY AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT MULTICULTURAL CENTER FY 2019-2020 ANNUAL REPORT ~ TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Executive Summary 03 II. Points of Pride 04 III. COVID-19 05 IV. General Information a. Mission/Core Values/Organization Chart 07 b. Total Programs/Visitors Profile/ Visits 08 c. Webpage/Social Media 09 d. Satisfaction Survey 10 V. Programs and Services by Center Areas a. Cultural Celebrations 11 b. Student Success & Outreach 23 c. Diversity Education 31 VI. Professional Staff Activity a. University Committee Service 39 b. Presentations 40 c. Travel/Professional Development 41 VII. End 43 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ TRIUMPH, TRAGEDY AND TRANSITION This year marked a year of Triumph, Tragedy and Transition. The Multicultural Center has been a place of support and refuge for students, staff and faculty. We have continued to provide programming, education and opportunity for the campus community. However, we have been challenged by the COVID-19 Pandemic as well as heightened Racial and Civil Justice unrest to reframe, redesign, and reimagine our programming. During this time of transition, we were able to pivot and provide over 137 programs, with approximately 15,995 in attendance. We also managed to accommodate over *4,000 visits from students, faculty, staff, and off campus guest, while maintaining an 87% satisfaction rate among our visitors. We think that those numbers are pretty impressive! We’ve had an amazing presence on Social Media as well. We are very proud to say that we truly stand by our motto: Student Centered. Diversity Driven. This year we experienced the death of an unarmed Black Man by police on national television. The death of George Floyd brought on a heighten awareness of racial and social injustice in the country and at UT Dallas. We were able to provide a space and opportunity for our campus community to process, heal, educate and learn, with the help of partnerships with the Student Counseling Center and the Black Faculty Staff Alliance. The “Enough is Enough: A Conversation about Racism in America”, brought together over 250 students, staff, faculty and administration in a townhall forum to hear the voices of some of our Black Students. Also, the Multicultural Center Staff has done a great job of engaging our current students in the mission of the university to assist in the recruitment and retention of URM students. The creation of the Diversity Ambassador’s Program to advise and assist our Diversity Education Team has helped in the expansion and creation of new Diversity Workshops with topics such as: Social Media and Diversity, Implicit Bias, Generation E and Mental Health in Communities of Color. The hiring of a new Coordinator for Cultural Events and Programs has increased the participation of our student leaders and participants in our cultural events and programs in person and virtual. As we continue to work remotely and program virtually, our Team has found ways to continue to serve and connect with our constituents in multiple ways. The commitment to the university and the Multicultural Center has only grown deeper during this Pandemic. Although, the doors of the Multicultural Center are physically closed the MC is still open for student support, connection, programming, activism and education. *4,000 is reflective of the number of contacts signed into the Multicultural Center and not the individual number of students. Arthur GreGG Assistant Vice President/Multicultural Affairs Director/Multicultural Center 3 POINTS OF PRIDE __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Enough is Enough: “A Conversation about Racism in America” The Multicultural Center in collaboration with Black Student Alliance, Women In Social Engagement (WISE) and the Student Counseling Center held its first virtual racial injustice event. This event was in response to the death of George Floyd and other Black Men and Women killed by police. Over 250 students, faculty and staff were in attendance virtually via Microsoft Teams. The forum included a discussion on the racial violence in America facilitated by student leaders, faculty, and staff. The forum was developed to focus on issues dealing with racial injustice in the United States. Also, there was a dialogue surrounding student voices and their lived experiences along with measures students can take to affect meaningful change. A few positive comments from the program evaluations included: "I really appreciate the openness and sincerity this forum created. It was heartbreaking, eye-opening and beautiful". The students' stories were impactful, and I appreciate their courage in sharing". Thank you for organizing, discussing hard but real problems, and allowing others to listen in as a learning opportunity. SBSLC 2020 The Multicultural Center celebrates the diversity of our Underrepresented Minority (URM) students who have been influential in this year’s leadership conferences and programs. With an increase of over 94% of students who attended these programs from the following year, this year marks the fifth year that UT-Dallas was represented by 33 African, African American and Hispanic student leaders from the African Student Union, Black Student Alliance, National Society of Black Engineers, Student Success Assistants, and Undergraduate Success Scholars (USS) program at the Southwestern Black Student Leadership Conference held at Texas A&M University College Station, TX. With the growth in Advance Leadership Institute (A.L.I) participation, one student represented UT Dallas for the fifth year in the A.L.I Oratorical contest. This year’s A.L.I. Oratorical winner was Ifunaya Ngadi, senior, Political Science major. Virtual Welcome Back Block Party The Multicultural Center held the 6th Welcome Back Block Party as a part of the 50th anniversary of UT Dallas during Weeks of Welcome. This year’s event was different the Block party was held virtually via Twitch, a new technology that allows for virtual engagement. The event was cohosted by two rising juniors, Eric Aaberg and Crystal Ngantcha, and music was provided by our DJ-in-residence DJ Juice. Our program continued to allow students to be educated about the partnering offices’ programs and services. We were able to engage a myriad of students to become social media influencers for this event thus allowing us to garner over 1,500 viewers online for the event. The users generated over 6,000 messages and images in the event chat. This sensational event continues to bring a diverse cross-section of students spanning generations, ethnicities, classifications, majors, languages and now zip codes. We look forward to developing a future hybridized Block Party to be held in person and virtually. 4 MLK Jr. Dream Week Day of Service In January of 2020, the Multicultural Center held its inaugural MLk Jr. Dream Week which consisted of the Diversity Dialogues, MLk Unity Walk, the 20th annual MLk Celebration Breakfast, and the 4th Annual MLk Day of Service. The Diversity Dialogues program featured Dr. Kimberly Hill, associate professor of History who reminded attendees of the social justice focused activism of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and those who marched with him. Dream Week also included a new event — the first campus Unity Walk in honor of the legacy and values of king. Though inclement weather forced the event to be held inside the Student Union, students heard speakers and joined in songs from the civil rights era. Thursday ushered in the 20th annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Breakfast which featured spoken word artist and alumna Shyleesa “ShySpeaks” Amos and the former Texas Representative Helen Giddings, a legislator who helped secure state funding for the University’s Academic Bridge Program, which has helped 800 high-potential students from Dallas-area urban high schools succeed at UT Dallas. The annual MLk Day of Service drew 175 volunteers from a wide range of campus groups, including the UT Dallas Cultural Scholars, the Black Faculty and Staff Alliance, the Diversity Scholars Program, Jindal OutREACH, Living Learning Communities, the Multicultural Center, the Office of Student Volunteerism, the Office of Sustainability, Tau Sigma National Honor Society, the Terry Foundation Scholars program and the Undergraduate Success Scholars program. These volunteers came together to pack over 30,000 meals in one hour under the leadership of Feeding Children Everywhere, a national nonprofit organization created to creating a hunger-free world. Spring Workshop Series/Culture & Cinema Series This year we created and developed our student Diversity Education Ambassadors program. These students worked with our staff to create two very successful and diverse spring programs. We held five successful spring workshops and four programs in our new Culture and Cinema Series. We concluded the semester with a total of nine programs and an attendance of 229 students. The Workshop series topics included; Social Media and Diversity, Implicit Bias, Generation E, Mental Health. The Culture and Cinema Series included; Always Be My Maybe, Understanding Islam, Spiderman, Becoming, and The Help. The vastness and