Diversity and Multicultural Affairs NEWSLETTER INDEX Staff bios page 2 National Coming Out Week page 4 Brotherhood page 4 Bees page 5 Why I Love the Office page 6 Graduate Multicultural Student Symposium (GMSS) page 6 Trans Day of Remembrance page 7 MLK Day page 7 Folkorico page 8 18th Pride Dinner page 9 ALANA 2016 page 9
WELCOME FROM THE DIRECTOR The 2015-2016 academic year has flown by, and the diversity and multicultural affairs team has accomplished much. As we complete our third year as a fully functioning area at Salem State University, we wanted to make sure that we take the opportunity to showcase all of the amazing work that we have done thus far. The mission of the diversity and multicultural affairs office is to sustain a campus environment that embraces and celebrates difference. With that being said, we work diligently to advocate for those that remain historically underrepresented and marginalized in higher education, and commit to creating solutions and strategies to ensure possibilities for positive experiences and success at Salem State. The programs and experiences highlighted in this newsletter only reaffirm the need for us to do more and work collaboratively with a variety of areas in hopes of meeting our mission. If this is your first time becoming familiar with diversity and multicultural affairs’ initiatives and resources, we ask that this newsletter serve as an invitation to become invested and knowledgeable about the continuous work we are doing around diversity and equity at Salem State. And for those that continue to be accomplices to our shared vision for diversity and multicultural affairs, we hope that you will take pride in what we have accomplished thus far, and we look forward to continuing our work alongside you. Looking forward to the 2016-2017 academic year! Sincerely, Rebecca Comage, Director 1
From left to right: Julia R. Golden, David Hosty, Mia-Kay Fuller, Nayeli Lopez and Rebecca D. Comage
STAFF BIOS: DIRECTORS:
Rebecca D. Comage
Rebecca was named the inaugural director of the diversity and multicultural affairs office in May 2013. As the director of the office the most rewarding thing that Rebecca gets to do is create programs and initiatives that assist students in navigating the institution, and taking ownership of their college experience. She is reminded everyday of why the work that diversity and multicultural affairs does is critical in fulfilling the mission of Salem State.
Julia R. Golden
Julia has been a part of the diversity and multicultural affairs office since June 2015. As the assistant director and LGBTQ liaison, the most rewarding thing that Julia gets to do is have honest and awesome conversations with students about their goals, thoughts and aspirations. She says that students know why they are here at Salem State and have a lot to accomplish with their time here at the university, and she feels excited that they share these thoughts with her.
GRADUATE RETENTION FELLOWS: David Hosty
This is David’s first year as a graduate retention fellow for the diversity and multicultural affairs office. Being involved in the office gives him the opportunity to create and foster new relationships with students and staff. David finds great joy in learning about different individuals and loves to hear their stories.
Shanee LeBaron
Shanee has been a part of the diversity and multicultural affairs office for a year now. What Shanee finds most rewarding about working in the office are the student ambassadors and the students. They give her the strength and determination to continuously create programs for them and the institution.
Nayeli Lopez
Nayeli has been a graduate retention fellow for the diversity and multicultural affairs office since August 2015. The office is Nayeli’s home away from home, and she learns a lot from her interactions with students as they inspire her to be a better person each day. Nayeli has also grown both personally and professionally by empowering students of color and programming BEES (Bold, Educated, Empowered, Sisters). She loves her job and is happy to be working with great supervisors who help her reach her full potential and are great role models in this field of diversity. Nayeli loves to motivate, inspire, and help students be successful.
Mia-Kay Fuller
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Mia-Kay has been a part of the diversity and multicultural affairs office for two years now. Her favorite part about being involved with the office is being able to work with students who are ready to create an active change on their campus in order to make their experience at college a successful one. Mia-Kay says that the students at Salem State University are amazing and powerful and she considers it an honor to advocate for their success.
(From left to right: Daniel Delgado, PhD, Rebecca D. Comage, Leeanna Singleton, Activist Rosa Clemente, Shanee Lebaron, Andrew Duperval and Nayeli Lopez. In front Julia R. Golden). This photo was taken for the Hispanic Heritage Month event, “The Construction of Race and Power in America.�
STUDENT AMBASSADORS: Leeanna Singleton
Leeanna, a communications major, has been a part of the diversity and multicultural affairs office for a year now. As a student ambassador, she loves being a part of a hardworking team full of people who are passionate about multiculturalism and social justice.
Yaira Matos
Yaira is a political science major, and she has been a student ambassador for the diversity and multicultural affairs office for six months. Her favorite part about being involved with the office is finding peers, mentors and staff who make her feel connected to a community of passionate, intelligent, social justice-oriented individuals.
Andrew Duperval
Andrew, a business and economics double major with a computer science minor, has been a student ambassador for the diversity and multicultural affairs office for a year now. Andrew enjoys being around the people that he works with because they are so welcoming and understanding of any issues that he may be going through. He says that they are open-minded and very inviting.
Jade Foote
Jade is a communications major, and this is her first year as a student ambassador for the diversity and multicultural affairs office. Jade’s favorite part about being involved with the office is being around such amazing people. She loves sharing experiences with them, laughing with them and having discussions about the things that matter to them.
Nyerrie Hale
Nyerrie, an English major, has been a part of the diversity and multicultural affairs office for two years. As a student ambassador, what is most rewarding to Nyerrie are the revelations that he and many other students have when participating in events with the office.
Belkis Frias
Belkis is an international business major, and she has been a student ambassador for the diversity and multicultural affairs office since September 2015. Belkis loves that she gets the opportunity to be part of a space that stands to create equality and advocates for students of color like herself.
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National Coming Out Week By Mia-Kay Fuller
When I started my position within diversity and multicultural affairs, I did not fully understand how LGBTQIA+ students were supported on campus. What I quickly learned was that, beyond the welcoming environment of our center for students to come have conversations, debates and vent sessions, we were constantly having inclusivity trainings for students, faculty and staff. While we were doing good work on campus to support and retain our students, we wanted to see what would happen when we stepped it up and followed in the footsteps of other great institutions. Thus, National Coming Out Week had its first appearance at Salem State University in October of 2014. National Coming Out Week started as a weeklong series of events ranging from our SafeZone 101 trainings, to our Coming Out Stories Panel, to a Speak Out! where students could creatively express their identities on Alumni Plaza. While the weeklong series of events stayed for the second year, we introduced some new ones: Rainbow Flag Raising, Trans and Queer People of Color SafeZone trainings and the Rainbow Resource Fair, where students could interact with local LGBTQIA+ support systems (including nAGLY and North Shore Pride) to understand not only how their community could help them, but also how they could get more involved in the North Shore with things they are passionate about. As I look back on National Coming Out Week, I am amazed at the growth of it and how well received it has been by the entire Salem State community. Not only were we able to raise a rainbow flag on North Campus (something I would have never thought possible during my undergrad here), but we were also able to create community specific trainings to support intersectionality within the LGBTQIA+ community and engage our students civically to feel more supported and welcome during their time at the institution. I cannot wait to see what it is going to develop into and how our students are going to be positively affected by this program in the future!
The Brotherhood By David Hosty
The Brotherhood has had a tremendous academic year highlighted with fun and educational activities and programs. In October, the diversity and multicultural affairs office hosted its annual Barbershop Talk event. This event is created to offer members of the Brotherhood and other students who identify as a person of color a space to converse about topics that pertain to them. For this event, we invite local barbers from the Northshore community to join in on the conversation and provide our students free haircuts. Our conversation focused on “what it meant to be a man,� particularly on the social implications of being a male person of color in society. These young men, during this conversation, had great energy and were passionate about learning how to become better men as a collective unit. Delighted by the comments and perspective offered by the professionals and students in the room, it reassured that these men understood that being a man comes with certain responsibilities. This programs generated interest from local universities, including Endicott and Boston University, as they want to create an event like ours for their campus community. The Barbershop Talk was so successful, our office has decided to host a Barbershop Talk 2 in April to keep the dialogue going.
THE BROTHERHOOD men of color success initiative
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BEES
By Nayeli Lopez The BEES (Bold, Educated, Empowering, Sisters) program within the diversity and multicultural affairs office is an organization of women who are seeking community to discuss social and personal issues while providing a network centered on success. By creating a support system that fosters an empowering climate, BEES aims to create cognizant social change agents. They hosted a Skin and Beauty workshop on February 24 at Salem State University. The Skin and Beauty workshop included exploring and defining the term “beauty” as women of color, and how society plays an impact to this term. In addition, makeup artist from Rouge Cosmetics was in session. She was very knowledgeable about makeup for all skin complexions and types. She explained the importance of taking care of one’s skin, makeup techniques and tips. Additionally, she applied makeup for two BEES students and passed out coupons for the members. It was an educational, and empowering event, empowering one woman to another. The Art of African Head Wrapping Workshop by House of Tafari Collection was a successful event on March 22. Imani McFarlane, head wrapping guru, chief designer, founder, and president of the House of Tafari Collection hosted the workshop. She provided step-by-step instructions for wrapping African textiles and instructed students paired up to practice head wrapping. Additionally she head wrapped a lot of the students’ hair and explained how head wraps can be used for protection, power, religion, and for many other purposes. A head wrapping contest took place and free head wraps were given to contest winners. In addition, she presented a PowerPoint presentation on the history of the African head wrap and its usage in African and Caribbean societies; the significance of symbols, colors and patterns in African textiles. In the fall of 2015 semester, BEES also did programs for Domestic Abuse and Positive Relationships, and a panel on Hair Politics. BEES is in its third year of existence and is always looking for more members to join.
Safe Zone Training By Julia R. Golden
I had the joy and privilege of creating and revamping the Safe Zone trainings this year. They are programs that help create advocate and allies as well as create community moments in how to support the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questions, and Allys of Salem State University. After evaluation and talking with the Salem State University community, two other safe zones were added this year. Queer People of Color (QPOC) Safe Zone Training was created by myself and the second QPOC safe zone training in the nation. This two hour training focuses on the intersectionality of race and sexuality. I was able to collaborate with social justice educators such as Vernon Wall, Sheltreese McCoy and Jamie Washington. This training covers terminology, self-reflections and opportunities to ask how one can be an ally to queer people of color. Gender 101 Safe Zone Training (formally Transgender 101) is a two hour training focuses on terminology, self-reflections on how we discover the concepts of gender and how to be an ally to genderqueer, nonbinary and transgender students and community here at Salem State University. Both trainings recommend you start with Safe Zone 101 to familiarize yourself to the best practices in being an ally to the LGBTQIA+ and QTPOC community. For more information please contact Julia R. Golden at lgbtq@salemstate.edu. 5
Why I Love the Office By Andrew Duperval Every day I enter the office, I am welcomed by the great people that genuinely care about me and my success. Immediately they put me on cloud nine, regardless of my prior mood. Before learning about the office, I felt very unwelcomed at Salem State University, and I was planning to transfer out. Fortunately, I met Rebecca and she introduced me to this beautiful judgement-free zone. Regardless of how you identify, where you come from or your past experiences, you can come to this office and be surrounded by people who are ready to support you, inspire you, motivate you, or simply put a smile on your face. The office has become my home away from home. I can always go to diversity and multicultural affairs if I need anything. Andrew takes part in the Brotherhood and encourages people to join!
Graduate Multicultural Student Symposium (GMSS)) By Shanee LeBaron
On November 12, 2015, the diversity and multicultural affairs office organized their third annual Graduate Multicultural Student Symposium. The symposium was created as an informational and networking opportunity for our multicultural students and/or our students of color about the Salem State University (SSU) School of Graduate Studies here at Salem State University. The panel of current graduate students, alumni, graduate faculty, and administrators were chosen based upon their strong role within the Salem State community, their varied experiences with graduate school and programs, and their cultural competency and knowledge. Additionally, those who attended the symposium were given the opportunity to win prizes such as: Salem State School of Graduate Studies course waiver, Salem State School of Graduate Studies application waiver, GRE prep materials, and other graduate school related items. One of the main goals of the panel was to have open discussions regarding the benefits of pursuing a graduate degree or certificate program; as well as sharing methods overcoming challenges which may arise during the application process and the journey through a graduate program.
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Trans Day of Remembrance By Mia-Kay Fuller
New to our office this year is the Trans Day of Remembrance: a time where the Salem State University community gathers to mourn and celebrate the lives of those who were murdered for their identities. This program happened over the span of a week, where a memorial of 90 victims were set up in the McKeown Amphitheatre quad. On Wednesday, November 18, The Gender and Sexuality Alliance and Laura Biddle, the university chaplain with spiritual life, led the community through a vigil to honor the Trans lives that had been taken. As candles were lit, we were led through a prayer, spoken word piece from Koda Mehalba, members of the Alliance read aloud Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise,” and Yaira Matos, a student ambassador in our office, gave a conclusion to the program. While it was a sad moment for all in attendance, the students reflected on the importance of having the Trans Day of Remembrance on our campus. When doing the research for the program, which meant going through logs of trans individuals who had passed from 2009 to 2015, it became clearly evident that a specific group was murdered at a higher rate within the trans community: Transgender Women of Color. When I looked a little more into this, there were statistics that stated the clear discrepancy I was seeing. In 2015, 81 trans folks were murdered and for the first two months of the year alone, trans women of color were murdered at a rate of almost once per week (advocate.com). This was also something that the students on campus were able to visibly see when looking at the memorial on the quad and it created some interesting dialogues within our Center for Diversity and Cultural Enrichment that revolved around the gender binary, intersectionality, and systemic racism. I felt honored to be a part of this new program on campus that brought awareness to the Salem State community, but it still remains clear that there is a lot of work to be done. The hope for the future is to keep the Trans Day of Remembrance alive, but to perhaps add an open dialogue piece where the community can come together to raise awareness and spread advocacy for the trans community, especially trans Women of Color. Not only does this assist in raising support for issues that need to be met, but it helps in supporting the trans students at Salem State to understand that this campus is a welcome environment where we are growing and changing to meet our students’ needs.
MLK Day of Service By Mia-Kay Fuller
The MLK Day of Service experienced its third year this year and we had over 130 volunteers register to come out and help serve their local community. This Day of Service was created to both civically engage Salem State community members and have them participate in a social justice focused community service project, thus upholding Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy. We do this by making connections with nonprofit organizations along the North Shore and have them either be a site for community members to serve at or receive the on-campus items that volunteers create. This past year, we partnered with Northeast Arc, LifeBridge Shelter, Family Promise, Salem YMCA, Citizens for Adequate Housing, Inc., Habitat for Humanity, Boston’s Children’s Hospital, Project Linus, and the Veterans Association at Salem State University. This year we held the MK Day of Service on Saturday, January 23 from 8:30 am to 2:30 pm. For the volunteers who served offcampus, they put in over 275 hours of service collectively and for volunteers who served on-campus, they put together 100 care packages, 25 blankets, and wrote over 25 letters to veterans. With the evaluation responses we received after the program, 56 percent of participants stated they would spend more time volunteering in their community, 5 percent said they would not and the rest said they might, which is wonderful! This program shows that engaged community members will continue to be engaged, which will, in turn, help out the communities in which they live.
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This is one of my favorite programs to organize and carry out every year. The response our office receives from the Salem State, city of Salem and North Shore communities is overwhelming. We also were able to collaborate with the Center for Civic Engagement, which helped us to collaborate with city officials and have their student volunteers sign up community members to register to vote on the actual day of service (just in time for the primaries!). The amount of student organizations we had participate was amazing. LASO held down the fort at the Salem YMCA, the Alliance spent their day with Habitat for Humanity, and NRHH and ALPFA found themselves at Northeast Arc’s First Steps Child Care Center. If you want to be involved with the MLK Day of Service next year, reach out to us now!
Folklorico
By Nayeli Lopez
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Salem State University Folklorico is a new dance team on campus, which is traditional Mexican folkloric dance. Graduate student, Nayeli Lopez, who moved from Texas in August, wanted to bring her heritage culture to the Northeast. Starting January 2016, she decided to teach folklorico dance at the university for free for the students as an educational, and cultural aspect. The Folklorico group traveled to Lynn, MA on Sunday, February 28 and performed their first performance at the North Shore ADHC Elderly Center. The Adult Day Health Center is predominately Latino based and the purpose to perform was to bring joy to the elderly. The dancers that performed were Jazmine Mateo, Tony Valentino and Nayeli Lopez. The group is under the direction of Nayeli Lopez, while it is collaboratively run through the Latin American Student Organization (LASO) and Candela. Nayeli hopes to make more people smile and bring joy to the community. “The event was great, everyone loved it and we took a lot of pictures with the elderly”.
18th Pride Dinner By Julia R. Golden
Every year we celebrate seniors who self-identify as Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and are graduating during our annual Pride Dinner. Historically, this is a national celebration that started in the mid 1990’s in response to LGBTQIA+ folks feeling like they could not be out and able to attend graduation. This year we celebrated 12 individuals who will be graduating in May. The keynote speaker was JeanMarie Gossard from the non-profit Freedom Massachusetts who commended Salem State University for their Preferred Name Policy. Lastly, the Dr. Patricia A. Gozemba Award was given to a Salem State University community member who has been supportive and serve as a role model to the LGBTQIA community. This year’s recipient was, Patricia Ould, PhD of the sociology department.
ALANA 2016 By Shanee LeBaron
The diversity and multicultural affairs office is proud to present their 22nd annual ALANA Graduation Ceremony. This year’s ALANA shall took place on Thursday, April 22, 2016 at 12 pm in Veterans Hall. ALANA stands for African-American, Latin American, Asian, Native American, which celebrates, honors and congratulates graduating students of color, and students who value diversity and multiculturalism as a key to their success. The ALANA graduation ceremony was created as an opportunity to recognize the experience, the journey, and hard work that students have put into their education to get this far. Each student who attended the ALANA celebration received a special commemorative stole as a token of appreciation from Salem State University.
CONGRATULATIONS,
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