{"id":7598,"date":"2021-09-13T12:21:03","date_gmt":"2021-09-13T16:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/socialwork\/?p=7598"},"modified":"2021-09-13T12:21:03","modified_gmt":"2021-09-13T16:21:03","slug":"fall-2021-dei-community-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/socialwork\/2021\/09\/13\/fall-2021-dei-community-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Fall 2021 DEI Community Update"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">9\/13\/2021 &#8211; email sent\u00a0 to School of Social Work community members (students, staff, faculty, alumni, field instructors, etc)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">___________________________________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear Social Work Community:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">During spring 2021, the School of Social Work pledged a renewed commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). The school recognizes the importance of transparency and accountability around this necessary and important work. As we start the new academic year, we are reaching out to provide an update on action taken so far, proposed next steps, and avenues for members of the community to engage in this work.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Spring 2021<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">April 2, 2021 an initial town hall was held in recognition of the need for the school to examine how it is doing in regards to promoting DEI within curriculum and school culture. A follow up student-led, student-only town hall was hosted on May 2, 2021.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A Social Justice and Equity Committee was formed, and has been charged with guiding the school\u2019s DEI initiatives.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Faculty teaching in each sequence area (practice, field, research, human behavior in social environment, policy) began holding meetings to examine the adequacy of DEI integration in all required courses.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A platform for submitting suggestions, thoughts, feedback, etc. was created, and provides an option for anonymous feedback.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Feedback Form:<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/forms.gle\/66jMWysWdTCbK4zC7\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/forms.gle\/66jMWysWdTCbK4zC7<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Summer 2021<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Through recommendations from students\/staff\/faculty, the School of Social Work began researching options for external consultants to provide an equity assessment for the school<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">MSW application materials were revised to include an admissions essay question around power, privilege and oppression<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">New student orientations for all MSW programs have been updated to include a discussion and presentation by the Office of Equity &amp; Inclusion on DEI<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fall 2021 Proposed Next Steps &amp; Engagement Opportunities<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Two Community DEI Discussions will be held during the fall semester. These will be spaces to discuss and explore DEI efforts and next steps. All School of Social Work students, staff, faculty, alumni, and field instructors are welcome and encouraged to participate. The discussions will be held via Zoom on the following dates:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>Friday, October 8th, 12pm<\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/maine.zoom.us\/j\/82610883258?pwd=N1hWZjhjRkJ3Q2FCWDlwVm1uUEExQT09\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/maine.zoom.us\/j\/82610883258?pwd=N1hWZjhjRkJ3Q2FCWDlwVm1uUEExQT09<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Thursday, October 14th, 6:30pm<\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/maine.zoom.us\/j\/82992988651?pwd=bVpaTjN2N3dBV1FTVlJSZXRESXQ2UT09\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/maine.zoom.us\/j\/82992988651?pwd=bVpaTjN2N3dBV1FTVlJSZXRESXQ2UT09<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>Monday, October 25th<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> &#8211; The 16th Annual University of Maine Clinical Geriatrics Colloquium will be held virtually. The theme is \u201cAdvancing Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity &amp; Inclusion in the Delivery of Age Friendly Health Care\u201d. All students and faculty can attend for free but must<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mainecenteronaging.umaine.edu\/geriatricscolloquium\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">register<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The UMaine School of Social Work website is currently being updated to include a specific section on DEI, where community members can find information about DEI efforts, training opportunities, and summaries of past discussions\/meetings.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We hope you will consider attending one of our Community DEI Discussions; we would love your input.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thank you,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Social Justice and Equity Committee<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sandra Butler, PhD<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Professor, Director, and MSW Coordinator<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">School of Social Work<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">University of Maine<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">5770 Social Work Building<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Orono, ME 04469-5770<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">207-581-2382<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">sbutler@maine.edu<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sandy: pronouns she\/her\/hers<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>9\/13\/2021 &#8211; email sent\u00a0 to School of Social Work community members (students, staff, faculty, alumni, field instructors, etc) ___________________________________________________________________________ Dear Social Work Community: During spring 2021, the School of Social Work pledged a renewed commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). The school recognizes the importance of transparency and accountability around this necessary and important [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2167,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"234","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","spc_primary_category":0},"categories":[226],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-social-justice-and-equity-updates"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":226,"label":"Social justice and equity updates"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"lausier","author_link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/socialwork\/author\/lausier\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":226,"name":"Social justice and equity updates","slug":"social-justice-and-equity-updates","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":226,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":226,"category_count":2,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Social justice and equity updates","category_nicename":"social-justice-and-equity-updates","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/socialwork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/socialwork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/socialwork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/socialwork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/socialwork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/socialwork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7598\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/socialwork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/socialwork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/socialwork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}