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Yolanda Caldwell, director of the Women’s Leadership Institute and BOLD Women’s Leadership Network at Saint Rose, who was also appointed to lead these recent diversity and inclusion efforts, shared the following update from the October 2 campus conversation on diversity and inclusion.

Dear Students and Colleagues,

As the nation continues to experience the heartbreak of racial injustice, at Saint Rose, we will not let up on the work to be done. Our conversations as a community this summer set the agenda for us as we build our capacity for inclusive excellence. While we have been focused on taking action, we paused a moment on Friday and gathered as a community during the Campus Conversation on Diversity and Inclusion to reflect on our emotions, too.

Thank you to music students Mark Manning and Kyla Silk for their musical performance, to alum and diversity and inclusion advisory committee member Janay Salter ’20 for her reading of a poem by Maya Angelou, to Sister Betsy Van Deusen, CSJ, ’84, a Saint Rose Trustee, for her prayer, to Dr. Shai Butler, vice president for student development and chief diversity officer, for taking us through a reflection on the shooting of Breonna Taylor, to the Counseling Center’s Alan Martell for giving us advice on self-care, and to Interim President Marcia J. White, for sharing words of hope with our campus.

Show your support: During the meeting, we also announced an important campus-wide project – a video mosaic for racial justice, solidarity, and much-needed societal change. You can contribute by sharing your poetry, song, video commentary, artwork, dance, or other expression of your thoughts and feelings on this important subject. Submit your work for possible inclusion by emailing it to marketing@strose.edu with the subject line “expressions” or by stopping by our open video session, where we will film participants, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, October 14, on the Campus Green. (We’ll announce a rain location, if needed.) We will include as many pieces in the video as we can, but selection is not guaranteed.

We will premiere the video during the Campus Conversation on Diversity and Inclusion on October 30 at noon via Zoom.

Director of diversity and inclusion search: The College is in the final phases of searching for a director for diversity and inclusion, which is an existing position at the College that has been vacant since the spring. The Student Association Executive Board and members of the Intercultural Council have all been invited to participate in the candidate interviews as representatives of the student body. We will share an announcement about the new director when the selection is made.

Upcoming anti-racist trainings: The BOLD Scholars, a group of juniors and seniors who are selected to participate in the national BOLD Women’s Leadership Network, announced they will use part of their BOLD funding to support anti-racist trainings that are open to the entire Saint Rose community. Dates are to be determined but sign up for or indicate interest in the upcoming workshops at this link.

Our next Campus Conversation on Diversity and Inclusion is scheduled for Friday, October 16, from noon to 1 p.m. via Zoom. You can access the meeting using this link (Passcode: Saint Rose).

Until then, be well, and don’t forget to participate in our democracy and ensure your voice is heard by making a voting plan. (You can get information at Vote411.org).

Yolanda Caldwell
Director
The Women’s Leadership Institute and BOLD Women’s Leadership Network at Saint Rose