Posted by blissers on Monday, September 1, 2014 in News.

Welcome to September! We hope everyone has had a wonderful summer, and we welcome you all to the new year.

There are several updates here, as it’s been a busy summer, so I’ll try to break them up into chunks for you.

Things that happened with Crucial Conversations over the summer:

1. We set a series of workable goals for our work this year. See this post for those goals.
2. In the orientation for new students, we were able to share our work. In addition, the office of the Dean included a commitment to diversity, which was followed by a real commitment to working on the issues we have here at Peabody.
3. There was a training for new adjunct and PhD instructors, which included an hour-long panel discussion on how to teach about diversity-related issues to diverse and non-diverse audiences.

Things happening now: We have taken the four goals and split our working team into four different task forces to move forward. We have an additional task force that is focusing on Crucial Conversations events this year. All groups are currently working to outline their proposals for presentation and action.

Things outside of Crucial Conversations that have happened/are happening:

1. See our last post for an update on Vanderbilt’s response(s) to the events in Ferguson.
2. September 3 from 7:15-8:15pm in Wyatt Rotunda: Please join Common Ground and others within the Peabody Community as we welcome Dr. Donna Ford for her conversation on Recruitment and Retention Issues: Micro-aggressions and Culturally Assaultive Colleges and Universities. (See flyer here.)
   
3. September 11 from 3:00-4:30pm in Mayborn 204: Leadership, Policy, and Organizations will be hosting Professor Mark C. Long and his conversation, Is There a ‘Workable’ Race-Neutral Alternative to Affirmative Action in College Admissions? (See flyer here.)

We look forward to the work we have to do this year and are excited by the support we have received. If you would like to participate or would like to speak to us, feel free to contact us