DEI Committee Meeting: Around the Table –
Tuesday, February 13, 2024
Our February DEI Committee meeting was hosted by Teresa Roeder, who graciously opened her home and treated us to the most delicious dinner! We had robust dialogue about “The Future of Academic Freedom”, an article by Harvard Law School professor Jeannie Suk Gersen, published in The New Yorker on January 27, 2024. We discussed the crucial role of debate and critical thinking in the educational process — well aligned with AAUW’s Public Policy commitments to academic freedom, protection from censorship, and bias-free education.
We also discussed takeaways from the National DEI Officers’ monthly online meeting, with a focus on AAUW’s upcoming vote to determine whether the degree requirement for membership will be dropped. Although our committee has already unanimously agreed that the requirement should be dropped, we acknowledge and respect that there are divergent views on the topic within our branch. We decided to devote our March meeting to an online discussion about the pros and cons of dropping the requirement.
Last, as a reminder, the DEI Committee is hosting the program at our April 18th “Third Thursday” branch membership meeting. Taylor denBroeder and Elisa Tinker, leaders of Danville/San Ramon PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) will lead a presentation to deepen our knowledge and understanding about people who identify as transgender. Please join us!
DEI Committee Meeting: on Zoom –
Tuesday, January 9, 2024
At our January meeting, DEI Officer Teresa Cheung reported that the committee’s unanimous support for national AAUW to drop the degree requirement for membership has been shared with our Board. (All AAUW members across the country will have the opportunity to vote this spring on whether or not to maintain the degree requirement.)
Kathie Hixon provided an update about the April branch membership meeting that the Committee will host. Our program objective is to deepen knowledge and understanding about people who identify as transgender. Taylor denBroeder and Elisa Tinker, leaders of Danville/San Ramon PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) will lead the presentation.
The remainder of the meeting was devoted to a discussion of DEI in the context of challenges facing local school boards. Public Policy Chair Laurinda Ochoa described her experience observing San Ramon Valley Unified School District Board meetings since 2022. Laurinda has served on the AAUW California School Board Project Team since its launch last July. She provided an overview of the Team’s work to support school board members who advocate for honest, inclusive public education statewide. Rebecca Radulovich, who retired after 34 years of teaching at Sunol Glen School, described persistent, heated dialogue among Sunol Glen School District Board members regarding the flying of the Pride flag. The controversy has culminated in a current effort to recall two of the three Board members.
DEI Committe
e Meeting –
Tuesday, December 12, 2023
Ten branch members interested in advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) met at Teresa Cheung’s wonderfully decorated house for the team’s December meeting. We started by viewing National AAUW’s DEI meeting on Zoom, where the topic was about changing AAUW rules to eliminate the degree requirement for members. They made a strong case that our organization should be inclusive of all who share our mission of supporting equity for women and girls. With this inspiration, our DEI team agreed to carry forward a recommendation for members to vote “yes” in the spring when eliminating the requirement will be on the AAUW ballot.
As we shared a delicious dinner, complete with tasty pasta created by Teresa’s chef husband and other dishes brought by attendees, we turned to the topic of the April branch member meeting. We’ve been asked to develop a DEI related program for that evening. Kathie Hixon provided the direction given her association with PFLAG, a national organization that advocates for LGBTQ+ people and their supporters. We are excited to be able to provide a forum for two local speakers from this worthy group in April!
Finally, we decided that DEI meetings will be held monthly on the 2nd Tuesday of the month. They will alternate between in-person “around the table” meetings and virtual Zoom meetings.
Happy Holidays!
DEI Committee Meeting –
Tuesday, November 7th, 2023
Our Diversity Equity Inclusion (DEI) group had a very productive meeting on Zoom on November 7. About 10 of us participated. We decided not to record our meeting so that our zoom is a safe space for everyone to voice their thoughts. Click on the image to view the very informative “slides” from our November 7 DEI on Zoom meeting.
We shared our DEI group’s purpose and planning, and learned about the definition of “Diversity”, “Equity”, “Inclusion”, and “Micro-aggression”. We gleamed on “how to handle difficult conversation” and said we would need to discuss this more, possibly a little bit every time we meet.
We studied one real life example of a Micro-aggression case of a writing that had been circulating called “I Once Was a Normal Person” and discussed what is the “Meta-Communication” or the covert message that the author was trying to convey. We used National AAUW’s webinar “The Microintervention Anti-bias Workshop” as our guide and determine how we should deal with this.
As a follow-up, we hope everyone can review our attachment and click the above link to view the Anti-Bias Workshop webinar. It was a very productive DEI on Zoom meeting and I received quite a few comments and thank yous afterwards for our first Diversity Equity and Inclusion’s “informative and important work”. My special thanks to Ogie Strogatz, our co-president, for helping to put our slide-deck together and co-host our meeting.
Teresa Cheung
Diversity Equity Inclusion Officer, DAW-AAUW
“Embody the goals and spirit of equity, inclusion, diversity and intersectionality across all AAUW activities and participants, prioritizing women of color.” (AAUW national strategic plan)