JFMC 11/05/15

Minutes of the Meeting of the James Farmer Multicultural Center Faculty Advisory Committee

11/05/15

Present: Melody Denhere (Chair, CAS); Antonio Causarano (Secretary, COE); Marion Sanford (JFMC Director); Xiaofeng Zhao (COB); Davarien Sayles (Student Representative); Mariam Ansari (Student Representative).
Apologies: Tracy Citeroni (CAS) and Jose Sainz (CAS)

1. Director’s Report

• Updates of the activities – Marion updated the Committee on the upcoming activities for the fall 2015 semester. She reported on the Asian Cultural Celebration, which included the Taste of Asia program. As pointed out by Marion, the event was very successful, thanks to the hard work of the Asian Student Association. The Jewish Cultural Celebration (JCC) kicked off this past Monday with a special dinner in Dining Services on the 4th floor of the University Center. In addition, the JCC keynote event was that Wednesday evening. This celebration will conclude with the Shabbat dinner next Friday.
• Remaining cultural celebrations for the fall semester include the Native American Cultural Celebration, which will take place from November 16 – 20, and Kwanzaa, which is scheduled for Dec. 3rd.
• Marion pointed out that the JFMC is already working and finalizing plans for Spring 2016 in order to be ready for the series of events next semester. This includes the MLK, BHM, and WHM celebrations. She shared the deadlines for these respective celebrations for program proposal submissions. Women’s History Month was discussed at length. Issues of funding continue to be a concern in light of supporting the event in the future. Lastly, it was shared that vendor and performer applications are already being received for the Multicultural Fair.
• One important program was discussed at length during the meeting. This was the “Get to Know Me: A Discussion About Faith, Spirituality, and Religion.” The goal of this program was to engage in an in-depth dialogue regarding the tenets and perceptions about different religions and beliefs to develop a better understanding and sensitivity towards someone else’s faith to avoid incidents of hate and bias on campus. This program was well attended and elicited authentic, open discourse regarding this issue on campus.
• It was announced that the next the Civility Series program is next Wednesday, Nov. 11th at 6:30 pm in Lee Hall, room 411. The topic of that program is “Cultural and Racial Intolerance: Whose Country Is It? A safe and interactive dialogue about issues surrounding race, culture and religion.”

2. Other
The committee explored additional strategies to enhance marketing and promotion of JFMC events. Suggestions will be forthcoming for consideration.

Next Meeting
TBA

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