Guest Speaker Jayne Brownell, VP of Student Life, shared insights regarding the current generation of students, their characteristics and challenges. It was a very informative talk that gave IFSAM members greater understanding of how to help our current and upcoming batches of students.
View the meeting minutes and the PowerPoint slides.
Dr. Dana Cox, Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs, shared various efforts and transitions made at Miami, and how they are changing the cultures. Among many, the following were focused on: 1) Job posting descriptions that clearly show equal opportunities and welcome international faculty regardless of of residency, 2) Mentoring opportunities for TCPLs, 3) Broadening the evaluation of teaching effectiveness– from solely relying on the summative end-of-year course evaluations to multiple measurements:
IFSAM: Changing the culture of evaluations from students that sometimes hurt the international faculty on the promotion process. Having an English accent often results in negative course evaluations. IFSAM supports the administration developing multiple measures of teaching evaluations for promotion and retention. The departmental culture can take a while to change, so sometimes the university mandate might work in favor of the faculty.
Dana Cox: “APIEP will enable us to take in the broader university picture. Perhaps a different model of teaching evaluation is important. IFSAM needs to be more visible, and the new faculty has to be introduced to more affinity groups including IFSAM. Mentoring is important in this regard. The TCPL mentoring is going on. We can learn from that and transfer the best practices to the associate mentorship who are eyeing the promotion to full.”
Hiring international faculty:
Collin Baer (Associate Director of Investigation, OEEO): “We should not shy away from looking at the international faculty during the hiring process since we have in place legal means to hire somebody and ensure their ability to come. The search committees should not make any assumptions or decisions made on the basis of the fact that the faculty needs a visa. The legal matters come into consideration when hiring.”
Other topics discussed:
Held 11:30 am to 12:30 pm via Zoom
Topic: Meet New Members and Planning for the Year
10 members were present, and Jacqueline Rioja Velarde served as facilitator. The following were discussed:
Ebru Diffield suggested that IFSAM is a great platform to announce cultural events like for example Tea Tasting event on October 14th.
A possibility of a short retreat was suggested by Prof. Velarde as a way to get more involved with the association and its goals.
The question of nominations for various university awards was brought up and the members agreed that IFSAM needs to support those initiatives and bring it up with D&I. Prof. Velarde offered to find out what the various awards are for this year so we can start working on the nominations.
IFSAM General Meeting
Guest Speakers: Dr. Anthony James, Interim Vice President for Institutional Diversity and Inclusion: Provost Jason Osborne
Topic: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion beyond IFSAM
In this meeting, Dr. Anthony James (Interim Vice President for Institutional Diversity and Inclusion) discussed practical applications, implementations, and challenges related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at Miami. The following subtopics were focused on: 1) recommendations and achievements of the Task Force on DEI specifically to women and people of color, 2) equity of teaching loads across gender, ethnicity, and race, 3) supporting historically weak department(s) in diversity and inclusion, 4) engaging and motivating those who have shown limited interest in diversity and inclusion efforts. Numerous questions were answered by Dr. James and Provost Osborne.
Topic: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion beyond IFSAM
In this meeting, Dr. Anthony James (Interim Vice President for Institutional Diversity and Inclusion) will discuss practical applications, implementations, and challenges related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at Miami. The following subtopics will be focused on: 1) recommendations and achievements of the Task Force on DEI specifically to women and people of color, 2) equity of teaching loads across gender, ethnicity, and race, 2) supporting historically weak department(s) in diversity and inclusion, 3) engaging and motivating those who have shown limited interest in diversity and inclusion efforts. A Q&A session will be followed.
Guest Speaker: Dr. Liza Skryzhevska, Associate Dean of Miami Regionals.
Topic: IFSAM Connecting with Regionals
In this meeting, Dr. Liza Skryzhevska (Associate Dean of Miami Regionals) discussed her vision for Miami regionals and presented a general profile of current students, faculty, and staff. She also discussed the advantages and challenges faced by international faculty and staff at the regional campuses, as well as their connections with international students. Efforts to bring Oxford campus and regionals together and IFSAM’s possible role were discussed, followed by a Q&A. Dr. Skryzhevska kindly provided a copy of her presentation slides.
IFSAM General Meeting
Guest Speaker: Collin Baer, Associate Director, Office of Equity and Equal Opportunity
Topic: Equity, Equal Opportunity, and Inclusion in a Virtual Teaching and Meeting Environment
“Equity, equal opportunity, and inclusion!” We hear the words everywhere, yet providing equal opportunities and being inclusive don’t happen easily. For international faculty and staff, what does “equity and inclusion” really mean in a virtual environment? Do you feel more vulnerable teaching or meeting in Canvas or Zoom than face-to-face classrooms? What pronouns should you use in class to be inclusive? What language could you add in the syllabus? Collin Baer shared some important policies, cases, and resources related to this topic and discussed various ways for international instructors and staff to promote equity and inclusion in their classrooms and meetings.
Please see the Google Slides Presentation that includes the Q&A and resources discussed in the meeting. (You must be logged in using your Miami credentials to view the slides.)
This panel discussion aims to explore the socio-cultural circumstances relevant to accentedness of speech, and attitudes towards accented speech and linguistic variation in the university setting. The discussion will begin by uncovering some common linguistic myths and misconceptions about accents from the perspective of faculty and staff at Miami University. The panelists will then share their stories and experiences with accent perceptions and attitudes. The examples of accents will include foreign accents by speakers of English as an Additional Language and varieties of English. The discussion will involve on-the-spot interaction through an exchange of viewpoints or in response to questions from the audience. By the end of the panel, the participants will have a clear understanding of linguistic and social meaning of an accent and its significance in the university setting.
Panelists: Zeynep Aydogdu, Ebru Duffield, Meng Qu, Yuenan Jin Rodriguez and Galina Shleykina
Facilitator: Eun Chong Yang
IFSAM General Meeting
In this meeting, IFSAM members nominated and approved new committee members, discussed alternative meeting times and locations (including one at Regionals) and brainstormed ways to increase membership. A new committee, Awards Nomination, was created.
Collin Baer (Associate Director, Investigations) and DeniseIson (Assistant Director, Employment Compliance) from OEEO gave an overview of the OEEO’s role and mission, informed members of the general process for reporting and investigation of cases made with the OEEO, and the duty to report for all Miami community. IFSAM members asked questions about the ways the OEEO could support international faculty and staff, when they should seek OEEO’s support, and the type of information they would need to provide when contacting the OEEO. When a report is made to the OEEO, it is kept in a confidential file. The progress of the case is complainant-driven; that is, they will pursue action at the complainant’s level of comfort, which may include informal methods and staff re-training (for example).
Some IFSAM members brought up the impact of end-of-semester teaching evaluations in the careers of International faculty, which could pose challenges in securing promotion and tenure, as well as the related visa issues for the visiting international faculty. Concerns about harassment, discrimination, and pay gap would involve the OEEO, but would require adequate evidence (a preponderance of evidence) to relate these issues to the protected groups (identified by race, ethnicity, color, nationality, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, religion, disability, age, military status, veteran status, etc.). Concerns were raised about the lack of a centralized office for faculty and staff complaints, as some of the complaints may go beyond the scope of the responsibilities of the OEEO and the Academic Personnel.
Nevertheless, the OEEO does keep track of patterns of reports. For example, one case filed against a person may lead to no action on its own, but if several complaints are made by different individuals against the same person, this establishes a pattern that may compel the OEEO to investigate.
For more information, visit the OEEO’s website and the Offices of Diversity and Inclusion’s incident reporting page.