Fall 2016 AAUW NYS District V Conference
Tag Archives: AAUW
AAUW NYS Leadership
Congratulations to the AAUW NYS board members
for a great Summer Leadership Conference
July 22-24, 2016, Cazenovia College
If you missed, this conference, we focused on Programming and Leadership! Some of the topics included Leadership workshops, Recruiting Leaders, Committees Leadership and Developing Branch Leadership.
Some of the program highlights included a Leadership presentation by Deepti Gudipati, Vice President Programming AAUW and the Work Smart + Start Smart Workshop presentation by Deepti Gudipati to empower women with the skills and confidence to successfully negotiate their salary and benefits packages.
Empire State Virtual Branch Won Many Awards!
Congrats to all the ESVB members and friends who made possible winning so many awards at the AAUW NYS Convention April 15-17, 2016, Saratoga Springs Holiday Inn, NY
Awards!
1) Award of Distinction for our quarterly Empire Virtual Times newsletter
2) Award of Distinction for our Website
3) Award of Merit for Social Media
4) Award of Excellence for Visibility
5) Membership Award with 10% increase for recruiting and maintaining members
6) 21st Century Program — Silver Award for the Mentoring
at the College of Mount Saint Vincent
7) Public Policy Award for Voter Registration & Education Award
8) Public Policy Award for STEM
9) Legal Advocacy Fund (LAF) Star Branch Fourteenth (14th) Place Per Capita
Contributions. Specials thanks to our generous members including Dot McLane,
Dr. Chigurupati Rani, Joan Monk!
NYSE: Empowering Women & Girls to lead
NYSE Press Photos | American Association of University Women
March 30, 2016 | Opening Bell
It was with great pleasure that Edwina Martin, AAUW NYS president, Melissa Guardaro, UN representative and Maria Ellis, AAUW NYS C/U Director & ESVB President participated in the New York Stock Exchange Opening Bell on March 30, 2016. Representatives and guests of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) visited the New York Stock Exchange to highlight Women’s History Month. In honor of the occasion, AAUW CEO Linda D. Hallman, CAE and AAUW Board Chair Patricia Fae Ho, rang the NYSE Opening Bell®.
Attendees included AAUW’s national staff, our Public Relations manager, Ryan Burwinkel, Nicole Phillips and representatives from Verizon and Symantec and other AAUW corporate partners.
Public Policy
Cases Settled!
by Nancy Mion, Public Policy Director
Empire State Virtual NY Branch
It is exciting to know that three cases supported by LAF have been recently settled. The cases are: Moshak, Mason, Schlosser vs University of Tennessee which was successfully settled for over a million dollar in January 2016 found; Jaureguito and Wartluff finally settled with Feather River Community College after ten years. Check the LAF Webpage at http://aauw-nys.org/laf_casesupport.htm and the Spring 2016 Focus.
Thank you to the following members of the Empire State Virtual NY Branch for their generous contribution to LAF Fund: Dorothy McLane; Heide Parreno, Chigurupati Rani & Maria Ellis.
UN Announces First-ever High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment
by Donna Seymour
AAUW NYS Public Policy VP
The United Nations announced the first High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment. The panel will give recommendations for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to improve economic outcomes for women globally and improve women’s leadership in sustainable economic growth.
“The empowerment of the world’s women is a global imperative,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “Yet despite important progress in promoting gender equality, there remains an urgent need to address structural barriers to women’s economic empowerment and full inclusion in economic activity. If the world is to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, we need a quantum leap in women’s economic empowerment.”
http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2016/1/wee-high-level-panel-launch
What is happening in Diversity?
Heide Parreño
Diversity Director
Empire State Virtual Branch
In September 2015, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a new “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policy” for the State University of New York . It was immediately adopted by the SUNY Board of Trustees. The plan requires a chief diversity officer in each of the 64 SUNY campuses. The officer will promote inclusiveness and implement best practices for diversity. Included in the policy’s plan is a tool where students can voluntarily self identify their sexual orientation and gender identity. The goal of the plan is to define diversity broadly to include race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. It also includes more options for registering age, socioeconomic status, status as a veteran, disabilities, first generation students and whether or not a student plans to work on or off campus while in school. The policy includes plans to increase diversity among students faculty and staff. ((Democrat and Chronicle, Saturday, September12, 2015, p. 9a)
There has been a surge of protests nationally from colleges and universities about racial discrimination and lack of diversity. Across the nation, students demand an end to systemic and structural racism on campus. The top 7 most common demands at 51 U.S campuses are: 1). Increase diversity of professors, 2) require diversity training, 3) fund cultural centers, 4) require classes for students, 5) increase diversity of students, 6) track race related offenses, and 7) expand mental health resources. These has been collected on a website called THE DEMANDS.
Locally, in Rochester, New York, the University of Rochester medical students focused their protest on racism as a public health concern. “ We, as future physicians, could not stay silent because we know that medicine is not immune to the racism that is rooted in our education, housing, employment and criminal justice system.” Guylda Richard, president of the Student national medical education.
Where is AAUW in all of these?
On December 15, 2015, a Webinar was held to take a first look at AAUW’s New Tool Kit.
How many of NYS Board of Directors attended, branch leaders, diversity officers?
What is a follow-up in public policy?
Where do we get the information?
At ESVB we continue to have a Facebook page. I recruited a new member of our diversity team. Her name is Dr. Doris Meadows. I will do a formal introduction in our next newsletter. I welcome suggestions for our diversity team and active participation in our membership in diversity and inclusion.
Student Leadership Development and Career Fair at the NYIT
The Empire State Virtual NY Branch AAUW & The New York Institute of Technology (NYIT)
invite you to join us at Student Leadership Development and Career Fair at the NYIT
NYIT, 16 W 61st St, New York, NY, 10023, 11th floor Auditorium
April 22, 2016, 9:00am – 4:00pm
Free for all students!
Come join us to learn how to negotiate your first job and learn about what employers are looking for in potential employers.
Register at http://goo.gl/forms/eBWMRZXrYO
For more information, email Michelle Messenger at mmesseng@nyit.edu
Or Maria Ellis at mellis@fsacap.com
Celebrating Mentorship at the College of Mount Saint Vincent!
Celebrating Mentorship at the College of Mount Saint Vincent!
Maria Ellis’ Mentee, Katherine Moreira and Maria Ellis
Joan Monk and her Mentee, Kimberly Gomez
Mentoring Day at The Button Show
The Rushphilonthropic Art Foundation
Saturday, Feb 12, 2016
Dr. Rani and her mentee Jhanielle Daley
Lady in the Button Bath Tub!
2016 AAUW NYS Emerging Leader Award
2016 AAUW NYS Emerging Leader Award
Michelle Messenger is a member of the Empire State Virtual NY Branch who was approved by the AAUW NYS Board during our 2016 Fall board meeting to be the 1st member of the AAUW NYS Student Advisory Board. Michelle will be participating in our AAUW NYS Convention in Saratoga Springs, NY and will also be working with the Empire State Virtual Branch and the New York Institute of Technology on a one day joint conference on Friday, April 22, 2016 featuring the Start Smart workshop and a Career Fair.
Michelle is a senior at the New York Institute of Technology and will be graduating as an Engineer in May 2016. She loves Math and Science and she founded the Society of Women Engineers at the NYIT. She was drawn to engineering because both her mom and grandmother were computer programmers. Michelle’s career aspiration is to create better things for people who need them. Michelle interested in bionics and would like to work on creating a device to help people walk or hear again!
More Complaints Than Findings!
by Donna Seymour
AAUW NYS Public Policy VP
Education Department has received more than 1,000 filings on racial harassment in higher ed in last seven years. But only a fraction result in any findings.
In an op-ed this month on rising racial tensions on campus, Education Secretary Arne Duncan noted that in his seven years in office, the department’s Office for Civil Rights has received more than 1,000 complaints about racial harassment in higher education. He said this statistic was an indication that the current concerns about race on campus are “no small issue.”
Duncan didn’t note how small a proportion of those complaints have resulted in findings of discrimination. Most of the complaints, in fact, never result in a complete investigation by OCR, let alone a finding. That isn’t necessarily a sign of weak complaints or of poor enforcement by OCR. A review of more information provided by the Education Department, however, may illustrate why students are turning to campus protests and not to Washington with their grievances.
During the Obama administration, the Education Department has received 1,073 complaints about racial harassment in higher education. Generally, the number of complaints a year is up, compared to prior years. Since 2010, the smallest number of complaints in a fiscal year is 137 (in 2010). In the five years prior to the Obama administration, the number of complaints never exceeded 95 and was generally smaller than that (in the 50s). An increase in complaints does not necessarily mean that the situation on campus is worse, since a variety of factors (such as outreach to encourage complaints, or the government signaling interest in enforcement) can be a factor in the number of complaints.