At the 34th annual conference, the Diversity Committee sponsored the session “When an Affirmative Action Officer is Not Enough.” Beverly I. McDonald of Ohio State University provided an in depth look at Ohio State University’s Diversity Residency program, discussing their experiences and what works and doesn’t work. She also provided connections to several helpful resources on diversity, including Ohio State’s own planning documents.

At the 34th annual conference, Ms. Sanjyot Selkirk was awarded with a certificate recognizing her as the 2008 recipient of the ALAO Diversity Scholarship. The diversity committee (as many members as possible) sat together at lunch and visited with Ms. Selkirk. She was also recognized on a poster at the Diversity Committee’s information table.

The committee created a nice poster display for their table to be used at conference events. Care was taken to create pieces that could easily be reused for future conference (no dates are mentioned). The display received several compliments and should serve the committee with slight alterations for several years going forward.

The Diversity Committee continues to search for a facilitator for a spring program on cross-cultural communication. Recently, we’ve made contact with NAFSA: Association of International Educators and have received several contacts that may be able to help with our programming. Besides planning for a spring program, we are gearing up for the next Diversity Scholarship. The application should be available during January 2009.