Estimated reading time for this article:
29
minutes.
Speakers:
Micah: We are committed to providing a friendly, safe and welcoming environment for everyone. So do please make sure that you join us in creating a safe and constructive space. So today, to kick off our message just with a bit of a sort of reflection question, I'll put it in the chat here. To begin with, just to on ramp into this tricky topic, when you are reading or watching a show, what helps you identify with characters or content? Of course, we are with a bent towards things like representation and things like identities and elements like that. Shared experiences. Intersectionality, that's a great quality.
And also note any pet peeves you have in this area of what really doesn't work for you or what seems to ring a little hollow in some cases. Yeah, it seems like we're getting a lot of identity, intersectionality, shared experiences. I think that those are all, yeah, absolutely key elements of that and hopefully we can keep some of those ideas in mind as we go forward and talk about how to create inclusion in OER materials. So with that, I am going to hand things over to Christina to talk about creating inclusion. Thank you, Christina.
Christina: I'm going to say I'm totally distracted by Lora's comment, "They play into stereotypes of librarians." Such a good comment. I feel like stereotypes of any kind is a real challenge for me to connect with, but I'm going to start with taking some of the comments that you made and building off of that, so, "When you're reading or watching a show, what helps you identify with the characters or content?" And that's really where we're going to stay like, "How do you feel like you belong in a learning environment?" and that's that same connection that we want to build into the open books that we're publishing and that we want to challenge our faculty authors to stay in that space too.
So I'm going to give us some foundational information, but I also know how much this work is shifting and the landscape that we're in is all over the place and it does not feel like we have a solid foundation in this work or in higher ed, a little bit right now. And so while I talk, I do invite you to put your comments and questions in chat, but also if you have a question and we need space to think through specific situations, I really invite that right now because it is a different time for us in this profession, in this work and as a nation to address it. So I do openly invite you to unmute and make comments or ask questions as we go through stuff. I'm more interested in that than getting through all the slides. So keep that in mind and I will try to watch the chat, but, Micah, you can help me with that too.
So just to open it up and talk about that landscape, I put a couple of screenshots, but the links are also in my slides, which I will link on that orientation schedule document as well. But this is as of April 11th, so just a few days ago, the number of states that have introduced anti-DEI legislation. And it's a growing and staggering number, but this covers the majority of the United States. And so this landscape is around us. Additionally, The Chronicle of Higher Ed is also tracking institutions and within or without those states that have anti-DEI policies or have dismantled their DEI programs.
And so as this is happening, it's really important to me that the values that we put into DEI work and that the work continues and so I'm shifting what I would normally talk about today a little bit around how to do that in a safe way. Whether one of these institutions are your institution or one of these states is a state that you are in, I do think keeping in mind how we keep the work going and doing it in a safe way is really key.
So working with authors. I really want to talk about today language, the language choices that we make. And some of the things that we talked about as we were brainstorming, what's different this year and what we need to include, things that we've heard that people are really interested in is soliciting diverse authors for our publishing program. How do we do call for proposals and make specific spaces for those authors without using language that would target our programs negatively or would not be supported by our institutions if we are in states or institutions that have anti-DEI policies?
And so one of the first things that I want to address is equity work. It's so important, but it's human work and it's honest work. And so any call that you're making as you're trying to look for voices that aren't heard, if you think of who the humans are that are in your spaces, who the humans are that we want to serve the students, that really helps broaden the language that we're going to ask for in those calls. So a population that I love to use as a great example on our campus is our first-gen students. So first-gen students can be all over the spectrum of populations that they represent, but any work that we do to help first-generation students is going to help all students. And so thinking about, if you're soliciting, you're interested in authors who are different or unique, putting out calls that are targeting student populations. Veterans are another great target population that, again, represent a spectrum of humanity, but also if we're writing material or working to help improve veteran access to biology classes, that can be something that you can target in a proposal.
Authors willing to write with first-generation student targeted groups in mind, those are things that we can look at. One of the things that's really important when you're talking about diversity of authors though is, I think you have to also be mindful. And you all are thinking about your publishing programs. The diversity of authors that you're getting in your programs really has to be considered the diversity of resources and skills that they bring. And so a lot of publishing programs are trying to create, and I'm not disagreeing with this, but creating systems or structures that support all authors equally, "Here's what we provide."
But you might have an author who's not from the United States, who's new to working in the US, who maybe needs different support, or an older author who might have different technical support issues. So in thinking about your programs and the type of authors that you want to get, I also really encourage us to think about how we support those authors equitably and not just equally. What needs do they have? What needs do they maybe have that our program doesn't meet? Are there other resources on campus? So when my first human target is the authors, who are we getting in to write OER textbooks at Montana State?" It's not a diverse population that we're getting to do that work. It's authors that are a lot more established, faculty that have resources and grant budgets and a variety of things that don't need as much support for us, from us.
So I'm very interested in, "How do I do calls out that are inviting authors and faculty that might need more support?" Working with our disability services office is one. Inviting them to reach out to faculty that they work with and say, "Here's a grant program that the library offers. Here's OER publishing that you can do, and here's what we can do together to help you if you're interested." So putting out calls in different offices and different groups for OER instead of institution-wide calls is also something that I think brings in those first authors, the humans that are going to make our program mature.
So the other ... Going back centered in the human element that I want to talk about is, it's becoming about word choice. And I will just honestly say that feels very yucky to me to have to edit how I would talk about the work that I do. But it's more important to me that the work keeps moving forward and the students that we're trying to help are reached with OER texts that matter to them. So looking at words, and there's very long lists out there of words that should not be used or that the federal government has said cannot be in policies or cannot be in grant-supported word. It's very extensive. But I'm thinking about the words that we are using in this scenario, and what are safe words that mean the same thing.
And equity is a really great word. I love it, but maybe that's triggering for certain target audiences. So what does equity actually mean to me? And that means everybody has the ability to get access to what they need without barriers, and that's the heart of OER, right? We're trying to reduce barriers to education to higher ed. So it's about access, it's about students succeeding, every student succeeds and those are words that your institutions can get behind. Diversity, representation, inclusiveness, those are words that, again, are feeling very challenging right now.
Our Office of Equity and Diversity is now called the Office of Access and they actually haven't changed the work that they're doing at that office, but they're no longer calling it the same thing. And it's not because we have any legislation or anything like that here in Montana yet. All of those pieces of legislation did not pass for us which is lovely, but it's to make sure that work can go on without becoming a target in this climate. And so I think that's really important. And for me, it centers back on what open education is, right? Why we have it, why the five Rs matter. We can make educational materials relevant to our students. And as I go through some of the design equity steps, you'll hear me say that more and more, but it makes it relevant to our students, it makes everyone have access, it improves their success.
Being more inclusive in the work actually can increase engagement and that sense of belonging. Those are popular words right now. So as I go through the rest of our talk today, think about what you have in place at your institution and can we change the vocabulary that we're using to protect the work and that's what really matters. So I want to talk to you today about how your program can create a foundation of inclusivity and it's really important to think about what you can build in place at the start. It's much easier to give some guidance to authors from the start than to have a text given to you that you're working on, helping to publish that doesn't meet standards of your program.
So think about standards of your program. Can you create an author guide? And we have a simple one that I don't see linked to this year, so I can add that link if you're interested. But we have one that you can take and use and adapt. What's the checklist that authors need to cover? What are things that you can give them at the start to invite them to consider as they're creating their work? And for me, I center that around that relevance piece, right? So if I'm writing a textbook on business management and I'm talking to students at my institution who are largely from rural small towns who maybe their families have never made more than $100,000 in a year, that's like a pie in the sky and all my examples are about these multimillion-dollar business references. It makes my text less relevant.
So instead of saying, consider making your texts more inclusive, you're saying, can you make it relevant to the students that you're serving? "Maybe the students that I'm serving are widely diverse in race and ethnicity and culture," can you include something like that, so that your students can find themselves in the work, that students can see themselves? And so you are diversifying the text by doing that, but if we're not using that word, we're still inviting people to make it relevant to our students and that's really that center of finding student belonging.
I'm very interested in OER texts that are about the relationship that a faculty member and the student can have with each other in their learning around the course materials and not course materials being a barrier to learning or a necessary box that somebody's checking. And so these kinds of foundational guides and things that we ask authors to consider before they create their work or as they're creating their work are really helpful. So student first approach, yes, that's what we want to do. It's a safe way to do it. This is about the students incorporating from the beginning and we're improving student learning and engagement. So use that language.
I am going to go through design equity and information equity and how to build that into your publishing checklist that you have for authors and ways that they can diversify and DEI their work, but we want to center how we're talking about them in ways that keep the publishing program and the work you're doing safe. So student learning and engagement, I'm all about that. So number one, reaching the audience, which I already introduced to you all is our students, right? So faculty, and this is one thing I found interesting in my work, having worked with a variety of institutions. Depending on where you're at, sometimes they're just doing professional writing and we really want to talk about teaching.
So when you're looking at design equity, one of the first things to provide as a guide is challenging your faculty authors to consider, "Is the language they're putting approachable for all learners?" lot of times we know the language in our disciplines, we know the rhetoric that we commonly use and it's that hidden curriculum that the first student who walks in our doors or the first student who opens this text and reads the chapter might not know that, so building vocabularies through the text, super important. Introducing vocabularies and building upon them in the writing is really helpful.
Next, and I gave you an example of this, "Are the scenarios relatable? Are all my students going to read this?" I don't know who they're talking about. We'll never experience that, right? So making sure the scenarios are relatable to the students that they're serving and that's an easy checkbox that helps the writing be a lot more inclusive and gives them something to consider from the start, right? Diversity of representation. So that's one we all think about, but in the examples, in the images, in the experiences is really key and that's part of that relevant piece, but how do we make representation in those places diverse and not call it diversity?
Sometimes it can be relevant, but you can think about the variety of students. Is there a variety of examples in your text that various students would experience? Would a first-generation student experience that? Would a student from a small rural town, would a student from the inner city experience this? And so challenging faculty authors to make sure their examples, images and the experiences represent students that might use it. Names that they use, so if you're making up examples using names. I had a recent conference, it was two days ago that faculty OER author was talking about using generative AI to create case studies in a educational psychology class. And so the students were using that to create diagnosis.
And one of the things that she found really interesting is AI was giving a wide variety of names, which was a great use of that tool for her because you can't use personal information and patient confidentiality is a thing. So it was a great tool for her. But even AI came up with a variety of names that students were able to really just connect with because it helped them see that example as a patient. And then of course, design equity has a variety of formats. So when you're working in publishing, yes, we can publish digitally, we want to make sure it's accessible, but are we giving more than one format? Is it downloadable? Is there a print option that we can provide?
That has become really important at Montana State because a lot of our students are rural and there is limited access across the state to internet service and quality internet service. So is it downloadable? Is there a print option that we can provide at low cost? So thinking about or asking your faculty authors to think about those things from the start, how they want to share this, what their students will need. Will their students need to write things in the text? Do they want to give that option? So we can provide those at the start. Accessible, so you heard from Jackie Brink a couple of weeks ago about accessibility. I also feel like that's very strong to keep in your author checklists as well and those foundational, "This is the quality control that we provide at our institution for publishing."
So making sure it's accessible. Does it meet those standards? But the other accessibility things that I want you to consider are some things that a lot of standard publisher textbooks have, but OER don't always have, and that's how to use the text. So to the reader guide, if you think about some of those early texts that you might have had in your undergraduate careers and they'll maybe have some vocabulary in bold at the front. They'll maybe have some questions at the end, "Here's how to use this material. Here's what you need to find. Here's where to find the answers to your questions." Those kinds of things are an access issue for learners who haven't experienced the type of learning that you do in college before, especially your early undergrad, definitely your first-generation students, your English language learner students. So it's an accessibility issue for a lot to have a how-to-use and help them understand that.
If faculty are I creating a text that they intend to teach with and introduce ancillary or additional materials, call that out in the text. And that could be like at the end of the chapter section, additional reading or, "This is going to apply to an assignment coming up." Have them call that out in the text. That's really helpful to students who are learning new material, understanding, "I need to make this connection because my instructor already made it for me. They're telling me I have to figure this out, so I am going to go back and reread and then apply these things." So connecting to other materials is really important or the learning outcomes that the course has.
Content. This is a tricky part because we are asking people to think beyond their own perspectives and that's really the heart of where DEI work lives, thinking beyond your perspective. And for me, that's really important, because in DEI work, you are very limited to your own experiences, what you see and what you know. And you could be very intentional and working really hard to incorporate multiple perspectives and there's still others out there that you're missing. And so I think challenging faculty to think beyond what they want to share and include experiences beyond what they know is really important and also sometimes a little tricky because they are the authors and you are not the author.
So keep in mind, they are creating content, that you can give them guides and help them check off what your priorities or not priorities, your ... I have the word, went out of my mind, so sorry. But you're giving them a structure and how they choose to follow that is also a little bit of academic freedom, but we want to give them the most foundational guide to get going. So the material, subject coverage. This is really important. "Is it honest and inclusive?" And so one example would be, if I'm writing a book on some historical event, is it including multiple perspectives? Does it include all the relevant people? So is it including ... For example, if there's a war, is it including the rulers, the army or the people that are being impacted? Are we including stories from all? And if we're not, are we honest about it? "This does not have these perspectives."
Challenge, it's okay to challenge and say, "What's missing? Are you talking about women in chemistry or are you just talking about white men in chemistry?" Is that what our text is covering? Is the language inclusive and devoid in microaggressions? So are we talking about people in a respectful way? And those are things, again, you're not the authors, but we can give authors some guides like, "Oh, yeah, I got to make sure when I talk about these peoples or these humans that it's honest and it's not structured in a way that is inaccurate or is invoking stereotypes or actually has some facts and a variety of perspectives." So that's the material piece.
It's also a great way to start a conversation about open pedagogy when you're talking about multiple perspectives. And so if a faculty member says, "Well, I don't know how to do that," maybe it doesn't need to be in the text, but it can be part of the assignment to invite students to find multiple perspectives on this topic, invite students to contribute those to the text. So it is important to include and consider, but not every faculty member is going to be comfortable doing that and that's why it's a tricky part.
Information equity, that's what I call this. So I think I already covered that one. Subject coverage, honest and inclusive. First-person accounts, that's also really important. Do you have first-person accounts? Are there primary sources or things that your library can get you access to that have first-person accounts that you can link in your text or discuss in your text? Authors, and especially in higher ed, faculty authors often feel like they're the subject experts, so they have to share it their way, but inviting faculty authors to work with a librarian to determine what else is needed in their text or some additional resources they might not have included is really helpful.
Gender-neutral language and person-first language. These are things that we have at the ready. So that could be a checklist like, "Did you use this gender-neutral language or person-first language in your text?" But we do want to make sure those things are in the materials that we're publishing or not in, if it's the microaggressions. Okay, so that's the landscape of some specifics to put into your materials. And I'm going to stop sharing slides because I want us to talk a little bit. I have a few questions for you. But creating something great is much simpler from the start if they have some of this guidance and having those guiding conversations and giving faculty maybe a resource to start with is really helpful.
So the question I want to pose to you all to consider is, "How comfortable do you feel or how empowered do you feel to directly address inclusion and equity at your institution?" And I'll put that in the chat too, but I invite you to share or unmute and give us some feedback. But how empowered do you feel to address this at your institution? And if you're struggling with feeling empowered and your answer could be "Not at all" or "I'm afraid," that's fair. What are things that we could provide for you? What are resources that we can share that would help you do that in a way that keeps you safe right now? And that's also a question to consider. So I'm going to open that up to everyone and let's talk about it. Example they want to share or something that they would like to be able to do, but aren't sure how.
Carmen: I think for me it's a state right now of it depends because I'm in Pennsylvania, I don't know, I know something has been introduced and I believe it's the State Senate. I'm at Penn State, and obviously, we're extremely dependent on research funding and government funding for certain things. And on the one hand, I'd like to think that I'm the type of person that's going to fight no matter what, but I don't want to ... It's so hard because I'm selfishly like, "Well, I don't want to endanger my job. I'm a single earner. This is it." But on the other hand, I want to fight and resist and make those additions to texts or programming or whatever.
I think a helpful thing is having groups like this in which you can brainstorm, like you mentioned Christina, alternative language. Because I saw something on social media somewhere that gave a list of all of the "banned terms for grants." I don't know which funding organization it was, but it's starting to think about like, "Okay, could I use person first or would that be construed?" Yeah, so that's a lot to mull over, but that's where I am.
Christina: Thank you for sharing that, Carmen. I very much feel that and it's why I wanted to spend some time just giving people a space to voice their frustrations or concerns about this because I think this is really important work and I've been so impressed at how much we've moved that forward in the last decade and now it feels like it's being pulled out from under us. So yeah, I will share. Thank you for your comment too, Amanda. I hear that. One of my really fun jobs right now at my institution is pushing back against library activities and saying, "Okay, well, we can't have a banned books event," or, "We can't do this right now in this climate."
And that feels so contrary to who we are as an institution, as an organization, this profession, and how to really challenge, and how you keep your sense of self. And in time where libraries are really under attack too, how you keep moving that forward and keep the subversion, I think a little bit, being subversive and fighting back. But I do think it centers in who we're trying to help and it's really our students. We want that information. Access is so important. Education is so important. Other thoughts or comments people might want to share?
Lora A.: I was just going to say, I was talking to a neighbor last evening about this situation because he's black, I'm white, and we were just commiserating on how our community is such a diverse community. And this almost tries to create a sense of putting each other at odds, pushing us back to "us and them" again. And we were trying to figure out how we could fight against that in our community and what actions we could take that, in all honesty, don't endanger us. Because now there's this threat of deporting US citizens to these places outside the country.
So it doesn't seem real until it starts impacting you. We had two students whose visas were revoked, and so, "How do you create content to provide a welcoming environment when your own institution is having to deny students' ability to be here?" And I'm working on just beginnings of an OER for university success, which is bringing new students to our campus. And we have, again, a very diverse campus and you want to have those kind of words in there to be sure that you are welcoming. But now we have to rethink how that's going to look.
Christina: Yeah, I think that's ... Thank you for sharing that, Lora. I think adding those types of things, like a very inclusive language, thinking about the students that we want to have that resource and I think that's where we can make a difference is thinking about those students, the students that we want to be reaching out to and incorporate maybe images, maybe it's vocabulary, things like that. That's where we can be subversive and keep making a difference while our institutions are faced with very different challenges and not really opening the opportunity up for us to have a voice in that, the people that work at them or their students to have a voice in what they decide to do. I think there's a lot of fear. And I feel like preemptively changing things before we're being asked to, out of fear of how it might hurt us, is the saddest thing I'm seeing right now. I feel like that's what's happening in the chat too. It's so disheartening.
Amanda: I think one thing that has helped in spite of everything that is happening, at least for me, is that, while we're getting zero communication from the admin of the university and even really the upper admin of our library, our manager sat us down in my department and said, "I just want you to know in advance that there are things that I am going to have to do as the head of this department that do not match with who I am outside of this role and who I am outside of this institution," because she's totally a badass rebel who's going to fight the system. But she's like, "But I have to also think about your safety and how my actions as a department head could put you at risk."
And just her being that transparent about that was really helpful because we're getting zero communication from anybody. And our division's associate dean came, and while she didn't have answers, she was like, "Please give me your questions so that I can help provide answers that will help you feel safer in the position that you're in." And that has been helpful, at least on the personal like, "Someone still sees us as human beings who are suffering through these institutional decisions." Because the lack of empathy at the upper echelon of our institution has just been really devastating and the language that they have used is different than how they have communicated in the past. And it's very last minute, "We have to tell you because there's a news story breaking about it," which does not feel great. But I think her sitting us down and having that conversation really helped, for me, to figure out, "Where is that boundary between me as job and me as person?" a little bit better. And then, "How can we do that and pay that forward to the people that we work with and who take risks to create OER?"
Christine: Here's the positive thing I've got, and I just threw it in the chat. I do feel like some institutions or some places are going, "Wait a minute, we don't have to completely capitulate." And I was watching the news last night. The Big Ten Academic Alliance actually has a resolution that they're saying, "If we stand together, it's a lot harder to bully people." And so I don't know, I needed a little bit of hope. So there's just the PDF of the alliance, but I don't know, maybe things will get a little better. I'm aiming for hope at this point because that's what I've got. So there's my moment of hope.
Christina: Yes, yes. Hope is resistance. Thank you, Amanda. It is. I think what's always been really important in DEI work is to take care of yourself in it because it's always a little scary and it's really important and we're never going to get it right 100% of the time, but we do it because it matters. And I don't think that has changed. The dynamic of the world we're in has changed, but that hasn't for me. And so finding the good in what you do is really, really important. Even if it's changing some language in your policy of your publishing policy or any of the things that you do, changing some language to keep doing what you do, but protecting you is important, but it's also a way to fight back like, "We're going to keep doing this work. We're going to keep inviting authors who maybe you're not represented in open education to write work and publish."
I think building community around that too, the OEN is very good at that, but building community around it. And keep meeting and saying, "Huh, we're all struggling." I'm struggling a little bit today, it's true. But also, this isn't forever. And being ready to stand up when the standing up needs to be done is important. And I just wanted to acknowledge, Micah, you had a great comment too, worrying that you ... Even though your institution has not complied, there's still that anxiety and I just want to recognize that a lot of people are feeling anxiety, too. And that's that fear. But it's valid; it's real. But I would challenge us all to not make decisions based off of fear.
One of the things that we're seeing is all of the federal grants that have been canceled at our institution because there was a word in them that talks about diversity. And the pushback that is happening here is, "That was a federal requirement that we include how this is going to impact diversity when we wrote the grant. You can't cancel our funding because we complied with the rules at that time." And so there's massive lawsuits that are coming up to appeal for those funding sources to come back because we entered into a contract with the then-government and doing the right thing what they asked us to. And it's not fair to punish the work because the government has changed its mind. They still have to honor those contracts. And so I feel like we're going to see a lot more of institutions standing up, especially for funding in that area.
I'm seeing some great resources and statements that are happening. The Chronicle of Higher Ed virtual event, that is free to everyone. I attended last week's. It's a good conversation and you get a very unbiased, "Here's what's happening, here's how to handle it and where to go." So that's a good resource too. Are there resources that OEN could provide, the Pub101 Committee could look at? Are there things that would be ...
Lora L.: I'd like to ... Excuse me. I'd like to get some sources about indigenous Native American Indians. We are looking at ways of advocating for Native American Indian communities. So resources about that would be helpful. And I also feel betrayed and disheartened and also feel very uncertain and feel harmed. And I am challenged to commit myself in how I can care for myself and also how I can respect myself as a human being, and what are some ways that I can also respect other human beings. And so I'm placed in a position where I am being programmed in a sense or being retaught to look at my neighbors as enemies, And I think where all of this DEI falls into the work that I do and it is very devastating and harmful.
And so I am using some of my indigenous teachings about relation and respecting each other and that we have commonalities in common to reinforce the compassion for ourselves and others and even nature and the world that we live in. We live in the paradise and this is ... And I focus on that and I just wanted to share that with you all. Again, I don't know how to articulate myself in this situation. And then also, I don't know what language to use anymore. English is my second language, and so I really am challenged to ... I'm using different dictionaries online and whatever dictionary is available, even to define what equity means. Never dawned on me, what is the common language for equity and inclusion and diversity?
So yes, I'm very thankful to be a part of this group, and I'm learning and developing from all of you, what you've written in the chat and I appreciate that. I'm grateful for that and I wanted to just share that with you all. Thank you. I appreciate each one of you.
Christina: Thank you for sharing that, Lora, that's really important. I appreciate your perspective and your honesty and your vulnerability. Those are all beautiful things. So thanks for sharing with us. That was incredible. Can I ask a follow-up question of you? So you're looking for resources for indigenous communities and is that to publish or for just resources as a whole?
Lora L.: I think right now, resources as a whole and then also for publishing would be good. I'm from Phoenix, Arizona. I'm originally from New Mexico. And so, our institution at Maricopa Community College also is leaning towards bending to the administration. Where are some of the websites? I think some of our faculty members and employees have learned that our websites have been scrubbed and we did not know about it. But again, we want to push back. But we want to use nonviolent languages to push back and nonviolent actions as well. So that's what I'm hearing from the groups that want to push back and it is hard, yeah.
Christina: Yeah. Well, thank you. I know that ... And please feel free to email me specifically about that. We work with a lot of tribal colleges here in Montana and I know that AIHEC has joined that OEN, which is a great connection on there. They have really good resources. Also for the publishing side, I will share that, if you are doing open publishing and you're using any kind of indigenous language, I'm sharing a link to licenses that are for indigenous authors to put onto their open licenses that indicate that it's traditional knowledge and there's some use cases for that, so what can and cannot be used and how. So it's another layer of protection for indigenous authors. So I encourage people to check that out.
Okay. Well, we are at time and I see people popping off the call, but I'm really grateful for all of you taking some time to come to this, but also to share. And Micah's got some closing thoughts. Oops, you're muted, Micah.
Micah: Excuse me. Thank you. Yeah, first I'm just popping into the chat again our Pub101 orientation document that has the schedule for upcoming sessions and some elements that you may wish to look at to prepare for those sessions. But yes, I do want to thank you so much again, Christina, for sharing your experiences today. And again, very much to our attendees for sharing some of their experiences. So yeah, we hope that, as we continue to share resources and recommendations, yeah, you have a takeaway that you're not alone working on these things. Hopefully, even this group, as we assemble week by week, you can bring ideas back to and connect with individuals to find support and commiseration in some cases as well.
So thank you all very much. Next week will be accessibility, so that's going to have some overlap with some ideas that we have today. So do consider putting together maybe some review of the documents there to bring a little bit of background and then we'll look forward to speaking about accessibility with you all next Wednesday. So thank you very much, everyone. And thank you very much, Christina.
END OF VIDEO
Share this post:
The fourth synchronous session of Pub101 in 2025 welcomes Montana State University's Christina Trunnell who leads our discussion about ideas to create inclusion in open educational resources publishing. Today's session is hosted by Micah Gjeltema of the University of Minnesota.
Watch the video recording of this session or keep reading for a full transcript. For those interested in reading the conversation that took place among participants and the resources shared, the chat transcript is also available below.
Note: If your comments appear in the transcripts and you would like your name or other identifying information removed, please contact Tonia.
Watch the video recording of this session or keep reading for a full transcript. For those interested in reading the conversation that took place among participants and the resources shared, the chat transcript is also available below.
Note: If your comments appear in the transcripts and you would like your name or other identifying information removed, please contact Tonia.
Audio Transcript
Speakers:
- Micah Gjeltema (Open Education & Affordable Content Librarian, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities)
- Christina Trunnell (Assistant Dean, Montana State University)
Micah: We are committed to providing a friendly, safe and welcoming environment for everyone. So do please make sure that you join us in creating a safe and constructive space. So today, to kick off our message just with a bit of a sort of reflection question, I'll put it in the chat here. To begin with, just to on ramp into this tricky topic, when you are reading or watching a show, what helps you identify with characters or content? Of course, we are with a bent towards things like representation and things like identities and elements like that. Shared experiences. Intersectionality, that's a great quality.
And also note any pet peeves you have in this area of what really doesn't work for you or what seems to ring a little hollow in some cases. Yeah, it seems like we're getting a lot of identity, intersectionality, shared experiences. I think that those are all, yeah, absolutely key elements of that and hopefully we can keep some of those ideas in mind as we go forward and talk about how to create inclusion in OER materials. So with that, I am going to hand things over to Christina to talk about creating inclusion. Thank you, Christina.
Christina: I'm going to say I'm totally distracted by Lora's comment, "They play into stereotypes of librarians." Such a good comment. I feel like stereotypes of any kind is a real challenge for me to connect with, but I'm going to start with taking some of the comments that you made and building off of that, so, "When you're reading or watching a show, what helps you identify with the characters or content?" And that's really where we're going to stay like, "How do you feel like you belong in a learning environment?" and that's that same connection that we want to build into the open books that we're publishing and that we want to challenge our faculty authors to stay in that space too.
So I'm going to give us some foundational information, but I also know how much this work is shifting and the landscape that we're in is all over the place and it does not feel like we have a solid foundation in this work or in higher ed, a little bit right now. And so while I talk, I do invite you to put your comments and questions in chat, but also if you have a question and we need space to think through specific situations, I really invite that right now because it is a different time for us in this profession, in this work and as a nation to address it. So I do openly invite you to unmute and make comments or ask questions as we go through stuff. I'm more interested in that than getting through all the slides. So keep that in mind and I will try to watch the chat, but, Micah, you can help me with that too.
So just to open it up and talk about that landscape, I put a couple of screenshots, but the links are also in my slides, which I will link on that orientation schedule document as well. But this is as of April 11th, so just a few days ago, the number of states that have introduced anti-DEI legislation. And it's a growing and staggering number, but this covers the majority of the United States. And so this landscape is around us. Additionally, The Chronicle of Higher Ed is also tracking institutions and within or without those states that have anti-DEI policies or have dismantled their DEI programs.
And so as this is happening, it's really important to me that the values that we put into DEI work and that the work continues and so I'm shifting what I would normally talk about today a little bit around how to do that in a safe way. Whether one of these institutions are your institution or one of these states is a state that you are in, I do think keeping in mind how we keep the work going and doing it in a safe way is really key.
So working with authors. I really want to talk about today language, the language choices that we make. And some of the things that we talked about as we were brainstorming, what's different this year and what we need to include, things that we've heard that people are really interested in is soliciting diverse authors for our publishing program. How do we do call for proposals and make specific spaces for those authors without using language that would target our programs negatively or would not be supported by our institutions if we are in states or institutions that have anti-DEI policies?
And so one of the first things that I want to address is equity work. It's so important, but it's human work and it's honest work. And so any call that you're making as you're trying to look for voices that aren't heard, if you think of who the humans are that are in your spaces, who the humans are that we want to serve the students, that really helps broaden the language that we're going to ask for in those calls. So a population that I love to use as a great example on our campus is our first-gen students. So first-gen students can be all over the spectrum of populations that they represent, but any work that we do to help first-generation students is going to help all students. And so thinking about, if you're soliciting, you're interested in authors who are different or unique, putting out calls that are targeting student populations. Veterans are another great target population that, again, represent a spectrum of humanity, but also if we're writing material or working to help improve veteran access to biology classes, that can be something that you can target in a proposal.
Authors willing to write with first-generation student targeted groups in mind, those are things that we can look at. One of the things that's really important when you're talking about diversity of authors though is, I think you have to also be mindful. And you all are thinking about your publishing programs. The diversity of authors that you're getting in your programs really has to be considered the diversity of resources and skills that they bring. And so a lot of publishing programs are trying to create, and I'm not disagreeing with this, but creating systems or structures that support all authors equally, "Here's what we provide."
But you might have an author who's not from the United States, who's new to working in the US, who maybe needs different support, or an older author who might have different technical support issues. So in thinking about your programs and the type of authors that you want to get, I also really encourage us to think about how we support those authors equitably and not just equally. What needs do they have? What needs do they maybe have that our program doesn't meet? Are there other resources on campus? So when my first human target is the authors, who are we getting in to write OER textbooks at Montana State?" It's not a diverse population that we're getting to do that work. It's authors that are a lot more established, faculty that have resources and grant budgets and a variety of things that don't need as much support for us, from us.
So I'm very interested in, "How do I do calls out that are inviting authors and faculty that might need more support?" Working with our disability services office is one. Inviting them to reach out to faculty that they work with and say, "Here's a grant program that the library offers. Here's OER publishing that you can do, and here's what we can do together to help you if you're interested." So putting out calls in different offices and different groups for OER instead of institution-wide calls is also something that I think brings in those first authors, the humans that are going to make our program mature.
So the other ... Going back centered in the human element that I want to talk about is, it's becoming about word choice. And I will just honestly say that feels very yucky to me to have to edit how I would talk about the work that I do. But it's more important to me that the work keeps moving forward and the students that we're trying to help are reached with OER texts that matter to them. So looking at words, and there's very long lists out there of words that should not be used or that the federal government has said cannot be in policies or cannot be in grant-supported word. It's very extensive. But I'm thinking about the words that we are using in this scenario, and what are safe words that mean the same thing.
And equity is a really great word. I love it, but maybe that's triggering for certain target audiences. So what does equity actually mean to me? And that means everybody has the ability to get access to what they need without barriers, and that's the heart of OER, right? We're trying to reduce barriers to education to higher ed. So it's about access, it's about students succeeding, every student succeeds and those are words that your institutions can get behind. Diversity, representation, inclusiveness, those are words that, again, are feeling very challenging right now.
Our Office of Equity and Diversity is now called the Office of Access and they actually haven't changed the work that they're doing at that office, but they're no longer calling it the same thing. And it's not because we have any legislation or anything like that here in Montana yet. All of those pieces of legislation did not pass for us which is lovely, but it's to make sure that work can go on without becoming a target in this climate. And so I think that's really important. And for me, it centers back on what open education is, right? Why we have it, why the five Rs matter. We can make educational materials relevant to our students. And as I go through some of the design equity steps, you'll hear me say that more and more, but it makes it relevant to our students, it makes everyone have access, it improves their success.
Being more inclusive in the work actually can increase engagement and that sense of belonging. Those are popular words right now. So as I go through the rest of our talk today, think about what you have in place at your institution and can we change the vocabulary that we're using to protect the work and that's what really matters. So I want to talk to you today about how your program can create a foundation of inclusivity and it's really important to think about what you can build in place at the start. It's much easier to give some guidance to authors from the start than to have a text given to you that you're working on, helping to publish that doesn't meet standards of your program.
So think about standards of your program. Can you create an author guide? And we have a simple one that I don't see linked to this year, so I can add that link if you're interested. But we have one that you can take and use and adapt. What's the checklist that authors need to cover? What are things that you can give them at the start to invite them to consider as they're creating their work? And for me, I center that around that relevance piece, right? So if I'm writing a textbook on business management and I'm talking to students at my institution who are largely from rural small towns who maybe their families have never made more than $100,000 in a year, that's like a pie in the sky and all my examples are about these multimillion-dollar business references. It makes my text less relevant.
So instead of saying, consider making your texts more inclusive, you're saying, can you make it relevant to the students that you're serving? "Maybe the students that I'm serving are widely diverse in race and ethnicity and culture," can you include something like that, so that your students can find themselves in the work, that students can see themselves? And so you are diversifying the text by doing that, but if we're not using that word, we're still inviting people to make it relevant to our students and that's really that center of finding student belonging.
I'm very interested in OER texts that are about the relationship that a faculty member and the student can have with each other in their learning around the course materials and not course materials being a barrier to learning or a necessary box that somebody's checking. And so these kinds of foundational guides and things that we ask authors to consider before they create their work or as they're creating their work are really helpful. So student first approach, yes, that's what we want to do. It's a safe way to do it. This is about the students incorporating from the beginning and we're improving student learning and engagement. So use that language.
I am going to go through design equity and information equity and how to build that into your publishing checklist that you have for authors and ways that they can diversify and DEI their work, but we want to center how we're talking about them in ways that keep the publishing program and the work you're doing safe. So student learning and engagement, I'm all about that. So number one, reaching the audience, which I already introduced to you all is our students, right? So faculty, and this is one thing I found interesting in my work, having worked with a variety of institutions. Depending on where you're at, sometimes they're just doing professional writing and we really want to talk about teaching.
So when you're looking at design equity, one of the first things to provide as a guide is challenging your faculty authors to consider, "Is the language they're putting approachable for all learners?" lot of times we know the language in our disciplines, we know the rhetoric that we commonly use and it's that hidden curriculum that the first student who walks in our doors or the first student who opens this text and reads the chapter might not know that, so building vocabularies through the text, super important. Introducing vocabularies and building upon them in the writing is really helpful.
Next, and I gave you an example of this, "Are the scenarios relatable? Are all my students going to read this?" I don't know who they're talking about. We'll never experience that, right? So making sure the scenarios are relatable to the students that they're serving and that's an easy checkbox that helps the writing be a lot more inclusive and gives them something to consider from the start, right? Diversity of representation. So that's one we all think about, but in the examples, in the images, in the experiences is really key and that's part of that relevant piece, but how do we make representation in those places diverse and not call it diversity?
Sometimes it can be relevant, but you can think about the variety of students. Is there a variety of examples in your text that various students would experience? Would a first-generation student experience that? Would a student from a small rural town, would a student from the inner city experience this? And so challenging faculty authors to make sure their examples, images and the experiences represent students that might use it. Names that they use, so if you're making up examples using names. I had a recent conference, it was two days ago that faculty OER author was talking about using generative AI to create case studies in a educational psychology class. And so the students were using that to create diagnosis.
And one of the things that she found really interesting is AI was giving a wide variety of names, which was a great use of that tool for her because you can't use personal information and patient confidentiality is a thing. So it was a great tool for her. But even AI came up with a variety of names that students were able to really just connect with because it helped them see that example as a patient. And then of course, design equity has a variety of formats. So when you're working in publishing, yes, we can publish digitally, we want to make sure it's accessible, but are we giving more than one format? Is it downloadable? Is there a print option that we can provide?
That has become really important at Montana State because a lot of our students are rural and there is limited access across the state to internet service and quality internet service. So is it downloadable? Is there a print option that we can provide at low cost? So thinking about or asking your faculty authors to think about those things from the start, how they want to share this, what their students will need. Will their students need to write things in the text? Do they want to give that option? So we can provide those at the start. Accessible, so you heard from Jackie Brink a couple of weeks ago about accessibility. I also feel like that's very strong to keep in your author checklists as well and those foundational, "This is the quality control that we provide at our institution for publishing."
So making sure it's accessible. Does it meet those standards? But the other accessibility things that I want you to consider are some things that a lot of standard publisher textbooks have, but OER don't always have, and that's how to use the text. So to the reader guide, if you think about some of those early texts that you might have had in your undergraduate careers and they'll maybe have some vocabulary in bold at the front. They'll maybe have some questions at the end, "Here's how to use this material. Here's what you need to find. Here's where to find the answers to your questions." Those kinds of things are an access issue for learners who haven't experienced the type of learning that you do in college before, especially your early undergrad, definitely your first-generation students, your English language learner students. So it's an accessibility issue for a lot to have a how-to-use and help them understand that.
If faculty are I creating a text that they intend to teach with and introduce ancillary or additional materials, call that out in the text. And that could be like at the end of the chapter section, additional reading or, "This is going to apply to an assignment coming up." Have them call that out in the text. That's really helpful to students who are learning new material, understanding, "I need to make this connection because my instructor already made it for me. They're telling me I have to figure this out, so I am going to go back and reread and then apply these things." So connecting to other materials is really important or the learning outcomes that the course has.
Content. This is a tricky part because we are asking people to think beyond their own perspectives and that's really the heart of where DEI work lives, thinking beyond your perspective. And for me, that's really important, because in DEI work, you are very limited to your own experiences, what you see and what you know. And you could be very intentional and working really hard to incorporate multiple perspectives and there's still others out there that you're missing. And so I think challenging faculty to think beyond what they want to share and include experiences beyond what they know is really important and also sometimes a little tricky because they are the authors and you are not the author.
So keep in mind, they are creating content, that you can give them guides and help them check off what your priorities or not priorities, your ... I have the word, went out of my mind, so sorry. But you're giving them a structure and how they choose to follow that is also a little bit of academic freedom, but we want to give them the most foundational guide to get going. So the material, subject coverage. This is really important. "Is it honest and inclusive?" And so one example would be, if I'm writing a book on some historical event, is it including multiple perspectives? Does it include all the relevant people? So is it including ... For example, if there's a war, is it including the rulers, the army or the people that are being impacted? Are we including stories from all? And if we're not, are we honest about it? "This does not have these perspectives."
Challenge, it's okay to challenge and say, "What's missing? Are you talking about women in chemistry or are you just talking about white men in chemistry?" Is that what our text is covering? Is the language inclusive and devoid in microaggressions? So are we talking about people in a respectful way? And those are things, again, you're not the authors, but we can give authors some guides like, "Oh, yeah, I got to make sure when I talk about these peoples or these humans that it's honest and it's not structured in a way that is inaccurate or is invoking stereotypes or actually has some facts and a variety of perspectives." So that's the material piece.
It's also a great way to start a conversation about open pedagogy when you're talking about multiple perspectives. And so if a faculty member says, "Well, I don't know how to do that," maybe it doesn't need to be in the text, but it can be part of the assignment to invite students to find multiple perspectives on this topic, invite students to contribute those to the text. So it is important to include and consider, but not every faculty member is going to be comfortable doing that and that's why it's a tricky part.
Information equity, that's what I call this. So I think I already covered that one. Subject coverage, honest and inclusive. First-person accounts, that's also really important. Do you have first-person accounts? Are there primary sources or things that your library can get you access to that have first-person accounts that you can link in your text or discuss in your text? Authors, and especially in higher ed, faculty authors often feel like they're the subject experts, so they have to share it their way, but inviting faculty authors to work with a librarian to determine what else is needed in their text or some additional resources they might not have included is really helpful.
Gender-neutral language and person-first language. These are things that we have at the ready. So that could be a checklist like, "Did you use this gender-neutral language or person-first language in your text?" But we do want to make sure those things are in the materials that we're publishing or not in, if it's the microaggressions. Okay, so that's the landscape of some specifics to put into your materials. And I'm going to stop sharing slides because I want us to talk a little bit. I have a few questions for you. But creating something great is much simpler from the start if they have some of this guidance and having those guiding conversations and giving faculty maybe a resource to start with is really helpful.
So the question I want to pose to you all to consider is, "How comfortable do you feel or how empowered do you feel to directly address inclusion and equity at your institution?" And I'll put that in the chat too, but I invite you to share or unmute and give us some feedback. But how empowered do you feel to address this at your institution? And if you're struggling with feeling empowered and your answer could be "Not at all" or "I'm afraid," that's fair. What are things that we could provide for you? What are resources that we can share that would help you do that in a way that keeps you safe right now? And that's also a question to consider. So I'm going to open that up to everyone and let's talk about it. Example they want to share or something that they would like to be able to do, but aren't sure how.
Carmen: I think for me it's a state right now of it depends because I'm in Pennsylvania, I don't know, I know something has been introduced and I believe it's the State Senate. I'm at Penn State, and obviously, we're extremely dependent on research funding and government funding for certain things. And on the one hand, I'd like to think that I'm the type of person that's going to fight no matter what, but I don't want to ... It's so hard because I'm selfishly like, "Well, I don't want to endanger my job. I'm a single earner. This is it." But on the other hand, I want to fight and resist and make those additions to texts or programming or whatever.
I think a helpful thing is having groups like this in which you can brainstorm, like you mentioned Christina, alternative language. Because I saw something on social media somewhere that gave a list of all of the "banned terms for grants." I don't know which funding organization it was, but it's starting to think about like, "Okay, could I use person first or would that be construed?" Yeah, so that's a lot to mull over, but that's where I am.
Christina: Thank you for sharing that, Carmen. I very much feel that and it's why I wanted to spend some time just giving people a space to voice their frustrations or concerns about this because I think this is really important work and I've been so impressed at how much we've moved that forward in the last decade and now it feels like it's being pulled out from under us. So yeah, I will share. Thank you for your comment too, Amanda. I hear that. One of my really fun jobs right now at my institution is pushing back against library activities and saying, "Okay, well, we can't have a banned books event," or, "We can't do this right now in this climate."
And that feels so contrary to who we are as an institution, as an organization, this profession, and how to really challenge, and how you keep your sense of self. And in time where libraries are really under attack too, how you keep moving that forward and keep the subversion, I think a little bit, being subversive and fighting back. But I do think it centers in who we're trying to help and it's really our students. We want that information. Access is so important. Education is so important. Other thoughts or comments people might want to share?
Lora A.: I was just going to say, I was talking to a neighbor last evening about this situation because he's black, I'm white, and we were just commiserating on how our community is such a diverse community. And this almost tries to create a sense of putting each other at odds, pushing us back to "us and them" again. And we were trying to figure out how we could fight against that in our community and what actions we could take that, in all honesty, don't endanger us. Because now there's this threat of deporting US citizens to these places outside the country.
So it doesn't seem real until it starts impacting you. We had two students whose visas were revoked, and so, "How do you create content to provide a welcoming environment when your own institution is having to deny students' ability to be here?" And I'm working on just beginnings of an OER for university success, which is bringing new students to our campus. And we have, again, a very diverse campus and you want to have those kind of words in there to be sure that you are welcoming. But now we have to rethink how that's going to look.
Christina: Yeah, I think that's ... Thank you for sharing that, Lora. I think adding those types of things, like a very inclusive language, thinking about the students that we want to have that resource and I think that's where we can make a difference is thinking about those students, the students that we want to be reaching out to and incorporate maybe images, maybe it's vocabulary, things like that. That's where we can be subversive and keep making a difference while our institutions are faced with very different challenges and not really opening the opportunity up for us to have a voice in that, the people that work at them or their students to have a voice in what they decide to do. I think there's a lot of fear. And I feel like preemptively changing things before we're being asked to, out of fear of how it might hurt us, is the saddest thing I'm seeing right now. I feel like that's what's happening in the chat too. It's so disheartening.
Amanda: I think one thing that has helped in spite of everything that is happening, at least for me, is that, while we're getting zero communication from the admin of the university and even really the upper admin of our library, our manager sat us down in my department and said, "I just want you to know in advance that there are things that I am going to have to do as the head of this department that do not match with who I am outside of this role and who I am outside of this institution," because she's totally a badass rebel who's going to fight the system. But she's like, "But I have to also think about your safety and how my actions as a department head could put you at risk."
And just her being that transparent about that was really helpful because we're getting zero communication from anybody. And our division's associate dean came, and while she didn't have answers, she was like, "Please give me your questions so that I can help provide answers that will help you feel safer in the position that you're in." And that has been helpful, at least on the personal like, "Someone still sees us as human beings who are suffering through these institutional decisions." Because the lack of empathy at the upper echelon of our institution has just been really devastating and the language that they have used is different than how they have communicated in the past. And it's very last minute, "We have to tell you because there's a news story breaking about it," which does not feel great. But I think her sitting us down and having that conversation really helped, for me, to figure out, "Where is that boundary between me as job and me as person?" a little bit better. And then, "How can we do that and pay that forward to the people that we work with and who take risks to create OER?"
Christine: Here's the positive thing I've got, and I just threw it in the chat. I do feel like some institutions or some places are going, "Wait a minute, we don't have to completely capitulate." And I was watching the news last night. The Big Ten Academic Alliance actually has a resolution that they're saying, "If we stand together, it's a lot harder to bully people." And so I don't know, I needed a little bit of hope. So there's just the PDF of the alliance, but I don't know, maybe things will get a little better. I'm aiming for hope at this point because that's what I've got. So there's my moment of hope.
Christina: Yes, yes. Hope is resistance. Thank you, Amanda. It is. I think what's always been really important in DEI work is to take care of yourself in it because it's always a little scary and it's really important and we're never going to get it right 100% of the time, but we do it because it matters. And I don't think that has changed. The dynamic of the world we're in has changed, but that hasn't for me. And so finding the good in what you do is really, really important. Even if it's changing some language in your policy of your publishing policy or any of the things that you do, changing some language to keep doing what you do, but protecting you is important, but it's also a way to fight back like, "We're going to keep doing this work. We're going to keep inviting authors who maybe you're not represented in open education to write work and publish."
I think building community around that too, the OEN is very good at that, but building community around it. And keep meeting and saying, "Huh, we're all struggling." I'm struggling a little bit today, it's true. But also, this isn't forever. And being ready to stand up when the standing up needs to be done is important. And I just wanted to acknowledge, Micah, you had a great comment too, worrying that you ... Even though your institution has not complied, there's still that anxiety and I just want to recognize that a lot of people are feeling anxiety, too. And that's that fear. But it's valid; it's real. But I would challenge us all to not make decisions based off of fear.
One of the things that we're seeing is all of the federal grants that have been canceled at our institution because there was a word in them that talks about diversity. And the pushback that is happening here is, "That was a federal requirement that we include how this is going to impact diversity when we wrote the grant. You can't cancel our funding because we complied with the rules at that time." And so there's massive lawsuits that are coming up to appeal for those funding sources to come back because we entered into a contract with the then-government and doing the right thing what they asked us to. And it's not fair to punish the work because the government has changed its mind. They still have to honor those contracts. And so I feel like we're going to see a lot more of institutions standing up, especially for funding in that area.
I'm seeing some great resources and statements that are happening. The Chronicle of Higher Ed virtual event, that is free to everyone. I attended last week's. It's a good conversation and you get a very unbiased, "Here's what's happening, here's how to handle it and where to go." So that's a good resource too. Are there resources that OEN could provide, the Pub101 Committee could look at? Are there things that would be ...
Lora L.: I'd like to ... Excuse me. I'd like to get some sources about indigenous Native American Indians. We are looking at ways of advocating for Native American Indian communities. So resources about that would be helpful. And I also feel betrayed and disheartened and also feel very uncertain and feel harmed. And I am challenged to commit myself in how I can care for myself and also how I can respect myself as a human being, and what are some ways that I can also respect other human beings. And so I'm placed in a position where I am being programmed in a sense or being retaught to look at my neighbors as enemies, And I think where all of this DEI falls into the work that I do and it is very devastating and harmful.
And so I am using some of my indigenous teachings about relation and respecting each other and that we have commonalities in common to reinforce the compassion for ourselves and others and even nature and the world that we live in. We live in the paradise and this is ... And I focus on that and I just wanted to share that with you all. Again, I don't know how to articulate myself in this situation. And then also, I don't know what language to use anymore. English is my second language, and so I really am challenged to ... I'm using different dictionaries online and whatever dictionary is available, even to define what equity means. Never dawned on me, what is the common language for equity and inclusion and diversity?
So yes, I'm very thankful to be a part of this group, and I'm learning and developing from all of you, what you've written in the chat and I appreciate that. I'm grateful for that and I wanted to just share that with you all. Thank you. I appreciate each one of you.
Christina: Thank you for sharing that, Lora, that's really important. I appreciate your perspective and your honesty and your vulnerability. Those are all beautiful things. So thanks for sharing with us. That was incredible. Can I ask a follow-up question of you? So you're looking for resources for indigenous communities and is that to publish or for just resources as a whole?
Lora L.: I think right now, resources as a whole and then also for publishing would be good. I'm from Phoenix, Arizona. I'm originally from New Mexico. And so, our institution at Maricopa Community College also is leaning towards bending to the administration. Where are some of the websites? I think some of our faculty members and employees have learned that our websites have been scrubbed and we did not know about it. But again, we want to push back. But we want to use nonviolent languages to push back and nonviolent actions as well. So that's what I'm hearing from the groups that want to push back and it is hard, yeah.
Christina: Yeah. Well, thank you. I know that ... And please feel free to email me specifically about that. We work with a lot of tribal colleges here in Montana and I know that AIHEC has joined that OEN, which is a great connection on there. They have really good resources. Also for the publishing side, I will share that, if you are doing open publishing and you're using any kind of indigenous language, I'm sharing a link to licenses that are for indigenous authors to put onto their open licenses that indicate that it's traditional knowledge and there's some use cases for that, so what can and cannot be used and how. So it's another layer of protection for indigenous authors. So I encourage people to check that out.
Okay. Well, we are at time and I see people popping off the call, but I'm really grateful for all of you taking some time to come to this, but also to share. And Micah's got some closing thoughts. Oops, you're muted, Micah.
Micah: Excuse me. Thank you. Yeah, first I'm just popping into the chat again our Pub101 orientation document that has the schedule for upcoming sessions and some elements that you may wish to look at to prepare for those sessions. But yes, I do want to thank you so much again, Christina, for sharing your experiences today. And again, very much to our attendees for sharing some of their experiences. So yeah, we hope that, as we continue to share resources and recommendations, yeah, you have a takeaway that you're not alone working on these things. Hopefully, even this group, as we assemble week by week, you can bring ideas back to and connect with individuals to find support and commiseration in some cases as well.
So thank you all very much. Next week will be accessibility, so that's going to have some overlap with some ideas that we have today. So do consider putting together maybe some review of the documents there to bring a little bit of background and then we'll look forward to speaking about accessibility with you all next Wednesday. So thank you very much, everyone. And thank you very much, Christina.
END OF VIDEO
Chat Transcript
12:59:21 From Seyed Abdollah Shahrokni to Everyone: Howdy everyone! :)
12:59:41 From Emily Smith to Everyone: Hello
13:01:25 From Whitney Russell to Everyone: 95% fiction 5% nonfiction
13:01:29 From Kathy Essmiller to Everyone: Ha! Probably even up.
13:01:30 From Julia Stone to Everyone: I'm probably 90% fiction, 10% non-fiction
13:01:30 From Karen Brunner to Everyone: 80:20
13:01:33 From Geoff Carr to Everyone: Mostly nonfiction, especially the news.
13:01:34 From Lora Amsberryaugier to Everyone: 20% fiction
13:01:43 From christine moynihan to Everyone: 50/50
13:01:47 From Emily Stenberg to Everyone: 60 fiction / 40 nonfiction
13:01:52 From Seyed Abdollah Shahrokni to Everyone: 50/50.
13:01:53 From Emily Smith to Everyone: 80 fiction 20 non
13:01:59 From Carmen Cole to Everyone: I’d say 70 fiction/30 nonfiction?
13:02:08 From Melissa Chim to Everyone: Great question! 60% historical fiction, 40% historical nonfiction :)
13:02:22 From Kathy Essmiller to Everyone: To be clear, not non-fiction stories. More like non-fiction 'how to get your crap together' books. Which end up functioning as fiction for me :-)
13:02:27 From Whitney Russell to Everyone: If I'm reading nonfiction it's historical nonfiction
13:03:04 From Micah Gjeltema to Everyone: Orientation Document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1l5A2okUKSVi0SqzoYELjYnsTs7DResOf6zwdr2oU14A/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.o6l9eukyoio4
Canvas Curriculum: https://canvas.umn.edu/courses/377173
13:03:42 From Geoff Carr to Everyone: Fine with me.
13:03:49 From Emily Smith to Everyone: Ok to record
13:03:50 From Treasa Bane to Everyone: okay with me
13:03:51 From Emily Stenberg to Everyone: 👍
13:03:52 From William Peaden to Everyone: Ok with me
13:03:54 From Lora Amsberryaugier to Everyone: recording is okay with me
13:03:56 From Karen Brunner to Everyone: ok
13:03:58 From Yasemin Onder to Everyone: 👍🏻
13:04:00 From Julia Stone to Everyone: I am ok with recording!
13:04:05 From Carmen Cole to Everyone: Fine here!
13:04:05 From Whitney Russell to Everyone: I'm ok with recording
13:04:05 From Melissa Chim to Everyone: 👍
13:04:07 From Cameron Boucher to Everyone: Fine by me!
13:04:32 From Micah Gjeltema to Everyone: Opening Reflection: When you’re reading or watching a show, what helps you identify with the characters or content?
13:05:12 From Whitney Russell to Everyone: Identity, shared life experiences
13:05:13 From Amanda Larson to Everyone: Relatable characters
13:05:18 From Emily Stenberg to Everyone: An interest in someone’s motivation
13:05:19 From Seyed Abdollah Shahrokni to Everyone: Their experience, intersectionality, and how they go about their life.
13:05:20 From Christine Rickabaugh to Everyone: Shared experiences
13:05:45 From Carmen Cole to Everyone: Definitely identity and intersectionality
13:06:02 From Courtney Stortz to Everyone: Age and life experiences
13:06:07 From christine moynihan to Everyone: bad Boston accents
13:06:12 From Lora Amsberryaugier to Everyone: what doesn't work is when they play into stereotypes of librarians
13:08:17 From Micah Gjeltema to Everyone: Again, bumping the PUB101 links in case anyone missed them:
Orientation & Schedule Document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1l5A2okUKSVi0SqzoYELjYnsTs7DResOf6zwdr2oU14A/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.o6l9eukyoio4 Canvas Curriculum: https://canvas.umn.edu/courses/377173
13:09:34 From Amanda Larson to Everyone: We're blue now in Ohio for this second map.
13:09:56 From Christine Rickabaugh to Everyone: I think we are too, in Arkansas
13:11:14 From Emily Smith to Everyone: I have autism and never saw characters I related strongly to in TV or books until I was an adult and read "Look Me in the Eye: My Life With Aspergers" by John Elder Robinson. Now autism representation in TV is highly stereotypical so I still don't really relate to these characters. I think I partly, unintentionally, used TV and books to try and understand people and the world around me but I didn't understand (when I was younger) that a lot of what is in TV and books is not real either.
13:17:29 From Amanda Larson to Everyone: The legislation here in Ohio also really targeted the words that could be used in place of DEI words - so belonging is already off the table here. But, a colleague from Texas shared "Access & Community Impact" as an alternative which I think might work here.
13:19:53 From Seyed Abdollah Shahrokni to Everyone: Yes, please.
13:24:02 From Micah Gjeltema to Everyone: OEN DEI Rubric Guiding Authors Toward Inclusive Content Creation
13:25:05 From Micah Gjeltema to Everyone: These resources and others can be found linked in the “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Publishing” portion of the Pub101 Curriculum
13:37:41 From Christina Trunnell to Everyone: How empowered do you feel to address equity and inclusion at your institution?
13:39:31 From Amanda Larson to Everyone: NIH I believe
13:40:09 From Amanda Larson to Everyone: I don't feel empowered. I feel devastated and betrayed by my institution's compliance.
13:43:10 From Carmen Cole to Everyone: Replying to "I don't feel empowered. I feel devastated and betr...":
I feel like PSU will follow.
13:43:42 From Christine Rickabaugh to Everyone: Replying to "I don't feel empowered. I feel devastated and betr...": And like they're capitulating before they even tried to stand up!
13:44:31 From Julia Stone to Everyone: Replying to "I don't feel empowered. I feel devastated and betr...":
Complying in advance is so disheartening and frustrating
13:45:53 From Micah Gjeltema to Everyone: Replying to "I don't feel empowered. I feel devastated and betr...":
Even at institutions that haven’t complied in advance, things move so fast—I definitely am anxious that being active in this area could lead to feeling sold out if administrative sentiment flips overnight.
13:47:15 From Christine Rickabaugh to Everyone:
https://senate.rutgers.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Resolution-to-Establish-a-Mutual-Defense-Compact-for-the-Universities-of-the-Big-Ten-Academic-Alliance-in-Defense-of-Academic-Freedom-Institutional-Integrity-and-the-Research.pdf
13:47:49 From Amanda Larson to Everyone: Thank you for sharing this!
13:48:04 From Amanda Larson to Everyone: I'm also super revved up by Harvard's refusal to capitulate
13:48:07 From Amanda Larson to Everyone: Hope is resistance!
13:49:10 From Amanda Larson to Everyone: Remember that they want us to be too scared and overwhelmed to do anything about anything. Selfcare and rest are resistance. Joy and hope are resistance. Continuing to do the work is resistance.
13:49:18 From Lora Amsberryaugier to Everyone: Our campus president has stated that she isn't interested in changing the university language and statement on DEI.
13:50:19 From Julia Stone to Everyone: If folks are having trouble keeping up with all the attacks on higher ed (information overload and overwhelm), I'd recommend The Chronicle of Higher Education's free 'view on demand' webinars about Navigating Uncertainty Under Trump. They helped explain the "Dear Colleague" letter and also distill a lot of information in an easy to understand way: https://www.chronicle.com/events/virtual/
13:56:14 From Amanda Larson to Everyone: thank you so much for sharing Lora ! 🥰
13:58:22 From Melissa Chim to Everyone: I have another meeting to head out to, thank you for a great presentation!
13:58:23 From Christina Trunnell to Everyone: https://localcontexts.org/labels/traditional-knowledge-labels/
13:59:09 From Micah Gjeltema to Everyone: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1l5A2okUKSVi0SqzoYELjYnsTs7DResOf6zwdr2oU14A/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.dhxwu7qid4f
13:59:17 From Amanda Larson to Everyone: thank you all for your presence and vulnerability and listening ears and resources
13:59:41 From Yasemin Onder to Everyone: Thank you
13:59:48 From Jessica McClean to Everyone: Thank you so much for this session. I really appreciated the thoughtful content and comments.
12:59:41 From Emily Smith to Everyone: Hello
13:01:25 From Whitney Russell to Everyone: 95% fiction 5% nonfiction
13:01:29 From Kathy Essmiller to Everyone: Ha! Probably even up.
13:01:30 From Julia Stone to Everyone: I'm probably 90% fiction, 10% non-fiction
13:01:30 From Karen Brunner to Everyone: 80:20
13:01:33 From Geoff Carr to Everyone: Mostly nonfiction, especially the news.
13:01:34 From Lora Amsberryaugier to Everyone: 20% fiction
13:01:43 From christine moynihan to Everyone: 50/50
13:01:47 From Emily Stenberg to Everyone: 60 fiction / 40 nonfiction
13:01:52 From Seyed Abdollah Shahrokni to Everyone: 50/50.
13:01:53 From Emily Smith to Everyone: 80 fiction 20 non
13:01:59 From Carmen Cole to Everyone: I’d say 70 fiction/30 nonfiction?
13:02:08 From Melissa Chim to Everyone: Great question! 60% historical fiction, 40% historical nonfiction :)
13:02:22 From Kathy Essmiller to Everyone: To be clear, not non-fiction stories. More like non-fiction 'how to get your crap together' books. Which end up functioning as fiction for me :-)
13:02:27 From Whitney Russell to Everyone: If I'm reading nonfiction it's historical nonfiction
13:03:04 From Micah Gjeltema to Everyone: Orientation Document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1l5A2okUKSVi0SqzoYELjYnsTs7DResOf6zwdr2oU14A/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.o6l9eukyoio4
Canvas Curriculum: https://canvas.umn.edu/courses/377173
13:03:42 From Geoff Carr to Everyone: Fine with me.
13:03:49 From Emily Smith to Everyone: Ok to record
13:03:50 From Treasa Bane to Everyone: okay with me
13:03:51 From Emily Stenberg to Everyone: 👍
13:03:52 From William Peaden to Everyone: Ok with me
13:03:54 From Lora Amsberryaugier to Everyone: recording is okay with me
13:03:56 From Karen Brunner to Everyone: ok
13:03:58 From Yasemin Onder to Everyone: 👍🏻
13:04:00 From Julia Stone to Everyone: I am ok with recording!
13:04:05 From Carmen Cole to Everyone: Fine here!
13:04:05 From Whitney Russell to Everyone: I'm ok with recording
13:04:05 From Melissa Chim to Everyone: 👍
13:04:07 From Cameron Boucher to Everyone: Fine by me!
13:04:32 From Micah Gjeltema to Everyone: Opening Reflection: When you’re reading or watching a show, what helps you identify with the characters or content?
13:05:12 From Whitney Russell to Everyone: Identity, shared life experiences
13:05:13 From Amanda Larson to Everyone: Relatable characters
13:05:18 From Emily Stenberg to Everyone: An interest in someone’s motivation
13:05:19 From Seyed Abdollah Shahrokni to Everyone: Their experience, intersectionality, and how they go about their life.
13:05:20 From Christine Rickabaugh to Everyone: Shared experiences
13:05:45 From Carmen Cole to Everyone: Definitely identity and intersectionality
13:06:02 From Courtney Stortz to Everyone: Age and life experiences
13:06:07 From christine moynihan to Everyone: bad Boston accents
13:06:12 From Lora Amsberryaugier to Everyone: what doesn't work is when they play into stereotypes of librarians
13:08:17 From Micah Gjeltema to Everyone: Again, bumping the PUB101 links in case anyone missed them:
Orientation & Schedule Document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1l5A2okUKSVi0SqzoYELjYnsTs7DResOf6zwdr2oU14A/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.o6l9eukyoio4 Canvas Curriculum: https://canvas.umn.edu/courses/377173
13:09:34 From Amanda Larson to Everyone: We're blue now in Ohio for this second map.
13:09:56 From Christine Rickabaugh to Everyone: I think we are too, in Arkansas
13:11:14 From Emily Smith to Everyone: I have autism and never saw characters I related strongly to in TV or books until I was an adult and read "Look Me in the Eye: My Life With Aspergers" by John Elder Robinson. Now autism representation in TV is highly stereotypical so I still don't really relate to these characters. I think I partly, unintentionally, used TV and books to try and understand people and the world around me but I didn't understand (when I was younger) that a lot of what is in TV and books is not real either.
13:17:29 From Amanda Larson to Everyone: The legislation here in Ohio also really targeted the words that could be used in place of DEI words - so belonging is already off the table here. But, a colleague from Texas shared "Access & Community Impact" as an alternative which I think might work here.
13:19:53 From Seyed Abdollah Shahrokni to Everyone: Yes, please.
13:24:02 From Micah Gjeltema to Everyone: OEN DEI Rubric Guiding Authors Toward Inclusive Content Creation
13:25:05 From Micah Gjeltema to Everyone: These resources and others can be found linked in the “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Publishing” portion of the Pub101 Curriculum
13:37:41 From Christina Trunnell to Everyone: How empowered do you feel to address equity and inclusion at your institution?
13:39:31 From Amanda Larson to Everyone: NIH I believe
13:40:09 From Amanda Larson to Everyone: I don't feel empowered. I feel devastated and betrayed by my institution's compliance.
13:43:10 From Carmen Cole to Everyone: Replying to "I don't feel empowered. I feel devastated and betr...":
I feel like PSU will follow.
13:43:42 From Christine Rickabaugh to Everyone: Replying to "I don't feel empowered. I feel devastated and betr...": And like they're capitulating before they even tried to stand up!
13:44:31 From Julia Stone to Everyone: Replying to "I don't feel empowered. I feel devastated and betr...":
Complying in advance is so disheartening and frustrating
13:45:53 From Micah Gjeltema to Everyone: Replying to "I don't feel empowered. I feel devastated and betr...":
Even at institutions that haven’t complied in advance, things move so fast—I definitely am anxious that being active in this area could lead to feeling sold out if administrative sentiment flips overnight.
13:47:15 From Christine Rickabaugh to Everyone:
https://senate.rutgers.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Resolution-to-Establish-a-Mutual-Defense-Compact-for-the-Universities-of-the-Big-Ten-Academic-Alliance-in-Defense-of-Academic-Freedom-Institutional-Integrity-and-the-Research.pdf
13:47:49 From Amanda Larson to Everyone: Thank you for sharing this!
13:48:04 From Amanda Larson to Everyone: I'm also super revved up by Harvard's refusal to capitulate
13:48:07 From Amanda Larson to Everyone: Hope is resistance!
13:49:10 From Amanda Larson to Everyone: Remember that they want us to be too scared and overwhelmed to do anything about anything. Selfcare and rest are resistance. Joy and hope are resistance. Continuing to do the work is resistance.
13:49:18 From Lora Amsberryaugier to Everyone: Our campus president has stated that she isn't interested in changing the university language and statement on DEI.
13:50:19 From Julia Stone to Everyone: If folks are having trouble keeping up with all the attacks on higher ed (information overload and overwhelm), I'd recommend The Chronicle of Higher Education's free 'view on demand' webinars about Navigating Uncertainty Under Trump. They helped explain the "Dear Colleague" letter and also distill a lot of information in an easy to understand way: https://www.chronicle.com/events/virtual/
13:56:14 From Amanda Larson to Everyone: thank you so much for sharing Lora ! 🥰
13:58:22 From Melissa Chim to Everyone: I have another meeting to head out to, thank you for a great presentation!
13:58:23 From Christina Trunnell to Everyone: https://localcontexts.org/labels/traditional-knowledge-labels/
13:59:09 From Micah Gjeltema to Everyone: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1l5A2okUKSVi0SqzoYELjYnsTs7DResOf6zwdr2oU14A/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.dhxwu7qid4f
13:59:17 From Amanda Larson to Everyone: thank you all for your presence and vulnerability and listening ears and resources
13:59:41 From Yasemin Onder to Everyone: Thank you
13:59:48 From Jessica McClean to Everyone: Thank you so much for this session. I really appreciated the thoughtful content and comments.
Share this post: