Agenda time at meeting of OHSU Board of Directors
- Alliance for Visible Diversity in Science (AVDS)
- Closed on
- Target:
- OHSU Board of Directors
- Region:
- United States of America
Over 600 of you raised your voices to support us, and they heard you: Your support resulted in an hour-long AVDS meeting with OHSU board members on June 30th. THANK YOU!
For an accounting of our meeting, please see our newsletter at https://mailchi.mp/639f4e0aebe6/avds-july2020-avdsweek-1693506
In solidarity,
The Alliance for Visible Diversity in Science
AVDS is petitioning the OHSU Board of Directors to request time on the public portion of the agenda at the next Board meeting, scheduled for June 26, 2020. These meetings are attended by hundreds, and we believe the time is right to urge OHSU to uphold its support of racial equity by making substantive and meaningful changes.
Please sign our petition so we can speak at the next OHSU Board meeting!
Dear Members of the Board:
We are writing today to request 10-15 minutes on the agenda of the public portion of the June 26th, 2020 OHSU Board of Directors meeting. While we recognize this request is coming very late, the need for our voices to be heard is immediate.
Formed in 2016, the Alliance for Visible Diversity in Science (AVDS) works to increase racial and ethnic equity within the research programs at OHSU by recruiting, retaining, and most importantly, supporting graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, staff, and faculty members from minoritized backgrounds. With our agenda time, we will request that the Board codify an official and explicit stance that OHSU is committed to being an actively anti-racist organization. This will set an example to the OHSU community and all Oregonians. We will also request actions from the Board of Directors to substantiate this stance in tangible ways, including:
- Increasing funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
- Disarming the OHSU police.
- Dropping contracts that use prison labor.
- Expanding capacity for addressing DEI at OHSU (i.e., additional executive leadership positions and support staff whose pay and budget accurately reflects the amount of work to be accomplished)
- Requiring leadership (i.e., managers, supervisors, decision-makers) at OHSU to undergo training on how to be anti-racist and how to dismantle structural and institutionalized racism.
We hope that you recognize how overdue the need for substantive, immediate change is. Please grant us time on the public portion of your agenda so we may speak for our undersigned supporters and allies in the OHSU community.
Respectfully,
Board Members of the Alliance for Visible Diversity in Science (AVDS)
Sierra Smith - Receptionist (contact person)
Arielle Isakharov - Secretary
Letisha R. Wyatt, PhD - Historian
Teresa Stackhouse - Treasurer
Tavita Garrett - Chair of Communications
Katy Lehmann - Chair of Education
Mateo Lopez Espejo - Chair of Events
Itallia V. Pacentine, PhD - Chair of Operations
The Agenda time at meeting of OHSU Board of Directors petition to OHSU Board of Directors was written by Alliance for Visible Diversity in Science (AVDS) and is in the category Civil Rights at GoPetition.