TRANSCRIPT

Hello! I'm Bobbi Cordano, President of Gallaudet University. I am here to provide a follow-up response to the vlog called,"Are We Done?", which was presented by Victorica Monroe and our students of color on December 17, 2015. This vlog was an open request to the President and the Board of Trustees to develop and create a plan of action to end racism at Gallaudet University. The students requested that the deadline for this plan of action be today, January 29, 2016. I wholly supported this.I would like to thank our students Arlene, Kellynette, and Ericka for joining me today.

Hello, I am Arlene Ngalle, Student Leader. I inherited this honor of representing Gallaudet students on this issue. I am working with President Cordano, the SBG, our faculty, and staff
to make changes that will make Gallaudet a more inclusive university for all of us.

Hi, I am Kellynette Gomez. I am the Director of Community Relations for the Student Body Government (SBG). I am working closely with President Cordano and Arlene to ensure smooth communication among our students, administration, staff and faculty. Specifically, I am here to listen to any concerns related to racism and the treatment of various groups on campus.

Hi, I'm Ericka Baylor, and I am President of Black Student Union (BSU). I am committed to working with President Cordano, Arlene, and Kellynette to improve our climate and support for students of color at Gallaudet.

President Cordano:
Last December 21, 2015,Board of Trustees Chair Heather Harker in her v-log talked about how she, the Board of Trustees, and
the President are fully committed to addressing equality and inclusion on campus. It is important for us to hold ourselves responsible as various stakeholders here at Gallaudet to move forward with a specific plan of action to make our campus fully inclusive. What we have discussed so far are:

Arlene:
We are developing an action plan to address racism. This plan does not stop here. It will continued to be reviewed every three months. We will continue to gather information about past diversity efforts to take advantage of earlier documents and work that had already been done to address diversity, inclusion and equity. We've agreed that the President will make the hiring of a new Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) a priority. The President will also set up a Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity Team (DT).

Kellynette:
The DT will serve in an advisory role to the President and the community on matters related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
This group will be co-chaired by a student, staff, and faculty representative and will be representative of the diversity we have here at Gallaudet University. This group will be charged with engaging in discussions related to issues on campus. It will brainstorm solutions to those issues.It will develop action plans to alleviate racism. It will recommend resources needed for successful implementation. And finally, it will assess the success of the process.

Arlene:
DT will also assist with the transition of the future CDO. Once President Cordano selects the new CDO, we will have a dialogue with that person to consider how we can continue to be of support. We are continuing our efforts to develop a broad and inclusive plan to address the issues we've raised. Within the next 60 days, students of color will be meeting with the President to share our experiences with racism and begin to develop plans to handle racism issues.

President Cordano:
Within the next three months, Gallaudet will:

1) Establish the DT, as Kellynette and Arlene just explained,

2) And continue our work to select a CDO. We have already selected a committee who will begin screening and ranking candidates for interviews over the next 3-6 months.

And finally, during the recent Snowzilla blizzard, we began the wonderful practice of interactive conversations. Let us commit to continuing interactive conversations where we truly listen to each other.

Arlene:
I want to thank President Cordano who has been here less than a month and is already making our concerns a priority and also for supporting our work to develop an action plan to end racism.
It has been a pleasure working with our new president!

Kellynette:
I wholeheartedly agree. If you have any questions or want to share your ideas, please to reach out to SBG.

Ericka:
I want to thank everyone involved for making this a smooth transition and supporting our students of color in dealing with racism.I look forward to working with you all.

President Cordano:
We look to all of you--students, faculty, staff, and alumni-- to continue your work in bringing attention to critical issues related to racism and to creating momentum towards positive change in our community.

We can do it!