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Coronavirus restaurant shutdowns interrupt VP for Equity & Inclusion’s attempt to blow excess cash on “Jeffersonian Dinners”

Last updated on 03/24/2020

The email invite to a series of dinners on Love, etc.:

From: VP for Equity and Inclusion <[email protected]>
Date: January 17, 2020
Cc: VP for Equity and Inclusion <[email protected]>
Subject: Would you like to have a conversation over dinner?: Response Requested by January 31, 2020

~Message sent on behalf of Vice President Yvette Alex-Assensoh~

Dear [redacted]:

On behalf of the Division of Equity and Inclusion, I am writing to invite you to join me and about 10 other guests at our LACE Dinners, which are one-topic conversations that ignite deep conversation and connection.

LACE Dinners will be held monthly and will focus conversation deeply around the topic of Love in February, Authenticity in March, Courage in April and Empathy in May. Our goal is to convene an intimate group of faculty, staff and students who don’t normally work together.

Since very few of us are able to accept all of the good invitations that come our way, we are asking you to kindly complete the Qualtrics by January 31, 2020 so that you can let us know of your availability and preferences.

Based on your feedback, we will be in touch with next steps.

Thank you most sincerely, and best wishes to you for a wonderful and joy-filled New Year,

Yvette.

Her Authentic, Courageous and Empathic website:

The budget: If redirected, enough to keep ~80 NTTF’s employed, teaching, and fed though probably not in the back room at Marche:

7 Comments

  1. zach 03/25/2020

    With this health crisis going on UO is still having workers chase a few leaves around with a leaf blower at the Baker building. I am no scientist but isnt UO just churning up deadly pathogens ? Someone please stop the madness.

    • Fishwrapper 03/25/2020

      (Not to mention the carbon footprint of those leaf blowers.) But you need the campus to look good for the prospective students who are visiting, right…?

      • uomatters Post author | 03/25/2020

        I’m letting you slide this time Fishwrapper, but in the future please be sure all comments about our campus include an obligatory and respectful reference to ThePhildo.com

        • Fishwrapper 03/25/2020

          (With thanks and appreciation for your benevolence as demonstrated by the granted slide.) Yours is not the only campus defying reason and getting gussied up. Wait – it keeps classifieds on the payroll, so that’s a good thing, right? Heck, working from my garage, the neighbor’s still got the landscapers coming in and it’s created a wonderful soundscape for the Zoom meetings I’m taking from the workbench.

          But, obligatorily, yours is (and will likely remain) the only campus with a – no, the – Phildo, though. Winning!

  2. Per Se 03/25/2020

    Sounds pretty exclusive for the office of equity.

    • uomatters Post author | 03/25/2020

      Yeah for some reason I didn’t get an invite either.

  3. Quarantined Otter 03/28/2020

    This initiative just appalls. Is this really how equity and diversity will be advanced in Oregon?

    I think that diversity is important, that equity is important and that inclusion is important. And this Jeffersonian dinner plan (and isn’t there an irony in modelling an equity initiative on Jefferson?) flunks on at least 2 of those dimensions: it’s exclusive (invite only) and it’s inequitable (spending precious university dollars on just a few people). I’ll punt on diversity since a handpicked group of 8-15 could be diverse along some dimensions.

    Even pre-corona, the university was in a bad way budget-wise and someone concluded that *this* was a good use of funds? Please…is anybody in charge here? Anybody???

    Ughhhh….

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