The College of Communication and Information hosted its annual CCI Diversity and Inclusion Week from Monday, Sept. 23, through Thursday, Sept. 26.
“Reflect, Retool, and Reclaim” was the theme of this year’s week of panel discussions, keynote speakers, and dramatizations. Alice Wirth, Director of the CCI Diversity Student Leaders Society, was the organizer of the event, which is in its 10th year.
The in-person attendance across nine sessions and two keynote events totaled 1,084. Twenty-seven CCI undergraduate classes attended at least one of the sessions or panels.
The 2019 CCI Diversity and Inclusion Week featured two keynote events: a film screening and panel discussion with the Dartmouth College filmmakers on the library and activist documentary Change the Subject on Monday, and “How Diversity and Inclusion are Changing the Workplace” with two vice presidents from Chicago-based global advertising giant Leo Burnett on Wednesday.
The week concluded with an all campus CCI Diversity Festival on Thursday in the Communications lobby and patio.
For more details on our keynote events:
Change the Subject
Change the Subject is a documentary about labels, libraries, and activism. The film shares the story of a group of college students, who from their first days at Dartmouth College, were committed to advancing and promoting the rights and dignity of undocumented peoples. In partnership with staff at Dartmouth, these students – now alumni – produced a film to capture their singular effort at confronting an instance of anti-immigrant sentiment in their library catalog. Their advocacy took them all the way from the campus library to the halls of Congress, showing how an instance of campus activism entered the national spotlight, and how a cataloging term became a flashpoint in the immigration debate on Capitol Hill.
The keynote event featured a screening of the film followed by a panel discussion with Dartmouth College filmmakers Melissa Padilla, Oscar Ruben Conejo Casares, and Jill Baron.
How Diversity and Inclusion Are Changing the Workplace
Amrita Bhatia, Vice President and Strategy Director, and Melissa Healy, Senior Vice President and Group Creative Director, spoke on diversity and inclusion initiatives from the perspective of their company, global advertising giant Leo Burnett. The firm was named to the 2018 Diversity Best Practices Inclusion Index.
The event was sponsored by the ANA Educational Foundation.
CCI Diversity Festival
The festival featured an all-campus barbecue with diverse music, dance, games for all ages, a photo booth and cultural performances; all CCI student organizations participated, including: Ad Club, Communication Studies Club, Diversity Student Leaders Society, Public Relations Student Society of America, and Society of Professional Journalists.