ESCC Diversity Committe - Enterprise State Community College

WELCOME TO ESCC’S DIVERSITY AWARENESS COMMITTEE RESOURCE PAGE

ESCC’s Diversity Awareness Committee is committed to building a unified college community reflecting justice and education for all.

ESCC’S DIVERSITY AWARENESS COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Kassie Mathis
Valeria Pryor
Cassidy Gibbs
Missy Scanlon
Latasha Henderson
Leslie Gibson
Kathy Pattie
Melissa Whitman

November 8 is First-Generation College Celebration Day.

FGCC is celebrated annually on November 8 to commemorate the signing of the Higher Education Act (“HEA”) of 1965 by then-President Lyndon B. Johnson. This act created federal financial aid programs to fund students’ educations and made key investments in colleges and universities. Many of the HEA’s programs, particularly the Federal TRIO programs, promote postsecondary access, retention, and completion for today’s limited-income, first-generation college students.

FGCC strives not only to celebrate first-gen students’ contributions to their communities but also to occasion systemic social change by dismantling barriers to first-generation student success. Through this intentional advocacy focus, FGCC engages key constituencies in building upon the work left unfinished by the HEA.

November is National American Indian Heritage Month

What started at the turn of the century as an effort to gain a day of recognition for the significant contributions the first Americans made to the establishment and growth of the U.S., has resulted in a whole month being designated for that purpose.

One of the very proponents of an American Indian Day was Dr. Arthur C. Parker, a Seneca Indian, who was the director of the Museum of Arts and Science in Rochester, N.Y. He persuaded the Boy Scouts of America to set aside a day for the “First Americans” and for three years they adopted such a day. In 1915, the annual Congress of the American Indian Association meeting in Lawrence, Kans., formally approved a plan concerning American Indian Day. It directed its president, Rev. Sherman Coolidge, an Arapahoe, to call upon the country to observe such a day. Coolidge issued a proclamation on Sept. 28, 1915, which declared the second Saturday of each May as an American Indian Day and contained the first formal appeal for recognition of Indians as citizens.

The year before this proclamation was issued, Red Fox James, a Blackfoot Indian, rode horseback from state to state seeking approval for a day to honor Indians. On December 14, 1915, he presented the endorsements of 24 state governments at the White House. There is no record, however, of such a national day being proclaimed.

The first American Indian Day in a state was declared on the second Saturday in May 1916 by the governor of New York. Several states celebrate the fourth Friday in September. In Illinois, for example, legislators enacted such a day in 1919. Presently, several states have designated Columbus Day as Native American Day, but it continues to be a day we observe without any recognition as a national legal holiday.

In 1990 President George H. W. Bush approved a joint resolution designating November 1990 “National American Indian Heritage Month.” Similar proclamations, under variants on the name (including “Native American Heritage Month” and “National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month”) have been issued each year since 1994.

Source: https://nativeamericanheritagemonth.gov/

At Enterprise State Community College, we are dedicated to fostering an educational environment that promotes equity, diversity, and inclusivity. As a community institution, we also commit ourselves daily to be a beacon of hope to those we serve and effect positive change in the lives of others.

Each of us is part of a diverse community on campus and off. We are all part of a family that can demonstrate the importance of understanding and respecting one another, and when we all come together, I believe that we can all be a powerful example of celebrating diversity to others.

Daniel Long
President of ESCC