OMA and OSQA Blog

The OMA was featured in “Internet Reviews” within College & Research Libraries News!

Below is the text of the post, and here is the link to Vol 79 No 8 (2018) Internet Reviews

Oregon Multicultural Archives

The Oregon Multicultural Archives (OMA) web portal gathers the Oregon State University (OSU) Special Collections and Archives Researcher Center and OSU Library’s archival and digital collections on African American, Asian American, Latino/a, and Native American communities. OMA was established in 2005 to highlight its multicultural collections as well as provide a link out to other institutions and organizations with multicultural archives. Since then it has grown through collaborations with multicultural educators and archivists, museums, other academic library special collections, and organizations such as the Oregon Tribal Archives Institute and the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association. OMA, over the past 13 years, has developed into a rich, engaging resource of multicultural history in the Pacific Northwest for students and researchers alike.

Readers can browse guides on general information or specific peoples and cultures. The guides feature special projects, manuscript collections, special topics, a community’s history in Oregon, Oregon Multicultural Communities Research Collection files, and their connection within the OSU community.

The African American People and Culture guide, for example, gathers descriptions and links to records of organizations like the Urban League of Portland and St. Philip the Deacon Parish. It also provides finding aids for manuscript collections such as the Oregon African American Railroad Porters Oral History Collection, Harold C. Williams Papers documenting community activism and civic leadership, and the Corvallis branch of the NAACP. Histories of OSU campus organizations such as Lonnie B. Harris Black Cultural Center and Black Student Union (BSU), and student activism like the BSU walkout of 1969 and the 1996 student boycott are included.

The Latinos en Oregon Oral History Interviews is a project between Yamhill County Cultural Coalition, Yamhill County Historical Society and Museum, Oregon Multicultural Archives, and Unidos Bridging Community. It has more than 30 interviews featuring diverse stories from Latino communities in Yamhill County, Madras, The Gorge, Hood River, and The Dalles, Oregon. The collection has audio, video, and interview summaries in Spanish and some English.

The guide illustrates a vibrant and diverse picture of Oregon’s communities. This engaging site highlights the integral part these communities’ histories play in contributing to Oregon’s identity, and the overall history of the region.

—Hilary Robbeloth, University of Puget Sound

“Internet Reviews” by Joni R. Roberts and Carol A. Drost

Joni R. Roberts is associate university librarian for public services and collection development at Willamette University, and Carol A. Drost is associate university librarian for technical services at Willamette University

On Sunday August 12, 2018 the 17th Oregon MLS cohort of Emporia State University’s School of Library & Information Management (SLIM) celebrated its graduation! The graduation ceremony took place in the auditorium of Oregon Health & Sciences University in Portland. Over two dozen students graduated this year, and Perri Parise, the Director of the Oregon MLS Program, could not have been prouder.

The commencement speaker was Natalia Fernandez, the Curator and Archivist of the Oregon Multicultural Archives and OSU Queer Archives at Oregon State University. Her reflections on the ceremony are on the SCARC Speaking of History blog. The student representative speaker was Lynne Stahl. Additionally, Oregon’s Interim State Librarian, Caren Agata, and OLA President, Buzzy Nielson, were also featured speakers, and SLIM’s dean, Dr. Wooseob Jeong, was the ceremony’s MC.

Fernandez spoke about how the graduates exemplify the Emporia State professional values of service, leadership, integrity, and mentorship. She expressed that as we advocate for equity and value diversity, we always have to remember it is not about our intentions, it is about the impact that we have; she encouraged graduates to always reach with one hand forward, while holding one hand back to lift others up; and she encouraged the students to remember that in their commitment to being leaders in our profession and our communities, our job is to use our positions of power to be advocates for those who lack power.

She asked the graduates to consider the question: what the values of service, mentorship, and leadership have in common? Action. Fernandez then shared her journey of activism and social justice throughout her career thus far, and reflected on words of wisdom expressed in a 2010 lecture by the archivist Randall Jimerson entitled “Archivists and the Call of Justice.” She stated that in the journey toward social justice, as information professionals, we each have a role to play as part of the work that we do. One of the many beautiful aspects of our profession is that activism can take many forms.

She closed by stating that it is incumbent upon all of us as information professionals to reflect upon our role and ask ourselves how we can be more pro-active to the cause of social justice as we serve, lead, and mentor others. When we fully commit ourselves to our professional values is when we can truly say that we are employing our power as information professionals, our expertise, and the love we have for our communities as we strive to promote a better society for all.

Excitingly, the 17th Oregon MLS cohort of Emporia State University’s School of Library & Information Management (SLIM) graduates are ready to take action – to serve, lead, and mentor – they are fellow activists!

The OMA was honored to participate as part of the 25th Anniversary Celebration of the Difference, Power, and Discrimination (DPD) Program.

The DPD Program works with faculty across all fields and disciplines at Oregon State University to develop inclusive curricula that address institutionalized systems of power, privilege, and inequity in the United States. And the DPD archival collection is a part of the OMA! Difference, Power, and Discrimination Program Records, 1970-2011

At the anniversary event, the DPD was celebrated, awardees were honored, and acclaimed researcher/author Tricia Rose gave a riveting speech.

The awards included two teaching for change awards for Professors Quo-Li Driskill and Professor Steven Shay, as well as a legacy award for Annie Popking, the first DPD director, 1992-1994. In addition, all of the directors present at the celebration were honored.

The OMA’s role was to give remarks about the Coalition of Student Leaders, as well as give a brief history on OSU’s student activism and its significance. And, to give a legacy award to the Coalition of Student Leaders. Below are the remarks:

“The second 25th Anniversary Legacy Award goes to the Coalition of Concerned Student Leaders. I am so honored that Nana invited me here this evening to talk about the Coalition of Concerned Student Leaders, as well as the historical significance and impact of student activism here at Oregon State University.

The opening line to the 1990 Letter from Concerned Student Leaders: (A) Proposal to Confront Campus-Wide Discrimination was “As increased reports of discrimination and harassment begin to surface within our campus community, we a group of concerned student leaders, have assembled and developed a plan of action.” The proposal, which the students addressed directly to the university president, specifically called out the need to educate students and faculty on the value of culture and diversity. It is thanks to their voices that the Faculty Senate created the “Affirming Diversity Committee” so that today we celebrate the 25th year since the establishment of the Difference, Power, and Discrimination program.

The efforts of the Concerned Student Leaders were not the first, nor would they be the last time that OSU students used their collective voice to demand change. It is in large part due to the power of student activism that OSU continues making strides in its journey towards becoming a socially just institution and community.

Students, especially students of color, working with the support of allies, have a long history of recognizing their power and wielding it to shed light on invisible injustices and to create change benefitting the entire OSU community.

For example, in early 1969, the OSU Black Student Union called on the administration to increase the university’s efforts to support black student recruitment, retention, and success. Due to what the BSU deemed an insufficient administrative response, not only to their proposal but also to the way in which the rights of a black student athlete were violated, over the next few months, the BSU led boycotts, protests, and printed an underground newspaper to call attention to and gain support for their cause. The power of the BSU’s efforts led directly to the establishment of the Educational Opportunities Program that same year, as well as sparked the activism that led to the establishment of a number of cultural centers during the 1970s.

Since the 1970s, there have been a number of student led movements including, but by no means limited to, anti-apartheid protests in the early 1980s, a mass boycott and march in 1996 due to multiple racist acts, a mid-2000s initiative to give honorary degrees to the Japanese American students forced to leave their studies during World War II, a Solidarity March in 2014, as well as community dialogues inspired by the national Black Lives Matter movement.

More recently, almost 25 years to the date of the 1990 Concerned Student Leaders proposal, students organized and led the “Students of Color Speak Out” in 2015. At the “Speak Out” members of OSU’s students of color communities again called on the university to prioritize their safety and well-being, as well as the need for OSU community members to engage in identity and social justice trainings. Yet again, we see the demand and necessity of community education as part of the march towards social justice.

There are these and many more stories to share. As an archivist, I have the privilege to preserve and make these stories accessible to the public so that others can learn from them and be inspired by them. While on the one hand, it is discouraging to see that for almost 50 years students have had to protest the same issues, fight the same injustices, and call to action for the same causes, it also gives me hope. Each new generation of students challenges OSU, as an institution and as a community, to reflect and grow and be held accountable when it fails to live up to its professed mission and values. Each new generation of students find their voices, speak their truths, and make sacrifices now to cause ripple effects into the future positively impacting the next generation of students.

The Concerned of Student Leaders concluded their 1990 proposal with the statement, “We have taken valuable time away from our studies to address an issue that should have been addressed some time ago…this is a serious matter; literally lives depend upon it.” I believe that those students would be proud that we are gathered here today to celebrate such an incredible program that has enriched the lives of so many faculty, staff, and students. The students who wrote the 1990 proposal did not sign their names; instead, it was a united group that spoke on behalf of the many who perhaps felt voiceless and powerless. But while they are nameless, they are by no means forgotten. Their impact has been and will continue to be profound. This award will sit in the DPD office as a reminder of the role that students played in creating the program and the power of student activism. As we recognize these student leaders today, let their efforts serve as a reminder, inspiration, and celebration of the way in which our students challenge us to be better and do better as individuals and as an institution. Thank you to the Coalition of Concerned Student Leaders, as well as all of our amazing student activists – past, present, and future.”

~ Natalia Fernández

For more information about the history of student activism at OSU, be sure to check out the “Untold Stories” campus tour guidebook website

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Below is the 4 page proposal the Coalition of Concerned Student Leaders wrote:

The OMA and OSQA were thrilled to participate in Imagine OSU, an opportunity for the OSU community to engage in an event organized around creative workshop stations aimed at facilitating connection, reflection and the co-creation of a shared vision for our university.

Imagine OSU encouraged Oregon State students, faculty and staff to envision an Oregon State animated by inclusion, equity, diversity and social justice through reflection and creativity. The event was designed to encourage participants to translate aspirations and values – as a university community and as individuals – into action. Participants were encouraged to use audio and video, social media, comment boards, and creative arts to reflect on our past, present, and future. The comments, interviews, reflections and insights gathered during the event will be used as the source material for ongoing “Imagine OSU” projects – a living archive of prose, poetry, artwork, documentaries, collages, installations and more.

Imagine OSU consisted of five stations. Workshop stations were hosted by partners including the OMA and OSQA, Orange Media Network, University Housing & Dining Services, and Diversity & Cultural Engagement.

Station One – A History of Resistance (that was us!)

Our station included documentaries and materials from the Untold Stores Guidebook that allowed participants to reflect on Oregon State’s social justice history and how the community has responded in times of challenge. Participants were encouraged to write their reflections on sticky notes and affix them to the comment board.

Questions for the participants to answer included:

• What thoughts rise up for you reading this history?
• What does resistance mean to you?
• What does it mean to see fellow Beavers fight for justice?
• What lessons can we learn from these stories of resistance?

The Other 4 Stations

Station Two – Audio/Video Stories ~ Participants selected a prompt that encouraged reflection on a variety of topics related to social justice at Oregon State and beyond and respond in video or audio formats. An Orange Media Network staff member was available to assist.

Station Three – Affirmations ~ Participants reflected on envisioning a university community of care where we are both the givers and receivers. Participants were encouraged to write affirmations that were be posted at the station as well as were encouraged to take an affirmation of their own.

Station Four – Reflection → Creation ~ Using provided materials, participants selected a prompt, reflect, react and create.

Station Five – Hop Online ~ Within the #ImagineOSU Twitter Moment on the Office of Institutional Diversity Twitter page, participants were encouraged to react to prompts to join in the conversation. Participants also picked their own prompt and contributed reflections and questions by using the hashtag #ImagineOSU on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.