Third online civil rights training module available

The Civil Rights Leadership Team is excited to announce the availability of a new and third civil rights online training module. Module 3 is titled, “Fundamentals of Expanding Access”. This training module will guide you through the steps of the expanding access cycle to support your efforts in reaching underserved/underrepresented populations in your programming. The training module consists of a 17-minute video, activities to apply the learning, additional resources to explore, and a quiz to review the knowledge you’ve gained.

All Extension colleagues need to have the basic knowledge and skills to assure compliance with our civil rights responsibilities This module continues our commitment to advance your learning and increase your skills as Extension professionals to increase diversity and inclusion in your programming.

Call to action: add an expanding access record in the Recording Results system

Summer is here! Now that we are half-way through 2019 it’s time to reflect on the goals you made this year for expanding access in your programming. Consider this a status check on both your county and personal civil rights action plans. Have you been using all reasonable efforts to reach audiences that have been underserved and underrepresented in your programming? Those who are defined as categorically protected from discrimination in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 should be receiving a lot of your focus. For our purposes, protected groups/audiences are women, Blacks or African Americans, American Indians or Alaskan Natives, Asians, Native Hawaiians or other Pacific Islanders, those who identify as some other race, people of mixed race, Hispanics or Latinos. Also include people with disabilities and veterans.

Please take time this month to review and reflect on your efforts and make notes on what went well and what did not.

• Describe your efforts. Did you try something new?
• Which audience(s) did you reach out to?
• What barriers did you encounter?
• What did you learn and how will you apply this knowledge in the future?
• What difference did your effort(s) make and for which audiences?
• Have you documented these efforts in your civil rights files?

Taking the time to reflect on your efforts is the second step after making the efforts. The third step is to add an Expanding Access Record in the Recording Results System. Expanding Access Records are a way to report on your work and can used for telling your story during a civil rights review, performance management conversation, or other program reporting activity. Answering the questions above will help you add an Expanding Access Record quickly. We know you have a full plate of commitments and deadlines, but taking the time now to review and reflect keeps you on track with your expanding access goals and gives you the information you need for reporting.

The emerging preference for "HMoob" as a term of self-identification

by Ariana Thao

While most people have seen “Hmong” or “Hmoob” appear in text, fewer people have seen the word “HMoob” or understand where it came from. As a member of the HMoob American Studies Committee at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and as a HMoob person, I am writing this article to discuss an emergent trend related to how HMoob community members self-identify. In Wisconsin, as well as other parts of the United States, compositional diversity within HMoob communities includes linguistic diversity. The language spoken by HMoob communities is comprised of two main dialects, Green (Moob Leeg) and White (Hmoob Dawb), with of course a number of different variations of these two dialects.

The term “HMoob” was created by community members as a more inclusive alternative to the other terms (i.e. “Hmong,” “Mong,” and “Hmoob”) that are written in a Latin-based alphabet. The term “HMoob” is considered to be more inclusive because it incorporates graphemes (i.e. letters) from all three other terms of group-based identity.

Throughout written work, the HMoob people and language have been categorized under the generic term “Hmong”. However, the HMoob people and language represent a diverse group of communities and identities. The usage of the spelling of Hmong reflects the White dialect pronunciation and word structures of Hmoob used by predominantly Caucasian, English dominant speakers. Additionally, the Green dialect is pronounced as Mong under these structures. Differently, the usage of the Romanized Popular Alphabet (RPA) spelling of Hmoob reflects the written system predominantly used by HMoob Americans. The spelling denotes the voice inflections and tones necessary to pronounce the words correctly.

To be more inclusive of the different communities within the larger HMoob community, this movement to incorporate the spelling of “HMoob” in literature and writings was developed. As a we [re]claim our own narratives and to assert our own authentic level of self-determination, the HMoob American Studies Committee at the University of Wisconsin-Madison developed this different spelling. This spelling comes about as the combination of different pronunciations, identities, and forms of language. Thus, the spelling is changed from Hmong to Hmoob to claim the Romanized Popular Alphabet that is used as the dominant form of the written HMoob language. Additionally, the capital letters “H” and “M” represent the two dominant dialects spoken by the HMoob people. When saying HMoob, the “H” is heard by those who speak the white dialect, while those who speak the green dialect are heard without the “H” sound. Therefore, the capital “H” and the capital “M” represents the purposeful inclusion of both dominant dialect groups. In the culmination of these reasonings, the spelling of Hmong as HMoob was created.

In our work as the HMoob American Studies Committee, we developed the term as a rebranding of our organization to reflect our own identities instead of how the larger society identifies us. Furthermore, the “Our HMoob American College Paj Ntaub” research team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison used this term as a way to better explain their participants’ identities in their study on the experiences of HMoob American college students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Thus, as the HMoob communities establish themselves around the United States, they have worked toward movements to be recognized in the smaller and larger spaces. From literature to taking part in the larger political system of the United States, the HMoob people have worked to be a part of their communities. This movement incorporates the different language usage works to ensure that the spelling of HMoob is integrated into writing and soon replaces the spelling of Hmong. To change this spelling is to recognize the different communities within the HMoob community, but to also allow HMoob persons to determine how their own identity is represented within the literature. This movement is meant for those who identify as HMoob to advocate for in their own programming, as well for non-HMoob persons and their corresponding agencies to reconsider how the term is represented in text-based form.

UW-Madison equal opportunity/affirmative action compliance statements

One of the countless tasks involved in our transition to UW-Madison is updating the EO/AA compliance statements that are required to appear on our publications. You can find these statements in three official versions; condensed, abbreviated, and long, on the University Relations website.

Farewell to Shelley King-Curry

It is with heavy hearts that we say farewell to Shelley King-Curry. Shelley will be leaving her position as Director of Diversity and Inclusion at the end of July. She is packing up and moving to the east coast for a position with the University of Maryland Extension and to be closer to her family. As she says it, "I'm trading in brats and cheese curds for crab cakes!"

Shelley came to Cooperative Extension in 2005 and served as a Family Living Programs Specialist with the Wisconsin Nutrition Education Program (now FoodWIse) before becoming the Director of Diversity and Inclusion. In 2014, she received the UW System Outstanding Women of Color in Education Award. Her nominator for that award attributed her success from her life and early career experience—her understanding and empathy was developed working with low resource people in Detroit, where she grew up. We appreciate that she never was one to shy away from uncomfortable discussions about inclusion issues.

Recently, she was instrumental in establishing the Latino Task Force. We echo the words of Dan Veroff, a colleague and task force member, who said, "I've always appreciated the passion and wisdom that you share with us all and know that the organization was better because of you!" Thank you, Shelley. You made a difference!

Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background - people who as students, faculty, and staff serve Wisconsin and the world.