Mission Statement

The Office of Multicultural and Minority Affairs of UNC Pembroke strives to provide programs and services

that support the academic mission of the University by enhancing the educational, personal, cultural and

social development of diverse and ethnic minority student populations. As an agent of change, the Office

of Multicultural and Minority Affairs seeks to value cultural diversity in order to promote an empowered

society.

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Volume 3, Issue 2

Summer 2007

Greetings from OMMA

and DCCOI!

The Office of Multicultural

and Minority Affairs’

(OMMA) Diversity Commit-

tee for Communities of Inter-

est (DCCOI) welcomes every-

one to the Summer issue of

our diversity newsletter,

UNISON. This issue high-

lights events that took place at

the closing of the 2006-2007

academic year.

DCCOI is very excited about

the upcoming 2007-2008 ac-

ademic year and the nu-

merous events and programs

scheduled. At a glance, we are

working on hosting a Social

Justice Symposium in partner-

ship with other University

units, a cultural competency

workshop, women’s history

program, 2nd Diversity Film

Series and other great pro-

grams. Visit OMMA’s website

at www.uncp.edu/oma for up-

coming news, events, services,

past newsletters, etc.

DCCOI believes that diversity

should be seen as a tool that

impacts every aspect of one’s life. The

committee strives to promote and sus-

tain a cohesive and inclusive environ-

ment among the University and a local

community that truly values and em-

braces diversity, groups, cultures, dif-

ferences, and perspectives within the

framework of the academic environ-

ment. We would like to remind each of

you that we are available to assist you

in your diversity efforts.

Finally, DCCOI is always looking for

interested individuals who want to be

“change agents” and proponents of

diversity. We welcome new members

to the committee, which meets on the

last Wednesday of every month, 3:30 in

the Multicultural Center. For additional

information, contact Robert L. Canida

II, Director of OMMA and Chair of

DCCOI at 910.521.6508.

.canida@uncp.edu.

□□□□□□□□

Message from the Director

Issue This Issue:

Message from Director 1

NCNW goes to New Orleans 2

Helping our neighbors 2

Generous Donation 3

Cultural Competency Advocate 4

Upcoming Events/Programs 5

2

She said the days were long.

“Up by 6, out by 8,” she said, ex-

plaining that they had to be on the

site by 8 a.m. working. “The day

didn’t end until like 11 or 12 (at

night).”

Church is very important to the

people of Houma Parish, according

to Crawley.

“They did Bible School every

night,” she said. “We’d quit work-

ing and they’d do the Bible School

thing.”

Crawley was impressed with the

people she met from the parish.

“I liked them,” she said. “They

were very humble and very nice.”

Their stories were not easy to hear

according to Crawley. One man

whose home the group was work-

ing became emotional during the

group’s visit.

“He just started tearing up when

we started singing Happy Birth-

day,” Crawley said. “The experi-

ence was so overwhelming,” she

said.

Crawley felt that she couldn’t do

enough for the people in the

parish.

“I gotta do more,” she said. “I got-

ta do more. I gotta do more.”

The most emotional part was leav-

ing, according to Crawley.

“You actually develop friendships

with these people,” she said.

Working in

New Orleans…

By Lesley Covington

Newsletter Coordinator

Junior Broadcasting major Brandy

Crawley joined the Berea Baptist

Church of Pembroke when they

went to Louisiana from March 3 to

March 10. She and several Baptist

Student Union members made the

trip to help reconstruct two homes.

For five days, Crawley’s group

worked and communed with the

people of Parish Houma.

Parish Houma in Louisiana is home

to the Houma tribe of American In-

dians, according to Crawley.

“Four thousand members of the tribe

lost their homes,” Crawley said.

“The chief is a woman, and she

came and talked to us.”

One of the tasks Crawley’s group

undertook was raising one of the

homes from ground level and putting

it on stilts. Cost for raising a house

was $8,000, according to Crawley.

The homes had been submerged in

two feet of water, according to

Crawley.

“We cleaned all the floors in both

houses,” Crawley said. “For the ma-

jority of the time, we were working

extremely hard.”

Photo courtesy of Brandy Crawley

UNCP students meet with Smithfield Packing workers

By Lesley Covington

Newsletter Coordinator

Late March brought with it a new

experience for UNCP minority stu-

dents. Members of the 10% Society,

Latin American Student Organiza-

tion, NAACP Chapter of UNCP,

African American Student Organi-

zation, and Lambda Theta Alpha

Latin Sorority were invited to hear

workers from the Smithfield Pack-

ing Company in Bladen County tell

their stories.

United Food and Commercial

Workers in Red Springs sponsored

a potluck where the workers could

speak freely about their working

conditions. Senior Ramon Zepeda,

who works for UFCW, was glad to

see other students from UNCP at

the event.

Story continued on p.3

3

ing to break the law,” Ludlum

said.

According to Ludlum, Smithfield

illegal activities included beatings

and false arrests of employees us-

ing the company’s private police

force and illegal terminations of

employees. The police force was

disbanded in 2005.

He said workers at Smithfield are

secondary considerations. Profit is

primary. “The hog and the

“It was good because my fellow stu-

dents, peers, got the opportunity to

see the conditions,” Zepeda said.

UNCP students were moved by the

words they heard.

“I was about to burst into tears,” jun-

ior Jamel Porter said, describing

what listening to the stories was like

for him. “The company was using

their money to try and hush up eve-

rything.”

Keith Ludlum was one of the speak-

ers on hand. He has been tenured at

Smithfield for about 13 years, he

said. Ludlum has been terminated

and was reinstated at Smithfield af-

ter a court battle.

According to Ludlum, his attempts

to organize a union at Smithfield

were the cause for his termination.

His attempts at organizing a union

continue.

“It’s been extremely difficult with

this company because they’re will-

production are the most important

thing,” he said. “That’s the goal.”

He puts his faith in students like

those at UNCP to change the direc-

tion that companies such as Smith-

field are taking.

“They’re the ones who are going to

set the tone and be active at making

the world a better place,” he said.

Continued from p. 2

Photo courtesy of Multicultural and Minority Affairs

By Lesley Covington

Newsletter Coordinator

The Office of Multicultural and Mi-

nority Affairs received its first per-

manent art collection in April

through a donation from the Harris

Art Gallery in Pembroke.

“It’s three-dimensional,” art dealer

Grady Harris said. “It’s African art.”

Harris mentioned the Ivory Coast as

one of the locations from which the

artwork originated.

He donated the African artwork to

the Office of Multicultural and Mi-

nority Affairs after his youngest son

completed college.

The artwork was purchased when

Harris operated his old gallery in

Lumberton, off of Lackey Street.

Harris’ shop is currently in his

home on Whistling Rufus Road.

“This is a hobby, more or less to

get me off of the golf course,” he

said.

Harris retired from the U.S. Army

in 1997. He was an education spe-

cialist at Fort Bragg.

“I worked kinda across the board,

mostly in communications and

weapons,” he said. “If there was a

performance problem, it was my

job to evaluate where the problem

was coming from.”

Harris’ collection currently

includes American Indian, Christian

and Mormon artwork.

Harris is a self-proclaimed advocate

of using conservation framing tech-

niques when displaying artwork.

He tries to educate his clients be-

cause he has seen many paintings

and prints destroyed due to improp-

er framing.

“They don’t want a frame that will

destroy their art,” he said of his

clients.

Harris encourages anyone who has

questions about conservation fram-

ing techniques to contact him at

fineart@harrisart.com or visit his

website at www.harrisart.com.

OMMA receives first permanent collection for its exhibit area

4

By Lesley Covington

Newsletter Coordinator

Dr. Jamie Litty’s role as an advocate

for cultural competency began when

she was asked to help with the pro-

duction of a video.

“I first got involved by working on a

cancer video with the Healing

Lodge,” Dr. Litty said. “We had a

good relationship.”

The Healing Lodge recommended Dr.

Litty as a member of the community

advisory board Many Voices, One

Message: Stop Tobacco Addiction

and as aide to some researchers in

Chapel Hill looking for technical help

on a video in the Pembroke commu-

nity.

The advisory board is a joint initia-

tive of the N.C. Commission of

Indian Affairs, the UNC Center for

Health Promotion & Disease Preven-

tion and the West Virginia University

Prevention Research Center.

“In terms of cultural competence,

I’ve worked in health communica-

tion,” Dr. Litty said.

Cultural competency is a concise way

of saying people are knowledgeable

about cultures other than their own

and also able to work effectively in

diverse environments.

Tobacco marketing plays a major role

in advertising, according to Dr. Litty.

“Where tobacco marketing comes

into it (my research) is as a critique of

how they’ve used Native American

culture in tobacco marketing,” she

said.

In her opinion, health communica-

tors should be culturally competent if

they hope to educate a particular

culture about the dangers of tobacco

use.

“We (the advisory board) had a

narrowly-defined audience,” Dr. Lit-

ty said. “We had knowledge of their

culture.”

She referred to this as in-depth

knowledge.

“I don’t mean stereotypical

knowledge,” she said. “We had an

advisory committee of Lumbee Indi-

ans…to help shape what the video

content would be.”

The end product of their input com-

bined with Dr. Litty’s research was a

17-minute-long video.

The video contained numerous as-

pects of Lumbee life, including the

Lumber River, Lumbee family sur-

names, a local narrator and an elder

from the community, Martin Brooks,

M.D.

“He offered historical perspectives

on breast and cervical cancer,” Dr.

Litty said.

After creating the video the board

assessed the target audience’s re-

sponse by gathering two focus

groups from the Pembroke commu-

nity to detail the video’s

effectiveness.

“It was well received by the focus

groups,” she said.

Dr. Litty tested the video because “if

you don’t test that, all you have is

theory.”

Dr. Litty has been with UNCP for

five and a half years. She brought to

UNCP 10 years of experience in

public radio and Public Educational

Government (or PEG) access televi-

sion in New York, New Jersey and

Ohio. She also taught for 10 years in

higher education and taught video

workshops for youth associat-

ed with PEG access television.

She is chair and assistant pro-

fessor in the Department of

Mass Communication.

She earned her bachelor’s degree

in journalism and mass

communication from New York

University, her master’s degree

in mass communication from

Miami University and her Ph.D.

in communication from Ohio

State University.

Cultural competency in action...

Dr. Jamie Litty

5

September 20

Harmony Walk

Water Feature/Amphitheatre

3pm

The Offices of Multicultural and

Minority Affairs and Student Life

are proud to host the 4th Annual

Harmony Walk: Celebrating

Diversity One Step At A Time.

We invite you to participate in this

year's program as we once again

bring together our very diverse stu-

dent population, employees and

other communities of interest to

showcase our uniqueness, but more

importantly our unification. The

highlight of the program are the

speaker and the student club and

organization banner competition.

September 29

Gospel Play: Reap What U Sow

Givens Performing Arts Center

(GPAC)

7pm

The Office of Multicultural and Mi-

nority Affairs is pleased to once

again sponsor D&S productions as

they present their fourth play.

"Bessie Mae and her family, along

with her side kick Minnie Johnson,

are back in this very funny Gospel

stage play. The characters will take

you on an exciting journey that in-

cludes the highs and lows of family,

love, heartaches, disappointments

and faith. “Reap What U Sow” will

remind you how to treat others be-

cause the good, the bad and the ugly

will come back to haunt you. D & S

Productions was founded by Delano

Townsend and Sandy Smith, who

had a vision of spreading God’s

word through the art of stage pro-

ductions.

October 14

BB Thompson Young People's

Concert Choir

Givens Performing Arts Center

(GPAC)

4pm

For over 30 years, the BB Thomp-

son Young People's Concert Choir

has been singing around North

Carolina and traveling within the

United States. They will bless the

hearts and souls of everyone that

will hear the sound of their voices.

This choir, which comprises over

250 young people will grace the

Givens Performing Arts Center.

Admission is free!

Upcoming Events:

Movies:

August 21 (Celebrating Diversity

Rights)

Movie Title: What's Race Got To

Do With It? Social Disparities

and Student Success

September 18 (Celebrating His-

panic Heritage/Culture)

Movie Title: Walkout

October 11 (Celebrating GLBT

Culture/Community)

Movie Title: Saving Face

October 23 (Celebrating Disability

Culture) Movie Title: Color of Paradise

November 6 (Celebrating African

Heritage/Culture) Movie Title: A Walk In The Night

November 12 (Celebrating Native

American Heritage/Culture)

Movie Title: Indian Country Diaries

ALL SHOWS ARE AT 6:30PM

LOCATION:

MULTICULTURAL CENTER

OLD MAIN, ROOM 129