Office of

SOCIAL EQUITY newsletter
Dear Clarion University family and friends,
As we finish up another semester at Clarion, I want to share the progress we have
made toward our shared commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.
In fall 2018, we had the annual Domestic Violence and Abuse Awareness Day, sponsored by the Presidential Commission on Sexual Harassment and the Office of Social
Equity. Representatives from the tri-county area provided resources to students and
staff, and the campus community submitted poetry related to domestic violence. The
poems were tragic, but beautiful.
Last spring was our Third Annual Lavender graduation to acknowledge students who
identify as LGBT+ and/or allies. We also provided Safe Zone training to employees and
were able to add more than 20 new offices to our current list.
We created the Presidential Commission on Racial Equity, which provided vast
resources and sponsored a talk by Dr. Joe Harmon during Holocaust Remembrance
Week. Social Equity worked with the Remembrance Committee to show “Who Will
Write Our History.”
Social Equity also partnered with The Presidential Commission on the Status of Women for the first Women in History Door Contest. Offices from all over campus participated, and we were blown away by the creativity!
Together, we promote an environment of civility and common understanding. Through that work, Clarion University is truly a wonderful place to live, learn and grow!

Buildings with single use/all gender restrooms
Becht Hall
Becker Hall
Campus View Suites*
Carrier Administration Building
Eagle Commons Dining Facility**
Gemmell Student Complex
Harvey Hall
Marwick-Boyd Fine Arts Center
McEntire Maintenance Building
Speech and Hearing Clinic
Suites on Main North
Tippin Gymnasium
Valley View Suites*

Lot N

Rhea
Building

Clarion University has
designated all-gender
restrooms in 11 buildings on
the Clarion campus and in
one building on the
Venango campus. Other
all-gender facilities will
be added as buildings are
scheduled to be renovated.

Mail and
Receiving

Lot
4

Lot 3

PAGES

Speech and
Hearing
Clinic

Suites
on Main
North

Valley
View
Suites*

Suites
on Main
South

Still
Hall

Lot
5

Starbucks

Ralston
Hall

Public
Safety

Becht
Hall

E
Moore Egbert
Hall
Hall

Ceramics
Lab
Utility
Plant

McEntire
Maintenance

Ballentine
Hall

STUDENT
SUCCESS
CENTER

Eagle Commons
Dining
Facility**

Sculpture
Studio

Gemmell
Student
Center

Givan
Hall
Water
Tower

Denny’s
Den
Book
Store

Carrier
Administration
Building

Founders
Hall

Carlson
Library

Hart
Chapel
Theater

So

ut
hS
t

Special
Education
Center

Tennis
Courts
Thorn
2

Thorn
1

Harvey
Hall

Science and
Technology
Center

Davis
Hall

Lot V
Student
Recreation
Center

View
Campus s*
Suite

Planetarium

University
Gallery

Stevens
Hall

Main Street/US 322 west
to Memorial Stadium
and Venango Campus

840 Wood Street, Clarion, PA 16214-1232
Central
Services
Building

Official
Residence

Business
Administration
and Computer
Center

Lot
17

Tippin
Gymnasium

Marwick-Boyd
Fine Arts Center

Becker
Hall

ALL-GENDER
RESTROOMS

Seifert-Mooney
Center for
Advancement

Greenville Avenue to Reinhard Villages and
Greenville Avenue Extension/South 66 to Interstate 80

Yield to pedestrians in crosswalks.

* Residents only; Building not open to public
** Access limited to customers

All-gender restrooms are
not specific to transgender
people. She said they are an
option for anyone wanting
privacy or for a parent with
a child.

CU SERVE SELECTED AS EQUITY AWARDS’ SPECIAL GROUP
CU Serve has been an integral part of the student life at the
Venango Campus since the early 2000s. Though for most of
the club’s existence members have been primarily students
from Venango Campus, membership now includes students
from the Clarion campus.

Each spring break, CU Serve completes a large service
project in another part of the country. They have traveled to
Mississippi, Georgia and, most recently, New Orleans, where
they volunteered at food pantries, nursing homes and victim
shelters.

The purpose of CU Serve is to connect and engage students
through fellowship and service. Members are devoted to the
principle of volunteer service, and through these learning
experiences they are provided with opportunities to grow in
their understanding of the world.

Most importantly, CU Serve members strive to be examples
for their peers. Their attitude gives hope to a world that is
often pessimistic about young people.

CU Serve selects unique service projects with which students
can volunteer. They have built ramps to make buildings handicapped accessible, organized fundraisers, and collaborated
with Mustard Seed Missions of Venango County to renovate a
housing center in Franklin.

CU Serve students excel in the classroom and are active in a
wide variety of campus activities and outside organizations.
They exemplify the qualities of equity, social justice, civility,
fairness, and compassion.

NEVER AGAIN: HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE COMMITTEE
More than 30 years ago, mathematics professor
Dr. Stephen Gendler formed Clarion University’s Holocaust
Remembrance Committee. The formation was in response
to the creation of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance
Day, a day reserved to memorialize the immense tragedy
of the Holocaust. Holocaust Remembrance Day is commemorated on the Jewish calendar (which operates on the
lunar calendar) on the 27th of Nissan, which corresponds to
the solar calendar anywhere from early April to mid-May
(similar to the irregular correspondence of Hanukkah and
Christmas).
Gendler’s astute vision, sensitivity, and insight has inspired
countless such events, bringing to Clarion experts ranging from the academic to the artistic, including Holocaust
survivors to share their stories. Often, student groups collaborate with the Holocaust Remembrance Committee by
providing funding to support speakers, and faculty connect
a portion of their instructional time to the particular Holocaust-related topics the visitors present.
In 2012, for example, Shulamit Basktacky, who suffered in
the Holocaust as a child, shared her story. Born in 1941 in
Vilnius, Lithuania, she was one of the “Hidden Children” of
the Holocaust, hidden and saved by non-Jews. Along with
Ms. Basktacky’s talk, the Cantor of B’ nai Abraham Synagogue sang songs that were composed during the Holocaust.
The Holocaust is expansive in terms of the numerous
perspectives and interpretations we can draw from it.
Recently, the committee brought the Jewish poet Yehoshua
November, who writes tenderly in celebration and
sadness about orthodox Jewish culture; the photographer
Lisa Shifren, who presented “Photographic Portraits: The

Holocaust Survivors of Baltimore”;
Phil Holtje, an expert on “Modern Music that Remembers
the Holocaust.” Hotlje discussed not only music in the
context of the Holocaust, but in other catastrophes, such as
the Armenia the Native American genocides.
In this respect, the Holocaust Remembrance Committee is
also sensitive to other, similar events. In 2016, the
committee brought to Clarion Qutaiba Idbibi, from Damascus, Syria, who discussed the severe human rights abuses
taking place in his country. He described being detained
twice and tortured by the internal security forces in Syria.
The Holocaust Remembrance Committee and its current
members, Gendler, English professor Dr. Philip Terman and
social sciences instructor Dr. Jeffrey Diamond, is grateful
for Clarion University’s continued sponsorship as it
continues in its mission to educate our community of the
significance of the phrase, “never again.”

Carlson Library’s Karen
Sheesman, Rachel Davis,
Cassandra Colligan,
Amber Borland and
McKenzie Reck
celebrated Women’s
History Month by creating
a Jane Austen door.

It is the policy of Clarion University of Pennsylvania that there shall be equal opportunity in all of its educational programs, services, and benefits, and there shall be no discrimination with regard to a student’s or prospective student’s gender, gender identity, race or color, ethnicity, national origin or ancestry, age, mental or physical disability, religion or creed, genetic information, affectional or sexual orientation, veteran status, or other classifications that are protected under
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and other pertinent state and federal laws and regulations. Direct inquiries to the Title IX Coordinator,
Clarion University of Pennsylvania, 103 Carrier Administration Building, sfenske@clarion.edu or phone 814-393-2351, or the Director of Social Equity, 210 Carrier Administration Building 16214-1232; Email asalsgiver@clarion.edu or phone
814-393-2109. Inquiries may also be directed to the Director of the Office for Civil Rights, Department of Education, 330 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20201.
The Social Equity Newsletter is published periodically by the Office of Social Equity, Clarion University, 840 Wood Street, Clarion, PA 16214-1232. Articles within the publication reflect the philosophy
of the office and do not necessarily represent the official position of Clarion University