WASFAA Ethnic Diversity Action Committee
Conference Call Meeting Minutes
July 9, 2015 2 p.m. PDT

  1. Check in
  • In attendance: Helen, Jenna, Rachel, Jodie, Dewayne, Robbie
  • Who are we and what brought us to EDAC? This could be the focus of the next quarterly newsletter article.
  • Follow-up request: please send a brief blurb about yourself and a photo (optional) for next newsletter.
  1. Report back from EC Meeting
  • Request from EC to present a recommendation on whether to broaden EDAC’s scope in the future
  • This is a complex topic we should continue to discuss and consider in the coming months before making a formal recommendation
  • EDAC is included in both WASFAA’s Policies & Procedures and in its Bylaws. While the EC can approve changes to the P&P manual, a change to the bylaws would need to be approved by the membership. Therefore, EDAC is in the position of making a recommendation; we don’t have the authority to make changes to EDAC that would impact the P&P and/or the bylaws without appropriate approvals.
  1. Follow up on action items from last meeting
  • What other regional associations are doing
  • Helen did some research into other regional associations. All but SWASFAA included some sort of a diversity committee with a variety of purposes and responsibilities.
  • EASFAA has a Multicultural Diversity Committee tasked with supporting minority financial aid administrators, assisting multiculturally diverse students, and sensitizing the financial aid community to multicultural diversity issues in higher education.
  • MASFAA has a Diversity and Inclusion Committee that provides direction to its President, EC, and association on improving programs and policies to enhance and celebrate diversity, while also making recommendations to encourage and support diversity initiatives.
  • RMASFAA has a Diversity and Multicultural Initiatives Committee that explores issues of importance to the multicultural community and addresses the needs of RMASFAA’s diverse membership.
  • SASFAA has a Global Issues Committee that “will pursue the multifarious focuses of enhancing the inclusivity of its membership to reflect the demographics of the student population it serves; will serve as the diversity subject matter leader and nexus for other SASFAA committees, and member state committees with similar focuses, and will pursue these goals to ensure the best inclusive financial aid practices to meet the nation’s goal of graduating the most college students in the world by the year 2020.”
  • Questions to include on future scholarship applications: we will discuss this by email.
  1. To-do items
  • Present a session at the Annual Conference—ideas:
  • Include content above and beyond only ethnic diversity
  • Tips for supporting students
  • Social time/reception
  • Supporting underrepresented staff members
  • Diversity recruitment of staff and students
  • Provide an article for each WASFAA newsletter
  • Helen will continue writing articles for each newsletter, but also invites participation from other committee members who are interested in writing as well
  • Survey: Helen will send this out after the WASFAA newsletter comes out. A list of questions/topics for the survey was included in the minutes from the June 11th meeting. Please send any additional survey questions you think should be included to the group as soon as possible.
  • Produce a promotional publication about EDAC and scholarship opportunities
  • Leo previously offered to help with this project.
  1. Other discussion items
  2. Reviewed WASFAA EDAC purpose and responsibilities in P&P
  3. The list is pretty extensive and reflects a number of duties that probably haven’t been performed in many years, if ever. Helen will follow up with WASFAA members who have longer experience with EDAC for feedback.
  4. Jodie volunteered to review other states’ diversity committees within the WASFAA region and share this information at our next phone information.