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N.H. Council on Diversity and Inclusion Sparks Hours of Conversation at UNH

Robert Garrova for NHPR
Council Chair Rogers Johnson wraps up the first public listening session for N.H.'s Council on Diversity and Inclusion

The New Hampshire Council on Diversity and Inclusion held its first public listening session on the campus of UNH in Durham on Wednesday night.

 

The public forums are meant to collect stories and concerns from the community so that they can affect future policy and legislation.

 

Dozens of people showed up to this first meeting, including several UNH students. Faith Heredia, a UNH student and Black Student Union Executive Board member, said she was glad to see the council taking up these issues, but that she’s cautiously optimistic.

 

“Last spring was a very interesting time for a lot of us here,” Heredia said. “There was a lot of protests, a lot of forums, a lot of things that we did just off of a lot of racism, hate, biases that were happening and we’re kind of still waiting for the administration to do a lot of things that they said they would do.”

 

Heredia and others broke off into smaller groups where roundtable discussions were facilitated by council members. But it didn’t take much facilitation. Tables quickly broke into an open discussion about racial tensions both on and off campus and went well over the time allotted for conversation. After several weeks of planning meetings, council member Dr. Dottie Morris was happy to see the turnout.

 

“As we go through the state and we continue to do these listening sessions, I think we’ll gather more and more information that will be helpful for the entire state,” Morris said. “So I’m very pleased by what happened tonight -- very moving.”

 

The council plans on holding another listening session the week of April 9 in Portsmouth.

 

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Robert is a General Assignment reporter, with a focus on New Hampshire's changing demographics. He comes to NHPR’s newsroom from Los Angeles, where he worked as a reporter for member-station KPCC and a producer/director on APM’s Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal.
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