Project STAND Minutes
Date: March 8, 2018
Time: 1:00PM (EST).
Present: Lae’l Hughes-Watkins (Kent State University), Raquel Flores-Clemons (Chicago State), Charla Wilson (Northwestern University), Michelle Sweetster (Bowling Green State University), Shannon Walker (Arizona State University), Trevor Watkins (Kent State University), Athena Jackson (Penn State University), Ken Grossi (Oberlin College), Tamar Chute (Ohio State University), Sara Calise (Middle Tennese State University), Vic Fleischer (University of Akron), Richard Bernier (Purdue University), Gregory Bailey (Texas A&M University), Helen Conger (Case Western University), Aprille McKay (University of Michigan) , Anna Trammell (University of Illinois), Karen Walton Morse (University of Rhode Island), Chris Wydman (Wright State University), Dina Kellams (Indiana University), Tamara Rhodes (UC San Diego) Josh Schneider, Jenny Johnson, and Daniel Hartwig (Stanford University)
Introductions (Hughes-Watkins) to new general partners
Charla Wilson , Archivist for the Black Experience Northwestern University Libraries
Wilson shared brief historical notes on the upcoming anniversary of the Bursar takeover, were 120 black students took over the building until administration agreed to a list of demands. See more here
She also discussed other collections on the campus response to Kent State and Jackson State University.
Introduced, John Bence, University Archivist, Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, & Rare Book Library, Emory University.
Josh Schneider, Assistant University Archivist, ePADD Community Manager, Special Collections & University Archives at Stanford University, in addition to Jenny Johnson, Collections Manager and Processing Archivist, Special Collections & University Archives at Stanford University, and Daniel Hartwig, University Archivist, Special Collections & University Archives at Stanford University. Schneider discussed a few key projects at Stanford, including a community oral history project, doing geo-locating for historical protests on campus, helping provide material for blacklight spotlight, and history of Stanford women.
Greg Bailey, University Archivist and Clements Curator, Cushing Memorial Library & Archives University Libraries, Texas A&M University
Bailey discussed a critical moment in Texas A&M’s history—the 1976 Gay Student Services (GSS) vs. Texas (https://bit.ly/2Idkj7R) A&M University, where the lawsuit went to the Supreme Court, and university had to recognize GSS. Texas A&M could not deny gay student access.
Sarah Calise Archivist, Political and Regional Collections Albert Gore Research Center, Middle Tennessee State University: Calise highlighted initiatives taking place around the removal of confederate symbols at Middle Tennessee State University, specifically the Forrest Hall Protest, which has led to a digital collection. This fall MITSU’s Albert Gore Research Center will be celebrating the work of Sylvester Brooks, an African American student activist who was a significant leader on campus. Calise discussed that MITSU will be hosting an event in the fall titled 68 Movement (Lae’l Hughes-Watkins will be present to speak on STAND and Black Campus Movement Initiative at Kent State). Other ongoing projects include LGBTQ Lambda and non-traditional students.
Graham Stinnett, Archivist, Human Rights Collections, UConn Library New Partners Share Projects/Initiatives
IMLS Grant—Hughes Watkins discussed that IMLS grant duties will need to be divided in the event of a full proposal invitation.
Web Team Update— Trevor Watkins discussed the challenges of not having access to a full-version of WordPress site, he said this is hampering ability for making content as robust as web team would like. Trevor said tasks have been assigned to update collection pages by themes, alphabetical order and time span. Also working to update participants, job titles on site map. Also discussed that UX study of site is in the works and will be reaching out to UC San Diego (Cristela and Tamara) for collaboration.
Summary Reports— (Helen Conger) Compiling a report to share out what universities/colleges in Project STAND have on  African American themed collections and what’s the average size of the collections, and what’s the largest collection out of that group? What’s the most common format? Conger is also compiling a report on what universities/colleges have collections centering LGBTQIA and what’s the average size of the collections, and what’s the largest collection out of that group? What’s the most common format?
Outgoing Invitations (Tamar Chute)
Chute reported that invitations have gone out to another round of institutions and that some institutions are contacting us from the website. Chute asked partners to contact her (chute.6@osu.edu) if they had any suggestions for institutions that should be asked in the next group of invitations.
Archiving Digital Content (Hughes-Watkins): The question asked : What are we doing/not doing to archive digital content produced by student social movements (marginalized student communities)? What are your concerns/challenges?
Jessica Ballard (University Illinois) discussed U of I Project 500, an initiative to bring 500 black students or mostly students of color on campus, to give narratives on housing discrimination a big sit-in in the union, in honor of the 50th anniversary…engaging in digital story mapping, started a couple years ago documenting social media online.
Raquel Flores-Clemons (Chicago State)- Mentioned most of the collections that will fit into the goal of STAND around student protests are will be added through oral histories made available digitally, starting from the most recent protest movements to the oldest. The last couple of years have been challenging bringing all of the various people together. Preparing to do digital oral histories, inspired by work coming out of Duke—with the SNCC veterans, had SNC veterans come to their general location and engage with the material and what the records meant in relation to a particular event to get the narratives. Flores-Clemons reiterated that it’s been challenging acquiring these narratives as a one-person show. There is not a lot of analog material that speaks to the changes of Chicago State going from a PWI (predominately white institution) to a PBI (predominately black institution). All of these nuances are not well explained in their records. Raquel asked how are people collecting digital records from social media—recent student media –and highlighted how budgets its Illinois has profoundly impacted their work. She referenced the difficulty in tracking the creator video content shared on social media platforms.
Ballard mentioned Salalita case and actions by students that have come out of the case causing a lot of tension on campus. https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/university-of-illinois-steven-salaita-gaza-war-tweets-academic-freedom-first-amendment/Content?oid=14917396
Daniel Hartwig (Stanford)—very fortunate to capture and ingest material into digital repository. We have captured born-digital records from student organizations both passively and actively. Some of the stuff is photographic or text-based, not necessarily video, we do have restricted material created or captured by students. Concerns have not been raised by students at this time.
Athena Jackson (Penn State University)—Jackson said Penn State is also do web archiving but expressed concerns on institutions capturing student social media content without speaking to students, first.
Stanford does address capturing student social media without speaking with students first.
Shannon Walker shared Arizona State University has a social media deed of gift.
Cristela Garcia-Spitz (UC San Diego) Mentioned that UC Riverside was embarking on something similar—license agreement for collecting and sharing tweets.
Conversation concluded with partners agreeing how much this conversation/similar dialogue will be beneficial to everyone—and look forward to learning from the approaches from participating organizations.
In-Person Meeting (Hughes-Watkins)—Reminded everyone to fill out Doodle Poll to see where an in-person meeting could be held this year.