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Brookings Human Rights Commission Minutes
Thursday, March 09, 2023
Zoom Meeting App due to snow storm
Attendance: Dianne Nagy (vice-chair); Lawrence Novotny, (recorder and CLEAR Partners liaison);
Amanda Fickes; Carla Gatzke; Mark Johnson (online); Erica Moore; Caleb Johnson (police liaison);
Bruce Pengra (sustainability council liaison); Marjoanne Thompson Collins (SDSU liaison); Casey Bell
(city human resources & staff liaison);
Absent: Nieema Thasing (chair); Behnoosh Amandi (county representative); Emma Qurashi (student
representative & behavioral health liaison); Marci Gebers (sheriff’s office liaison); Mikaela Neubauer
(library liaison; Michele Vande Weerd (school liaison)
Guest: Maria Kalyvaki, a guest of Amanda Fickes
Vice Chair Nagy called the meeting to order at 5:37 pm.
It was announced that Dan Berg had submitted his resignation from the BHRC.
Moore moved, Fickes seconded, to approve the agenda with the addition of Medicaid discussion.
Motion passed.
Fickes moved, Gatzke seconded, to approve the minutes of the February 09 meeting. Motion passed.
OLD BUSINESS
Complaint Process: Nancy Olson (city HR staff member) is working on pulling together a time to
conduct a training of the BHRC. We want to include former BHRC member Charlie Ward in this
training since she was a member of the working group.
Pamphlets: Nagy displayed on screen the pamphlet that the sheriff’s office distributed at the last
September international students welcome event. That pamphlet details a step-by-step process of how
one is to act when their vehicle is pulled over by law enforcement. The pamphlet is entitled “Law
Enforcement 101: Safe Traffic Stops”. Supposedly the purpose of the pamphlet is to remove brutality
from law enforcement traffic stops. Law enforcement benefits from the pamphlet since the pamphlet
language is geared toward law enforcement perspective. Moore stated that several international
students have left SDSU due to their interaction with law enforcement.
It was suggested to seek the new police chief’s perspective on the pamphlet since he comes from New
York and has a strong interest in community policing. Fickes volunteered to pull together a working
group meeting of herself, Nagy, Thasing, Moore and Collins. The WG will formulate a discussion plan
and then schedule a meeting with the police chief.
Website: The deputy city clerk is working on updating the BHRC page on the city’s website. This is a
slow process.
DEI training: The SDSU Office of Multicultural Affairs is hosting Reach for the Summit: Creating
Connections and Building Allyship with Ashley Smith and Dr. Mike Grewe-on March 25 from 9 am – 1
pm. The event is open to the public. Registration link: https://sdstate.questionpro.com/SummitSp23.
Someone stated there are several faculty members on campus that are certified to provide DEI training.
Marlene Schultz is a retired SDSU sociology professor interested in providing training in exchange for
travel expense from Sioux Falls. Maria Kalyvaki stated that Mankato State University has a program of
train the trainer which we should consider.
LIAISON REPORTS
Sustainability Council Pengra stated that he originally agreed to be the liaison on a short term basis. The
Sustainability Council had previously dropped its liaison with BHRC. However, Pengra will join our
meetings on an occasional basis. Recent sustainability council activities are:
Having the city council adopt a “No Mow May” program
Changed city ordinance to allow beekeeping in city limits
Initiate a food forest project that will focus on fruit trees
Developing a climate action plan for the city
Brookings Police: (Johnson): BPD has partnered with the 988 mental health crises line to aid in
handling calls dealing with mental health and suicide issues. BPD had a booth at the high school career
fair.
SDSU UPD (Johnson): UPD is part of a campus behavioral intervention team. The team meets weekly
to discuss any suspicious person’s behavior.
Fickes stated that she is trying to seek clarity on how to file a petition hold on an individual.
Johnson left at this point.
SDSU: The Multi-Cultural Center has been contacted by Downtown at Sundown inquiring about having
one of the events be an international night.
NEW BUSINESS
SDSU Student Association’s Diversity Liaison Proposal:
Nagy shared this e-mail received from Blake Pulse, current SA president: When I ran for President part
of my platform was to elevate diversity across the SDSU campus and equip our diverse student organizations
(BSA, GSA, LASA, AISA, etc.) with a contact person that would increase communication and lift up their voices.
My vice president and myself created the Diversity Liaison position to aid the executive team in serving students
across campus. We are in the process of going through our budget process where we allocate around $400,000
to student organizations across campus. One of the discussions that has become controversial within the budget
has been payment of the Diversity Liaison position. The biggest question being whether or not the Diversity
Liaison can reach the time requirement of 15 hours per week required by the other executive team positions for
payment. For context, my cabinet contains four students (finance chair, communications chair, government
affairs chair, and chief of staff) who all receive a $3000 salary for the academic year. This stipend allows
members of the cabinet to devote more time to the position where if unpaid would not be able to because of
the need to work another job to pay for college/rent. I want to see the Diversity Liaison position salaried for the
coming academic year so whoever is serving in that position can dedicate more time. Which brings me to where
I need your help.
We are wondering if you would be willing to allow the Diversity Liaison to give a brief report of what is
happening on campus and within student government with topics regarding diversity and inclusion. This
arrangement will for one will help us get to that 15 hour requirement, but additionally would be an incredible
opportunity to strengthen the bond between SDSU and the Brookings community. Currently the government
affairs chair does give a report at city council and that is well received by the city council members and allows us
to collaborate with each other on a closer level because the communication is already there. This position has
become extremely important to me as a person, but also the entire student body and deserves to be
compensated for the work that is being done.
BHRC response was to invite the SA diversity liaison person to apply to be a liaison with BHRC.
Commission positions:
Emma Qurashi is no longer a student so she cannot be the student representative. The student
representative position will be advertised. We will recommend to the mayor that Qurashi be appointed
to the position vacated by Dan Berg.
Goal strategizing on Promoting Equity, Access, and Inclusion:
Strategy 1: hosting 3 listening sessions and sharing recommendations: A listening session dealing with
non-Christian religious minorities is scheduled for March 22.
Strategy 2: publicizing accessible and transparent complaint process: We need to first have the entire
BHRC undergo training on the complaint process. We need to ensure that the process of filing a
complaint is an efficient process. We need to prioritize this goal. The deadline that was set is to have
the training done by the end of March and the complaint process on the website by the end of April.
Strategy 3: launching a youth anti-bullying campaign: An ad hoc working group will be pulled together
consisting of representatives of: high school students, middle school students, Camelot intermediate
school students, boys & girls club, school board, PFLAG, CLEAR Partners, and BHRC. At this point,
no one on BHRC volunteered to initiate the WG.
Strategy 4: advocating for implicit bias training for city groups and organizations: City employees,
including the police and fire departments, undergo an annual DEI training. Brookings Municipal Utility
and Brookings Health System employees are invited but not required to attend. One idea was to
provide training to BHRC and then customize the training to meet specific needs of city, police, etc.
The trainings need to be offered multiple times to accommodate all employees’ schedules
Suggestions for Brookings school staff summer professional development: Some suggestions were:
Needs of transgender students
Anti-bullying
How to teach sensitive subjects
We will identify specific resources at the next meeting.
Medicaid Expansion: Fickes posed this comment: – As a social worker I’m starting to meet patients
whose lives will become much easier when Medicaid expansion takes effect in July, and realizing a big part of my
job will become (or at least should become) helping people to actually apply for and get this Medicaid. I think it
would be something appropriate for HRC to be involved in in terms of educating people on the eligibility criteria,
how to apply, etc – perhaps both through social/other media as well as through educational events. I’m not
sure if we need to place this under a new working group category or what category it belongs under, but
certainly a big win for health equity in SD and it would do a lot of people a lot of good if they could get this as
soon as it is available. Often the people who need it most are the people struggling the most with the ability to
drive somewhere to complete an application, or they don’t have the internet, or have medical issues impacting
their mobility, can’t afford the BATA bus, etc…
It was suggested to cooperate with Habitat for Humanity, the feeding programs, and BATA on this
project. Fickes will pull together a list of groups to invite.
WORKING GROUPS
Social Media/Communications: The like clicks are increasing. We had 2800 likes with the Bangladesh
Night posting. Fickes is having a problem with setting up an InstraGram account
Legislature:
HB 1125 & HB 1116 (prohibits drag shows) were both killed
HB 1092 (respect for marriage) was also killed.
Novotny noted that it is almost impossible to get bills benefiting Native Americans through the
legislature.
Inclusivity/Community Outreach:
Religious minorities listening session on March 22.
Diversity potluck on Saturday, April 22, at McCrory Gardens. Am partnering with Brookings
Multi-Cultural Center.
Africans in the Diaspora Cultural Awareness:
The film Race Amity: The Other Tradition which deals with working across race barriers was shown on
Feb 11 at 3 pm at the Brookings Public Library; Feb 17 at 6 pm in the Community Room of the
City/County Government Building; and Feb 26 at 1 pm in the East Side Fire Hall. Around 10-12
people attended each screening with about 2/3 of them being community members (other 1/3 BHRC).
There was good discussion each time. Some community people are looking for more discussions around
this or similar topics.
LGBTQ Awareness:
There will be a meeting on March 12 to start planning for Brookings Pride which will be June 03.
BUDGET
We are still awaiting on the confirmation of the carryover funds from 2022.
Adjourn:
Meeting adjourned at 7:04 pm.
Submitted by Lawrence Novotny, recorder