Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

Matthew D. Morrison, a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, is an Assistant Professor in the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Matthew holds a Ph.D. in Musicology from Columbia University, an. M.A. in Musicology from The Catholic University of America, and was a Presidential music scholar at Morehouse College, where he studied violin and conducting. His research focuses on the relationship between (racial) identity, performance, property, copyright law, and inequities within the history of American popular music and beyond.

Dan Charnas is an award-winning culture and business writer, producer of music and television, and professor. Recipient of the 2007 Pulitzer Fellowship for Arts Journalism, he is the author of four books, including New York Times best-selling book, Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm.

Lauren B. Davis is an attorney in the recorded music industry who handles a wide range of transactional matters, including record deals, publishing deals, management agreements, licensing agreements, producer agreements music licensing agreements and other deals that center on the creation, production, distribution and administration of records and songs.

For over a decade, JD Samson has proven herself to be one of NYC’s most enduring creative forces. Since the early 2000s as a member of the feminist electro-pop band Le Tigre, Samson has gone on to work in almost every medium. A formidable songwriter, producer, visual artist and internationally renowned DJ, Samson has amassed a body of work that not only spans a variety of fields—everything from pop music and fine art to curatorial work, political activism, and fashion—but has also helped galvanize NYC’s LGBT community. She has been photographed and featured everywhere from Interview to Vogue Homme and has written for the likes of the Huffington Post and Creative Review. A valiant supporter of LGBT issues, Samson has provided a glowing example for the lesbian and gender-queer communities.

Dr. Carol Cooper is a New York-based journalist and cultural critic who has been reviewing music, books, film, and live performance for over twenty years. Her work has appeared in national and international publications including “Actuel” (Paris),“The Face” (London), “Latin New York,” “The Village Voice,” “Essence”,  “Elle”, “New York Newsday”, and “The New York Times”.  Her essays have also been anthologized in following collections: “Rock She Wrote, The Rolling Stone Book of Women in Rock,” “Brooklyn,” “Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough: Essays in Honor of Robert Christgau”, and “Rolling Stone Press: The '70s.”  Her own collection of music, film, book, and nightlife essays “Pop Culture Considered as an Uphhill Bicycle Race” is available internationally from Amazon.com.

Subrina Moorley holds a BFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, and an MA in Higher Education and Student Affairs from NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. Prior to joining the Clive Davis Institute, Subrina was an Academic Advisor at Tisch's Undergraduate Film and TV Department. She has also advised high school students about the college admissions process as part of Seizing Every Opportunity (SEO), and instructed first-year students at Baruch College about navigating their undergraduate studies. She is passionate about community building, is an advocate and mentor for first generation students, and is a proud HEOP alumna.

2021-2022 Equity Task Force Members:

Faculty

Jason King (Chair)

Carol Cooper

Lauren Davis

Errol Kolosine

JD Samson

Staff

Subrina Moorley, Student Services Administrator

Students

Ben Gordon, CDI 2024

Madi Richardson CDI 2023

Angelique Shie, CDI 2022

Dani Tyas, CDI 2022

Alumni:

Giovanni Lobato, CDI 2013

Terrell Kiser, CDI 2016

Kyra Williams, CDI 2020

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This year, CDI launched CONCERNS @ CDI – an online program that offers a way to make CDI a safe place to register complaints. It offers students the opportunity to feel that their complaints will be addressed in a timely and effective way and to bolster transparency. Concerns @ CDI functions as an internal reporting system for complaints that do not rise to the level of official bias. A clear email to the CDI community that explains how our reporting system works was delivered early in the academic year.

ETF relaunched the Canvass Project, a climate survey, this year. Additionally, members addressed a wide range of ten tasks during the 2021/2022 Academic Year, including fundraising and development; ways of increasing institutional support for the Future Music Moguls high school program; taking a closer look at bias, especially in production language, and unconscious bias; and investigating ways of addressing exclusivity in the curriculum.

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Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Year End Report from the Clive Davis Institute Equity Task Force (Edited for Length)

To the Clive Davis Institute community:

We last shared with you a letter in October 2020 that outlined our mission and intentions as a Task Force for the academic year. Now, at the close of the academic year, we’d like to update you on the Equity Task Force’s accomplishments during its first year of existence in the 2020-2021 academic year.

Here are some tasks we carried out this academic year: 

1. Launched and hosted The Equity Sessions, a series of IDBEA training sessions for faculty and staff—the first ever for the Institute.
2. Launched the inaugural Canvass Project, a climate survey for the CDI. The ETF developed and administered this project, which is designed to take the pulse of the CDI and assess its climate. 
3. Launched an annual artist residency program. 
4. Contributed to the diversification of adjunct instructors. 
5. Formalized an election process for Student Representatives, as part of a larger plan to create clear channels and systems for governance and communication at the Institute. In Spring 2021, elections were held for student reps for each class. Results were announced on April 5 2021. 
6. Conducted regular communications and meetings with student groups at CDI. The ETF created faculty and/or student liaisons for these groups; and supported a number of diverse events and programming. 
7. Helped refine, revise and publish a selection process for performance and production opportunities.
8. Met with IEM Institute of Emerging Media (IEM) programs to discuss the creation of a student mentorship program for the IEM, similar to the existing IPA Student Mentorship program. 
9. Contributed to a Values Statement, which was published in April 2021—it is the first ever values statement for the Institute. 
10. Started planning an annual community conversation / symposium focused on IDBEA. 

LOOKING AHEAD TO A/Y 2021 / 22 

●      The ETF will contribute to a protocol system for student complaints and grievances. We have already begun to work on establishing clear protocols and a system for student reporting of non-academic issues and concerns. 

●      The ETF will take a closer look at bias, especially in production language, and unconscious bias in the “tracking” of students toward particular production and performance classes.

●      The ETF will suggest ways of “decolonizing” the Recorded Music curriculum.

●      The ETF will suggest ways to increase institutional support for the Future Music Moguls high school program.

●      The EFT will be working with the Chair and Institute leadership to address development/fundraising to support scholarships for all students - with a special focus on opportunities for identifying, recruiting, enrolling and retaining BIPOC students.  

Faculty members of the ETF would like to thank ETF student and alumni members as well as staff members for their contributions this year. We are looking forward to the next successful year of Equity Task Force actions and accomplishments.

Signed,

ETF Faculty Members: 

Dan Charnas
Lauren Davis
Jason King (Clive Davis Institute Chair)
Matthew Morrison
JD Samson

Welcome Letter from the Clive Davis Institute Equity Task Force

October 5, 2020

To the Clive Davis Institute Community:

As a follow-up to Interim Chair Sheril Antonio’s charge email entitled “Equity Task Force Announcement,” we would like to tell you more about the Clive Davis Institue Equity Task Force. We are a diverse group of faculty, students and staff whose role is to foster and help realize equity, accessibility, belonging and inclusion at the Clive Davis Institute.

As Task Force members, we believe that those ideals—inclusion, diversity, equity, belonging, and accessibility—are essential, integral aspects of what it means to pursue excellence at any institution of higher learning. We are committed to those ideals, even as we are aware that there are often gaps between institutional objectives of inclusion and belonging, and their realization. Those gaps are not just theoretical--they are lived and experienced, sometimes in difficult ways, by students, staff and faculty alike.

The Equity Task Force has definitive and specific objectives that we intend to achieve in our official role as a task force (as opposed to a committee). Beyond just offering recommendations specific actions to improve diversity, inclusion, equity, accessibility and belonging at the Clive Davis Institute, our charge is to implement meaningful policies and practices at the Clive Davis Institute and TSOA in consultation and collaboration with the Clive Davis Institute and TSOA leadership. Those policies and practices are mandated by and fully consistent with Tisch’s Diversity Commitments (TSOA Actions Against Racial Inequities,) and they are consistent with the work of the NYU Office of Global Inclusion and Diversity.

Our mission statement is as follows:

Comprised of faculty, administrative & technical staff, students, and alumni, The Clive Davis Institute Equity Task Force will take action to build a better, safer, and more equitable NYU Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. Our role is to assess the current state of inclusion, diversity, belonging, equity and accessibility (IDBEA) at the Clive Davis Institute, and to recommend, advance and implement policies and practices that embed IDBEA core values in all aspects of the Clive Davis Institute experience. We work collaboratively to foster a culture of personal, interpersonal and institutional accountability through listening, reflection, review, research, investigation, data collection, advising, advocacy, recommendation and support (among other methods). Our work is mandated by and wholly consistent with Tisch Actions Against Racial Inequities and with the stated goals of the NYU Office of Global Inclusion and Diversity. We encourage faculty, staff, and students to grow and develop in their understanding of diversity, equity, belonging, accessibility and inclusion.

We will shortly be announcing our inaugural public initiatives. And we will be working to institute a forthcoming student and alumni advisory board that will allow us to include even more diverse voices in the work we are planning. In general, we look forward to having conversations and advocating for policies and procedures that support a more fluid space for building, changing, growing, and flourishing as a program. And as our work takes shape, we will be working closely with Sheril Antonio, the Clive Davis Institute interim Chair, and closely with all members of the Clive Davis Institute community including faculty, staff, students and alumni. We intend to work closely with the next the Clive Davis Institute Chair. We are proud to lead the charge for this inaugural Task Force, and we are serious about taking action towards the realization of a better and more equitable ReMu. 

If you have any questions, please get in touch via remuequitytaskforce@nyu.edu.

2020-2021 Equity Task Force Members:

Faculty
Dan Charnas, Associate Arts Professor
Lauren Davis, Arts Professor; Director of Business Studies
Jason King, Associate Professor; Director of Writing, History & Emergent Media Studies; Director of Global Studies
Matthew D. Morrison, Assistant Professor
JD Samson, Assistant Arts Professor

Staff
Kyle Alfred, Administrative Aide II
Ayanna Wilson, Faculty Services Administrator

Students
Cameron Franklin, REMU 2021
Dani Tyas, REMU 2022
Maya Lopez, REMU 2023

Alumni
Dana McCoy, REMU 2020
Kyra Williams, REMU 2020