Update on web page site: http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~asuomca/diversityinit.html
Introductions
Future Meetings:
Week of July 19th - Monday, July 19th - 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.Multicultural
Center
(it was recommended that we shorten these meetings to no more than
1 1/2 hrs)
Barbeque on Thursday, July 22nd at 4 – 7pm at the Softball fields behind MacArthur Court.
1. Role of Steering Committee
safe, supportive place to
talk together, community and coalition building, updates on intern
projects; other summer initiatives; identification of resources
group needs a mission statement - ideas should be sent to Missy
Rock who will then craft something we can all react to
should decide if we want to be an advisory
group - a coordinating council - do we need to retitle the group
- set some time limits on meetings - post ending time - keep shorter
- ask for ideas for mission statement or role - it can be a sounding board
for interns but it’s more than a sounding board - can build on itself -
it may have
short term and longer term objectives - be an ad hoc group now - may
want to aim for something in the future.
2. Reports from Interns
Missy, Jennifer, John, Spencer, Jessica reported on their projects,
and Missy provided some updates on work of other interns who had time conflicts
with this meeting. Notes on particular projects are summarized and
will be updated regularly on the web (so details are not included in these
notes)
over-all, projects are in early stages, and plans/objectives may be adjusted as interns progress
3. Suggestions for Interns
Steering Committee members made some general observations and
specific project suggestions. Discussions included
• using the video project and what John is learning from contacting
depts to create a faculty dialogue or
discussion that could include ideas from all the
interns or projects.
• Huy might want to do a video about residence life and freshmen attitudes/experiences
• Jason might want to do a student piece about what’s working and what
is not, using some of the information
Jessica is gathering
• need to include outreach to classified staff as well who are important
in students’ retention
• fundraising could focus on attracting prominent scholars of color
who may be here because of some academic
resources we have but be willing to be part of an
academic center related to issues of diversity in addition to
their particular research
• for Jennifer - we need to think about incentives for changing our
curriculum; perhaps some financial incentives
- research $$ that could be used to review/affect
2 or 3 classes per summer in the core curriculum
• need to include in our strategies “what’s in it” for administrators
- this work is important from an
administrative perspective as well as a student
perspective - need some one on one time with administrators
- a joining of wills
• suggestion from Julia Lesage - that we include in our video the perspectives
of “people with bad attitude”
- looking back her video didn’t capture that - get
those perspectives into the training material and develop
strategies that take such people beyond just hiding
these attitudes and “cooling it” ...students can sometimes
be more easily reached because they haven’t learned
to just hide their attitudes - maybe use the e-mail episode
as a way to include some “bad attitude” perspectives
as a starting point for the discussion - need to keep
everyone in the dialogue as long as possible
• Margaret Hallock has some info on the curriculum that may be helpful
to Jennifer
• video can help get to a few with “bad attitudes” at the dept level,
but there are those who are “with you” but
not working on themselves every year - so everyone
has something to talk about...those who are not mean-
spirited but are unintentionally insensitive and
those who think they have a good attitude also need to be involved
• check on what library diversity committee has been doing
• Annie Bentz (Conflict Resolution Services) has a useful article on
working with inter-group dialogues and
some resources from University of Washington
• how about training students as facilitators
• look at model from Utah -that Peggy Pascoe knows about for a position
that works on faculty development
and increasing diversity
• do we need a center for multiethnic studies and cross-cultural communications
4. Communication Issues Among Us
• how about putting materials in library reserve shelf - or in MCC
- get them to Missy and she can develop a
binder - make announcement on web page
• need to keep developing/updating the webpage - find ways to link
to UO home page on the web....UO needs
a good diversity page on the web (look at other
models)
• group wants 2 socials - mid-point and end of summer
• need to stay connected among us -
• need to tell others that it’s not too late to get involved
• need to get clearer about who are our mentors and resources and who
is working with whom - develop a list
• need both student and community ownership
Participants included: Missy Rock, Jennifer Rosen, John Riordan, Spencer Hamlin, Lisa Foisy, Betsy Wheeler, Jay S., Jessica B., Gwen Tistadt, Annie Bentz, Peggy Pascoe, CJ Gabbe, Julia Lesage, Dave Hubin, Anne Leavitt, Margaret Hallock (and a few others).