Tag Archives: diversity

EVENT
Film Diversity Town Hall Meeting

From Film Majors, Minors and Prospective Film Studies Students:

Please join us this Thursday, April 27th at 5:30pm in Judd Hall Room 116 to discuss diversity within the Film Department. This will be a public meeting open to the entire student body and faculty. In this meeting we hope to reiterate our suggestions for diversity and announce our plans for moving forward. We then hope to open the meeting up to discussion from attendees. Our main goal of this meeting is to gain a clearer understanding of the department’s initiatives to achieve diversity and for us to be able to publicly and candidly clarify our own hopes for the future of diversity within the film department. We hope for this discussion to be a meeting with multiple points of view, so please encourage your friends and faculty members to participate. This open discussion will lead to mutual understanding and change for the better.

See you there!

Link to Facebook event

Date: Thursday, April 27
Time: 5:30-7PM
Place: Judd Hall Room 116

Interested in Unteaching Stereotypes in Middletown Schools?

Elizabeth Gelman ’16 writes in:

Julia’s Star is a children’s book written by Johanna Justin-Jinich. It tells a story about the injurious effects of intolerance, and how curiosity, friendship, knowledge and trust can overcome prejudice. Every spring, several Wesleyan students use this story to start a discussion about difference and how to understand/appreciate diversity of others with elementary schoolers around Middletown.

This project is about talking to children in an honest and real way about prejudice and stereotyping. Diversity training is not part of Connecticut state curriculum, but we feel it is essential for students to grow up with the vocabulary to talk about prejudice, to know how to ask each other questions, and to learn to embrace and enjoy difference. This is a special project that encourages important conversation about difference while honoring the memory of Johanna Justin-Jinich by sharing the magic of her book.

We are growing each year with the help of OCS and we would love you to be involved! If you think you may be interested in the project or in providing diversity training, please email us at juliastar.wesleyan[at]gmail[dot]com to get involved.

More info at www.juliasstar.org.

FEATURED
Students Petition President Roth to Change Financial Aid Donation Policy

financial-aid-101

A little under a week ago, I posted a video in which Josh Krugman ’14 took the microphone at a senior class reception and, immediately following speeches by University administrators exhorting members of the senior class to donate to Wesleyan, asked his fellow seniors to not donate in protest of the University’s abandoning of need-blind admissions and alleged fiscal irresponsibility. The post generated a debate over whether alumni should give to the University – informed in part by a recent letter from alumni who withheld donations on “Giving Tuesday” due to the University’s financial aid policies.

This post was followed immediately by a post by pyrotechnics about the 68% figure referenced in Josh’s speech. This post shed light on a serious problem with the way the University deals with financial aid donations:

There is currently no way for donors to increase the amount of money the University plans to spend on financial aid. Given the budget cap, there is no such mechanism for that right now, confirmed to me by President Michael Roth himself. (Again, note that there is a way to decrease the amount of money spent: not donating.) This is something I (wearing a different hat) am currently working on fixing with University Relations, with tentative support from both President Roth and Barbara-Jan Wilson.

In response to this and the fact that the number of students on grant-based matriculation aid fe ll this past year, Benny Docter ‘14, Danny Blinderman ’14, and Josh Krugman ’14 presented a letter to the administration calling for a revision to the financial aid donation policy. This letter, cosigned by WSA leadership, campus group leaders, student fundraisers, Greek-life presidents, and others, makes two simple demands on the administration:

1) Donors should be able to specify that 100% of their gift goes to increase financial aid for the following school year; 2) Donors should be able to specify that 100% of their gift goes into the endowment for financial aid, to be drawn at a rate equal to the annual draw rate of the endowment as a whole, and could be spent only on permanently increasing the number and quality of financial aid packages that the University offers.

The idea is that any donation made in this new manner would result in an increase in financial aid spending proportional to the size of the gift – as opposed to the current system, where all donations received are already planned for in the financial aid budget. The letter does not call for a boycott on donations to financial aid, nor does it ask for a return to need-blind admissions. Rather, it demands that the University allow those who donate to financial aid to increase financial aid spending as a total portion of the University budget in the same way that alumni donations to athletic programs or academic departments do not result in a corresponding decrease in the funding those programs receive from the University.

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FEATURED
Privilege & Policy at Wes, Part I

PP@WES

Exactly a year ago, the Diversity University forum was held to address diversity at Wesleyan in light of hateful comments on the ACB, the use of race in Public Safety Reports, and allegations of unnecessary use of force by Public Safety. The conversation also touched on many other points and became a three hour-long panel/discussion with over 400 students, faculty, and staff in attendance.

These were a few of the most salient points from the forum, summed up by pyrotechnics in his post from last year:

We’ve got problems. Big, scary institutional and individual problems and shortcomings. We all do. Every one of us.

There are a lot of people who really give a shit. Not only was this evident in attendance, but in the words, actions, and thoughts of many. This carries from those brave students who shared their own horrifying stories all the way to President Roth at the helm of the University, who remarked: “I take this very seriously. It’s so corrosive. It undermines the very fabric of this university. This can’t go on. … If we have screwed up, we will fix it. What you’re describing to me wrecks the University’s mission.”

Dialogue is important, and this kind of forum needs to happen regularly, but actions speak louder than words. Right now, there is a real limit to the trust that our community affords itself and the administration to actually address these issues. Ostensible, and more importantly, tangible progress in institutionally healing our community is necessary to shore up that lack of trust.

The dialogue continued again this year with the Privilege and Policy forums, which happened over a five part series in the span of a month. Student Body President Nicole Updegrove ‘14 organized the series, and 1-4 Wesleyan students facilitated each talk. The goals were to more thoroughly address diversity issues, for a wide range of students to participate, and to explore potential policy solutions. The conclusive points from this series were similar to those of the Diversity University forum from last year, namely that these issues are incredibly complex and important, that they affect everyone, and thusly, we need to talk about them.

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EVENT
All Diversity/Identity Groups Priorities Meeting

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From Dwight Greene Intern Kate “Salty” Cullen ’16:

Are you involved in any sort of diversity or identity group on campus? Then yes, this event is for you. It feels like we have the same goals but just don’t talk to each other, huh? Seems that if we came together to coordinate our efforts on campus we could do better work, right?

Join your fellow activists in a dialogue to identify shared goals and determine ways to collaborate throughout the year.

This event is going to be big. Delicious dessert will be served and brilliant brainstorming will happen. Don’t be the one stakeholder group on campus that misses out. Fill out this quick Google Form right now to sign up.

Brought to you by Kate Cullen ’16, Dwight Greene Intern for Diversity and Community Engagement. Inquire at saltemuscull(at)wesleyan(dot)edu with questions.

Date: Tuesday, November 19th
Time: 7:30pm-9pm
Place: DFC
Form: Fill it out HERE!

EVENT
Interest Gauging Meeting for Privilege and Bias Awareness Student Forum – Today at 4 PM

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This is from Alma Sanchez-Eppler ‘14 and Mimiko Goldstein ‘17:

To the Wesleyan Community in all of our deep diverseness:

The revolution starts at home; the revolution starts with you working on you and me working on me, but that doesn’t mean we have to work alone. Join us as we try to gauge interest and develop ideas for the creation of a new student forum on bias awareness, white privilege, and privilege in general. If you have been struggling alone with these important issues and feel that a courageous, taboo-less, and radically supportive group dynamic would be helpful to you in furthering your self-exploration, please join us. We will be using whatever strategies make most sense for the group, but we also have access to tools used by the White Privilege Conference. We very much hope that a contingency from Wesleyan can participate in the White Privilege Conference this spring.

If you cannot make the meeting time but are interested, feel free to email us: asanchezeppl[at]wesleyan[dot]edu ormmgoldstein[at]wesleyan[dot]edu

Date: TODAY, Friday, October 25
Time: 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Place: Usdan Mulitpurpose Room (Basement)

EVENT
Social Justice Leadership Conference Session Proposals

From the Student Activities and Leadership Development (SALD) Office:

You are invited to be a part of the 6^th Annual Social Justice Leadership Conference. The mission of The Social Justice Leadership Conference (SJLC) is a collaborative effort which provides a space for students, student groups, community members, alumni, faculty, and staff to discuss social justice and to learn and refine leadership skills. SJLC seeks to empower its participants to create change by applying the skills and knowledge acquired during the conference.

A key part of the SJLC are the breakout sessions, where students, student groups, alumni, community members, faculty and staff facilitate sessions in their area of interest, expertise, or passion. Sessions focus on leadership skills that may be applied to any social movement and on the many manifestations of injustice and how participants can be involved in creating change. To view past conference sessions click HERE. SJLC provides participants with resources and opportunities for engagement on campus, in Middletown, in Connecticut and across the globe.

This year’s conference theme is Access, Equity, and Inclusion and will be held on Saturday, October 26^th. We encourage you to submit a session proposal and to be part of this amazing day! Session proposals are being accepted until Friday, September 27, 2013 at 4pm. Click HERE for the link to submit a proposal.

Deadline: Friday, September 27th at 4pm
Link: Submit you proposals HERE

FEATURED
Reflections on “Diversity University” Forum, Round Two

Image c/o Shannon Welch ’14 and the Wesleyan Argus.

On Wednesday night, students, faculty, and staff gathered in Tischler Hall of the Exley Science Center for the second Diversity University forum of the year. This program, entitled “Diversity University: In the Classroom and Beyond,” was a follow-up to last semester’s forum, “In Theory and In Practice.”

From the very start, it was clear that the atmosphere of this forum was very different from the first one. Not only were there fewer people in attendance, the emotional level, though high, was distinctly more subdued. Clearly this time of year is particularly busy for Wesleyan students, and I can only imagine that that was a major factor in keeping the numbers down. But there was also not the same feeling of urgency, the immediate need for such a gathering—which, all in all, is probably a good thing.

Last fall’s forum was organized in the wake of a series of upsetting incidents of attacks on students, and subsequent issues of racism, targeting, and exclusion that arose from conversations, Public Safety reports, and WesACB threads. In Wednesday’s forum, while there was an expression of similar concerns and issues of diversity, but there was not the same shocking outpouring of powerful emotion.

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EVENT
Diversity University: In the Classroom and Beyond

As many of us recall from the November Diversity University: In Theory and Practice forum (full video can be found here), issues and questions regarding diversity and inclusion at Wesleyan have been very prominent this year. WSA President Zach Malter ’13 would like members of the Wesleyan community to come together once again to talk about the progress that has been made since last semester’s forum, and what more has to be done in order for Wesleyan to live up to its “Diversity University” title, specifically as it relates to the classroom experience. In his own words:

The follow-up to last semester’s Diversity University: In Theory and In Practice, this panel will allow students to engage with prominent faculty members and administrators on the most pressing campus climate issues. The focus will be on issues of diversity as they relate to the classroom experience, but the conversation will by no means be limited to that.

The event will take place this Wednesday at 7PM in Exley 150. The moderator will be Professor Lisa Dierker, and the confirmed moderators are:

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