Faculty Diversity Training

Outlined below are my thoughts towards a new faculty diversity training workshop to be given in the fall. A liberal arts education places importance on the diversity of learning. We are required to study a variety of disciplines in order to be truly educated, so shouldn't it be followed that diversity education for professors and othe academic support people would already be in place? I am submitting my proposal for  the faculty taining here as my second web event because the only way to be ecological is to be intersectional. 

 

Intersectional Higher Education

 

A New Faculty Diversity Training

Nkechi Ampah

Spring 2015

Pensby Center Fellowship Proposal:

Faculty Diversity Training

by Nkechi Ampah

 

Proposal Descriptions: Faculty Diversity Training workshop scheduled for the fall of 2015 for existing faculty that differs from the diversity training given to new faculty members. This workshop, would be facilitated by myself and a few other students to raise awareness and foster greater understanding of issues of race and its intersecting identities.

 

The Workshop, Bryn Mawr, and Pensby

Both at Bryn Mawr, and in the greater United States, 2014 was a year in which many people were forced to face racial injustice and reflect on its implications in their lives. For People of Color at Bryn Mawr, however, the education of white students, faculty, and staff, came at the expense of many painful conversations, misunderstandings, and aggressions that changed feelings about continuing at the school. This semester, I planned a facilitated workshop for the Community Day of Learning (found here) and continued to hear from students that the faculty seemed unaware or uninterested in race issues. Considering that existing faculty does not go through updated diversity training, many faculty members are severely behind. An updated diversity training workshop, especially one with student involvement, would fall right in line with the Pensby Center’s goal of improving the campus climate and enhancing community life at Bryn Mawr.

 

The workshop(currently) is comprised of four parts:

1. Video

   1. A short video with testimonials from current students and alumni discussing faculty and student interaction across race boundaries.

2. Small Group Discussion and Brainstorming

   1. Discussion about the ways that POC are excluded from academia

      1. ex: How many writings/findings by POC are included in your courses? Are contributions by POC recognized in my field? Are speakers of color brought to campus in my department?

      2. Each small group would contain faculty members from a variety of departments.

3. Large group discussion

   1. How can we adapt Bryn Mawr to be more accessible to people of color?

      1. Faculty of Color

      2. Guest Lectures

      3. Major Reps

      4. TAs

4. Caucusing

   1. Departments gather to discuss ways their department can implement some of the things learned in the day.

      1. Here, facilitators might be helpful

         1. Student Facilitators perhaps with an interest in the department

         2. Reaching out possibly to the Sociology Department to assist in facilitation so that the caucuses are “unsupervised”

         3. STEM professors might need more assistance figuring out how their classes can be more intersectional:

            1. Link to interesting class: http://www.albion.edu/academics/departments/womens-and-gender-studies/department-news/12371-first-year-students-build-oven-for-intersectional-pizza-seminar

            2. Link to article about Mathematical Intersectionality: http://www.rethinkingschools.org/publication/math/rm_race.shtml

         4. Subjects like Art History, History, and Anthropology might need more help with language

 

Why is this important to me:

This past year, I have been struggling to combat the disappointment I have felt in Bryn Mawr with the love I have felt for the school over the past three years. Bryn Mawr has given me some of my most treasured moments and people, and has taught me a lot about myself and the world around me. For the most part, that has been positive, I have learned how to be a better leader, what learning environments work best for me, and how to work under pressure. Unfortunately, I have also struggled with going from a high school where most people were people of color, to being one of a handful. When I entered Bryn Mawr in the Fall of 2011, I struggled both academically and socially to adjust. My one refuge on campus was Perry House, where upperclassmen provided support to first years like myself, and each other, and brainstormed ideas to make Bryn Mawr a better environment for people of color.

This past fall in 2014, when the Confederate Flag was raised in Radnor, when the jury failed to indict Darren Wilson for the murder of Mike Brown, and when tensions between Public Safety and Students of Color increased, POC on this campus were in pain. With Perry House closed, and no sign that these issues were taken seriously by the majority of campus, it became clear to me that there was work to be done. When I leave Bryn Mawr in 2016, I hope to leave this school better than it was when I arrived. More importantly, I feel a duty to the next generation of students of color to make the institution a safer place for them.

 

Proposed Timeline (June 1st - August 7th):

(This schedule and workshop is open to change based on the meetings and conversations I will have in the next few months)

1. June 1st-5th: Gathering of Students/Alumni for focus groups & Research other schools (both small liberal arts and local colleges) about their diversity trainings/programs

2. June 8th-12th: Research other schools (both small liberal arts and local colleges) about their diversity trainings/programs & Compiling the footage for the workshop video (could also begin to gather during the school year)

3. June 15th-19th: Compiling the footage for the workshop video

4. June 22nd-26th: Further develop workshop plan

5. June 29th-July 3rd: Draft of full Workshop finished

6. July 6th-10th: Finished video/ Search for Students/faculty to be involved in facilitating the workshop

7. July 13th-17th: Visit to Drexel’s office of Equality and Diversity for the Campus Consciousness: Impact of Race and Ethnicity on Community Members of Color Discusson Part II, and hopeful meeting with Millie Carvalho-Grevious the Diversity and Inclusion Coordinator

8. July 20th-24th: Interview and training for new students involved in workshop

9. July 27th-31: Interview and training for new students

10. August 3rd-7th: Meetings for implementation in the fall

 

Benefit to Bryn Mawr

This topic and research is not only relevant to the current campus climate at Bryn Mawr, but vital to the college in order to develop further. If, as President Cassidy stated at the Community Day of Learning, Bryn Mawr is committed to providing POC a safe space on this campus, students of color must be involved in the process.

 

Questions for Further Development

1. How can stories from faculty of color be implemented in this workshop?

2. What does the current faculty diversity training look like?

3. What language is appropriate to give professors to combat micro-aggressions from students?

4. How often should professors have to attend diversity training?

5. What are workshop follow-ups (by email, probably) to continue throughout the year?

   1. Small area groups?

   2. Accountability partners