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TOCAR
Assessment Committee
Minutes for July
8, 2002
Present:
David Crockett (MSUM); Claudia Simon (NTC); Johnathan
Judd (Concordia); Phyllis May-Machunda (MSUM); Paul Boswell (NDSU);
Larry Peterson (NDSU); Sandy Holbrook (NDSU); Ted Guerrero (NTC);
Maureen Reed (MSUM); Linda Palmer (MSUM); Michelle Stevier
(Concordia); Joy Lintelman (Concordia); Kara Stack (NDSU); Dawn
Tommerdahl (Concordia); Jane Hewitt (Concordia); Amy Phillips (MSUM)
(Assignments
are in bold)
I.
Introductions
In round-robin fashion, the individuals present
introduced themselves.
II.
Future meeting dates
Phyllis announced that the 8/15 meeting with
Jim and Carmen has been cancelled.
The meeting will be rescheduled for early fall when Jim and
Carmen are here for a training.
This rescheduling will give the teams more time to meet and
develop questions regarding their directions for Jim and Carmen.
Fall meeting dates for the Collaborative are:
September 10, 4:00 at Concordia
October 8, 4:00 at NTC
November 12, 4:00, at MSUM
December 10, 4:00 at NDSU
III.
Training for Trainers
Phyllis announced that the MCARI training for trainers
tentatively scheduled for late July will be postponed due to a
conflict with Jim's and Carmen's schedules.
Amy reported that Jim and Carmen have expressed interest in
training individuals who can be trainers as well as institutional
organizers. She noted
that it seemed that the first type of training for trainers that
TOCAR needs is training for individuals to be able to do Level 1
training so that we will have people here in the community to do
these trainings on an ongoing basis.
The group agreed with this.
Phyllis and Amy will
discuss this with Jim and Carmen.
Joy Lintelman discussed and presented material from the ELCA
(Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) regarding anti-racism
training for trainers that the ELCA offers.
She passed the material around.
She was asked about the content of this training and how it
might differ from MCARI's. She
said she had not yet had time to talk with anyone at the ELCA about
this. Phyllis and
others commented that the more resources TOCAR has to draw on, the
better, and that MCARI is only one organization that can provide
assistance. Joy
will further investigate what the ELCA has to offer and will report
this at the next Collaborative meeting in September.
IV.
Review of 3-day training
The group discussed several comments related to the 3-day
training. It was
observed that teams especially enjoyed being able to have
discussions as teams and that more time doing this would have been
helpful. Several people
commented that some individual participants had difficulty with the
definition of racism as offered by the trainers, especially since
the definition holds white people accountable for institutional
racism. There seemed to be some difficulty understanding systemic
racism. Phyllis asked
the group if the teams nevertheless accepted the training's
definition of racism as a premise for the teams' work.
Everyone answered affirmatively.
Phyllis also commented that some members of MSUM's team felt
that the training was religious in nature.
She asked if any training participants from the other
campuses felt this way. No one indicated a perception of the training as religious, or
that other team members felt that way.
Johnathan and Joy expressed concern about a comment related
to Concordia made by another team's member during the training.
The comment seemed to reflect some misconceptions about
Concordia. The group
discussed the importance of building trust within the Collaborative
and across teams and that within each team there should be ongoing
discussion regarding our own biases/perceptions about our own and
others' campuses. The
teams need to engage in regular reflection and discussion about
potential blindspots/prejudices so as to ensure that the teams' work
is as unbiased as possible.
V.
Team Reports
Each team reported on upcoming team meetings.
Claudia Simon also reported that both the President and Vice
President of NW Technical College had recently resigned, placing
into question the level of support that TOCAR at NTC will be
getting. The group
offered assistance to Claudia, Ted and the other NTC team members in
any way that might be needed.
VI.
Expansion of TOCAR to MnSCU and NDUS
Phyllis reported that the MnSCU (Minnesota State Colleges and
Universities) main office had written a successful grant proposal to
the Otto Bremer Foundation to provide seed money to other MnSCU
campuses for initiating TOCAR-type activities.
In addition, MCARI is planning a training for MnSCU
officials.
Paul Boswell reported that the North Dakota University System
(NDUS) Diversity Council is asking the ND Board of Higher Education
for funding to begin a TOCAR-type process on NDUS campuses.
Paul has been in conversation with Jim Addington and Carmen
Valenzuela of MCARI regarding scheduling trainings in ND. An initial Level 1 training will be held in Fargo for
Diversity Council members. A
meeting between the Diversity Council and the TOCAR Collaborative
may take place at that time so that the Diversity Council can talk
with the Collaborative about the Collaborative's past and future
work. Paul is hoping to
develop an NDUS Collaborative similar to the TOCAR Collaborative and
to hold trainings on all NDUS campuses.
An effort will also be made to include tribal colleges and
private colleges.
VII.
Institutional Assessments
Kay Schneider reported that the institutional assessment tool
for faculty and staff is closing in on its final draft.
She thanked all who gave her feedback on the last draft. The Assessment Committee will be meeting again on July 31st.
The committee hopes that by the next Collaborative meeting
the final draft will be ready and the Collaborative can discuss
implementation of the assessment process on each campus.
Each campus team will take responsibility for distribution
and collection of the surveys.
Amy suggested that incentives, such as a intra- and
intercampus competition for the most surveys completed, might
encourage a high return rate. She
suggested that TOCAR purchase a catered lunch for the
department/office/group with the fastest or highest return, or an
award for the campus with the highest return.
Everyone looked at Amy kind of funny, but seemed to like the
idea….
Phyllis and Kay noted that the Assessment Committee had been
working on including more questions into the survey which addressed
white privilege and institutional racism issues.
Once the faculty/staff survey is complete, the committee will
begin work on a student survey.
Anyone with any questions or comments about the assessment
tool should contact Kay at schneide@cord.edu.
VIII.
Role of Collaborative
Phyllis presented the question to the group regarding the
role of the Collaborative now that individual campus teams have been
formed. Claudia
responded that she sees the Collaborative as a useful resource for
teams as a whole and campus coordinators in particular.
Everyone agreed with this.
Amy noted that the Collaborative could also encourage teams
regarding their process, such as promoting caucasing (such as
occurred during the 3-cay training) both within teams and between
campuses. Phyllis asked
the group how they would feel about including the YWCA in the
Collaborative. The Y
may not be interested, or have the time, to participate, but their
presence could provide another community connection for the
campuses. Everyone
agreed that the Y should be invited.
Amy and Phyllis will
contact the Y.
The group also discussed the relationship of the campus
anti-racism teams to the campus TOCAR chapters.
Concordia reported that their chapter would focus on
continuing to sponsor campus trainings and educational events,
activities that would feed into their team's work.
NDSU doesn't really have a chapter -- their team and the NDSU
Diversity Council function also as the chapter.
NTC's team functions both as chapter and team and will
continue to place its emphasis on team building.
MSUM will continue to have a chapter separate from the team.
IX.
Anti-Racism Plan Process
The group talked about team work plans for the
upcoming academic year. Amy and Phyllis discussed the fact that this
fall the MSUM team would be concentrating on gathering information
through the assessment process and engaging in team-building and
further education for the team. Other teams expressed a similar process.
All teams would also begin discussing developing an initial
concrete plan for implementation on each campus.
Someone recommended contacting Thomas Lane at MSUM who has
assisted group with strategic planning.
He's familiar with resources for this process.
Amy will contact Thomas and report back to the group at the next
meeting.
X.
Other
Larry Peterson asked for references to
resources that faculty could use in helping them recognize their own
biases in the context of teaching and working at the university.
Anyone with resources should contact Larry at larry.petereson@ndsu.nodak.edu.
NEXT
MEETING
The
next meeting of the Collaborative will be Tuesday, September 10,
4:00-5:30 at Concordia (place to be announced).
Minutes submitted by Amy Phillips.
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