TOCAR
"Training Our Campuses Against Racism"

 
TOCAR Collaborative

November 12, 2002

Minnesota State University Moorhead

Minutes

Present:  Roderick McCall (NTC); Linda Palmer (MSUM); Larry Peterson (NDSU); Hanna Mische (MSUM); Frank Stegmaier (MSUM); Lysa Ringquist (YWCA); Rebecca Vave (MSUM); Jan Fiola (MSUM); Michelle Stevier (Concordia); Johnathan Judd (Concordia); Sandy Holbrook (NDSU); Desiree Koenig (NTC); Amy Phillips (MSUM); Phyllis May-Machunda (MSUM); Tina Penn (MSUM)

               I.           Introductions/Announcements

·        Individuals introduced themselves, and minute taker was chosen.

·        Tina Penn, an MSUM student working with PEPP announced that the Human Relations Commission in Fargo is holding a hate crime/hate incident response workshop for the community on Saturday, December 7^th. TOCAR was invited to distribute postcards for the event to be held at Northwest Technical College. E-mail of the information will also be sent through TOCAR list-serve.

              II.          Next Meetings

            ·        All agreed to continue having 4:00 as the time of meeting for next semester

·        Upcoming meetings will be:
o       December 10^th, 4:00 at NDSU
o       January 14^th, Concordia
o       February 20^th, 4:30 at Northwest Technical College
o       March 11^th, MSUM
o       April 8^th, NDSU

·        YWCA would also like to serve as a location for Collaborative meetings in the future.  Lysa will talk with Marcia Paulson  about this.

III.           Meetings with MCARI and Tess Arenas

            ·        Amy shared about the MSUM In-service Day, and Tess Arenas’ keynote address. 
                  Dr. Andrea-Teresa Arenas is the Senior Advisor to the President for Academic 
                  Diversity at the University of Wisconsin. Amy expressed Tess’ willingness to come 
                  back to Moorhead and provide consultation to the TOCAR Collaborative, possibly 
                  at the February meeting.

·        Jim and Carmen from MCARI will also be in town for trainings February 20-22^nd and will meet with the TOCAR Collaborative.

·        Larry questioned whether the schedule was getting too tight, logistically overwhelming, by having so many meetings on February 20^th.

·        It was then suggested that TOCAR Collaborative meeting on February 20^th be moved to 4:30 to reduce interference with the anti-racism training on that day.  Also, Tess will be there at NTC and can then meet with the students.

·        Amy and Phyllis will be in contact with Tess Arenas this week to confirm her schedule for those days and they will ensure that the planning and scheduling for those 2-3 days is not a burden to any one person or group.

            IV.      TOCAR Logo Presentations

       ·        Frank Stegmaeier and Hannah Mische of MSUM presented banner/logos for 
             TOCAR. Frank presented a banner, which represented the diversity that TOCAR 
             aspires to. Hannah presented a logo with three abstractions: an eye, hands, and 
             ripple effects, representing awareness of cultural diversity, embracing cultural 
             diversity, and the future affect of TOCAR on the community’s awareness and 
             embracing of cultural diversity.

·        Amy thanked the students for their presentations and encouraged the TOCAR Collaborative members of other campuses to encourage their art faculty and students to develop logos and present to the Collaborative

              V.      Level 1 Trainings

·        Amy notified the group that more Level I Trainings will be offered next semester on the MSUM campus, and NDSU will also be sponsoring a training. All campuses will be informed if there are openings for trainees. 

       VI.      Phase III Training

            ·        Amy reviewed that the Collaborative is now in Phase II, and that the Phase III 
                  Training addresses the question “How do we articulate a long-term plan?” It seeks 
                  to develop a 20 year vision, 10-year goals, and 5-year objectives.

·        This is a five-day training, separated into two different times and tentative dates have been set for June 9^th and 10^th, and the 16-18^th.

·        Johnathan submitted the concern that a great portion of Phase II Training was repetition of Phase I Training. He asked whether Phase III would be the same or if it would be five days of new information? All agreed that we want less repetition and more “meat and potatoes.”

·        Phyllis reminded us that many who were at Phase II Training had missed Phase I Training so repetition was necessary. It was also necessary to hear the second time from the perspective of a group to build group vision, whereas Phase I had a primarily individual vision.  The group agreed that repetition had been good in the respect.

·        Amy suggested that Phase III, if developed specifically to meet the Collaborative's needs, could further help keep the momentum of the initiative moving forward and better strengthen the Collaborative membership's ability to help each other.  All five institutions are meeting barriers and resistance and the Phase III training could help us understand how to address these barriers.  The training could help answer the questions: how do we keep going? How do we fight “entropy?”  How do we continue to get support for our plans; administration buy-in?

·        Johnathan expressed concern that there would be difficulties in getting the everyone together for a five-day training.  He raised the question of whether they (MCARI) could do the training on week-ends. All agreed that most people would not want to do that in the summer due to prior commitments (i.e., lake time!).

·        All agreed that it would be most desirable if we could get feedback from the teams and personalize/customize our Phase III Training.

·        Phyllis strongly suggested that all members come the February meeting prepared to share what we want to see in the Phase III Training, and how MCARI customize it to our needs.

·        Amy and Phyllis agreed they will inform Jim and Carmen in advance about this desire.

           VII.     Open Discussion of Progress and Barriers

      ·        Amy opened the table to discussion of what progress is happening, what barriers are 
            being experienced, and how we can help each other.

·        Sandy from NDSU expressed the concern that attendance to their meetings has fallen off. Everyone is “too busy."

·         Johnathan from Concordia is fighting “burn-out.” A lack of people of color on campus, especially of faculty, has led to a lot being laid on his shoulders.

·        Roderick from NTC feels the same. Although he is a student, because he is a person of color a lot is expected of him. He feels swamped and in need of support.  Linda expressed feeling the same way.

·        After additional discussion of these issues, the group agreed that the next Collaborative meeting would be designated an open discussion of these and other issues and how they can be addressed. 

The meeting adjourned at approximately 5:30.

Minutes submitted by Rebecca Vave.