TOCAR
"Training Our Campuses Against Racism"

TOCAR Collaborative

October 14, 2003

MN State Community and Technical College

Minutes

Present:  MSCTC: Ted Guerrero; MSUM: Phyllis May-Machunda, Amy Phillips, Anita Bender; NDSU: Jen Erickson, Laura Oster-Aaland; Concordia: Johnathan Judd, Christina Lynn Ingram, Michelle Stevier

I.                   Introductions and Upcoming Meetings:  Everyone present introduced themselves.  The meetings for the Academic Year will be:

·        November 11^th at MSUM – CMU room 203

·        December 9^th at NDSU – Memorial Union Meadow Lark Room

·        January 13 at YWCA

·        February 10^th at Concordia

·        March 9^th at MSCTC

·        April 13^th at NDSU – Memorial Union University Chamber Room

·        May 11^th at MSUM

II.                Announcements:

·        North Dakota Human Rights Coalition Conference will be October 24^th.  They have requested that the TOCAR Collaborative put materials out at the conference.  Amy asked if there were anyone from the Collaborative who would be attending the meeting that could put the materials out.  No one answered affirmatively so Amy asked that if anyone know of a TOCAR person attending to contact her with that name.

·        Johnathan Judd reported on the presentation about the TOCAR Collaborative to the Riverland Community College in September.

·        Amy reported that Carmen from MCARI was approached by a student who is writing an article about young adults, ages 18-25, and how racism affects them.  She is looking for people to interview, particularly people who have been politically active around these issues. Carmen has asked the Collaborative to pass on names of people she can interview to this student.  Christina Ingram from Concordia volunteered to be interviewed.  Amy will forward to everyone in the Collaborative the email with Carmen’s request.  Amy will email Carmen letting her know that folks from the Collaborative will be following-up with her.

·        Phyllis reported that the level II training will be Oct. 30 (6-9pm), Oct. 31 (8:30am-4:30pm), and Nov. 1 (8:30am-4:30pm).  It will be on MSUM Campus CMU Comstock Room.  A supper is provided on Oct. 30^th and a continental breakfast and lunch on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1.  The deadline for registering people is Oct. 23^rd.  Please register people through Anita and let her know if there are any dietary restrictions for folks attending.  This is a training for people that will be coming onto the various teams.  Folks who have already gone through the training may want to sit in during the last day.  If so, let Anita know and more breakfasts and lunches will be included.

·        The Level III training is a five-day training and is divided into 2 two and a half day trainings. They are scheduled for January 29, 30, 31 and February 5, 6, 7. 

Jan. 29 – 6-9pm

Jan. 30 – 8:30am-4:30pm

Jan. 31 – 8:30am-4:30pm

Feb. 5 – 6-9pm

Feb. 6 – 8:30am-4:30pm

Feb. 7 – 8:30am-4:30pm

III.             Brief Updates:

1)      Institutional Assessment – The Assessment Committee will have the final version of the final draft to everyone by Monday, Oct. 20^th.   The information from the campus assessment will be used at the Level III training as teams begin working on their Anti-Racism plans for each of the institutions.  In addition, Phyllis and Amy will need a preliminary report of the assessment process and findings from each of the institutions to use in the final report for the first Bremer grant.  Phyllis will be contacting each campus regarding this request.

2)      Concordia – Johnathan reported that the student organization, Students for Racial Equality has begun to concretize.  They have established leadership.  Jonathan Steinward is their official faculty advisor although Kate Olsen is functioning as an advisor as well.  Johnathan Judd is also working with the group.  Eighty students expressed initial interest in the group and 10 strong participants came to the first meeting.  The Concordia Community Relations Committee will be meeting tomorrow morning to decide how TOCAR will function on campus.

3)      MSCTC – Claudia and Ted met with the new Provost last month.  They will be meeting with him again to further discuss TOCAR at MSCTC.

4)      MSUM – The TOCAR Anti-Racism Steering Committee has been meeting for a year and was commissioned on Oct. 25, 2002.  There have been various trainings on the campus and there is now enough people trained to serve on the four units (sub-groups of the steering committee.)  The campus is in the process of gathering information for MSUM’s multicultural history.

5)      NDSU – NDSU now has the structure in place to hire a graduate student and give one of the team members release time equivalent to one class to supervise her.  A sub-committee of the team is currently working on collecting the multicultural history.  The team has been facilitating several meetings for people who have been through the level one training.  The team has divided into three sub-groups:  Research which along with collecting the multicultural history will be looking into the institutional policies, Outreach which is the publicity arm of the team, and Education/Curriculum which in addition to its other responsibilities has put together a presentation of the framework and conducted 15-20 presentations on campus.

6)      NDUS – Has plans to offer anti-racism training with the entire ND University system including the five Tribal Universities.  They will be working with MCARI to provide those trainings. 

Next meeting will be Tuesday, November 11, 4:00-5:30pm at MSUM in Comstock Memorial Union, room 203.

Submitted by,

Anita Bender