BREMER FOUNDATION AWARDS $175,000 TO CAMPUSES FOR ANTI-RACISM INITIATIVE

An anti-racism initiative involving four local campuses has received a two-year $175,000 continuation grant from the Otto Bremer Foundation.

Aimed at improving equal opportunity and multicultural understanding, it involves MSUM, Concordia, NDSU and MSCTC.

A committee involving students, staff and faculty from all campuses, called the TOCAR Collaborative, will help steer the direction of the
initiative. Last fall, the F-M YMCA joined the collaborative.

TOCAR evolved out of the community study circle process that took place two years ago in response to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Report, “The Status of Equal Opportunity for Minorities in Moorhead, Minnesota.”

That process created 11 citizen action teams––one of them focusing on higher education––which eventually developed into TOCAR. The goal of the initiative is to dismantle institutional racism by assessing the campus climate at each institution and by promoting multiculturalism and anti-racism. It will also engage students, faculty and staff in these issues with the help of community and campus forums and TOCAR planning and action teams.

Two years ago, TOCAR received a $78,195 startup grant from the Bremer Foundation.

Last fall, MSUM commissioned its 20 member antiracism team, chaired by Warren Wiese and Phyllis May-Machunda, to begin developing campus antiracism plans. This fall, the collaborative will offer team trainings and will be administering campus wide institutional assessments, which will help inform the development of anti-racism plans for the members of the collaborative.

For details, contact Phillips at the MSUM Social Work department 2724, or May-Machunda in American Multicultural Studies & Humanities department, 2975