November 16, 2015 - 14:21
for our thurs. 11/12 lesson plan @RCF, madison and i talked a bit about the ways that the previous week’s barometer exercise got people a bit more involved. we struggled to come up with exercises around the idea of personal narratives... i liked how we tried to toss around ideas as a whole group in class — everyone had great ideas, and nell helped a lot with the creation of the ways i thought about the lesson plan and the concepts i think that madison, rosa, and i were going for. i hope we continue to make this a bit more of a group process as we move forward.
two major things that i also got out of it for future planning:
- i was glad to bring in a piece that i think people read and got something out of while also being critical of it.
- i think an important aspect of the lesson plan focusing on the variety of activities that were all interconnected so tangibly.
reading over some posts from the friday group, who it seems did not have a great session, i wonder if we should be discussing our practices more as an entire group to get more feedback from each other. however, that does take a great deal of class time, and i don't know quite when/how we'd do that.
i also want to reflect a bit with what's going on around campus... this week's lesson was about community, civic engagement, and activism... and i definitely bore witness to some of those very things. there was both the campus safety sit-in and a motion to "occupy sga", and i believe several people also went to kcass's office hours on friday as well... i want to include some of those ideas here, and maybe let them "speak for themselves".
i have here put the working list of demands as it currently looks:
- Increase faculty diversity (will be specified) in cultural and noncultural (STEM) subjects
- Alums should be able to direct funds to needs of students of color and specific groups (ex: financial aid)
- MANDATORY diversity training for faculty and all staff. An outside facilitator should be used.
- Students of color need to be included in search committee for new staff and faculty. New faculty and staff searches need to be made public and accessible to all students.
- Students need to be part of archiving reports against CSafe. Students also need to be part of determining actions taken to appropriate respond to reports.
- Community Day of Learning needs to be facilitated by trained facilitators.
- Fundraising needs to be set apart to fulfill these goals.
- Thomas Great Hall needs to be renamed.
- Dining staff needs to have better working conditions. (For example: An outside caterer needs to cater the Staff Appreciation Dinner)
- Need clear responses from the president in times of crisis* (What does this mean/look like?)
- Bouncers need to be trained to handle partiers
here are some of the questions from our lesson plan:
- what does community mean? what does community look like?
- what does activism mean? what does activism look like?
- what does heroism mean? what does heroism look like?
- what does respect mean? what does respect look like?
here is the email follow-up post-csafe sit-in:
To the Bryn Mawr Community:
Earlier today, Campus Safety leadership and other administrators met with students about the policing of people of color on campus. We thank the students for sharing longstanding concerns and constructive ideas about procedures and practices.
The meeting resulted in several immediate commitments:
- Students will be involved in the hiring process of Campus Safety officers.
- Students will help to shape the mandatory diversity training officers take part in.
- Campus Safety officers will be instructed to identify themselves by name at the beginning of any interaction.
We will continue to meet with students to increase transparency of Campus Safety protocols and policies, ensure those protocols and policies are followed consistently, and to work together to improve policing on campus, among other things.
Nothing is more important than making Bryn Mawr’s campus welcoming and safe for all students. We are excited about the steps we continue to take together to address discrimination, bias, inequality, and justice through thoughtful and respectful dialogue as well as meaningful actions.
Sincerely,
Lil and Tom