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Notes from the conversation:

Margaret Himley, Writing Program Director of Undergraduate Studies, began the forum with comments explaining why we were meeting and what we wanted to get from this forum. Because diversity is such a broad term, much of its meaning is lost: it simultaneously stands for everything and means nothing. A couple of overarching questions, things to keep in mind during the forum: How is the value on diversity received?; What is the underlife of diversity?

Mariana initiated the discussion. Began by addressing how and why diversity became a (the) theme of orientation.

Two years ago, the chancellor decided to start a new orientation program. A diversity sub-committee was one of several sub-committees formed as part of restructuring the orientation program. Apparently, this new orientation format was supposed to begin in 2004-5. At some point last year, the chancellor decided to begin the orientation this school year. So the department of orientation was created and had only a few months to prepare this years' orientation.

The university, Mariana stressed, wants students to know that diversity is a key value. Which is why diversity was promoted so much during orientation. Diversity was incorporated into the mailings students received during the summer. The last mailing, in particular, was something on diversity. This led to the first event of orientation-an event focusing on diversity. This event, as all of the events during orientation, were celebratory in nature, a carnival atmosphere. As students entered their dorms, there were No Place For Hate campaigns going on. The first night, students were directed to Schine. As they entered the student center, there were Steele drums playing. Music from around the world was played to expose students to things they weren't familiar with. And the entertainment for the evening was a lesbian comedian. All of this-the music, the carnival, the comedian-was to surround students with diversity, to teach them about diversity without preaching to them.

Diversity was incorporated into every part of orientation in some way. The student leaders for orientation were from diverse backgrounds. Orientation promoted as many "diverse" events as possible. And students were broken into small groups in order for them to have the chance to get to know a few other students a little better.

Monica (Team Against Bias): TAB was formed two and a half years ago after the "black face" incident. There was a group of students who were outraged by the incident and had no resources to help them address this issue. TAB provided support for what the students wanted to do. The students chose the course of action and TAB helped them do it. This seems to be the course TAB takes: they let students decide how they want to respond, and TAB supports the response within reason.

TAB's response is typically to be a support system for the affected community or individuals. Three things TAB does: respond to major events (black face); respond to daily events; they are proactive in educating the campus.

There are and have been a lot of bias-related messages written on white boards this year (for instances: race, religion, sexual orientation). Sexual Orientation is the most frequently targeted. There are the major events, such as the gay-bashing on Comstock and the racist comments/language/music in the dorm, but these are just the ones that we hear the most about. The everyday bias-related events often go unreported at all or are simply ignored by the general population.

Question: Why do you suppose students don't report classroom incidents?

Power relations of the class. They don't feel they have a way to address these incidents.

Anne Fitzsimmons to the students: What sense do you have on how "diversity" was received in Orientation? What sense do you have on how the biased-related incidents are received by students?

Leslie: People try to justify the bias-related events: "it's a big campus, these things happen," etc. There needs to be a way to bring these bias-related events to light. As a first year student, she lived on a multi-cultural floor and took a multi-cultural class. This living environment and the formal setting of a classroom gave her a way to address these issues, to talk about them and hear different perspectives. Leslie: "students should have formal training-classes-not just social stuff."

Student: She lives on a multi-cultural floor this year. Race isn't the only form of bias; money and economics plays a huge part in bias. And although this type of bias isn't typically reported, it is, apparently, prevalent in the dorms. And Perline informed us of a black face incident that occurred this weekend.

Jessica: Students are NOT aware of things. They ignore the emails about these incidents. Like Leslie, she thinks there should be a mandatory class or forum of some sort. Not all students are interested, but she thinks that this could be because they don't know much about it. They hear about it, maybe too much, but it doesn't mean anything.

All three students talking:
Diversity isn't brought up in class. And when it is, people do not feel comfortable talking because they do not want to be attacked for their views. In order to talk about things, students need to be able to speak their minds without worrying about being attacked or being labeled.

Dana Harrington learned this very thing from the writing center's research: students are constantly "misunderstood" and having to clarify their statements. And these students are anonymous.

Question: How can we get people to talk and take chances in a classroom?

Jessica: Smaller classes (like summer start). No one wants to talk in a lecture hall. They might be lectured, but they are not allowed to discuss it themselves. And Summer Start classes are themselves diverse-most "regular" classes are not.

Monica: Class is not a safe environment. Students of color must choose the battles they wish to fight. Sometimes they might not feel like fighting a battle in class. And before this can ever be taken up in the classroom effectively, there would have to be a commitment by the faculty. They would need to understand how they have been affected by oppression, racism, etc.

Jessica: (Some) students do not take white board incidents seriously. They don't think it is a big deal. And, again, students DO NOT KNOW about most of these incidents.

Mariana: They'd like for the diversity focus to be a year long thing somehow-connect with a class or classes or something.

Monica: Needs to be practical. It can't just be talk or theoretical. People need to be in small groups and experience