Workshop Descriptions

Check back soon for updated information on presenters and workshops. Changes to this agenda will be reflected in the conference booklet.

Political Agendas: The Role of College Students in Creating Institutional Change
Diallo Shabazz, President, The Movement, US

This workshop examines the various analyses and strategies college students can use to influence political change on campus and in the local community. The workshop looks at the short-term and long-term problems/solutions to institutional racism by using a basic overview of politics and political change, and two interactive breakout sessions. The workshop uses past events on college campuses across the nation as examples, and compares the strategies utilized to those formulated by the workshop attendees.

Organizing Institutions in Times of Immediate Crisis

During the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, college students and activists across the nation organized institutions ranging from college/universities to major corporations around disaster-relief. From connecting displaced victims with medical resources and arranging for academic transfers, to soliciting large monetary donations or negotiating free shipments from Wal-Mart, the creativity of these organizers was boundless. This workshop examines the strategies used to gain access to invaluable resources and how prevailing institutional policies were changed within short periods of time. Covered topics include coalition building, policy analysis, fundraising, and political/community organizing.

A Student-Based Model Program for Intergroup Relations & Campus Life
Julian B. Sanchez, Director,
and Students, Duke University Center for Race Relations

The Duke Center for Race Relations (CRR), in its fourth year, is a student-managed intervention program dedicated to improving the quality of campus life at Duke University. In this workshop, students and the center director will highlight and discuss a set of dynamic experiential learning processes. This includes how participants develop and strengthen their own personal sense of identity, become more culturally competent, and learn how to manage and assess the path of their own personal growth. Spawned by students in an Enterprising Leadership Public Policy course and situated in Duke University¹s Center for Multicultural Affairs, the CRR is comprised of one overarching peer training program and four proactive, interrelated diversity units: Dialogues on Race Relations (peer-facilitated discussion groups); Common Ground (experiential immersion retreat); House Courses (student-taught classes); and Students to Unite Duke (cross-cultural social interaction).

What's Race Got To Do With It: Social Disparities and Student Success
Tracie Q. Gilbert, Multicultural Student Center, UW–Madison

This film screening will be followed by a facilitated discussion focusing on racial and social justice. Diverse students in the film talk about their educational experiences and discuss the impact of social disparities on their chances for success. The film has been used by administrators to build consensus and a constituency for equity and diversity initiatives. This is an up to date tool, that speaks directly to students’ doubts and concerns of today

“What is Diversity in the Post Affirmative Action Era?”
Dr. Aimee Meredith Cox, Center for the Education of Women,
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

On November 7, 2006, Proposition 2, the anti-affirmative action initiative, was passed into law in the state of Michigan. Although the University of Michigan’s official stance continues to be in favor of maintaining a “commitment to diversity”, the campus has taken on an increasingly hostile tone directed primarily at people of color. What has become abundantly clear in the years, months and days leading up to this ballot initiative is that within the context of the university as well as in the larger sphere of state, federal and global political economies, institutions are struggling to define what diversity means in this post-affirmative action era.

What space is there to create new ways for individuals to mobilize and establish positions of power in light of, in response to and often in spite of the university’s logistical structure? What can and should be the role of faculty, students, administrators and community members in confronting the changing face of inequality within higher education and the larger society as a whole? This presentation will consider the strategies taken by the University of Michigan’s Center for the Education of Women (CEW) to address the changing climate of racial relations and identity politics. After presenting the initiatives taken by CEW in the form of supportive services, research proposals, and advocacy, participants will be engaged in a discussion of the challenges faced in working to re-evaluate the meaning of diversity and develop productive dialogues around issues of educational and economic mobility.

Ten Problems That Students of Color Face on Predominantly White Campuses
Dr. Charles Taylor, Vice President and Academic Dean, Herzing College

The presenter will discuss these problems faced by AHANA students on predominantly white campuses along with useful tips and methods to help students of color turn these challenges into opportunities. Attendees will leave this workshop with information and resources that should help them in creating an environment where students of color can find success.

This presentation should assist those campus personnel who are searching for solutions to help them recruit, retain, and graduate students of color. Anyone interested in creating a campus climate in which students of color can excel should find this session very beneficial.

Infusing Social Justice Throughout a Campus Program
Eric Knueve, Experiential Education Specialist
Molly North and Joy Menet (ALPs students)

This workshop focuses on how to improve leadership and encourage students to spark change on campus. This workshop should provide ideas for all audiences that they can bring back to their programs or areas.

Join the Adventure Learning Programs (ALPs) Staff as we continue to explore ways to weave social justice into all areas of our work. This workshop will be an interactive exploration of the multiple strategies that ALPs has used to bring social justice into our work. Come prepared to share your own stories of bringing this important work to different areas of your community.

This presentation should assist those who want examples of how the work of social justice is being done by students and how this might translate to their institution or organization.

This workshop will involve participants actively engaging in the process of using the work ALPs students have done to generate new ideas for bringing social justice into their work. All who attend should leave this workshop with tangible ideas to implement in their own programs. As the theme of the conference is to “increase awareness, encourage leadership and foster partnerships,” this workshop offers a place to dialogue about specific ways to reach these goals.

Improving Campus Climate by Fostering Institutional Change
Carlos Wiley, Director Multicultural Educational Resource Center (MERC)
Carl Wesley, Pre-College Coordinator, UW Platteville

This workshop will address institutional change projects and student empowering projects. The institute is intended for all audiences associated with colleges and universities. This presentation is directed at those who are looking for ways to improve the racial climate on their campus and make the changes permanent.

We will discuss how, through racial identity development and diversity strategic planning, you can foster institutional change from the student and administrative level. Improving campus climate requires institutional change, as campuses have a standard practice rooted in comprehensive racism. This workshop will provide ways to create institutional change that will improve the racial climate on your campus. There are a number of ways to accomplish the goal of institutional change, such as teaching students to advocate for the changes that will create a welcoming environment for them. Institutional change cannot occur without the involvement of the top administrators on your campus. We will also discuss how to get them involved in the process. The workshop will also provide examples of how to recruit and retain students, faculty and staff of color and how this will effect institutional change.

The Other Side: Youth from Teen Build Up
Paul Terranova, Wexford Ridge Community Center and Wexford Area Youth

The youth organizations at the Wexford Ridge Neighborhood Center will screen their documentary and hold a discussion on issues facing youth and how community and university and youth can take action together.

Back to Basics
Katie Roller, Assistant Director of Diversity Programs and Initiatives, University Housing, UW-Madison
Toni Johns, Program Coordinator, Diversity Education Program, UW-Madison
Tessa Lowinske Desmond, Program Coordinator, Diversity Education Program, UW-Madison

Frustrated? Don’t know how to talk about social justice? Need tools to discuss real situations? Come to this session to explore how children’s books can be used in curriculum to access authentic conversations, on a personal level, about social justice. Social activists, including Toni Morrison and Sandra Cisneros, have written children’s books that talk about the concepts of race, gender, sexual identities, power, and privilege that are accessible to many communities including higher education.

Benefits to Audience:
Practitioners approach to social justice
Creative ideas for curriculum
Engage students in conversations about social justice
Accessible to all audiences, regardless of personal experiences

Participants will build capacity to engage students in conversations about social justice in creative ways. Having conversations of this nature are essential as we develop globally engaged citizens who are personally committed and connected to diversity.

Moving  Your Diversity Dialogue From Talk To Action!
Steve Birdine, President/CEO Affirmations In Action! Stevebirdine.com

This powerful, thought-provoking, humorous, interactive workshop addresses the diversity  experience on our campuses. It takes a much-needed open and honest approach  that challenges traditional thinking. Fast-paced with insightful exercises, participants leave with an action plan for improving themselves and their environment. A must for those who care about diversity  issues! Previous workshop attends had this to say: " Diversity  Education As You Have Never Seen  It!" " The best diversity workshop I have attended in ten years as a professional!"

Flood the Hood With Dreams
Part of the Campaign Against Violence
Kwabena A. Nixon and Muhibb Dyer

Before neighborhood youth can become active participants in the Campaign Against Violence they must first go through an extensive conflict resolution training. This nationally recognized training curriculum is specifically tailed to deal with the problems facing today's youth. More than just your average workshop, the Campaign Against Violence engages youth in "real talk" and encourages them to discuss aloud many of the problems that plague their inner city neighborhoods. Flood the Hood With Dreams will be part of the Teen workshop slate for the conference.

Truth is . . .
During this session, trainers will teach participants about the importance of having a blueprint In this session, participants will craft an outline and mission statement for their lives. Participants will learn to refer to their blueprint when things get rough.

Where I'm from
During this session, workshop participants are forced to deal with the problems of their neighborhoods by writing about their environments. Throughout the session, participants will begin to think critically about both their surroundings and their behavior.

How To Be An Ally As a Person of Privilege
Dr. Frances Kendall, Consultant, Author in Organizational Change and Communication, Specializing in Issues of Diversity

Frequently, those of us who are white, and have a basic understanding of the privileges granted to us because of our skin color, are at a loss about how to use our privileges effectively as we work for social justice. One of the most important roles we can play is that of ally-supporting or standing with people of color on issues of race. This daylong session centers on how to be an ally if you are a person with privilege. We will focus on (1) understanding what it means for us to be allies in the context of institutional racism, (2) building ally relationships, (3) knowing which actions are supportive and which are not, (4) using your privilege to influence without being patronizing as racist, (5) understanding the difference between friendships and ally relationships, (6) distinguishing between strategies for being an ally to a person and an ally to an issue, and (7) identifying concrete strategies for working with other white people, as well as people of color, on the elimination of racism.

Be Careful What You Ask For: Creating a Genuinely Diverse Institution Will Probably Require Changing the Landscape of Your School

Many schools talk about the need to "increase the diversity of the institution" or "recruit and retain 'minority' students and faculty" without understanding or committing to what is required to bring about such changes. Fully prepared to tinker with the ways things are done or enhance the curricular offerings by adding a few courses, schools are disappointed that long-term retention of faculty, staff, and students of color doesn't change dramatically. Participants in this session will look at what it might mean to really create a genuinely hospitable campus culture or to serve a diverse population of students. They will also gain tools to (1) identify what is necessary to meet the stated goals of the school, (2) assess where support and resistance lie to making dramatic changes, (3) begin the deconstruction and reconstruction of "the ways things are done," and (4) talk about how these changes are in the best interest of the institution.

Keeping Your Eyes on the Prize: Using the Self as Responsive Instrument for Equity, Excellence and Social Justice
Dr. Hazel Symonette, Senior Planning and Policy Analyst, Offices of the Dean of Students, UW-Madison

Who are you as you walk in the world? To what extent is who you think you'll be in alignment with who you are striving to become? Does your envisioned image of self radiate and would others agree? Which others? How do you know what you think you know about this—evidential cues, clues and signposts? Engaging the self as responsive instrument summons one's capacities to move beyond unilateral self-awareness and personal declarations towards multilateral self-awareness and boundary-spanning communications. We need not own and embrace others views of us, but we are wise to be aware of those images as a foundation for constructively and productively engaging across the spectrum of diversity divides: notably, salient dimensions of human difference that make a socially-patterned difference for access, process and success. We will start surfacing the evidential criteria and indicators that participants use to judge the extent to which they are walking- the-talk of 3 core values without which life would not be worth living. We will explore the implications of everyday value orientations and judgment processes for our leaderly capacities to serve as diversity-grounded progressive change agents.  

Climbing Poetree, New York City

Using S.T.I.T.C.H.E.D—a national story-gathering project started by Climbing Poetree, Alixa and Naima in the wake of Hurricane Katrina—as a centerpiece, this workshop will be a personal and political exploration of how language shapes our realities. With poetry as a vehicle for testimony and transformation, we will tell our own stories, reclaiming the power to write our own futures.

Conflict Transformation: Using the Best in You to Inspire the Best in Others
Marilyn Levin, MSW, CAPSW
Catalyst For Individual and Organizational Transformation

Description: Ignite your passion, power and possibilities for creating the world you wish for. Gain insights and develop skills in transforming conflict and inspiring others. This experiential, skills-building workshop will enhance your effectiveness as a social change agent and a human being who shares the planet with others.

How to Win Tenure Without Losing Your Soul
Dr. Kerry Ann Rockquemore, Associate Professor of African American Studies & Sociology, University of Illinois at Chicago
Dr. Tracey A. Laszloffy

All graduate students and junior faculty experience a degree of vulnerability due to their rank within an institutional hierarchy. But people of color face a double bind because their positional vulnerability is compounded by institutional and societal racism. As a result, scholars of color working at predominately white institutions often report feeling forced to choose between winning tenure and losing their soul.

In this workshop we deconstruct the core dilemma facing people of color in higher education by identifying the specific challenges they face. We then present strategies for how students and faculty of color can “play the game” in ways that will strengthen their position, while enabling them to retain their integrity in the process. Participants will learn when and how to engage in conflict in healthy ways, how to create and nurture relationships with allies, resource systems, and support groups, and how to find the balancing point between professional success and personal integrity.

Hip Hop Goes to College: The First Wave Learning Community at UW-Madison
Willie Ney, Josh Healey
Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI) and youth artists, UW–Madison

Opening in the 2007 fall semester, the First Wave Spoken Word and Urban Arts Learning Community will be a totally unique and vibrant environment for first-year students at UW-Madison. Bringing together leading young artists—poets, MCs, singers, dancers, actors, and graphic designers—from throughout the U.S. to live in a dynamic, multicultural, university community, the First Wave will be the first such institution on a major college campus in the country. In this interactive session, hear the story of how the First Wave came to be, share your own ideas on bringing together the worlds of the arts, activism, and academia, and enjoy a live performance by some of Madison's top youth artists and First Wave prospects.

How to Engage Students in Critical Conversations About Race
Dr. Julie Kailin
Author/Associate Professor, Educational Policy and Community Studies
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee

In this workshop we discuss an effective model or framework for examining race relations in eduation which goes beyond the typical "multicultural" or sensitivity training approaches that "celebrate diversity" in the abstract, usually leaving the real disparities untouched. Participants in this session will examine the principle tenets of an antiracist approach which can be implemented within the context of educational institutions.