September 19th Session Summary “Strategies for Challenging Hate and Creating Progressive Social Change in Academic Communities”

Our first Provisions session of the 2017-2018 year explored the theme of “Strategies for Challenging Hate and Creating Progressive Social Change in Academic Communities.”  Presenters shared experience and expertise with the various topics pertaining to the theme, which led to a full discussion with input from several audience members in attendance at the lunch-time meeting.  

The first to present was Saint Rose professor Brad Russell, a 2008 SUNY Albany graduate with a Ph.D. in Anthropology and specialization in Maya archaeology.  Brad is an Anthropologist and social justice advocate, who has worked with Occupy Albany.

Why teach social justice?  

• It’s important to understand social justice is fundamentally about equality.
• We’ve tried to live up to that ideal of equality, yet still are not there.  There’s been a struggle to perfect the union for a long time.
• We must educate and inform the whole mass of the people.
• Democracy is in trouble.
• It’s easier to build a strong child than fix a broken man.

General Tips:

• Create an open environment in the classroom when talking about these controversial issues
• Recognize and invite differing opinions
• Bring the current and history into the classroom
• Center traditionally marginalized voices (women, people of color)

Next to present was Zoe Weinberg, a Senior Criminal Justice major at The College of Saint Rose.  Zoe also assumes several leadership positions on campus.  Zoe identifies as Jewish, ethnically and religiously, and has experienced hate first-hand as a minority in the United States.

Zoe’s visit to Israel:

• Over the summer, Zoe had the opportunity to visit Israel
•  “In a country known for conflict and danger, I felt more comfortable and safe than I currently feel here [in the United States] at home.”
• As an American abroad, Zoe was often approached with pity and laughter, with such conversations almost always including the name Donald Trump.
• Upon returning to the United States, Zoe began to reflect on her experience as a Jew in the U.S.

Zoe’s perspective as a Jew in the United States:

• In elementary school, Zoe lived in a town with only two Jewish families, hers being one.
• She recalls a time in 6th grade when she received text messages and MySpace messages calling her a “dirty Jew,” telling her she should go back to NY, and demanding she stay away from everyone.  She, and her teachers, did not know how to handle the hatred.  As a result, no action was taken until her father stepped in.
• Jumping forward to Zoe’s time at Saint Rose, she has heard of incidents of hate and general ignorance inside and outside of the classroom.
  • A friend of Zoe’s had their door spit on because of his sexual identity.  Little was done because many do not know how to handle difficult situations such as this.
  • Zoe has been in a classroom with a swastika drawn on the desk.
  • Many class conversations have taken a negative direction, with most professors not knowing how to navigate the difficult conversations.

How to create a safer, pro-diversity environment on campus:

• Our campus needs protocols for diversity training.
  • “I spent some time at UAlbany this summer and experienced 4 hour, required, Diversity and Inclusivity training. This training is provided through NCBI, the National Coalition Building Institute.”  On the other hand, from Zoe’s experience The College of Saint Rose spends about 20-45 minutes on diversity training.
• If Saint Rose wants to continue to compete in the current climate of higher education, the College needs to take note of the precedents and standards set by other institutions.
  • NCBI has professionally trained personnel that go to campuses to train administration so that in turn they can train their campus community.
  • At UAlbany, RAs and some administrators are trained to be campus trainers on inclusivity and diversity.

The College of Saint Rose has become increasingly more diverse in recent years.  However, student groups are still very much so segregated.  It is important to create environments that are inclusive and foster conversation between student groups.

“The way to stop ignorance is to educate. I think it is our responsibility as a college to provide the opportunity for students, administration, and faculty to learn more about each other in order to create a more understanding environment.”

Our final presenter of the September 19th session was Luke Lavera, Intercultural Leadership Coordinator of The College of Saint Rose.  Luke began his presentation by stating that he is an immigrant.  At the age of 11, Luke moved to the United States with his parents and brother, leaving his home in Peru.

While his parents were greatly successful in Peru, his father being an engineer with Caterpillar in Peru, they both took cleaning jobs in the United States because they did not know the language.  What mattered most what ensuring a bright future and better education for the two boys.

When Luke reached high school, he quickly learned of the stereotypes surrounding Hispanic and Latino people in the United States.  “We take peoples jobs, we are not here legally, we may be involved in gangs, we are all Mexican…” Even within the Hispanic and Latino communities there was racism.  Where did it stem from?  Ignorance and lack of understanding of other cultures.  Ultimately, “ignorance is at the core of hate.”

White Fragility:

Dr. Robin DiAngelo breaks down white fragility as such in the Huffington Post article The Sugarcoated Language of White Fragility: 

“White people in North America live in a social environment that protects and insulates them from race-based stress. This insulated environment of racial protection builds white expectations for racial comfort while at the same time lowering the ability to tolerate racial stress, leading to what I refer to as White Fragility. White Fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium.”

Combating Hate:

“Hate groups are social groups that advocate and practice hatred, hostility, or violence towards members of a race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other designated sector of society.”

Some Tips for Combating the Alt-Right in Class: (From Teaching Tolerance):

• Do not normalize the alt-right, “if the leaders are stated white nationalists, it feels like white nationalism, then it is definitely white nationalism.”
• Teach about the struggles faced by the marginalized groups the alt-right often targets.  It is important to name the specific hatreds!
• Help students understand how the alt-right takes advantage of a 24-hour thirst for headlines.  The library is a great resource!
• Connect with students who may show some signs of the views the alt-right represent.  Do not ignore these views, rather, make a note and address as-needed.
• If a group were to come on campus, ignore the event, but also talk to the students who organize the event.  The University of Washington hosted a white nationalist speaker simply because he was free and the conservative speaker was too expensive at a $10,000 fee!
• Finally, ask college leadership to denounce the speaker.  This means also naming the type of hate your institution will not tolerate.

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Thank you to all that attended our first Provisions session on the 19th!  We look forward to our next discussion on October 17th!  Look for our next post about a week out with an introduction to our next topic, Living Our Mission in Hard Times! 🙂

 

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September 18th Session: “Strategies for Challenging Hate and Creating Progressive Social Change in Academic Communities”

The past year has been full of hateful influences impacting classrooms and academic communities across the country.  How do we combat the hate and create progressive social change?

According to Terry W. Hartle, senior vice president at the American Council on Education and author of “Why Most Republicans Don’t Like Higher Education”, only 36% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said colleges and universities had a positive effect in a national survey released by the Pew Research Center in July, 2017.  

A major reason for the declining support of higher education is the content the media has shared since the recession in 2007.  More often than not, stories of students who have “wasted” time and money pursuing higher education, now living in their parents’ basement swimming in student loan debt are showcased than the success stories of individuals that have found a job and started a bright future with the help of their college degree.  Media coverage of how some colleges have poorly handled controversial “hot-button issues” such as race and gender have also contributed to the decline in support of higher education.

Nell Gluckman’s article “Faculty Members Organize to Fight ‘Fascist’ Interlopers on Campuses” includes excellent examples of the violence portrayed by the media, and how faculty, staff, and students of Purdue University and other campuses are standing up and fighting back.

As someone who is pro-equality, and anti-racism, it is important to look at not only how you feel, but how you act to support those feelings; to support equality among all races on a deeper level of acting versus simple agreement.  Laurie Calvert’s article “I Was a Racist Teacher and I Didn’t Even Know It” gives incredible insight on racism from the view of an educator.  Calvert quotes, “Anti-racism is more of an action than a feeling. I’m learning to take action to promote equity and to call out injustice. I am learning to lean into doing my part to help this country that I love I become true to our promise of justice for all.”

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Please join us for our upcoming Tuesday, September 19th session on “Strategies for Challenging Hate and Creating Progressive Social Change in Academic Communities.” Our esteemed presenters for the September 19th session include Brad Russell, Luke Lavera, and Zoe Weinberg.  All Provisions sessions will take place in the Standish Conference Rooms A and B from 12:00-1:15 and are free to attend.  Hope to see you there! 🙂 

 

Welcome Back!

The 2017-2018 school year is in full swing and so are we at Provisions: Teaching and Learning Series!  I hope you all had a relaxing summer and are ready for another great year of professional development with fellow educators at the College of Saint Rose!

Here’s a look ahead at the Fall 2017 Schedule for Provisions:

• September 19th:  “Strategies for Challenging Hate and Creating Progressive Social Change in Academic Communities”
• October 17th:  “Living Our Mission During Hard Times”
• November 21st:  “Cultivating Creative Innovation and Spiritual Gifts”

All 2017-2018 Provisions sessions will take place on the third Tuesday of the month from 12:00-1:15 in the Standish Conference Rooms A and B.  They are free to the faculty, adjunct instructors, and staff of Saint Rose, as well as faculty from area colleges.

The lunchtime professional development series is sponsored by The College’s Office of the Provost.  Free refreshments and lunch will be available!  Hope to see you there! 🙂

April 18th Session: Pedagogy in the ‘Post-Truth’ Era

To access the audio recording of the session, click here!!

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Our last Provisions session of the Spring 2017 semester explored the theme of “Pedagogy in the ‘Post-Truth’ Era.” Presenters shared experience and expertise with the various topics pertaining to the theme that sought to explore teaching methods for helping students learn in the post-truth era. An audience of approximately 15 faculty and staff members attended to hear presentations from Becky Landsberg from the Department of Biology, Ryane Struas from the Department of Political Science, and Jay Kibby from the Neil Hellman Library.

Becky Landsberg started off the session with her presentation on “Teaching Science in a Post-Trust World.”Becky discussed how she aspires to teach her students “how to light their own fire in the dark while being blindfolded.” Due to the wide variations among what students believe, Becky wants her students to be able to see lies, wrong information, and know the difference between information that is real and not real. In order to do this, Becky uses aspects of the scientific method with a case study discussing an alternative fact– vaccinations cause Autism. In examining this case study, the students break into groups and analyze two separate pieces of data. One is a graph that shows Autism diagnosis rates and she asks her students, “what can you infer from the graph.” The second piece is a data table from the actual study conducted by Andrew Wakefield, the one who originally claimed vaccinations caused Autism. Becky then has her students vote on whether they would vaccinate their child and reasons why or why not. A third graph is then shown, which demonstrates with the decline of vaccinations there is an increase in the cases of measles. The final component of the case study asks the students to once again examine the data tables, but this time to look for flaws in the design. Becky ended with how she teaches her students that they need to visit the sources from where news is coming from and that just because it is said on TV does not make it true. 

Next up was Ryane Straus who presented on “Fake News: How to spot it, Why it matters, and What to do about it.” Ryane began by discussing a new group project about democracy. Ryane begins by having her class define ‘democracy’ and then examine the U.S. as a case study, and asks her students, “do we meet the definition of democracy?” This project brought up discussions of the 2016 election and how fake news was an factor important in making the candidates look different than they really were. Ryane provided her class with three different readings that demonstrated how ‘fake news’ was getting more views than actual stories. In addition, she showed a video that demonstrated how to reconstruct a video to determine if it’s ‘real’ or not. In groups of three, students were asked to submit proposed topic, conduct a 10 minute presentation to cover 5 questions, and then the topics were shared by the students. Ryane explained how her students found commonalties among the presentation topics, which included poor grammar and typos, very short or overly long articles with picture, no author listed or no available information about the author, no verifiable facts, a lack of website credibility, and a lack specific details within the article. In sum, Ryane discussed how her students enjoyed the project, learned about how to identify fake news, and were going to apply what they learned to future news. 

Last to present was Jay Kibby on “What can librarians do to help?” Jay spoke about vetting both scholarly and non-scholarly resources. There are typically five ways to determine the authenticity of sources, including:

• Authority- what credentials do they have and where was it published
• Accuracy- are there typo and spelling errors?
• Currency-is the information fresh?
• Agenda-what is the author trying to convey and what will he/she gain?
• Author’s sources- are there links to the actual sources?
• Peer reviewed or editor reviewed- is there evidence of review?

Jay stressed the point that just because there are editors, the information is not automatically deemed true. Information literacy instruction can be provided by the library and tailored to any individual or group need. Forms are available for any professor to request literacy instruction from the library for their students. At any time during hours of operation, students can access the reference desk, where there is always someone available to assist. Students can request 1:1 appointments with the library staff for assistance with information literacy or other related services. In addition, there is an option to request assistance via the web, as well as a FAQ forum for students to access. As part of the Community Service and Outreach program, Kate Moss coordinates student events, the social media presence, and therapy dogs within the library. Jay shared an example from CNN to demonstrate the strong influence that “fake news” can have as a political slur. Lastly, Jay provided the audience with a handout containing library contact information and two simple, yet effective methods for spotting fake news. 

March 28th Session: Using SSC (Student Success Center) to its Fullest Potential

Click here to access the audio recording from the session!!

Our second Provisions session of the Spring 2017 semester explored the theme of “Using SSC (Student Success Center) to its Fullest Potential.” Presenters shared experience and expertise with the various topics pertaining to the theme that sought to explore the academic success center and the supports that it provides to students. An audience of approximately 20 faculty and staff members attended to hear presentations from Marcy Nielsen Pendergast, Executive Director of the Academic Success Center, Shirlee Dufort, Director of the Writing Center, and Jess Brouker, Assistant Director of Intercultural Leadership and First-Year Programs.

Marcy Nielsen Pendergast started the session by providing an overview of the Academic Success Center in her presentation, Using Student Success Services to Their Fullest Potential.Marcy discussed how the Academic Success Center has evolved over the years, along with the services it has provided to students. The center is currently located on the second floor of St. Josephs and offers a variety of services, including content tutoring (small group sessions), open lab-drop in, study clusters, math placement support, writing tutors, disability services, and study skills support. Open lab drop in is designed for students to come in for assistance with their business, accounting, math, and science course lab work, which approximately occurs for 15-20 hours per week. Study clusters are offered campus-wide and can be designed at request by students or faculty at any time during the semester. Math placement support is provided by the assistant director, Matt Woods, for those those who need to retake the math placement assessment before acceptance for admission. Disability services provide students with accommodations across campus to ensure academic success. Study skill support assists students individually with mastering effective study skills, with time management being the main skill worked on across students. Students are able to sit down with a tutor to map out their week and study strategies to help accomplish the tasks for the week. Marcy concluded her presentation by discussing a challenge frequently faced by the Academic Support Center–getting students in the psychical space. Marcy explained that the students that are there most often tend to be the ones who are doing well academically.

Shirlee Dufort started her presentation by sharing a quote from Abraham Lincoln about preparing for presentations, as she did for this one.  Shirlee mentioned how studies demonstrate that one of the best ways to learn is to work one on one with someone, and that combined with interactions from the writing center tutors, have shown Shirlee the positive effects the writing center has had on many students on campus. The writing center asks students to come prepared with two copies of their work, to read that work aloud, and make appropriate corrections along the way (edit and proofread). Shirlee shared that reading aloud uses a different part of the brain to stimulate a different perspective of what has been written. Shirlee finds the warm and welcoming atmosphere to be one of the most important aspects of the writing center. One of the most effective components of the writing center is that the student is always in charge of their own paper, as opposed to a tutor taking over the student’s paper. Tutors in the center use reflective listening, as students need to feel heard to be more receptive to the feedback provided. One common misconception of the center is that the tutors are there to correct errors, but instead they are there t0 teach writing skills by teaching concepts for the student to apply. Many English 105 classes bring students in for an overview of the services, which gets the students into the place for the first time and makes them more likely to return. The tutors are trained to work with all types of students and for all ranges of writing, although there are also ESL and ENL tutors for those in need. Shirlee ended by presenting a new initiative where a writing lab is offered on Friday mornings from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm for students to come in and work on a computer while provided with tutors who can help when in need of assistance.

Lastly, Jess Brouker presented on the Academic Opportunity Experience (AOE) program, which contains three counselors who provide resources to those students who are not generally admissible to the college. The program requires the students to complete course before starting at the college and provides opportunities for the counselors to work with them for the duration of thier time at the college. Transcripts are reviewed to decide if they will be admissible, and then those accepted will have an orientation day and an accompanying interview. The first year launch is week long ‘academic bootcamp’ which entails an English class prep course with Shirlee, math class with Matt Woods,  study skills course with Marcy, and group workshop with the AOE counselors. Group workshops help to prepare on how to be a ‘student’ at the college (i.e. where services are located and what are they used for, how to talk to professors, and how to navigate the college website). Each student in the program is paired with one counselor who checks in on a weekly basis. These students are also offered private tutoring through the Academic Success Center. In addition, these students can request standing appointments with the writing center (same time and day each week), are offered pre-advisement sessions, and receive mid semester reports, which take their schedules and send a report to all their professors to help to give the students a ‘heads up’ and see how they are doing.

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Please join us for our upcoming April 18th session on “Pedagogy in the ‘Post-Truth’ Era.” Provisions’ sessions are held from 12:00-1:15 in Standish A&B. All are welcome and no reservations are required. Free lunch and refreshments will be available! Hope to see you all there!🙂

Announcement

Due to a conflict with the (re-instated) Advisement Day luncheon, the March 21st Provisions has been moved to March 28th. 

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Please join us for our upcoming March 28th session on “Using SSC (Student Success Center) to its Fullest Potential.” Our esteemed presenters for the March 28th session include:

• Jess Brouker – Assistant Director of Intercultural Leadership and First-Year Programs
• Shirlee Dufort – Director of the Writing Center
• Marcy Nielsen Pendergast – Executive Director of the Academic Success Center

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Provisions’ sessions are held from 12:00-1:15 in Standish A&B. All are welcome and no reservations are required. Free lunch and refreshments will be available! Hope to see you all there!🙂

Welcome Back! The Spring Semester Has Begun!

Welcome back to the Spring of 2017 Provisions: Teaching and Learning Series! I hope you all had a wonderful break and are ready for another great semester of professional development with colleagues at the College of Saint Rose!

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• February 21st: “Raising the Bar While Providing a Safety Net for Taking Creative Risks”
• March 28th: “Using SSC (Student Success Center) to its Fullest Potential”
• April 18th: “Pedagogy in the ‘Post-Truth’ Era”

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Provisions’ sessions are held from 12:00-1:15 in Standish A&B. All are welcome and no reservations are required. Free lunch and refreshments will be available! Hope to see you all there!! 🙂