TNC Meeting

February 7, 2011

Meeting Minutes

In attendance: Professors Román-Odio, García, Hartnett, Suydam, Schoenfeld, Johnson, Finke, López, Nichols, Sierra, and Carmen King.

1.       Agree on meeting times:

a.       Monday, April 4, 4:10pm, O’Connor House.

b.      Monday, May 2, 4:10pm, O’Connor House.

2.       TTT Grant Course pairings (TIG report (Jennifer) on the agenda):

Fall 2011

Suydam and López

Intro to Women’s Studies

Women in Christianity

Spring 2012

Román-Odio and García              
Transnational Feminisms              WGS 242

American Women Writers           ENGL 38?

Johnson and López

Border Crossing                                                SOCY 237

Latino Psych                                       PSYC ???

There were few possible pairings and several professors believed it would appear to be thin even as a pilot program.  Professor Heidt believed that we could potentially get special funding from the Provost’s office as a pilot program.  We decided to table this for a year until sabbaticals are not decimating our numbers. 

3. Antiracism Workshop Evaluation Summary (Clara)

Professor Román-Odio noted that the evaluations were overwhelmingly positive and that we had all agreed to make priorities as groups for possible pursuits coming out of the workshop. 

What concrete data can we gather? (DAC has much of this data.)

How willing is the institution to adapt to these proposals?

Could we consider retention rates?

A few proposals:

a.       An endowed chair could be one pursuit to come out of this.

b.      MLK day is a good example of an undertaking that could be supported by the institution.  Could it be made a day of service?

c.       We could promote the position as multicultural recruiter in admissions to a more senior position?

d.      The College mission statement could be amended to include something to the effect of what we believe to be important.  (Is this already happening?)

e.      There could be curricular development to reflect a more diverse world of knowledge.  (Could the endowed chair do this?)

f.        Could we commit ourselves to being more visible?  Could we extend the anti-racism workshop progress to a community forum?  Could we promote a talk through student quotes about racist statements made on campus and ask the question, “Is this campus racist?” or perhaps “How do you recognize racism?”  Could this simply be phrased as an event geared to “speaking out”?

g.       Could we use the proposal of the first-year seminar to expose all incoming students to the discussion of race, class, gender, etc.?

The prioritized list would be:

1.       Making MLK Day a day of service with support from the institution (Could this be brought to the faculty, perhaps at general forum?)

2.       Pushing the administration for an endowed position of multicultural affairs to be a termed position for a faculty member and an honor to hold

3.       Making the Mellon Grant, and therefore the curriculum, respond to diversity (for example, first-year seminar that incorporates gender, race, and class; first-year experience at orientation; general education requirements; etc.)

4.       Could we commit ourselves to being more visible?  Could we extend the anti-racism workshop progress to a community forum?  Could we promote a talk through student quotes about racist statements made on campus and ask the question, “Is this campus racist?” or perhaps “How do you recognize racism?”  Could this simply be phrased as an event geared to “speaking out”?