(NAME-MCE) A campus event question

[Paul C.Gorski]

Greg,

I've done literally hundreds of these sorts of things and am happy to
discuss some ideas with you. A good resources for you would be Teaching for
Diversity and Social Justice, a book that has a lot of useful activities in
it.

But I do have a couple other thoughts on this. 

First, my experience tells me that if you're going to have residence life
staff leading these activities, you need to give them ample training first.
(Actually, ample training requires years, so this probably isn't possible.)
But in truth, it doesn't matter what activities you're doing if they're
being led by people who themselves don't have the expertise (either in terms
of content or facilitation) -- this approach will result in problems.

Second, the only way I know to help somebody "increase the value of
diversity" in their own minds is to help them move from a "celebrating
diversity" orientation to a "must eliminate oppression" orientation. I urge
you to consider ways you can be "affirming" and so on, but still be
authentic. Students from marginalized groups often are very tired of doing
"celebrating diversity" (events which tend to appropriate their cultures and
experiences for the "benefit" of privileged groups) while the real
conversation never happens. The real conversation--or one of the real
conversations--is this: How do we create an environment here so that I'm no
longer marginalized? In other words, how do we work toward eliminating
racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, and so on?

Good luck with your event.

Paul

********
Paul C. Gorski
EdChange: http://www.EdChange.org
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-----Original Message-----
From: name-mce-bounces at nameorg.org [mailto:name-mce-bounces at nameorg.org] On
Behalf Of Greg & Andy Goodman
Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2007 9:04 PM
To: name-mce at nameorg.org
Subject: (Name-mce) ListServ A campus event question




Dear list members:

I am trying to organize a diversity event for our university's (Clarion
University of PA)freshman for next fall, and I'm soliciting suggestions for
small group activities that are short (10 - 15 minutes) and can be run by a
Residence Hall Assistant or other student leader. The goal is to increase
the value of diversity among the freshmen class.

Does anyone have a source for activities that are positive, affirming, and
effective? Do you have a specific suggestion for an activity that you've
done and liked?

I am happy to receive any suggestions.

Best,

Greg S. Goodman
Assistant Professor
Education Department
814-226-4166
 Greg S. Goodman
 Clarion University
"Always Connect"
   Howards End
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