Infusing Diversity into the College Culture: The Stand Together Group

1. Infusing Diversity into the College Culture: The Stand Together Group Community College League of California Oakland, California, November 2003 Gavilan Community College Terrence Willett, Researcher Leah Halper, History Instructor Verónica Guajardo, MESA Director Jan Bernstein Chargin, Public Information Officer

2. Introduction • Who are we? • How did we come to be? • How do we do it? • What have we accomplished? • What next?

4. STG Mission Statement • The Stand Together Group exists to promote and celebrate diversity, inclusiveness, and mutual respect in our campus community, so everyone at Gavilan College feels safe, respected, and included.

5. STG Values • Special events planning for community involvement • Developing the Stand Together Group as a model of diversity, inclusiveness and mutual respect • Making the curriculum more culturally diverse • Working to improve the campus climate Click here for maps

6. Demographics

10. Campus Climate Research • Mostly positive • Strong agreement that “all students, regardless of ethnicity, gender, age, disability or sexual orientation have an equal chance of reaching their goals at my college” • Some potential for improvement • “I would feel comfortable in class with someone whom I knew was gay, lesbian, or bisexual” felt of low importance • Concern about hate crime incident on campus • People not members of two predominate ethnicities might feel marginalized • This information used by STG and college administration for planning and policy making • Hate crimes policy • Chinese New Year

14. How we work • Opt in, grassroots participation • Not a formal committee: no representative constituencies, no quorum, no funding • Internal consultant/watchdog/think tank/trouble maker that informs the institutional decision-making process • Participants rotate roles and share responsibility • Process is as important as final outcome • Anyone on campus can bring in an issue • We work in collaboration with other groups

16. What we have done • Mission statement and planning process • Hate crime policy • GLBTQ climate and benefits • Free speech campus climate • GE requirement • Flyers and Information Tables • A zillion events • Watch dogging/inside consultants/think tank/troublemakers

17. GE requirements STG Home Page

19. Challenges • Political and economic climate in district • Getting consistent student and support staff participation when no crisis looms • Being a “group” rather than an official committee • Resisting becoming “just” event-planners or activists • Choosing battles wisely • No funding or corporate donations (but willing to take bids…)

21. How are we perceived? • Out of town troublemakers • Imposing radical leftist views onto rabidly reactionary country bumpkins • “tree hugging earth muffins” • Filling a void on campus • A safe place to bring issues that aren’t addressed elsewhere

23. Short Term Goals • Improve access for student and support staff participation • Develop funding for activities, events, trips, and administrative support • Increase mentorship/skills sharing with others on campus

24. Long Term Goals • Carry values of diversity, tolerance, and respect into the larger communities we serve • Ingrain STG values into college culture so effectively that Stand Together Group is no longer needed

25. Conclusion • Diversity is good • What we hope you take away from this presentation • Q & A

26. Contacts • http://www.gavilan.edu/stand/

27. Thank You!