International Students Services Proposal
Hamilton College prides itself on representing over 200 international students from 46 different countries. While the office of The Dean of Students, in conjunction with the Dean for International Students has worked hard to provide services catered to the particular needs of international students, we still face problems in some specific areas of college life. We hope that with the support of the college, we can work collectively to find solutions to these issues. International students have faced major problems in the following three areas:
1. Storage, meals and transportation
2. International Student Orientation and yearlong supportive infrastructure for international students
3. International Student Advising
1. Storage, meals and Transportation
Storage
Storage poses a problem for most International Students on this campus. The Milbank basement used to be set aside for International Students, but as of June 2005, that space has been closed off, for two reasons:
The first reason was the misuse of storage facilities. The key to the basement storage room in Milbank stayed with Regina Johnson at the Dean of Students Office, but once students took that key, there was a lack of accountability and order. The key went missing multiple times and predictably, this system resulted in missing items and overcrowding.
In order to circumvent this problem, we propose that the Dean of Students Office employ a student worker, who would be accountable for the key and would supervise the storage process. A specific time would be allocated on the last day of exams and on the first day before classes begin, for moving things in and out of storage. Implementing a well thought out labeling methodology would be extremely helpful.
The second rationale put forward was that domestic students, (for example students from California), do not get free storage and hence there seemed no valid reason for preferential treatment of international students. This line of reasoning has a few flaws. The transport costs for the international students are far higher than those for domestic students. International students often find it a lot harder to pay dollar storage-rates, than domestic students whose families earn in dollars. Furthermore, we believe that it is necessary that Hamilton cater to the specific needs of international students by granting them student storage privileges, and that these privileges are not curtailed because the same facilities cannot be provided to the campus majority.
If the previous storage options are still deemed to be untenable, the alternative would be to subsidize storage for students with pressing financial aid issues as their storage space requirements are usually significantly higher.
Meals
Students with financial aid issues find it difficult to pay for their meals during their breaks. The college's policy of subsiding the meals for the students on the athletic teams can easily be extended to covering the meals of the small number of international students who do stay back. In the same way sports departments subsidize meals for athletes, there could be a department that puts aside funds to feed international students.
Transportation
We propose that the day after finals end, the period in which a lot of international students fly home, a separate van be arranged to ensure that the international students get to the airport on time. Also, for the winter, it would be very convenient if there was a way a shuttle could be arranged to go straight to JFK so that we avoid flight cancellations in Syracuse. For return travel, we propose that there be shuttles organized for international students a day before everyone else returns to campus. International students usually want to come back early to beat jet lag before classes begin, thus it would be immensely helpful to have a transportation system worked out for this purpose.
2. International student orientation program
The international student orientation program has proved extremely beneficial to international students in the past and we would like to ensure its continuation. International students should have an orientation that gives them adequate amounts of time to cope with jetlag, culture shock, reorientation into a new environment, and familiarization with a college campus that many of them are visiting for the first time.
Suggested Structure for International Student Orientation
Day 1:
6:30pm International Student Dinner and Welcome with host families
8:30pm Icebreaker activity led by Orientation Leaders
Day 2:
8:30am Breakfast at Commons
11:00am Tour guide led tour of the campus
12:30pm Lunch at Commons
2:00pm Trip to the mall
6:30pm Dinner at Commons
8:30pm Advising sessions with RA’s and upperclass international students
Day 3:
8:30am Breakfast at McEwan
10:30am NBT Bank account openings (??)
Noon Lunch at McEwan
2:00pm Talk by members of Faculty (understanding the liberal arts, how courses and classes are run, switching to an American curriculum, adding and dropping classes etc.)
5:00pm Q&A Session with dean of international students
6:00pm Dinner at McEwan
7:00pm On campus treasure hunt (with campus map)
Pre-Orientation welcome package for international Students
All international students must be provided with a package of basic essentials needed to navigate their first day at Hamilton. Many international students arrive at Hamilton straight from a long flight and require a set of basic supplies when they arrive, until they can make a trip to the mall and purchase what they need. The package should include the following: 1) a 5$ international phone card 2) travel sized toothbrush and toothpaste 3) Sachet of Shampoo 4) travel sized pillow and blanket 5) basic snack (a bag of chips and a granola bar?)
Increased Host Family Responsibilities:
1. Strongly encouraging all international students to opt for host families
2. International dinners organized by the International Students Advisor/ The Dean of Students Office with host families, during orientation and family weekend
3. Helping students with storage, transportation, advising, plus extending invitations to occasional dinners over breaks/festivals like Thanksgiving etc.
3. Advising for International Students
Currently, the International Student Advisor serves also as Study Abroad advisor for the entire Hamilton student body; several hundred students participate in study abroad programs every year. At the same time, roughly one hundred international students requires legal advice regarding their status in the United States, work authorizations, summer internships, visa processes, and general support in adjusting to a new environment.
1- The need for continuous and informed legal advice:
a. To perform any type of work off-campus, including paid and unpaid internships, international students require work authorization from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). There are two types of work authorization available: Curricular Practical Training (CPT) and Optional Practical Training (OPT)*. In the past, international students could not benefit from CPT due to lack of professional advice as well as a lack of courses that can be used for CPT. More importantly, the international student office failed to provide legal support for NYC and Washington D.C. internship programs: no OPT or CPT was filed, therefore putting foreign student in breach of visa status. Moreover, in recent years, foreign students have faced increased hardship in processing temporary work visa applications due to lack of appropriate advisory from the International Students Office.
b. The international student advisor also serves as the campus authority on issues regarding international students. It is therefore imperative for the advisor to provide fully-documented and accurate legal advice to the Career Center and academic departments regarding academic standing and degree requirements, as well as participation in off-campus programs and internships.
2- Dedicated international student advisory:
International students need constant support from the first day on campus – through orientation programs – until they graduate. The cultural change in many cases is extreme and students seek advice regarding cultural adjustment, academic options, host families, and array of personal issues (diversity, homesickness, financial problems, etc.) In several cases, foreign students have not been able to reach out to the international student advisor to share their worries, questions, and personal issues due to time limitations from the dual role of the advisor.
Given the continuously changing immigration legislation, and the variety and specificity of the needs of more than 100 international students, it is imperative that the international student advisor be a full-time position.
3- Finally, we propose that the ISA (International Students Association) be granted independent funding that can be used to run programs for international students throughout the academic year. Currently the ISA appeals various sources, including the Student Assembly and The Dean of Students Office for funding on an event-wise basis. It would be enormously beneficial to the international community if a set amount of funding were earmarked every year, to ensure the presence of programs that cater specifically to the International Student body at Hamilton College
What is Curricular Practical Training?
Curricular Practical Training (CPT) is an employment option available to F-1 students where the practical training employment is considered to be an integral part of the curriculum or academic program. According to the immigration regulations, this employment may be an internship, cooperative education job, a practicum, or any other work experience that is either required for your degree (as defined in the course catalog) or for which academic credit is awarded.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
SJI Curriculum Proposal April 2008
Social Justice Curriculum Proposal
Please contact: Geoff Hicks ghicks@hamilton.edu
Yong Kwon ykwon@hamilton.edu
Corinne Bancroft cbancrof@hamilton.edu
Kate Hails khails@hamilton.edu
Diversity Intensive Courses promote students’ critical consciousness and understanding about the intersection of race, class, and gender. These courses both inform students and equip them with the tools to sensitively and confidently engage in dialogues about these issues with people from a range of backgrounds and experiences.
Courses that would be diversity intensive currently exist across the curriculum and fulfill a fundamental part of the Hamilton education. The Social Justice Initiative believes that students cannot be fully educated with out taking at least one of these courses. Hamilton maintains an open curriculum because the college aims to teach students to speak, write, and think well. The skill of approaching and understanding difference is structurally parallel and fundamental to the previous two skills, speaking and writing. The need that diversity intensive courses satisfy is in line with the stated Purposes and Goals of the College, as indicated in the following statements from the Hamilton College Catalogue:
• “Graduates should be poised to investigate new avenues of knowledge, to respond creatively to new and unexpected situations and to address problems and challenges in a morally and intellectually courageous manner…”
• “Students of unusual talents to realize their fullest capacities, for their own benefit and that of the world in which they will live…”
• “They should recognize the limits of factual information and become attuned to how such information can be used and misused…”
• “Above all, students should develop respect for intellectual and cultural diversity because such respect promotes free and open inquiry, independent thought and mutual understanding…”
There are currently many courses that serve this need across the curriculum. The Social Justice Initiative proposes that Hamilton College structurally facilitate the enrollment of all students in at least one of these courses by their junior year.
We have brainstormed a number of options that would help achieve this goal without undermining Hamilton’s commitment to an open curriculum. We acknowledge that these solutions are both imperfect and incomplete, but hopefully they will help move in a productive direction.
Departmental requirements: We strongly believe that every department has the capacity to offer a number of diversity intensive courses. Each department should be required to offer at least one course, at any level that fulfills the definition of diversity intensive. We recognize, however, that some departments might have a harder time enacting the requirement because of the nature of the discipline.
Diversity Intensive requirement: The diversity intensive requirement would function exactly like the Writing Intensive requirement in that students may fulfill the requirement in any department offering diversity intensive courses. Much like the proposed departmental requirements, we believe that a diversity intensive requirement would allow students to study diversity in a way that is relevant to their other academic interests. We also believe that this would be most effective if applied in conjunction with departmental requirements. If departments feel they have insufficient means to fulfill the departmental requirement this option would allow those students access to these courses.
Freshman seminar: This diversity intensive course would be offered exclusively to freshmen or transfer students. Small courses limited to first years are decisively influential on a students’ experience at Hamilton. A seminar style course would offer a forum to discuss diversity as well as orient new students to issues of diversity at Hamilton College. Such a seminar could be, but does not have to be, modeled after College 130.
Please contact: Geoff Hicks ghicks@hamilton.edu
Yong Kwon ykwon@hamilton.edu
Corinne Bancroft cbancrof@hamilton.edu
Kate Hails khails@hamilton.edu
Diversity Intensive Courses promote students’ critical consciousness and understanding about the intersection of race, class, and gender. These courses both inform students and equip them with the tools to sensitively and confidently engage in dialogues about these issues with people from a range of backgrounds and experiences.
Courses that would be diversity intensive currently exist across the curriculum and fulfill a fundamental part of the Hamilton education. The Social Justice Initiative believes that students cannot be fully educated with out taking at least one of these courses. Hamilton maintains an open curriculum because the college aims to teach students to speak, write, and think well. The skill of approaching and understanding difference is structurally parallel and fundamental to the previous two skills, speaking and writing. The need that diversity intensive courses satisfy is in line with the stated Purposes and Goals of the College, as indicated in the following statements from the Hamilton College Catalogue:
• “Graduates should be poised to investigate new avenues of knowledge, to respond creatively to new and unexpected situations and to address problems and challenges in a morally and intellectually courageous manner…”
• “Students of unusual talents to realize their fullest capacities, for their own benefit and that of the world in which they will live…”
• “They should recognize the limits of factual information and become attuned to how such information can be used and misused…”
• “Above all, students should develop respect for intellectual and cultural diversity because such respect promotes free and open inquiry, independent thought and mutual understanding…”
There are currently many courses that serve this need across the curriculum. The Social Justice Initiative proposes that Hamilton College structurally facilitate the enrollment of all students in at least one of these courses by their junior year.
We have brainstormed a number of options that would help achieve this goal without undermining Hamilton’s commitment to an open curriculum. We acknowledge that these solutions are both imperfect and incomplete, but hopefully they will help move in a productive direction.
Departmental requirements: We strongly believe that every department has the capacity to offer a number of diversity intensive courses. Each department should be required to offer at least one course, at any level that fulfills the definition of diversity intensive. We recognize, however, that some departments might have a harder time enacting the requirement because of the nature of the discipline.
Diversity Intensive requirement: The diversity intensive requirement would function exactly like the Writing Intensive requirement in that students may fulfill the requirement in any department offering diversity intensive courses. Much like the proposed departmental requirements, we believe that a diversity intensive requirement would allow students to study diversity in a way that is relevant to their other academic interests. We also believe that this would be most effective if applied in conjunction with departmental requirements. If departments feel they have insufficient means to fulfill the departmental requirement this option would allow those students access to these courses.
Freshman seminar: This diversity intensive course would be offered exclusively to freshmen or transfer students. Small courses limited to first years are decisively influential on a students’ experience at Hamilton. A seminar style course would offer a forum to discuss diversity as well as orient new students to issues of diversity at Hamilton College. Such a seminar could be, but does not have to be, modeled after College 130.
SJI CURRICULUM Proposal 4-4-08
SJI Proposal for Curriculum Advancement
The Social Justice Initiative proposes that Hamilton College structurally foster the enrollment of all students in courses which would teach issues of historical dominance and marginalization. The Social Justice Initiative defines these courses as diversity intensive courses.
Race, class, and gender are three of the most considerable categories of identity and division inside and outside of the US. Such issues are currently addressed in several courses offered by the college. Upon graduation, however, too few are the Hamilton students who leave having studied such issues in the classroom, and many more walk the aisle without having received this aspect of their education.
The administered promotion of such classes will more accurately achieve the enumerated Purposes and Goals of the College, as indicated in the following lines of the Hamilton College catalogue:
• “Graduates should be poised to investigate new avenues of knowledge, to respond creatively to new and unexpected situations and to address problems and challenges in a morally and intellectually courageous manner…”
• “Students of unusual talents to realize their fullest capacities, for their own benefit and that of the world in which they will live…”
• “They should recognize the limits of factual information and become attuned to how such information can be used and misused…”
• “Above all, students should develop respect for intellectual and cultural diversity because such respect promotes free and open inquiry, independent thought and mutual understanding…”
Diversity Intensive Courses should promote critical consciousness and understanding for students about the intersection of race, class, and gender. These courses would both inform students and equip them with the tools to sensitively and confidently engage in dialogues with fellow classmates from a range of backgrounds and experiences.
Hamilton maintains an open curriculum because the college aims to teach students to speak, write, and think well. The skill of approaching and understanding difference is structurally parallel and fundamental to the previous two skills, speaking and writing.
Hamilton College cannot successfully or completely educate the students who miss these classes. Although Hamilton already offers a large variety of what would qualify as diversity intensive courses, it is possible for students to graduate without ever taking one.
The Social Justice Initiative suggests the following options:
Departmental requirements:
We strongly believe that every department has the capacity to offer a number of diversity intensive courses and that they should be required to do so. This would demonstrate how diversity relates to any area of study. This would also allow students to study diversity in a way that is relevant to their other academic interests.
Diversity Intensive requirement:
The Diversity Intensive requirement would function exactly like the Writing Intensive requirement in that students may fulfill the requirement in any department offering Diversity Intensive courses. Much like the proposed departmental requirements, we believe that a Diversity Intensive requirement would allow students to study diversity in a way that is relevant to their other academic interests. We also believe that this would be most effective if applied in conjunction with departmental requirements.
Freshman seminar:
A seminar style course, required for transfer students as well as freshman, would offer a forum to discuss diversity as well as orient new students to issues of diversity at Hamilton College. Such a seminar could be modeled after College 130.
The Social Justice Initiative proposes that Hamilton College structurally foster the enrollment of all students in courses which would teach issues of historical dominance and marginalization. The Social Justice Initiative defines these courses as diversity intensive courses.
Race, class, and gender are three of the most considerable categories of identity and division inside and outside of the US. Such issues are currently addressed in several courses offered by the college. Upon graduation, however, too few are the Hamilton students who leave having studied such issues in the classroom, and many more walk the aisle without having received this aspect of their education.
The administered promotion of such classes will more accurately achieve the enumerated Purposes and Goals of the College, as indicated in the following lines of the Hamilton College catalogue:
• “Graduates should be poised to investigate new avenues of knowledge, to respond creatively to new and unexpected situations and to address problems and challenges in a morally and intellectually courageous manner…”
• “Students of unusual talents to realize their fullest capacities, for their own benefit and that of the world in which they will live…”
• “They should recognize the limits of factual information and become attuned to how such information can be used and misused…”
• “Above all, students should develop respect for intellectual and cultural diversity because such respect promotes free and open inquiry, independent thought and mutual understanding…”
Diversity Intensive Courses should promote critical consciousness and understanding for students about the intersection of race, class, and gender. These courses would both inform students and equip them with the tools to sensitively and confidently engage in dialogues with fellow classmates from a range of backgrounds and experiences.
Hamilton maintains an open curriculum because the college aims to teach students to speak, write, and think well. The skill of approaching and understanding difference is structurally parallel and fundamental to the previous two skills, speaking and writing.
Hamilton College cannot successfully or completely educate the students who miss these classes. Although Hamilton already offers a large variety of what would qualify as diversity intensive courses, it is possible for students to graduate without ever taking one.
The Social Justice Initiative suggests the following options:
Departmental requirements:
We strongly believe that every department has the capacity to offer a number of diversity intensive courses and that they should be required to do so. This would demonstrate how diversity relates to any area of study. This would also allow students to study diversity in a way that is relevant to their other academic interests.
Diversity Intensive requirement:
The Diversity Intensive requirement would function exactly like the Writing Intensive requirement in that students may fulfill the requirement in any department offering Diversity Intensive courses. Much like the proposed departmental requirements, we believe that a Diversity Intensive requirement would allow students to study diversity in a way that is relevant to their other academic interests. We also believe that this would be most effective if applied in conjunction with departmental requirements.
Freshman seminar:
A seminar style course, required for transfer students as well as freshman, would offer a forum to discuss diversity as well as orient new students to issues of diversity at Hamilton College. Such a seminar could be modeled after College 130.
ICEC Proposal Feb 27 2008
The Social Justice Initiative
Contact: sji@hamilton.edu
Definitions
For ease of communication of ideas certain terms have been selected and defined and will be used throughout the proposal. They are:
Inter-Cultural
- All peoples have culture based on their socio-economic location which is informed by race, religion, class, gender, sex, sexuality, and physical location. These identity groups, represented in large part by the organizations titled "multi-cultural" at Hamilton College, inform students’ perceptions of themselves and others. These identity groups can be viewed individually, but inter-culturalism focuses on how they work in conjunction with one another.
Safe space
- A safe space is one in which individuals are welcome to speak freely, and without fear of expressing an unpopular point of view. In a safe space ideas are challenged but not the individuals who express them.
Non-dominant*
- We define a non-dominant individual as one who is not part of the majority and/or power holding population in either the Hamilton community and/or society at large. Non-dominant status is afforded to individuals who occupy minority socio-economic locations in, but not limited to, one or more of the identity groups listed in our definition of inter-cultural.
Dominant*
- We define dominant individuals as those whose socio-economic location places them within the majority or powerful population in, but not limited to, any of the identity categories listed in our definition of inter-cultural
*The nature of our definitions of non-dominant and dominant are specifically constructed such that individuals my have aspects of their identity that are both dominant and non-dominant.
Concerns
The proposal of an Inter-Cultural Education Center has been discussed at length within the Hamilton community. These conversations have raised a number of questions as to the necessity and efficacy of such a center. These questions are addressed below.
How or why would a building make a difference?
Hamilton claims to be committed to issues of diversity, but the physical spaces currently afforded to the organizations that would use the Inter-cultural Education Center reflect the marginalization and disregard for these groups on campus. The Womyn’s Center has an attic space that is scheduled to be torn down, the Afro-Latin Cultural Center is poorly maintained, and the Rainbow Alliance has an office and no appropriate meeting space. An Inter-cultural Education Center would be a powerful physical manifestation of the college’s professed commitment and a symbol to legitimate the presence of these non-dominant individuals at Hamilton.
An Inter-cultural Education Center will provide a “safe space” for non-dominant individuals where they can express their views and opinions with confidence because in a safe space ideas are challenged, not the individuals who express them. A safe space is not necessarily a comfortable space, and this is intended because both dominant and non-dominant individuals learn the most when they are placed outside of their comfort zones.
The proposed Inter-cultural Education Center is fundamentally different from a student union because of this issue of safe space. A safe space can be created anywhere, but once the individuals participating in that safe space leave, it ceases to be a safe space until it is reconvened. An Inter-cultural Education Center would be a permanent safe space. A student union, due to the fact that it maintains the inherent inequalities between dominant and non-dominant groups at Hamilton and in society, cannot fulfill this role. An Inter-cultural Education Center seeks to disrupt this power differential and therefore cannot be housed within a student union.
A building without a change in perception of the important issues of privilege and oppression is insufficient. However, we believe that the creation of an Inter-cultural Education Center is the most positive step forward in creating a more welcoming and affirming campus atmosphere.
Why do dominant cultures not need to be included?
The proposed Inter-cultural Education Center is intended to promote intercultural dialogue by including all Hamilton students, while prioritizing non-dominant individuals at Hamilton College. While consciously not privileging dominant individuals because their experiences are predominant in the Hamilton community, an Inter-cultural Education Center will engage all individuals in dialogue, collaboration, and coalition building leading to education and consciousness about systems of privilege and oppression. An Inter-cultural Education Center will also function to create collaboration and coalition between the groups sharing its spaces through the use of a common meeting area and library. The primary goal of an Inter-cultural Education Center is to privilege the experiences of non-dominant individuals and provide them with a physical space on campus. In addition it is important to recognize that it should not be the role of non-dominant individuals to educate dominant individuals about non-dominant cultures. Furthermore it perpetuates inequalities to expect non-dominant individuals to take on this role.
Why is this not self-segregation?
The proposed Inter-cultural Education Center would be centrally located in order to facilitate its use by and accessibility for the majority of Hamilton students. The concept of self-segregation when applied to the proposed Inter-cultural Education Center is problematic because this is a campus where a variety of different interests and organizations are allotted individualized spaces without claims that they are self-segregating. The Hamilton Outdoors Club and the Hamilton Outdoor Leadership Center provide the perfect example of this. HOC and the Adirondack Adventure program attract a large number of students to Hamilton and are therefore allotted a separate space on campus. The college has acknowledged that attracting and retaining students and faculty from non-dominant backgrounds is important; following this logic the creation of an Inter-cultural Education Center would fulfill this desire.
Contact: sji@hamilton.edu
Definitions
For ease of communication of ideas certain terms have been selected and defined and will be used throughout the proposal. They are:
Inter-Cultural
- All peoples have culture based on their socio-economic location which is informed by race, religion, class, gender, sex, sexuality, and physical location. These identity groups, represented in large part by the organizations titled "multi-cultural" at Hamilton College, inform students’ perceptions of themselves and others. These identity groups can be viewed individually, but inter-culturalism focuses on how they work in conjunction with one another.
Safe space
- A safe space is one in which individuals are welcome to speak freely, and without fear of expressing an unpopular point of view. In a safe space ideas are challenged but not the individuals who express them.
Non-dominant*
- We define a non-dominant individual as one who is not part of the majority and/or power holding population in either the Hamilton community and/or society at large. Non-dominant status is afforded to individuals who occupy minority socio-economic locations in, but not limited to, one or more of the identity groups listed in our definition of inter-cultural.
Dominant*
- We define dominant individuals as those whose socio-economic location places them within the majority or powerful population in, but not limited to, any of the identity categories listed in our definition of inter-cultural
*The nature of our definitions of non-dominant and dominant are specifically constructed such that individuals my have aspects of their identity that are both dominant and non-dominant.
Concerns
The proposal of an Inter-Cultural Education Center has been discussed at length within the Hamilton community. These conversations have raised a number of questions as to the necessity and efficacy of such a center. These questions are addressed below.
How or why would a building make a difference?
Hamilton claims to be committed to issues of diversity, but the physical spaces currently afforded to the organizations that would use the Inter-cultural Education Center reflect the marginalization and disregard for these groups on campus. The Womyn’s Center has an attic space that is scheduled to be torn down, the Afro-Latin Cultural Center is poorly maintained, and the Rainbow Alliance has an office and no appropriate meeting space. An Inter-cultural Education Center would be a powerful physical manifestation of the college’s professed commitment and a symbol to legitimate the presence of these non-dominant individuals at Hamilton.
An Inter-cultural Education Center will provide a “safe space” for non-dominant individuals where they can express their views and opinions with confidence because in a safe space ideas are challenged, not the individuals who express them. A safe space is not necessarily a comfortable space, and this is intended because both dominant and non-dominant individuals learn the most when they are placed outside of their comfort zones.
The proposed Inter-cultural Education Center is fundamentally different from a student union because of this issue of safe space. A safe space can be created anywhere, but once the individuals participating in that safe space leave, it ceases to be a safe space until it is reconvened. An Inter-cultural Education Center would be a permanent safe space. A student union, due to the fact that it maintains the inherent inequalities between dominant and non-dominant groups at Hamilton and in society, cannot fulfill this role. An Inter-cultural Education Center seeks to disrupt this power differential and therefore cannot be housed within a student union.
A building without a change in perception of the important issues of privilege and oppression is insufficient. However, we believe that the creation of an Inter-cultural Education Center is the most positive step forward in creating a more welcoming and affirming campus atmosphere.
Why do dominant cultures not need to be included?
The proposed Inter-cultural Education Center is intended to promote intercultural dialogue by including all Hamilton students, while prioritizing non-dominant individuals at Hamilton College. While consciously not privileging dominant individuals because their experiences are predominant in the Hamilton community, an Inter-cultural Education Center will engage all individuals in dialogue, collaboration, and coalition building leading to education and consciousness about systems of privilege and oppression. An Inter-cultural Education Center will also function to create collaboration and coalition between the groups sharing its spaces through the use of a common meeting area and library. The primary goal of an Inter-cultural Education Center is to privilege the experiences of non-dominant individuals and provide them with a physical space on campus. In addition it is important to recognize that it should not be the role of non-dominant individuals to educate dominant individuals about non-dominant cultures. Furthermore it perpetuates inequalities to expect non-dominant individuals to take on this role.
Why is this not self-segregation?
The proposed Inter-cultural Education Center would be centrally located in order to facilitate its use by and accessibility for the majority of Hamilton students. The concept of self-segregation when applied to the proposed Inter-cultural Education Center is problematic because this is a campus where a variety of different interests and organizations are allotted individualized spaces without claims that they are self-segregating. The Hamilton Outdoors Club and the Hamilton Outdoor Leadership Center provide the perfect example of this. HOC and the Adirondack Adventure program attract a large number of students to Hamilton and are therefore allotted a separate space on campus. The college has acknowledged that attracting and retaining students and faculty from non-dominant backgrounds is important; following this logic the creation of an Inter-cultural Education Center would fulfill this desire.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Allocation Proposal February 12 2008
We are requesting, as members of the Africana Studies Faculty Recruiting Committee, the allocation of a second line to the Africana Studies Department.
Rationale…
We think that full professors who are committed to both the discipline and student life are necessary for the department.
We feel that two lines are necessary to build a stronger department and demonstrate Hamilton’s commitment to diversity. It is important to have full Africana Studies professors in addition to the professors from other departments. This commitment on Hamilton’s part will encourage the growth of the department. Talented, energetic, and engaging professors will demand better enrollment in these courses.
As students on the committee we attest to the excellence of two existing candidates in terms of both the discipline of Africana Studies and commitment to student life.
We believe that the talent, intelligence, and charisma of these two targeted hires would attract students to the Africana Studies Department. Their full investment in the program would legitimize the major because it would show strong institutional support. Hamilton must proactively affirm this program by creating two lines.
Full Professors…
The Africana Studies department has amazing professors but their primary commitment is to their original field. The Program needs professors of the same standard but who can focus on the discipline of Africana Studies.
Committed to the Discipline…
Professor Carter, currently the Visiting Associate Professor in the Africana Studies Department demonstrates a commitment to the Africana Studies Department through his work on the African Diaspora in Europe and his training as an anthropologist.
Similarly, Angel Nieves would promote this program through his studies on urban development, structure, and knowledge of Latin American studies. Additionally, Professor Nieves’ work on digital, historical simulation would bring a fresh perspective on the new uses of technology in the Africana Studies field.
Committed to Student Life…
Professor Carter currently invests himself fully in the extra-curricular activities at Hamilton. He consistently makes himself available to students and helps us discover new ways of thinking about and interpreting the world. Not only is Professor Carter an advisor to his students, but he is also an excellent mentor.
During his interview, Angel Nieves shared with us the importance of student-professor cooperative research. He expressed interest in working with students on projects that he has already started and also on our own initiatives.
Conclusion:
Both Professor Carter and Professor Nieves would complement each other as lines in the Africana Studies Department. They both have different specialties that are vital to the development of the Africana Studies Department. By adding two full time Africana lines, we will not only be adding new scholarship but creating more diversity in the faculty. Hamilton College has been trying to find ways to attract more faculties of color and by adding two lines to the Africana Studies department, we could retain two faculty members who are excited to develop and create new initiatives within the department. Furthermore, the additional faculty of color will show administrative support to diversity.
Rationale…
We think that full professors who are committed to both the discipline and student life are necessary for the department.
We feel that two lines are necessary to build a stronger department and demonstrate Hamilton’s commitment to diversity. It is important to have full Africana Studies professors in addition to the professors from other departments. This commitment on Hamilton’s part will encourage the growth of the department. Talented, energetic, and engaging professors will demand better enrollment in these courses.
As students on the committee we attest to the excellence of two existing candidates in terms of both the discipline of Africana Studies and commitment to student life.
We believe that the talent, intelligence, and charisma of these two targeted hires would attract students to the Africana Studies Department. Their full investment in the program would legitimize the major because it would show strong institutional support. Hamilton must proactively affirm this program by creating two lines.
Full Professors…
The Africana Studies department has amazing professors but their primary commitment is to their original field. The Program needs professors of the same standard but who can focus on the discipline of Africana Studies.
Committed to the Discipline…
Professor Carter, currently the Visiting Associate Professor in the Africana Studies Department demonstrates a commitment to the Africana Studies Department through his work on the African Diaspora in Europe and his training as an anthropologist.
Similarly, Angel Nieves would promote this program through his studies on urban development, structure, and knowledge of Latin American studies. Additionally, Professor Nieves’ work on digital, historical simulation would bring a fresh perspective on the new uses of technology in the Africana Studies field.
Committed to Student Life…
Professor Carter currently invests himself fully in the extra-curricular activities at Hamilton. He consistently makes himself available to students and helps us discover new ways of thinking about and interpreting the world. Not only is Professor Carter an advisor to his students, but he is also an excellent mentor.
During his interview, Angel Nieves shared with us the importance of student-professor cooperative research. He expressed interest in working with students on projects that he has already started and also on our own initiatives.
Conclusion:
Both Professor Carter and Professor Nieves would complement each other as lines in the Africana Studies Department. They both have different specialties that are vital to the development of the Africana Studies Department. By adding two full time Africana lines, we will not only be adding new scholarship but creating more diversity in the faculty. Hamilton College has been trying to find ways to attract more faculties of color and by adding two lines to the Africana Studies department, we could retain two faculty members who are excited to develop and create new initiatives within the department. Furthermore, the additional faculty of color will show administrative support to diversity.
Cultural Education Center Report February 2009
The Need for a Cultural Awareness Center
The incidents of intolerance at Hamilton have been well documented, and indicate the existence of underlying prejudice. The Social Justice Initiative created an incident report form in late October 2007 that was made available to the entire campus to submit anonymously. A selection of the 27 responses (out of 35 total) that described experiencing prejudice provide an anecdotal glimpse of what needs to be changed at Hamilton. (this is not clear—the 27/35)
Was fabbot written this way in the comment? If not, I’d putt the word there. “While sitting in Commons with my best friend, a white male student yelled across the dining hall 'hey colored person.' He then proceeded to justify his statement by saying that 'That's the kind of thing I can say here at Hamilton College and get away with.'” “Walking through a party in Milbank I have been called a faggot.” “During a class discussion, another student was using the term 'poor people' as synonymous with 'black people' and 'rich people' as a synonym for 'white people.'” “Another student began talking to me in Spanish and a white Bon Appetit staff member told him 'speak English, this is America.' My friend ignored him and the guy continued.” “In my [Government] class, I did not feel like I could express any of my opinions because I saw issues from a social and marginalized perspective. I was told that my perspective was inappropriate for the class…. Automatically because my perspective was not respected I did not want to participate.” “I have experienced an incident when two white males referred to an Asian person as a 'f***ing, smart ch**k.' To me this is one specific incident out of many where people will just use derogatory language.” These incident reports, while not a scientific sample, demonstrate that a number of students on campus do experience prejudice. More statistically robust evidence has recently become available through the online survey of Hamilton students conducted by the student group HamPoll in October 2007. While these data were not randomly sampled, the total of 447 responses gives this poll the power to examine the attitudes of a large subset of students (and may allow inferences, especially since the number of multicultural and international students and the spread of class years in the responses were similar to demographic values for Hamilton overall). The results in the HamPoll data show a distressing trend of intolerance on campus. Students who identified as Black, Latino, Asian, or "other races" reported more frequent encounters with prejudice than white students, as listed below. After running multinomial logistic regression models controlling for class year, gender, citizenship status, and a variety of attitudinal questions, many of these racial groups continued to show significant differences from white respondents.
Event Percentage of Students Indicating “Yes”
(* = Significant difference from white respondents in multinomial logistic regression after controlling for demographic and attitudinal factors)
White / Caucasian Black / African American Hispanic / Latino Asian / Pacific Islander Native American Other Race
“Excluded from a social event or activity you wanted to attend at Hamilton because of your race/ethnic origin” 5.10% 30.00% 25.00%* 5.88% 0.00% 23.53%
“Dropped or seriously considered dropping a class at Hamilton because your race or ethnicity was not respected” 2.83 15.00 5.00 2.94 33.33 17.65
“Been ignored IN CLASS after expressing your ideas or sharing your comments because of your race/ethnic origin” 3.97 35.00* 5.00 20.59 33.33 29.41
“Been ignored OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM after expressing your ideas or sharing your comments because of your race/ethnic origin” 12.18 40.00 45.00 35.29 33.33 29.41
Witnessed “a student embarrassing, patronizing or treating someone negatively because of his/her race/ethnic origin” (summation of two questions) 58.07
70.00 60.00 61.76 66.67 58.82
“Seriously considered leaving Hamilton because of racial or ethnic prejudice” 1.70 35.00 15.00 5.88* (less likely than other groups) 0.00 17.65
It is evident, even from this preliminary analysis of the data, that these significant experiences of prejudice are encountered at very different rates for students of different races.
It should also be noted that this survey contained no questions asking about discrimination due to sexual orientation, gender, national origin, disability, or socioeconomic status. It is likely that further surveys would yield evidence of even more widespread prejudice.
Responding to the Challenge
How could a cultural awareness center work to solve these problems? Firstly, such a program would implement the steps that the polled students viewed as most effective to address diversity issues. The most popular proposal among the options listed in the poll was “better peer education about diversity,” which was rated by 48.55% of students as “very effective” and called ineffective by only 15.44% (the least opposition of any plan). By providing a fixed location for diversity education outside of the context of speakers, multicultural events, or requirements to take diversity classes (all proposals favored less strongly by the student body), a cultural awareness center would meet many students' perceived needs for remedying prejudice.
Secondly, a common concern evinced by students in the personal comments section of the poll suggested that multicultural students segregated themselves from the rest of the campus. Other data in the poll casts some doubt on this notion; while Latino and Asian students were more likely than white students to consider activities reflecting their own cultural background as “very important” in an ordered logit model, all students with such a focus on their own cultural background were also significantly more likely to report that learning about other cultures was important to them. In any case, establishing a dedicated multicultural center could both reduce charges of self-segregation aimed at minority students and provide an opportunity for all students to learn about other cultures (which 86% of students indicated was at least “somewhat” important to them, with 39% considering it “very important.”)
Based on available survey data, Hamilton has compelling reasons to construct a multicultural center. To do so would serve students' needs and take positive steps towards reducing intolerance at the College.
Works Cited
HamPoll, 2007. “Racial/Ethnic Issues: Tell us ANONYMOUSLY!” Online survey. Contact hampoll@hamilton.edu for questions about data. All analyses conducted by Kye Lippold (klippold@hamilton.edu), who takes full responsibility for interpretations herein.
The incidents of intolerance at Hamilton have been well documented, and indicate the existence of underlying prejudice. The Social Justice Initiative created an incident report form in late October 2007 that was made available to the entire campus to submit anonymously. A selection of the 27 responses (out of 35 total) that described experiencing prejudice provide an anecdotal glimpse of what needs to be changed at Hamilton. (this is not clear—the 27/35)
Was fabbot written this way in the comment? If not, I’d putt the word there. “While sitting in Commons with my best friend, a white male student yelled across the dining hall 'hey colored person.' He then proceeded to justify his statement by saying that 'That's the kind of thing I can say here at Hamilton College and get away with.'” “Walking through a party in Milbank I have been called a faggot.” “During a class discussion, another student was using the term 'poor people' as synonymous with 'black people' and 'rich people' as a synonym for 'white people.'” “Another student began talking to me in Spanish and a white Bon Appetit staff member told him 'speak English, this is America.' My friend ignored him and the guy continued.” “In my [Government] class, I did not feel like I could express any of my opinions because I saw issues from a social and marginalized perspective. I was told that my perspective was inappropriate for the class…. Automatically because my perspective was not respected I did not want to participate.” “I have experienced an incident when two white males referred to an Asian person as a 'f***ing, smart ch**k.' To me this is one specific incident out of many where people will just use derogatory language.” These incident reports, while not a scientific sample, demonstrate that a number of students on campus do experience prejudice. More statistically robust evidence has recently become available through the online survey of Hamilton students conducted by the student group HamPoll in October 2007. While these data were not randomly sampled, the total of 447 responses gives this poll the power to examine the attitudes of a large subset of students (and may allow inferences, especially since the number of multicultural and international students and the spread of class years in the responses were similar to demographic values for Hamilton overall). The results in the HamPoll data show a distressing trend of intolerance on campus. Students who identified as Black, Latino, Asian, or "other races" reported more frequent encounters with prejudice than white students, as listed below. After running multinomial logistic regression models controlling for class year, gender, citizenship status, and a variety of attitudinal questions, many of these racial groups continued to show significant differences from white respondents.
Event Percentage of Students Indicating “Yes”
(* = Significant difference from white respondents in multinomial logistic regression after controlling for demographic and attitudinal factors)
White / Caucasian Black / African American Hispanic / Latino Asian / Pacific Islander Native American Other Race
“Excluded from a social event or activity you wanted to attend at Hamilton because of your race/ethnic origin” 5.10% 30.00% 25.00%* 5.88% 0.00% 23.53%
“Dropped or seriously considered dropping a class at Hamilton because your race or ethnicity was not respected” 2.83 15.00 5.00 2.94 33.33 17.65
“Been ignored IN CLASS after expressing your ideas or sharing your comments because of your race/ethnic origin” 3.97 35.00* 5.00 20.59 33.33 29.41
“Been ignored OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM after expressing your ideas or sharing your comments because of your race/ethnic origin” 12.18 40.00 45.00 35.29 33.33 29.41
Witnessed “a student embarrassing, patronizing or treating someone negatively because of his/her race/ethnic origin” (summation of two questions) 58.07
70.00 60.00 61.76 66.67 58.82
“Seriously considered leaving Hamilton because of racial or ethnic prejudice” 1.70 35.00 15.00 5.88* (less likely than other groups) 0.00 17.65
It is evident, even from this preliminary analysis of the data, that these significant experiences of prejudice are encountered at very different rates for students of different races.
It should also be noted that this survey contained no questions asking about discrimination due to sexual orientation, gender, national origin, disability, or socioeconomic status. It is likely that further surveys would yield evidence of even more widespread prejudice.
Responding to the Challenge
How could a cultural awareness center work to solve these problems? Firstly, such a program would implement the steps that the polled students viewed as most effective to address diversity issues. The most popular proposal among the options listed in the poll was “better peer education about diversity,” which was rated by 48.55% of students as “very effective” and called ineffective by only 15.44% (the least opposition of any plan). By providing a fixed location for diversity education outside of the context of speakers, multicultural events, or requirements to take diversity classes (all proposals favored less strongly by the student body), a cultural awareness center would meet many students' perceived needs for remedying prejudice.
Secondly, a common concern evinced by students in the personal comments section of the poll suggested that multicultural students segregated themselves from the rest of the campus. Other data in the poll casts some doubt on this notion; while Latino and Asian students were more likely than white students to consider activities reflecting their own cultural background as “very important” in an ordered logit model, all students with such a focus on their own cultural background were also significantly more likely to report that learning about other cultures was important to them. In any case, establishing a dedicated multicultural center could both reduce charges of self-segregation aimed at minority students and provide an opportunity for all students to learn about other cultures (which 86% of students indicated was at least “somewhat” important to them, with 39% considering it “very important.”)
Based on available survey data, Hamilton has compelling reasons to construct a multicultural center. To do so would serve students' needs and take positive steps towards reducing intolerance at the College.
Works Cited
HamPoll, 2007. “Racial/Ethnic Issues: Tell us ANONYMOUSLY!” Online survey. Contact hampoll@hamilton.edu for questions about data. All analyses conducted by Kye Lippold (klippold@hamilton.edu), who takes full responsibility for interpretations herein.
Cultural Education Center Proposal February 2008
The Social Justice Initiative
Contact sji@hamilton.edu
Cultural Education Center
A Cultural Education center must be established if Hamilton wants to become a truly inclusive empowering and diverse campus. This Center will accommodate all organizations representing traditionally marginalized groups. It needs to exist in addition to the Afro-Latin Cultural Center because that building houses only two groups and is too small.
Because Hamilton succeeds in providing a comfortable and ‘safe’ campus for the majority of the students, the campus effectively becomes ‘white’ space. Although all students are welcome everywhere on campus, there should be a space set aside specifically for historically marginalized students. This space becomes ‘safe’ because it allows a minority to feel in the majority. This center also offers an alternative to many other buildings at Hamilton that represent a perpetuation of ‘white’ success through their names and histories.
As this center will be open to all students, it will provide a necessary forum for white students to learn about and celebrate others. Additionally, many of the current issues of diversity ( see rationale part ) would be solved by a cultural center.
Proposal
The Social Justice Initiative proposes that Hamilton College demonstrate its commitment and respect for cultural and intellectual diversity by including plans for a Cultural Education Center in the strategic plan of 2008. The college should plan to erect a cultural center in the next ten years; it can show its commitment in the present by creating a pledging fund, hiring an architect to design a plan, and actively pursuing this goal.
The Social Justice Initiative believes that Hamilton College should lead our peer schools towards more inclusive and representative campuses by investing in a true Cultural Education Center.
What it would look like…
The Multicultural Center needs to be in a central location not only so that it is easily accessible from all parts of campus but also because it would demonstrate the central importance of diversity at Hamilton College.
Further, since this facility will be fully maintained by the college, it will emphasize Hamilton’s commitment to the experience of diverse and multicultural students.
Obviously, it must be easily accessible to every student.
First Floor—
• Foyer—comfortable space where students from various groups can intermingle, where students can sit and study, and a desk for the cultural center monitor to sit. The Foyer and the Library also provide exhibit space for students’ art and other artifacts that represent diversity and historical diversity at Hamilton.
• Library— modeled after the CJ Browsing Room, but a little bigger and better lit. This room provides space for the various groups to keep their historical documents and other resources related to multiculturalism on campus. This also offers suitable space meeting space for 15-20 people.
• Computer room— adjacent to the library or the foyer, large enough for six computers and a printer
• Lecture/ banquet room— multipurpose space the size of the science auditorium, can be converted for a lecture or for a large dinner
• Kitchen— place accessible to students, but that Bon Apetitt can also use to cater the banquet hall
Second Floor—
• Conference room— a conference room for about twenty people with walls and a door. Various groups can reserve this room for meetings and other events that require a safe, private space.
• Ten small rooms (eight ft by eight ft), one for each of the organizations. These can be used as storage spaces or as offices depending on the need of the specific organization.
• Open common room area with coaches, tables, TV. This space could be used for informal meetings and gathering or as a nice place to hang out.
• Office of the director of multicultural affairs.
Inherently different than a student union…
It is essential that this space be separate from a conventional Student Union because it serves the specific purpose of creating a forum for marginalized students to convene and communicate. This reserved space in the Cultural Center exists in addition to space in a Student Union. This demonstrates a tangible, structural commitment on the part of the college to multiculturalism and diversity on campus. Further, a separate center celebrates rather than assimilates or segregates difference. A traditional student union, even if granting meeting space to multicultural groups, is not adequate because this is still not a 'safe space' because it perpetuates the current majority/ minority dynamics. Perhaps other organizations dislike their current meeting spaces in Bristol, List, KJ, Beinecke, ELS, etc.,s but when they meet they feel comfortable and unthreatened. This is their privilege - it is not even a thought, which is why it is so important to keep in mind while planning. Many of Hamilton’s peer schools have very successful Multicultural centers and it is essential Hamilton follow this trend (such as Williams, which will be addressed in rationale).
Rationale…
Benefits of Proactively Supporting Diversity on Campus
Diversity benefits not only the multicultural population, but also the majority population of the campus. Being truly committed to diversity means to be committed to the original purpose of affirmative action for people of color which is to take proactive measures by accommodating and retaining students from multicultural groups. By instituting cultural center, colleges and universities will attract more students and faculty of color and also proactively retain the students of color that attend those institutions. Studies which are written and researched by Debra Humphreys, AAC&U, for the Ford Foundation Campus Diversity Initiative (1998) have shown how diversity benefits college campuses including:
• Many students seem to anticipate and desire greater levels of intergroup contact than they actually experience on campus. In fact, opportunities for interaction between and among student groups are desired by virtually all students. When they do occur, such interactions produce clear increases in understanding, decreases in prejudicial attitudes, and positively affect academic success. These interactions are likely to be more beneficial when they are institutionally supported, when the participants are equally valued, and when they involve projects with common goals and outcomes.
• One study found that African American alumni who had participated in theme houses reported more positive experiences than those living in predominantly white residential settings. Another study found that African American theme houses provided support and cultural enrichment to participating students.
• Another study found that cognitive development advances among students participating in a course on multiculturalism.
• Special campus services designed to support minority students, including racial and ethnic theme houses, student organizations, and academic departments positively contribute to minority student retention. (citation here? Unsure)
Many of Hamilton’s peer schools have structures in place such as Cultural Centers that make multicultural student’s college experiences more fulfilling. Schools such as Williams College have three facilities on their campus that serve multicultural students’ needs and cultural events for the whole campus. As one of the top liberal art school in the country, we strive to evolve into an even better educational institution by looking at our peer schools and seeing what makes them a competitive educational institution.
Benefits of Cultural Center to Hamilton College
A Cultural Education Center will work to solve Hamilton College’s problems:
• Firstly, such a program would implement the steps that the polled students viewed as most effective to address diversity issues. The most popular proposal among the options listed in the poll was “better peer education about diversity,” which was rated by 48.55% of students as “very effective” and called ineffective by only 15.44% (the least opposition of any plan). By providing a fixed location for diversity education outside of the context of speakers, multicultural events, or requirements to take diversity classes (all proposals favored less strongly by the student body), a cultural awareness center would meet many students' perceived needs for remedying prejudice.
• Secondly, a common concern evinced by students in the personal comments section of the poll suggested that multicultural students segregated themselves from the rest of the campus. Other data in the poll casts some doubt on this notion; while Latino and Asian students were more likely than white students to consider activities reflecting their own cultural background as “very important” in an ordered logit model, all students with such a focus on their own cultural background were also significantly more likely to report that learning about other cultures was important to them. These results make sense since white students almost always learn about their culture and by just attending an institution such as Hamilton are immersed in white culture.
• Thirdly, establishing a dedicated multicultural center could both reduce charges of self-segregation aimed at minority students and provide an opportunity for all students to learn about other cultures (which 86% of students indicated was at least “somewhat” important to them, with 39% considering it “very important.”)
Based on available survey data, Hamilton has compelling reasons to construct a multicultural center. To do so would serve students' needs and take positive steps towards reducing intolerance at the College.
Contact sji@hamilton.edu
Cultural Education Center
A Cultural Education center must be established if Hamilton wants to become a truly inclusive empowering and diverse campus. This Center will accommodate all organizations representing traditionally marginalized groups. It needs to exist in addition to the Afro-Latin Cultural Center because that building houses only two groups and is too small.
Because Hamilton succeeds in providing a comfortable and ‘safe’ campus for the majority of the students, the campus effectively becomes ‘white’ space. Although all students are welcome everywhere on campus, there should be a space set aside specifically for historically marginalized students. This space becomes ‘safe’ because it allows a minority to feel in the majority. This center also offers an alternative to many other buildings at Hamilton that represent a perpetuation of ‘white’ success through their names and histories.
As this center will be open to all students, it will provide a necessary forum for white students to learn about and celebrate others. Additionally, many of the current issues of diversity ( see rationale part ) would be solved by a cultural center.
Proposal
The Social Justice Initiative proposes that Hamilton College demonstrate its commitment and respect for cultural and intellectual diversity by including plans for a Cultural Education Center in the strategic plan of 2008. The college should plan to erect a cultural center in the next ten years; it can show its commitment in the present by creating a pledging fund, hiring an architect to design a plan, and actively pursuing this goal.
The Social Justice Initiative believes that Hamilton College should lead our peer schools towards more inclusive and representative campuses by investing in a true Cultural Education Center.
What it would look like…
The Multicultural Center needs to be in a central location not only so that it is easily accessible from all parts of campus but also because it would demonstrate the central importance of diversity at Hamilton College.
Further, since this facility will be fully maintained by the college, it will emphasize Hamilton’s commitment to the experience of diverse and multicultural students.
Obviously, it must be easily accessible to every student.
First Floor—
• Foyer—comfortable space where students from various groups can intermingle, where students can sit and study, and a desk for the cultural center monitor to sit. The Foyer and the Library also provide exhibit space for students’ art and other artifacts that represent diversity and historical diversity at Hamilton.
• Library— modeled after the CJ Browsing Room, but a little bigger and better lit. This room provides space for the various groups to keep their historical documents and other resources related to multiculturalism on campus. This also offers suitable space meeting space for 15-20 people.
• Computer room— adjacent to the library or the foyer, large enough for six computers and a printer
• Lecture/ banquet room— multipurpose space the size of the science auditorium, can be converted for a lecture or for a large dinner
• Kitchen— place accessible to students, but that Bon Apetitt can also use to cater the banquet hall
Second Floor—
• Conference room— a conference room for about twenty people with walls and a door. Various groups can reserve this room for meetings and other events that require a safe, private space.
• Ten small rooms (eight ft by eight ft), one for each of the organizations. These can be used as storage spaces or as offices depending on the need of the specific organization.
• Open common room area with coaches, tables, TV. This space could be used for informal meetings and gathering or as a nice place to hang out.
• Office of the director of multicultural affairs.
Inherently different than a student union…
It is essential that this space be separate from a conventional Student Union because it serves the specific purpose of creating a forum for marginalized students to convene and communicate. This reserved space in the Cultural Center exists in addition to space in a Student Union. This demonstrates a tangible, structural commitment on the part of the college to multiculturalism and diversity on campus. Further, a separate center celebrates rather than assimilates or segregates difference. A traditional student union, even if granting meeting space to multicultural groups, is not adequate because this is still not a 'safe space' because it perpetuates the current majority/ minority dynamics. Perhaps other organizations dislike their current meeting spaces in Bristol, List, KJ, Beinecke, ELS, etc.,s but when they meet they feel comfortable and unthreatened. This is their privilege - it is not even a thought, which is why it is so important to keep in mind while planning. Many of Hamilton’s peer schools have very successful Multicultural centers and it is essential Hamilton follow this trend (such as Williams, which will be addressed in rationale).
Rationale…
Benefits of Proactively Supporting Diversity on Campus
Diversity benefits not only the multicultural population, but also the majority population of the campus. Being truly committed to diversity means to be committed to the original purpose of affirmative action for people of color which is to take proactive measures by accommodating and retaining students from multicultural groups. By instituting cultural center, colleges and universities will attract more students and faculty of color and also proactively retain the students of color that attend those institutions. Studies which are written and researched by Debra Humphreys, AAC&U, for the Ford Foundation Campus Diversity Initiative (1998) have shown how diversity benefits college campuses including:
• Many students seem to anticipate and desire greater levels of intergroup contact than they actually experience on campus. In fact, opportunities for interaction between and among student groups are desired by virtually all students. When they do occur, such interactions produce clear increases in understanding, decreases in prejudicial attitudes, and positively affect academic success. These interactions are likely to be more beneficial when they are institutionally supported, when the participants are equally valued, and when they involve projects with common goals and outcomes.
• One study found that African American alumni who had participated in theme houses reported more positive experiences than those living in predominantly white residential settings. Another study found that African American theme houses provided support and cultural enrichment to participating students.
• Another study found that cognitive development advances among students participating in a course on multiculturalism.
• Special campus services designed to support minority students, including racial and ethnic theme houses, student organizations, and academic departments positively contribute to minority student retention. (citation here? Unsure)
Many of Hamilton’s peer schools have structures in place such as Cultural Centers that make multicultural student’s college experiences more fulfilling. Schools such as Williams College have three facilities on their campus that serve multicultural students’ needs and cultural events for the whole campus. As one of the top liberal art school in the country, we strive to evolve into an even better educational institution by looking at our peer schools and seeing what makes them a competitive educational institution.
Benefits of Cultural Center to Hamilton College
A Cultural Education Center will work to solve Hamilton College’s problems:
• Firstly, such a program would implement the steps that the polled students viewed as most effective to address diversity issues. The most popular proposal among the options listed in the poll was “better peer education about diversity,” which was rated by 48.55% of students as “very effective” and called ineffective by only 15.44% (the least opposition of any plan). By providing a fixed location for diversity education outside of the context of speakers, multicultural events, or requirements to take diversity classes (all proposals favored less strongly by the student body), a cultural awareness center would meet many students' perceived needs for remedying prejudice.
• Secondly, a common concern evinced by students in the personal comments section of the poll suggested that multicultural students segregated themselves from the rest of the campus. Other data in the poll casts some doubt on this notion; while Latino and Asian students were more likely than white students to consider activities reflecting their own cultural background as “very important” in an ordered logit model, all students with such a focus on their own cultural background were also significantly more likely to report that learning about other cultures was important to them. These results make sense since white students almost always learn about their culture and by just attending an institution such as Hamilton are immersed in white culture.
• Thirdly, establishing a dedicated multicultural center could both reduce charges of self-segregation aimed at minority students and provide an opportunity for all students to learn about other cultures (which 86% of students indicated was at least “somewhat” important to them, with 39% considering it “very important.”)
Based on available survey data, Hamilton has compelling reasons to construct a multicultural center. To do so would serve students' needs and take positive steps towards reducing intolerance at the College.
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