Diversity Caucus

2005/6 State of the Community Report

 

Excellence is about performing well above and beyond the call of duty. It’s about bringing a commitment to the task that comes from deep in the heart. It’s about the trust that it takes to work together when the odds seem slim or the goal seems unattainable. It’s about a community where no one leaves part of his or herself at the door---not their culture, their passions, or any part of their capabilities.

 

The Diversity Caucus is a grass roots antiracism organization. There are 200 individuals on its listserv and this forum generates discussions daily on a number of issues. This listserv holds the most responsive set of volunteers. This was  demonstrated by the rapid response to the "math incident" when Diversity Caucus members such as Denise Johnson, Akemi Matsumoto, Cora Nixon, Helen Taylor, Russ Payne, Louis Watanabe, Ed Biggers, Sayumi Irey, Suzy LePeintre and many more came to the forefront to determine strategy, mount brown bag sessions, and show films to educate on racism. Not acknowledged is the behind-the-scenes crisis management to avert further fallout.

 

This year Jean Floten acknowledged the contribution of the Diversity Caucus and other pluralism initiatives to her receiving the 2006 national John L. Blackburn Award for Exemplary Models of Administrative Leadership from the American Association of University Administrators (AAUA). The AAUA cited the national Charles Kennedy Equity Award from the Association of Community College Trustees, the National Service-Learning and Civic Engagement Collaboration Award from the Community College National Center of Community Engagement, and the national Sen. Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalization from NAFSA: The Association of International Educators as awards that are “given to only a handful of colleges and or universities nationally.

Minority Access, Inc. also named BCC one of the “Nation’s Leading Colleges and Universities Committed to Diversity” one of only five community colleges that include Maricopa Community College (Ariz.), Brevard Community College (Fla.), Bristol Community College (Mass.) and the Houston Community College System.

 

Our Diversity Caucus Chair, the indomitable Cora Nixon was an amazing leader in one of the most challenging years that we've had for some time. She was both an oasis of calm and a firebrand advocate for equity as the campus roiled over the math question controversy. She was also there--speaking on our behalf on radio, manning booths at endless community fairs and student orientations. She is living demonstration of the incredible jewels who are hidden in our community. This coming year, Cora (pictured here with her warrior necklace from the Diversity Caucus) will share Diversity Caucus Chair duties with Susan Gjolmesli.

 

Institutional Renewal Pluralism Subgroup and other Strategic Planning - The move from first-order change to transformation is underway with recommendations already implemented from the Institutional Renewal - Pluralism Subgroup Report. Jim Bennett is our new VP Equity and Pluralism. Lisa Shyne is our new MCS Director.

 

Living Treasures Celebration - The Living Treasures Celebration serves an important symbolic purpose in inculcating pluralism into the embedded values of our college. It gives recognition to those who may not receive the traditional awards of the college because they make waves. It means a tremendous amount that everyone treats this as a family event, both in bringing their families and in the overwhelming feeling of family when we gather. On January 27, 2006 we celebrated the naming of five Living Treasures, Ruthann Kurose, Kae Hutchison, Sayumi Irey, Myra Van Vactor and Leslie Lum.

Courageous Conversations and Beyond Diversity -- We celebrated the 244 courageous people who engaged in Beyond Diversity and we added another 47 on opening week September 2006. Akemi Matsumoto began a training the trainer program that has prepared ten of our own to conduct Beyond Diversity workshops. The key is to get folks to the Courageous Conversations. That is where the change happens.

Employee Pluralism -- The Employee Pluralism Committee has been the main driver behind organizing Beyond Diversity and Courageous Conversations. Juan Ulloa continues leadership of the Employee Pluralism Committee and along with Robin Jeffers has mapped out actions to increase faculty of color. The EPC takes on the difficult task of meeting our strategic vision of true pluralism in recruiting faculty and employees of color to equal the compositional diversity of students.

Pluralism in the Curriculum -  The committee made recommendations for hiring faculty staff of color (still to be presented to Ed Services), creation of database to track committee members, steps in hiring practices and results of hirings, and got a commitment from IR to disagreggate student success rates by race/ethnicity at the classroom/section level where individual faculty can use their identification numbers to access disaggregated data about their own individual success with self-identified students of color and at-risk students. The entire English Department including past chair Jeffrey White and current chair Sydney Dietrich, plus Donna Meek and Cora Nixon (who facilitated) should be acknowledged for their ongoing work on Courageous Conversations in the English Department on how to increase compositional diversity.

Student Pluralism -- The Student Pluralism Committee continued its work on focus groups with the disabled student focus group. Their outreach resulted in an increase in students of color in ASG. Major achievements include the Colors of the Community Fair, headed by Faisal Jaswal of Student Programs and the capable and multicultural student leadership, which attracted over 4000 from the community despite inclement weather.

American Indian Film Festival-- The American Indian Film Festival had the misfortune of conflicting with the "math incident." Despite that over 700 people attended the 27 events of the festival. It is becoming an establishment in our community.

kcbs 93.1 FM - Our illustrious radio station is growing a volunteer-powered and social justice-focused newsroom, where reporters and producers are community members committed to skill sharing and facilitating media making of, by, and for our communities.

 

 

 

Institutional Renewal Pluralism Subgroup and other Strategic Planning

 

 

  2002  of Color   2003  of Color   2004 of Color   2005 of Color 2005 All Percent
Administrative 9   2   1   2 8 25%
Classified 84   78   80   81 252 32%
Full-Time Faculty 19   19   20   20 148 14%
Part-Time Faculty 54   58   51   73 596 12%
Professional/Technical 12   22   22   21 145 14%

 

Fall 2005 Student Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity

 

 

 

 

Race Ethnicity

State & contract

All Students

African American

405

440

Alaska Native

8

8

Asian

1839

2012

Multi-Racial

443

459

Native American

62

67

Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander

26

29

Other Race

431

464

Pacific Islander

14

15

Unknown Race

984

4704

White

8010

9267

Latino/a

866

932

 

Race/ Ethnicity Full-time Faculty State & Contract Students
African American 5 412
Asian/Pacific Islander 13 2,387
Latino/ Hispanic* 1 417
Native American 1 75
White 128 8,052
Faculty Total 148  
Multi-Racial 20 443
Other Race   438
Student Total   11,807

 

Race/ Ethnicity Part-time Faculty State & Contract Students
African American 6 412
Asian/Pacific Islander 44 2,387
Latino/ Hispanic* 21 417
Native American 2 75
White 523 8,052
Faculty Total 596  
Multi-Racial 73 443
Other Race   438
Student Total   11,807
* Latino/Hispanic origin students who selected a race are counted under their designated racial category.  The 11,807 excludes the 417 Latino/Hispanic students.
State refers to fully or partically funded courses funded by state resources. 
Contract designates courses funded by grants or contracts

 

 

 

Member of the Diversity Caucus engaged in a number of planning initiatives throughout the year including the Institutional Renewal Pluralism Subgroup which produced the most comprehensive reports of all the Institutional Effectiveness Committees convened. The planning retreat with the Washington Center reinforced the key recommendations summarized below. As everyone know, Jim Bennett is already in his new position as VP Equity and Pluralism and Lisa Shyne is our new MCS Director. We are optimistic that movement will be made in the other positions as well.

 

Institutional Renewal Pluralism Subgroup Report Executive Summary - February 2006

Although college has garnered national recognition for our pluralism efforts, as defined by the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), the college is still engaged in first-order change in inclusive excellence. Diversity and equity are not part of the embedded values of our college and we continue to mount programs to solve the “problem.”  We believe that it is essential to push the college to large-scale transformation. To achieve this goal, the following recommendations are made:

 

  1. The key recommendation of this committee is that the college adopt a structure that defines inclusive excellence as a top priority of the college and that encompasses accountability at all levels from the President on down. Inherent in this recommendation is the creation of an Inclusive Excellence Scorecard which addresses the access and equity; diversity in the curriculum; campus climate; and student learning and development.

 

  1. To stop the erosion of efforts which have brought acclaim to the college we must:

·         Fill the Multicultural Services Director position immediately. This position serves a vital function in supporting the 4500 students of color in our college.

·         Continue to keep Human Development at full contingent of 6 FTEs. This department provides substantial support to our students of color.

·         Increase the pluralism budget by $37,000 to a total of $75,000 to sustain essential programs that rely precariously on donated time and money.

·         Allocate permanent program chair funding (1/9 release) for Ethnic and Cultural Studies.

 

  1. Create the position of Vice President, Pluralism and Equity which reports to the president and is broadly empowered to hold all levels of the institution accountable for achieving the goals of the Inclusive Excellence Scorecard.

 

  1. Allocate one full-time equivalent faculty to and development funds for additional courses in the Ethnic and Cultural Studies Program for 2007/8. This program has proven itself successful in attracting and retaining students of color.

 

  1. Create the position of ombuds to track student, faculty and staff complaints and issues and to recommend changes to college processes that counter institutional racism and other deterrents to inclusive excellence. This position may be filled with 2/3 release in 2006/7 with full-time funding in 2007/8.

 

  1. Create a director of professional development and other training to develop skills to improve retention of students and employees. This position may be filled with 1/3 release in 2006/7 with full-time funding in 2007/8.

 

  1. Create a half-time development position in 2006/7 to be increased to full-time in 2007/8 in Institutional Advancement to be devoted entirely to raising funds for inclusive excellence efforts.

 

  1. Create a full-time administrative support position for the VP Pluralism and Equity in 2008/9.

 

  1. Create the Director of the Antiracism Institute position once funds have been raised to support the center.

 

Inclusive Excellence Scorecard

 

 

Indicators

BCC Accountability Examples

Access and Equity
  • Proportion of students, faculty and staff of color
  • Number of students of color by program
  • Retention of students, faculty and staff of color
  • Comparative percent of students of color by race with A grades by division
  • Disaggregation of student data (enrollment, retention, grade received) by course and instructor
  • Proportion of administrators of color
  • Proportion students of color admitted and transferred to UW or other four-year institutions

 
  • All organizational units are responsible for setting and meeting goals for achieving compositional diversity
  • All administrators’ performance appraisals will be based on achieving these goals
  • All employees will address their contribution to inclusive excellence in their performance appraisal
  • Organizational units will disaggregate data, address and be accountable for pluralism objectives through PEP, the program review process or any other review required by the college
  • Organizational units will set goals, propose remedies for deficit indicators, and timelines for  inclusive excellence

Diversity in the curriculum
  • Number of courses related to intercultural, international and multicultural topics
  • Proportion of students of color by course and instructor
  • Campus centers, institutes and departments dedicated to exploring racism, whiteness, intercultural, international, and multicultural topics
  • Articles, monographs, lectures and new knowledge that is produced around issues of diversity

 
  • Tenure review process includes an evaluation of how inclusive excellence is incorporated
  • Tenured faculty evaluation includes how diversity and equity is addressed by individual faculty in college governance, professional development, curriculum development and research.
  • Number and percent of courses with audited cultural diversity rating of 2 or 3.
  • Development of assessment tools for cultural pluralism and implementation of these tools

 

Campus climate
  • Faculty and employee of color surveys for feelings of belonging
  • Student of color focus groups and surveys
  • Incidents of harassment based on race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation
  • Intergroup relations and behaviors on campus
  • Retention of students, faculty and staff of color
  • Number of student activities where students groups of different races interact

 
  • Creation of the office of the ombuds to track and report on these statistics, including remedial action that must be taken
  • Student, employee and faculty surveys developed and implemented
  • Institutional research will provide an annual compilation of the campus climate studies

 

Student learning and development
  • Acquisition of knowledge about whiteness, diverse groups, and cultures as determined by assessment
  • Number of students in college activities related to pluralism
  • Number of students who vote
  • Number of students who engage in the community and social causes
  • Creation of an assessment to measure knowledge acquisition and attitude change
  • Measurement of active engagement in pluralism
  • Research on the longitudinal impact of this strategy on student success

Adapted from  Williams, Damon A., Berger, Joseph B., and McClendon, Shederick A., “Toward a Model of Inclusive Excellence and Change in Post-Secondary Institutions,”  2005, http://www.aacu.org/inclusive_excellence/papers.cfm, Association of American Colleges and Universities briefing paper, p.21

 

Living Treasures Celebration - January 27, 2006

An evening of healing, friendship, family, and celebration.

The designation of Living Treasure is to honor those who made a difference in advancing pluralism in our community. They serve as models and mentors—providing inspiration with their purpose, heart, and wisdom. They are the folk heroes who live amongst us. This special distinction is our gift to the beloved “elders” as well as an expression of gratitude for all they have done. Often these members of our community did their hard work in frustrating and difficult circumstances with little or no recognition for their efforts. It was on the shoulders of these people that we were able to move forward in the past few years.

 

As important as it is, the Living Treasures Celebration continues to be mounted entirely on volunteer effort and a bounty of donated food. We thank Jennifer Gordon and Amy MacNeill who did the lion's share of the work in making it the most magical and warm evening. Thanks also to Kim Burns and Lucy Macneil who rounded out the planning committee. They are white women allies who stepped up and set the bar higher than ever.

 

Sayumi Irey, our first Diversity Caucus co-chair, is a dynamo. She currently leads the Ethnic and Cultural Studies Program which has grown to 11 courses and over 400% in enrollment. Articulation agreements have been signed with the UW Bothell and Seattle with more to come. She is Chair of the Tenure Review Committee and is actively (and on her personal time) involved with the Multicultural Student Leadership along with doing graduate work. Her influence on the Professional Development and BCC Reads! Committees were felt in diversity training and diversity curriculum. She is universally admired and respected. Myra Van Vactor played a pivotal role in our pluralism efforts by getting a key grant from the Washington State Library three years ago. This grant funded our first Beyond Diversity Workshop with Glenn Singleton which was a turning point in pluralism at BCC. She also is an exceptionally gracious host, making the library a vibrant center for pluralism (despite the huge disruption) with events like Frank Wu and Vi Hulbert which brought overflowing crowds of up to 200 students. The library also hosted the Employee Pluralism's film series that welcomed students, faculty and staff alike to share films like "The Wedding Banquet."  You need only look at the compositional diversity of the library staff to know how much Myra supports pluralism and how comfortable a home she has made the Library Media Center for all students, staff, and faculty.

 

Ruthann Kurose, who has been on our Board of Trustees for 13 years. Ruthann has been untiring in her support of pluralism at BCC and she pushes us to achieve more. She has attended Beyond Diversity workshops and is a loyal participant at all our events including the American Indian Film Festival. She has made countless introductions to key people in the community and a strong advocate on our behalf with the state legislature. Kae Hutchison was honored for her early work on pluralism and white privilege. Lucy Macneil acknowledged Kae for being early as a white administrator in identifying white privilege as a barrier to eliminating racism.Living Treasure, Tika Esler, will be moving to be near her daughter and her new granddaughter who will be arriving this spring. Tika will be missed for her formidable administrative skills and the passion she brings to providing the best services and support for all our students.

 

An incredible performance by Owuor Arunga, a native of Kisumu Kenya and the son of BCC faculty Marcia Arunga, provided more evidence of the amazing talent in the BCC family. As a graduate of the New School University, he has played with the beacons of jazz (Charlie Persip, Candido Camero, Billy Bang, The Cadillacs, Robert Glasper, Louis Reyes Rivera) and apprenticed with masters Olu Dara, Jimmy Owens, and Chico Freeman. The "Young Lions" dazzled the crowd with their exceptional playing and had us all up and dancing. Nothing lights up a crowd more than the genius of the coming generation.

 

Courageous Conversations and Beyond Diversity

Racism is like the weather: you can’t get away from it. If this is not evident to you, Courageous Conversations is a good place to start exploring why.

Courageous Conversations has resulted in the breakdown of barriers across race, employee class and department. In addition to ongoing work against institutional racism, Courageous Conversations serves as the most effective communication mechanism to develop curriculum, discuss teaching and learning around pluralism, troubleshoot problems and rejuvenate the heavily-taxed individuals who do the hard anti-racism work on campus.

 

Courageous Conversations and Beyond Diversity received a Foundation Minigrant and a Title III grant to fund the Train the Trainer workshop so that BCC can use its own cadre to conduct training. Our facilitators are becoming as skilled as the consultants we bring in. We need to keep sight of the fact that it's the Courageous Conversations and not Beyond Diversity alone that can transform the college.

 

Akemi Matsumoto who are already a national consultant on diversity training will carry on the work of Beyond Diversity and Courageous Conversations.

 
Division/Dept  
 Attendees
Total
Arts & Humanities 27
Administrative Services 25
Board of Trustees 1
Business 18
Continuing Education 4
DSS 2
Educational Services 7
Instructional 12
Human Resources 3
Information Resources 20
Institutional Advancement 7
KBCS 91.3 FM 5
Library Media Svc 7
NWCET 1
President's Office 3
Science 11
Social Science 10
Student Services 45
Workforce Development 8
Total 216

Employee Pluralism

Staff empowerment and leadership

 

The Employee Pluralism Committee headed by the multi-talented Juan Ulloa (who added faculty credentials to his already impressive resume) moved forward on the key goal of making employees of every classification meet the compositional diversity of students and of creating accountability for pluralism and equity at all levels of the institution. The Employee Pluralism Committee worked with the Instructional Pluralism Committee to come up with major recommendations towards improving the compositional diversity of the college. Members of the committee for 2005/6 were Agnes Figueroa, Becky Turnbull, Casey Spence, Elman McClain, Louis Watanabe, Lucy Macneil, Matt Groshong, Paul Weatherly, and Susan Jamieson.

 

It is an important tradition in many communities of color to have events where people get together and share a meal. Despite the many potlucks we have had this year (Diversity Caucus opening potluck, Living Treasures, 244 Celebration, and AIFF) where our community brings delicious food, there is never a shortage of the generous spirit that corrals the tremendous amount of time and effort it takes to mount these. All those who share in the warmth of these events (about 400 people) owe a great debt of gratitude to those who do so much.

 

The Taste of BCC is the culinary event of the year put on by the Employee Pluralism Committee. It is a major morale booster for the employees at BCC and is always attended by well over 100 people.

 

Special thanks to Nora Lance who is an incredible event planner (and treasure) for our college. We would not have the excellent reputation for warmth and welcoming if it were not for Nora who is here day and night, weekdays and weekends making our students and the community feel like BCC is a home to all.

 

EPC Work Plan 2006-07 

 

  • Taste of BCC
    • Organize a Taste of BCC potluck during winter quarter

 

  • Push to get Faculty hiring recommendations implemented.
    • Recommendations for faculty hiring were made last year. Now the EPC needs to try to get the recommendations implemented.  Some of the recommendations were already implemented
       
  • Create Part-time faculty hiring practices recommendations
    • Continue last years work into the part time faculty hiring process
    • Create recommendations to improve the process

 

  • Further support and train pluralism Advocates
    • Need to finalize example diversity questions for job interviews and application forms  (deadline Fall 2006)
    • Continue meeting with pluralism advocates on a quarterly basis
    • Have one more training session for pluralism advocates (deadline Fall 2006)

 

 

 

 

Pluralism in the Curriculum

True pluralism and an antiracist environment linked with rigorous and deep learning that starts at the heart.

Robin Jeffers ended her term as Chair of the Instructional Pluralism Committee by working with the committee and Employee Pluralism to compile this comprehensive list of action items to improve the compositional diversity of BCC employees. Other members of the committee were Jim Bennett, Diane Douglas, Maggie Harada, Robin Jeffers, Denise Johnson, Ron Leatherbarrow, Gordon Leighton, Nicole Longpre David Oar, Kim Pollock, Judy Roberts, Helen Taylor, Jack Surendranath, Helen Taylor, and Judy Woo. The committee made recommendations for hiring faculty staff of color (still to be presented to Ed Services), creation of database to track committee members, steps in hiring practices and results of hirings, got a commitment from IR to disagreggate student success rates by race/ethnicity at the classroom/section level where individual faculty can use their identification numbers to access disaggregated data about their own individual success with self-identified students of color and at-risk students, made a presentation to Sacramento City College on BCC’s anti-racism work, created the anti-bias website: www.bcc.ctc.edu/bias/  and made two presentations (Opening Week Pluralism Day and at the Faculty Teaching Institute). Scott Bessho will take over leadership for this year.

 

Recruiting Faculty and Staff to Improve Diversity at BCC

Recommendations from the Employee and Instructional Pluralism Committees

 

Actions

Responsibility assigned to

Oversight

 

 

 

Changes to Faculty Contract

 

 

Department/Program chairs required to attend Pluralism Advocate training.

 

Executive Dean

EPC

Hiring committees required to contain 1 additional Pluralism Advocate (2 pluralism advocates total, committee chair and another), or to contain 2 Advocates if chairs are not trained advocates.

 

HR

EPC

Tenure and post tenure review documents include report on faculty member’s activities that support learning in diverse classroom, efforts to make BCC an equitable work environment.

 

Executive Dean

IPC

Upcoming retirees required to notify BCC further in advance to insure that requests for replacement positions can go in for following year.

 

HR

IPC

Ongoing Recruitment Activities

 

 

Run generic ads (“Work at BCC”) in area publications aimed at diverse readership: Colors NW, etc.

 

HR

EPC

Annually, send announcement advertising BCC’s ongoing need for PT faculty from the full range of cultures, ethnicities and abilities to the following for posting:

  • Student programs administrators at area universities with graduate schools (UW, Western, Seattle U)
  • Culturally-based/affinity-based organizations at area universities with graduate schools
  • Disability Support Services at these schools

 

HR

EPC

Create brochure to recruit employees from the full range of cultures, ethnicities and abilities.

 

HR

EPC

Print and distribute brochure to organizations that focus on diverse populations.

 

HR

EPC

Create a recruitment website.  Include a regularly updated list of 4-5 BCC faculty/employees who can be contacted regarding campus climate. 

 

HR (with help of EPC is asked)

EPC

Maintain recruitment website. 

 

HR

EPC

Maintain a “Positions To Be Opened” section in the HR website for upcoming FT faculty positions.

 

VP HR

EPC

Create Recruitment Committee.

 

VP HR

EPC

Create skilled interviewers by providing interviewer training which includes general interview info as well as pluralism/equity info for all hiring committee members. 

VP HR

EPC

 

Actions

Responsibility assigned to

Oversight

 

 

 

Ongoing Accountability/Assessment

 

 

Create internal (HR) website that contains model position descriptions, qualifications, essay prompts, and interview questions aimed at hiring faculty/staff of color or faculty skilled in teaching multi-cultural/ethnic/ability student body.  Site also includes list of mandated steps in hiring process.

 

HR (with help of EPC is asked)

EPC

 

Construct Hiring Database to contain, for each hiring, recruitment plan, position description, hiring committee with pluralism advocates designated, interview questions, report on effectiveness of recruitment process.

 

I-BCC

HR

HR Recruitment Coordinator enters data into hiring database.

 

HR

EPC

Pluralism Committees evaluate data yearly and recommend action based on results.

 

IPC/EPC

 

 

 

 

FT Faculty Request for New Positions/Approval Process

 

 

Form permanent Recruitment Committee that consults on development of recruitment plans.

 

HR

EPC

Compile set of instructions that details mandated steps in hiring process.  Instructions placed on internal Hiring website.

 

HR

EPC

Include tentative recruitment plan in FT Faculty Position Request form.  Plan addresses how diverse (multi-cultural, multi-ethnicity, multi-ability) faculty will be recruited.  Plan always includes method for getting position description and recruitment brochures to relevant local graduate schools, culturally/affinity-based organizations and DSS at these schools.

 

HR

Recruitment Committee

During prioritization of faculty positions, Recruitment Committee  or person/group TBD provides feedback on recruitment plan.

 

Recruitment Committee Chair

 

HR

Once new FT faculty positions are approved, IPC chair is notified of them.

 

HR

IPC chair

Newly approved positions appear immediately in the “Positions To Be Opened” area of the HR website.

 

HR

EPC

Add all hiring related policies to Policies and Procedures manual in MyBCC

HR / Admin Services

EPC
       

 

 

Actions

Responsibility assigned to

Oversight

 

 

 

Actions Post Approval-of-Position/Pre-Interview

 

 

 

 

 

Hiring Committee chair receives instructions (mandated steps) for completing hiring process.

 

HR

EPC

First planning meeting (pluralism advocates must attend, representatives from Pluralism Committees invited) revises recruitment plan based on advice from recruitment committee. Diversity definition discussed.  Revised recruitment plan sent to HR for entry into hiring database. 

 

Hiring Committee

HR

Recruitment Plan is implemented.  Pre-advertise positions, etc.

Hiring Committee/ HR

Recruitment Committee

 

 

 

Position Descriptions for all positions

 

 

Position descriptions are saturated with diversity/equity information and requirements.

 

Hiring /Recruitment committee

HR

HR Recruitment Coordinator screens position descriptions for required elements before entering descriptions into hiring database.

 

HR

EPC

 

 

 

FT Faculty Position Descriptions

 

 

Preferred qualifications always include ability to teach in multi-cultural, multi-ability classroom and pluralism advocate (values and advocates for diversity, able to work as a team member)

 

Hiring Committee

HR

Required supporting documents always include statements on diversity and ways of teaching multi-cultural/multi-ability learners, responses to 3-4 short essay prompts on pluralism and equity.

 

Hiring Committee

HR

Interviewee demonstrates ability to teach in multi-cultural/multi-ability classroom

 

Hiring Committee

HR

 

 

 

Screening Process—all positions

 

 

Pluralism Advocates develop set of materials for training new advocates

Pluralism Advocate group

HR/EPC

Pluralism Advocates participate in HR applicant screening.

 

Pluralism Advocates

Exec Dean

 

 

 

Interview Process—FT faculty

 

 

HR provides short training for all hiring committee members which includes general interview as well as pluralism/equity info.

 

HR

EPC

Interview includes question that addresses discipline’s challenges related to teaching in a multi-cultural, multi-ability classroom

 

Pluralism Advocates

HR

Interview questions are delivered to candidate 15 minutes prior to interview.

Hiring Committee

HR
     

 

 

Actions

Responsibility assigned to

Oversight

 

 

 

Post Interview/Hiring

 

 

Planning meeting members re-convene to evaluate success of recruitment techniques and suggest improvements to process.  Report goes into hiring database.

 

HR

EPC/IPC

List of current Pluralism Advocates delivered to Professional Development Coordinator by August 1 of any year.

EPC

Professional Development Committee

New faculty are assigned mentors from among Pluralism Advocates.

Professional Development Coordinator

EPC

 

 

The entire English department and both previous Chair, Jeffery White, and current Chair, Sydney Dietrich, took on a strong departmental initiative to deal with the lack of diversity--and they are sticking with it by a serious of internal Courageous Conversations. Thanks to Donna Meek, who courageously made waves and Cora Nixon for facilitating these important conversations that have already brought movement on a number of fronts.

Ethnic Studies with the assistance of Title 3 funding, has developed a First Year Diversity Seminar which was approved by the CAC. The first course will be offered in Winter 2007 and will serve as a pilot for the First year seminars that will be required of all students as part of the student success strategic mission. First year experiences have been shown to be extremely effective in student retention. They create a learning community to engage and connect the student to the college community. Hopefully this will serve as a pilot for the First Year Seminars that the college envisions for all students. Kim Pollock, founder of Ethnic Studies resumes leadership of this important departments for students of color.

Student Pluralism

Increasing awareness of pluralism as it relates to students

 

If we could give another Living Treasure designation to Faisal Jaswal, we should do it many times again. Faisal has been an incredible force in energizing student programs such that the college has experienced a blossoming of student clubs to a total of 59 including 20 clubs relating to race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation. Student Programs runs the Leadership Institute (which incorporates specific diversity training) and has created a signature multicultural community event that brings close to 5000 people to the campus. He gives unflagging support the many Diversity Caucus events that bring students in.

 

Chair:  Akemi Matsumoto

Tika Esler

4 Students (to be determined)

Three faculty:  Suzy Lepeintre, English

                                                Michael Righi, Economics

                                                Akemi Matsumoto, Counseling

Student Service Representatives:

                                                Faisal Jaswal, Student Programs

                                                Ron Taplin, Counseling Faculty

                                                Shari Smelser, Dean of Students Office

                                                Susan Gjolmesli, Disability Support Services

Others:             Tom Pritchard, Social Science

                                                Norma Whitacre, Ttle III

                                                Elman McClain, Campus Security

                                                Blaine Parrott, Campus Security

 

 

Goal:  Gather, understand and use retention data for our planning.

IA.  We conducted one additional focus group for Students with Disabilities on January 25, 2006.  Susan Gjolmesli and Suzy Lepeintre were the facilitators with Akemi Matsumoto typing in the comments.  We also taped the session so we could do a neutral analysis.  For the first time we used release forms from the students so we could use their comments from the tape.  All other focus groups were not recorded. 10 Students participated.  Cost $150.  Susan’s office covered the cost of pizza and pop.

 

We could not gather a group of GLBTQ students although Akemi and Faisal repeatedly contacted the Bridges club.  We decided that the International Student focus group could wait until next year.

 

IB.  Suzy Lepeintre did a Critical Discourse Analysis of the Latino/Hispanic focus group which was conduced May 3, 2005:  The conclusions of this analysis were:  Latino/Hispanic students perceive BCC: 

·         Wealthy and prestigious

·         Wealthy and prestigious is not for Latino/Hispanic students

·         Latino/Hispanic Students do not belong at BCC

·         Latino/Hispanic students place meaning on one on one interactions within this context.

·          

Akemi wrote a request for Title 3 funds to do more analysis of our focus group data that was turned down.  We tried to get the analysis done as a Soc 110 class project and finally got Judy Woo’s spring quarter BA 240 class to do an analysis.

 

IC.  A 2/3 faculty release Ombud is now part of the campus Pluralism Initiative for next year.  One of the primary purposes of the Ombud is to collect institutional data on discrimination and harassment complaints as a monitor for campus climate for non-traditional students.

 

ID. The Student Government survey done spring of 05 results said that 89% of our students said BCC is a welcoming place for diverse students.  Half of the respondents were from diverse backgrounds.  Our committee added two questions about the environment to the survey.

 

Goal:  Include more students in pluralism training and activities:

We offered three HD 140 classes during the year with a total enrollment of 56 students.  Student Conversations were held every Wednesday for the entire school year and even through the summer.  Shanika Russell, Elman McClain, Rod Agassiz and Akemi Matsumoto facilitated.  The team teachers were Kim Pollock, Akemi Matsumoto, Russ Payne (fall and winter), and Matt Groshong (spring).  The total cost of the stipends for the weekend class was $1500.

 

We strongly encouraged student government and the multicultural leadership classes to participate.

 

A spin off of Student Courageous Conversations is one parent who has strongly suggested training and Courageous Conversations at Odle Middle School.  Akemi has been in contact with their principal, Ms. Allman.  The principle of Tilicum Middle school is also interested. Akemi will be meeting with her this summer.

 

Goal:  Increase indigenous student of color participation in ASBCC

 

2006-2007 student government is increasing its diversity.  6 out of 10 officers are students of color or  students with disabilities.  The committee e-mailed all students of color with the 2.75 required gpa informing them of the positions and the upcoming elections.

 

Goal:  Welcome Packet for Developmental Students

 

No information available at time of report submittal

 

Goal:  Revise Complaint Policy and Procedure policy in response to the Math question incident spring 06.

 

In addition to our regular work plan, the Pluralism Steering committee asked us to begin revising our current complaint policy and procedures.  We noted that the procedure can only address individual level complaints and not institutional issues.  The committee drafted a revision, held one meeting to discuss it and Akemi will be compiling the comments and add insights after reviewing the recently revised WSU procedure.

 

Fourth Annual American Indian Film Festival

Shaking our faith in traditional pedagogy and showing us how much we need to learn.

An estimated 700 people attended the 21 events of the fourth annual American Indian Film Festival arranged by the phenomenal Phil Lucas. Ironically attendance was impacted by the very issues that the festival was supposed to educate us about. For those who missed the events, the films will be available in our library.

Frank Brown (Heiltsuk) was a Native youth headed for a juvenile detention center for brutally assaulting a man when trying to steal liquor. His uncle and aunt intervened and asked the judge to sentence him to the traditional Native punishment of banishment. He spent eight months alone on an island and credits the experience with changing his life. This was recorded in the Phil Lucas' film, Voyage of Rediscovery. In 1986, Frank Brown revitalized the canoe journey (the first in 60 years) with the paddle to Vancouver's Expo 86. Subsequent journeys included the Paddle to Seattle in 1989 and the 1993 canoe to Bella Bella where 23 canoe families met and celebrated. He is currently an ecotourism entrepreneur. Frank's company SeeQuest Adventures was selected in 1999 as a "Best Case" example of sustainable tourism by Simon Fraser University's Tourism Policy and Research Centre.  Frank was nominated as one of the top 40 Canadians under 40 years of age by Canadian national media and he received an award for his work in the traditional canoe resurgence from the BC Ministry of Small Business, Tourism and Culture and Heritage BC.

Willard Bill, Jr. (Muckleshoot) and Frank Brown spoke on the revival of the canoe culture in Pacific Northwest tribes. Willard Bill talked about the Muckleshoot Tribe which despite the successful economic development brought about by its ownership of the casino, amphitheatre and race track (all of which make the Muckleshoot a major employer in the South King County area), face opposition to any initiative they undertake. Willard said that even today, tribal members are denied service because of the way they look. Revival of culture and language is important to the Muckleshoot as there are only eight tribal members who are fluent in their language. The canoe journey has been a way for tribe members to find their culture again and to learn to work together.

Steve Brown, Shaun Peterson (Pullayup/Tulalip), Joe Gobin (Tulalip) and Jason Gobin (Tulalip). Shaun and Jason are both accomplished Salish artists who have participated in several Canoe Journeys, and have worked with the late Jerry Jones of Tulalip on canoes and related projects. Joe has participated in many canoe borne journeys and ceremonies, beginning when he worked with Jerry Jones on the first new Tulalip canoe for the Paddle to Seattle in 1989. Steve Brown has carved twelve canoes since 1973, in Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska.

BCC was treated to a preview of Spiral of Fire and Seat at the Drum, two films that will be broadcast on PBS this coming November. Our own Phil Lucas is one of the senior producers of these films. Both films deal admirably with complex contemporary issues in Indian Country. They include the resurgence of identity, language and culture in Indian communities after policies of forced assimilation which included boarding schools, relocation, and putting Indian children into foster homes. Controversy over blood quantum (who is  Indian and who is not) has been surfacing, with individuals who want to acknowledge their heritage as well as with individuals who covet tribal gaming income. Historical events and their current consequences were reviewed in the plight of the urban Indian.

Frank Blythe (Eastern Cherokee), the executive producer (and who incidentally went to high school with Phil Lucas), has been a driving force in Native American media for a number of years. He has produced countless shows for PBS and is currently in discussion with Fox to do a Native reality show. He spoke about the creative decisions involved in making the films and in trying to develop Native talent.

Gary Farmer (Cayuga), actor, cultural activist, musician and filmmaker, has been featured in groundbreaking leading roles including his role as Nobody in Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man, (which was screened at the film festival). Gary presented his film The Gift (about corn in keeping with BCC Reads!) which was screened at Sundance. He also presented the film One Dead Indian, a true account about the political intrigue and racism that resulted in the shooting of a Native American activist by the Ontario police and the eventual downfall of the Premier of Ontario. It was particularly relevant as a group of young activists trained by Gary had just won back land rights to a piece of Native land that was sold to developers. Gary is a phenomenally intelligent and charismatic person with photographic recall. It was an incredible blast to share time with him.

Trudell is an emotional roller coaster of a film that covers the life of American Indian activist and performer, John Trudell. It was screened at Sundance and Tribeca and won a jury prize at the Seattle International Film Festival. It is currently in independent distribution. Filmmaker, Heather Rae, concerned that the film gets viewed not just in art house theatres, has just received a Ford Foundation grant to mount viewings in the community. The film will also come out in DVD on May 15. An edited form of Trudell (sans FBI references) was broadcast on PBS (nationally but not locally). Despite her great success, Heather made many references to the mentoring that she received from Phil Lucas and how he continues to influence her work. Even with the popularity of scandal mongering documentaries (which generate much more money), Heather said that she stood by Phil's tenet that you should respect your subject. The Kirkland Performance Center cosponsored a showing on Friday night that brought people from the community.

kcbs 91.3 FM

A real voice for diversity

KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio (www.kbcs.fm) is powered by roughly 200 community volunteers. About 100 program and host and eccelctic schedule of music shows. Thanks to Sabrina Roach for her strong support of a number of Diversity Caucus initiatives.

 

Locally produced at KBCS, The Old Country, heard on Sunday evenings at 7:00pm, offers listeners an in-depth look at music from around the world hosted by people living in the Northwest region. This one-hour pre-produced radio program focuses on the incredible rich musical knowledge that is present in this community - from working musicians and aficionados to immigrants and people with interests in musical rarities. The Old Country serves as a wide educational tool which incorporates scriptwriting, audio production, and on-air hosting.  Fluent English not required.

 

We’re growing a volunteer-powered and social justice-focused newsroom, where reporters and producers are community members committed to skill sharing and facilitating media making of, by, and for our communities. There are about 30 core public affairs volunteers right now. Many more that have attended our free or low-cost community journalism trainings, respond to opportunities posted to our public affairs list-serve.

 

"Voices of Diversity" on Wednesday nights at 6:00pm is a show produced by volunteers in conjunction with the City of Bellevue's Cultural Diversity Program.  

 

"One World Report" on Thursdays nights at 6:00pm is a live, magazine formt, volunteer produced show that focuses on social justice issues -- telescoping between the local and the global.

Both of these show continually engage people in the greater Seattle area in discussions of race -- providing a public forum on the air that is amplified by the radio broadcast.