Socioeconomic Diversity Stories Project

Hey there!

Did you see one of our "dollars" with a story about income, class, or socioeconomic status? Thanks for following the link to learn more!

We're Connect 4, a student group at WashU that tries to advance diversity, dialogue, understanding and change. Some C4 initiatives include Party of Six, which takes a group of 6 strangers out to dinner on the loop to try to build connections among students from different backgrounds, and Mix it Up Day, a free lunch each semester that provides a similar opportunity for dialogue and understanding. We have weekly meetings that are open to anyone. Sometimes we use meetings to plan initiatives like this project, and sometimes we have discussions on topics related to diversity and social justice. New ideas excite us, and we'd love to have you come out and share your thoughts with us!

Our latest initiative is this stories project. The goal is to help students understand each other's backgrounds. The point is to generate dialogue, so don't keep your thoughts to yourself! Do you have a reaction to the dollar bill you're holding? Talk to a friend about it. Or, feel free to comment on this post. The WashU community will benefit from the conversation.

Do you have a story of your own to share? Submit one using this link! We'll post it here on the blog. We understand that reading or sharing stories can be difficult, and we encourage you to take advantage of free counseling sessions at Student Health Services if you need (shs.wustl.edu or 314.935.6666).

Finally, if you find yourself interested in socioeconomic diversity and want to improve socioeconomic diversity at WashU, check out WU/fused: http://su.wustl.edu/directory/48232. We can help you get in contact with their group if you need, so feel free to email connect4.wu@gmail.com.

Here follow some of the stories that are circulating around campus (more to come soon):

New Exec Board for Spring 2012!

Hello Connect4 Members!

Your Spring 2012 Exec Board:

President: Camille Young

Vice President: Varsha Mangal

Treasurer: Adam Cheng

Secretary: Andreas Mitchell

Publicity: June Jennings

Keep a look out this week for our Socioeconomic diversity initiative, which starts December 5th!

Have a great day!

- Connect4 Exec Board

Fall 2011 Announcements

Hello Connect4 Members!

Your Fall 2011 Exec Board:

President: Andreas Mitchell

Secretarial VP: Nicole Applebaum

Treasurer: Adam Cheng

Publicity: Varsha Mangal

Our first meeting is still tentative, but it should be on September 14, 2011 at 9 PM in Seigle 205.

The location may change.

Come visit us at the Activities Fair in Brookings Quad, 4:30 to 6:30 PM on Wednesday, September 7th.

We can't wait to present our semester vision to you at our open house meeting! : )

Connect4 Exec Board

Connect 4 End of Semester Roundtable

PARTY NEXT WEEK!

Thursday December 9th, 9-10pm

Location: Seigle 305 (tentatively)

Roundtable Topic: How can Connect 4 better serve the Wash U student body?

Bring your ideas to help us shape our vision.

Also bring your appetites :)

Open to the entire Wash U Community.

SPRING 2011 EXEC BOARD

Election Results for the Spring Semester 2011

President: Camille Young

Vice President: Grace Chao

Treasurer: Adam Cheng

Secretary: Nicole Applebaum

Public Relations: Varsha Mangal

Congratulations to everyone!!!

Meet Your Execs!

Welcome to the newest member of the Connect 4 Executive Board, Amy!

President - Grace Chao, 2013

Vice President - Ezelle Sanford, III, 2012

Treasurer - Camille Young, 2013

Secretary - Amy Rosenthal, 2013

Public Relations - Rori Spivey, 2012

Thank you to all our members and people who have attended our GBMs. Enjoyed the activities and discussions? Let's keep the momentum up.

Send us your ideas for future meetings and let us know if you'd like to lead an activity!

connect4.wustl@gmail.com

The Importance of Cultural Identity

THE IMPORTANCE OF CULTURAL IDENTITY

Join us this Thursday at 9pm, Seigle 305 for some awesome dialogue.

Just some of the questions to give you a taste:

Is it wrong to only hang out with people of your own race/ethnicity?

Do we “lose” anything from integration/assimilation?

What is “Black Gravity”?

Why is it that white people are never accused of self-separation?

No right or wrong answers. We're here to learn from each other.

RSVP on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=127303433989260&ref=mf

It's here!

9 pm. Seigle 305. Be there.

Our agenda for the night:

Welcome to Connect 4
A fun game
Food
Introduction to our Initiatives
Hang out

Diversity. Dialogue. Understanding. Change.
Come be a part of it all.

Connect 4's new suite in the Women's Building is finally open.

We're Suite 25 Garden Level

Thanks to Student Union for making this space available to us!

Connect 4 has a new space in the Women's Building, Garden Level.
Hope everyone is having a great summer! We're pumped to be working with you all this coming school year.

New Connect 4 Executive Board, Fall 2010!

Tonight we held Connect 4 leadership team elections for the Fall 2010 semester, and here are the results:

President- Grace Chao, 2013
Internal VP- Lexi Klein, 2012
External VP- Ezelle Sanford, III, 2012
Treasurer- Camille Young, 2013*
Secretary- Kyle Carpenter, 2013
Public Relations- Rori Spivey, 2012*

*Positions whereby elected members were not present upon voting are tentative until the elected leader accepts his/her position via written verification.

Congratulations to all elected members! 

You Bring Out the Vietnamese in Me, Bao Phi

Last night, I (De) had the pleasure of attending a poetry show (hosted by Vietnamese Students Association and WUSLAM) that featured Def Poetry Slam poet, Bao Phi. It was really awesome, so I thought I'd post a video or two of his work. 

You Bring Out the Vietnamese in Me


Another Great One- I LOVE THIS ONE

Also, shout out to VSA for the awesome poster that was with the event:

Are You Taiwanese? Put It on the Census!

Nice PSA

Let's Start a Conversation

Today I was reading a blog that I follow called RaceWire, and its post, "Start a Conversation to Say No to Racial Profiling" caught my attention. With the struggle that bodies within the WU community have had with sustaining attention and concern with the racial profiling issue, it intrigued me that the organization and its partner, Night of 1000 Conversations, could do so with such ease in multiple cities.

I wanted to share this because as Missouri does not have a "Conversation" currently registered,  I think it would be great if conversations about various issues could be sparked with the toolkits and service that these organizations provide. What will we converse about as WashU students? What social causes and issues peak our interest at this current time? This is something to think about, and if you desire to spark a convo with your peers and groups, try using Night of 1000 Conversations as a resource.

Here's the video that they posted on RaceWire.*



*Please note that conversations do not have to be about race...

Peace

What Does "Connect 4" Stand For?

This is the question that we get a LOT, so I thought it would be great to answer it here.

Connect 4 is a merger from two previous WashU groups, Campus Week of Dialogue and the Student Diversity Initiative. Led by Cambrie Nelson/Hanna Beck and Fernando Cutz (SDI), the two groups merged in Spring 2008 and chose the name Connect 4 based upon the tenants on which each stands. These are:

The name itself, "Connect 4," has caused some confusion amongst students after the group was first instituted as a SU recognized Category 1 group.  Many conceive it as a game enthusiast group, others- who may know its general mission- lack clarity to what the "4" stands for. Still, others hear it and know not what to really think.

In its current year, changing the name has been discussed and considered amongst members. However, in efforts to not be conflicted with the potential Diversity Affairs Council and our separate focus on engagement, interaction, awareness, and programming, Connect 4 decided that we will keep the name. We hold the four principles at the core of our mission, initiatives, and events, and the name is unique. One consideration for future leaders, however, is indeed how we can possibly modify the original four tenants to for directly express the aforementioned new focuses. But this is a post for a later date.

Currently, many in our group, including freshmen Camille Young and Grace Chao have committed themselves to help the group engage ways to better share our mission, our purpose, and our activities, and this is definitely a great step in allowing our campus to know all of the many things that Connect 4 members connect for.

More will come throughout the semester for some of the publicity campaigns that Connect 4 members lead.

Please stay updated, follow us, and provide comments as desired!

Support NSBE Week and its Collaboration with Controversy N Coffee

Here's the description from Facebook:


Come hear from 5 panelists on their views regarding the state of diversity among WashU faculty.


The Coordinating Council for Diversity Initiatives:


The CCDI, chaired by the Special Assistant to the Chancellor, has been charged to assist the University in the development of a strategic plan for enhancing diversity, provide recommendations for institutional practices, policies, and programs that foster diversity and equity, and promote institutional diversity initiatives campus-wide.


Panelists:
Anne Marie Knott: B-School
Consuelo Wilkins: Medical School
Cindy Grimm: Engineering School
Leah A. Merrifield: Special Asst. to Chancellor for Diversity Initiatives.
Luis Zayas: Brown School of Social Work

From the Community Service Office, "That Uppity Theatre Company & The DisAbility Project Presents 'The Assorted Adventures of Tom, Huck and Becky' "

That Uppity Theatre Company & The DisAbility Project Presents “The Assorted Adventures of Tom, Huck and Becky” 

February 18 & 25
As part of the Big Read initiative, That Uppity Theatre Company & The DisAbility Project presents "The Assorted Short Adventures of Tom, Huck and Becky," a reinterpretation of Mark Twain's classic stories.  This free, community event will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 18th and Thursday, February 25th at the Washington University Music Center (located in the Delmar Loop at 560 Trinity).  
The performance, perfect for children of all ages, will be told through a disability perspective and performed by a mixed cast of actors with disabilities. Your attendance and involvement in the Big Read program will help raise awareness on the importance of reading and literacy in our community. 
 
Please RSVP to evlasaty@culturalfestivals.com or call 314-863-0278

Treasury Rejects DAC...StudLife Covers

Below is the StudLife article covering Treasury's decision. It is written by Alan Liu and can be seen at http://www.studlife.com/news/2010/02/19/treasury-rejects-diversity-council-irking-backers/

Please know that the supporters of this effort will be joining for a response next week. For more info on the DAC and this issue, please inquire with Connect 4 by emailing connect4.wustl@gmail.com.

Treasury rejects diversity council, irking backers

Senators passed same measure 22-2-1 last week.

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By Alan Liu
STAFF REPORTER

Posted February 19, 2010 at 4:11 am

Student Union Treasury on Tuesday barely voted down legislation to create the Diversity Affairs Council, leaving the future of the proposal in doubt.

The vote was 7-6-1. A two-thirds majority, or 10 votes, was needed to pass the legislation.

Earlier that evening, Treasury had gone through the legislation’s articles and approved each one individually. When Treasury voted on the entire legislation, however, it did not pass.

“From a legislative perspective, it’s nothing I’ve ever seen before,” said Senate Speaker Chase Sackett, a senior.

Treasury Representative Ehi Okoruwa, a sophomore, said part of the problem stemmed from representatives’ uncertainty about what they were voting on.

“A lot of people were confused on whether we were going to discuss the structure, whether we were going to discuss the value this brings to campus, etc.,” Okoruwa said. “Many people were just not on the same page.”

Among the concerns that representatives raised were that the council (DAC) added to the complexity of SU, that this council would allow other groups to unduly influence the executive branch of SU, and that there seemed to be no guarantee that the DAC would accomplish its goal.

SU Senate passed the same legislation last week 22-2-1.

According to the legislation, the DAC aims to “foster connections between members of the campus community, and address issues so as to bring diversity to the forefront of campus-wide and administrative concerns.”

Diversity refers to that of sex, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, age, class and philosophy, among many other ways of judging people.

After the vote, DAC supporters left the room.

Diversity Affairs Council: From beginning to legislation

Senior DeAndrea Nichols, president of Connect 4, raised the question of diversity last summer to find groups beyond Connect 4 that addressed the issues of diversity. She said the conversation eventually reached senior Jeff Nelson, student body president.

“He said that there’s nothing in SU that focuses on diversity,” Nichols said. “This is despite the fact that our larger University constantly states that we care about it.”

Sackett, Senior Class Council President Fernando Cutz, Coordinator for Student Involvement and Multicultural Leadership Naomi Daradar Sigg and other student leaders on campus eventually took up the issue.

After drafting the legislation, SU held a Legislative Leadership Council meeting at the beginning of this semester to discuss the legislation.

“Treasury reps saw this very early in the semester and had the opportunity to give input,” Sackett said.

Cutz pointed out that the legislation went through 13 drafts before appearing at the Senate’s University Initiatives Committee, which approved the legislation 10-0 and moved it on to Senate and Treasury.

Reactions

“Quite frankly, I’m really upset right now,” Student Union Senator Betel Ezaz, a sophomore, said during the open forum portion of Treasury.

Cutz’s criticism of Treasury was much harsher.

“I think Treasury has shown a fundamental incompetence at representing the will of the student body,” Cutz said. “I think they were not voting according to their constituents’ wants.”

But Sackett was quick to point out that 50 percent of the body did support the legislation on Tuesday.

“We absolutely do commend the half of the body that did vote to support the legislation,” Sackett said. But he added, “I’m still unclear as to what the reasons were for voting against it [were].”

After the Treasury meeting, Treasury Representative Peter Glaser, a junior, said it was unfair to criticize Treasury for being insensitive to diversity when the body approves events promoting diversity on a weekly basis.

Jack Kider, a Treasury representative and Budget Committee co-chair, said the DAC legislation failed because its supporters failed to explain why its goals could not be met through school organizations that already exist.

“I believe that many Treasury representatives did not wish to pass legislation that creates more bureaucracy and another organization within Student Union, while there are many institutions within and outside of Student Union that already exist to address the same issues that the DAC would have addressed,” Kider wrote in an e-mail to Student Life.

Next steps

Now, supporters of the legislation are trying to obtain 900 signatures by Monday so that this issue can go before the whole student body in spring elections.

“We want to give the student body a chance to show they care that SU should make diversity a part of its intrinsic structure, and I think that students do believe that,” Sackett said. “And that’s why we’re so confident and that’s why we’ve been working on this for so long.”

Environmental Racism, an Event for Environmental Justice and Education

I was checking out this week's St. Louis Activist Hub, and found the following upcoming STL event about environmental racism really interesting.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=250575542912


As it's description states,

Environmental racism is the disproportionate exposure of environmental hazards on minorities. 

Environmental justice is the civil rights movement's response to environmental racism. 

The environmental justice movement doesn't seek to simply redistribute environmental toxins, but to abolish them entirely.

Exposure to these toxins directly effect the physical and mental development of children.

Environmental Racism- East St. Louis Levees? Are we facing a local Katrina? The New Northside? Transformative or Negligent?


The event is Thursday at 5:30. I may attend.

Minutes from the DAC Senate Meeting

Question and answer session

Why is the VP of programming, not vote

Apart of the structure of that was agreed upon

Why do we need this ?

We have groups like "senate"

In what capacity can you do more than senate

Senators graduate and loose interest in what they do

Need something more consistent

Need some thing to be sustained

Senate deals with more with various projects

Not trying to do "more" with senate

Working more with senate to work on what ever will fall in the realm of diverslity on campus

Student groups cannot really sustain excitement for diversity on campus

Student groups doing other thing

For this racial profiling example, how would the DAC react?

Ther is no single committee that works specifically with diversity

People want to do something in the community, but don't know the resources

Can direct students to other resources on campus

About the relationships

Senate is more policy oriented, the DAC

Hard for senate because it is individually project based

Clarify, how is the DAC different than Connect 4?

• Take a look at the spare slide!
• Dac is more policy oriented than programming
• Dac is student union body, pres and treas. Training
• Helps with overprogramming
• C4 is events focus,a nd programming focused
• DAC is more policy recommendation oriented
• Connect 4 is still anew organization
• Project based with individual members

Opinion of Roundtable

• Very successful
• Talking about how to further relay our end ideas/mission
• Really helpful perspectives

Thoughts on how Diversity training is not  a programming body?

Dac members would go to another members event

We would Privide the training, not plan the "event" (that will be planned by the student group)

Jill Carneghi

1. Great thing- institutionalizes ideals of what
2. 2
3. Why restrict yourself to no budget?
1. Might need that one day
2. Put your money where your mouth is and where your
3. Look at the OTHER spare slide
4. If a budget is needed, we could appeal under the executive budget/appeal
5. Annual operating budget would be 0 for the
6. In theory: why not have a line item budget

Could Connect 4 be considered a subsidiary comitte?

-dac coprogramming with other individual groups

Senate Discussion

• Very well presented
• Having a body which is able to communicate wtievery body on campus
• Concerns
• Is there conflictt with DAC providing resources.  Isn't that a VP Programming job
• Is it more than an advising body
• Vp programming- is for coordinating non overprogramming
• Vp programming will advise in the overprogrammming sense
• Dac is ultimately trying to facilitate programming amongst student groups

• Just because this isnt a programming boad doesn’t mean that they cannot do anything
• Can work with student groups
• Putting on non-budgetary programms
• Who will continue monitoring the email address for racial profiling incidences
• Does this legislation reflect what is presented  in the legislation
• Encourage more programming by other student groups
• Collaboration
• That’s why it is in student union

Advertising to the ENTIRE Wash U community

Concerns:

Downside: add more complexity to SU's complex organizational structure

Don’t see what the DAC will be doing  on a week to week basis

A lot of overlap with other organizations

Are there other ways of creating these goals OUTSIDE of the DAC

Purpose slide freaked her out, reads like programming group; should focus mission statement on policy

Ammendment proposed-committee that will address issues and coprogramming

Vote of the ammendment: raising of placards:

See NEW legislation: ammendment has been made

DAC gives a positie vibe

Motion to vote now:7 for voting, opposed:

Vailed

Back in discussion

Why isn't VP Programming doing this?

Diversity in unclear

This is NOT just about PROGRAMMING

Dac is there for students who will want to start initiatives

More hesitant because it is so simiilar to connect 4

It should be better thought out and do more

Point of clarification

Senate can amend the legislation at any ppoint

There is a lot of oversight between the legislative bodies

How can we (international grad students) program with undergraduates?

Great to have an authority figure to go to

Programming takes a lot of energy

Not having that as a priority will allow that council to focus on reaching out to other graduate students

STL community wants to reach out to Washington University studsents

Will  be able to connect the STL entities, as well as Wash U community

Having a roll call vote on the vote to vote (confusing right)- failed

Actual vote to vote- 13 for, 10 opposed

Abstain 2

Failed

MOVE BACK TO DISCUSSION

Opinions  on dac making its own constitution

Not important to have weekly meetings

Interest in other groups

Cs 40 supports this and want too use this a s a resource (Pat)

Membership question: point of clarification: must have attended one previous meeting

Motion to ammend: change f.1- voting members present instead of entire voting membership (friendly ammendment)

Alex: Concern: too large to have a budget

Rather see the vp  programming appoint a diversity initiatives chair before establishing the DAC

Alof of change

Analogous to the green commitees

Takes time to have this organization to grow

Not hard to twak along the way

Should really pass this,and make sure it passes in tresury

We can tweak this and make this better

DAC is not a passive resource

Question: not enough for the DAC to do

e.g. WU/fused does constant things, even though there is nothing required for big programming each week

Is the dac active or passive?

Interesting point

Argument: fema: only really need for natural disaster and catastrophe, only needed when a catastrophe to happen

Important to have an established structure to step

Have to be planning and working with everyone

Point of clarification c.1-  cabinet can be defined by the constitution (size can change)

Senate was once apart of treasury, and it was brought up (would  senate have anything to do

Need is there!

Don't have a body

Need a figure head

Merits its own organization and inititiave

Vp of programming wouldn't relally focus on diversity and these needs ona daily basis

Helpful to have another group focused solely on this issue

Mike Saksvick

Paralysis by analysis

Need to stop talking about the braod stuff

Constitution wil l work out the details

Vote on the motion: legislation to create diversity affairs council:

Roll call vote 22:2:1

Non-voters: Alex Cooper and Pat Kelley

Treasury will be seeing this next week