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

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

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 

An Opportunity to Collaborate with GlobeMed

Another cool opp that has come our way. We may discuss Thursday (pending results of tomorrow's legislation!) :D

My name is _____ and I am the current president of GlobeMed Wash U. A few years ago, the UN named February 20^th the “World Day of Social Justice”. In designating this day the World Day, the UN aimed to recognize the need to bring together the efforts of all members of the community in promoting access to social well-being and justice for all, no matter in what capacity. 

This year, GlobeMed Wash U is trying to bring World Day of Social Justice to the forefront of students’ minds here on campus. 

On Friday, February 19^th, we will host an on-going awareness event during the day and a slam/mixer event for all interested Social Action groups in the evening. The primary goal of these events will be to bring attention to World Social Justice Day on main campus. On Saturday, February 20^th, we will host a webinar, “Health and Social Justice” featuring Laura Turiano, a physician who currently serves on the global coordination group of People’s Health Movement (PHM) Right to Health and Health Care Campaign.

I wanted to invite Connect 4 to collaborate with us on this event. While GlobeMed primarily fights for global health equity, we recognize that health issues cannot be solved without solving many other social justice issues. This is a unique opportunity for various groups with different goals to band together and share our experiences with one another.

Please let me know if you would be interested in collaborating/participating. If you are interested, I will send more details and we can work together to make this an amazing event.

Thanks!

GlobeMed Wash U President

Student Survey about the State of "Diversity" on Campus

Last night we hosted a roundtable event called "The State of 'Diversity' at WU" in efforts to assess students' current perception of both the term and how the cause is played out on campus as well as promote/garner support for the upcoming Diversity Affairs Council legislation that we are striving to institute within our student government. For the event, we performed a video survey of students to garner different perspectives prior to the event. Below is the first video compilation of some of the feedback.




This video can also be viewed at http://thecatalysts.ning.com/video/connect-4-video-survey-01 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkVHg981S7c&feature=player_embedded

StudLife Article about Connect 4, Op-Ed by Fernando Cutz

View this article at http://www.studlife.com/forum/2010/02/05/connect-4-provides-support-for-diversity-initiatives/

In response to an incident of Anti-Semitism that had occurred against my freshman year roommate and in response to four other events of hate, discrimination and prejudice that had occurred on our campus in the span of a few months, I founded the Student Diversity Initiative early in the fall of 2007. We soon went on to merge with Campus Week of Dialogue, a group that had been around on our campus for over a decade, and collectively we became known as Connect 4.

Connect 4 proved to have a strong purpose and need at our school. As we like to say, we are the only “non-cultural, cultural group” around. Instead of celebrating one specific culture or heritage, we strive to celebrate them all. Instead of focusing on what divides us, we strive to focus on what brings us together. Our programming has been hugely successful on campus and has taught students to better embrace and celebrate diversity, dialogue, understanding and change within our community.

Recently, however, we have seen that programming alone is not enough. With the Mother’s Bar incident, the discussions of racial profiling on campus and the dialogue dealing with WU/FUSED and socio-economic diversity issues all having been prominent this past semester, we have come to realize that policy aspects are equally important to truly addressing issues of diversity and discrimination at Wash. U. The University administration, understandably, tends to work with Student Union, not specific student groups, on issues of policy that affect the student body. That is why I plan to strongly advocate for the creation of the Diversity Affairs Council (DAC) within Student Union.

Compared to our sister schools, Washington University’s student government is one of the very few that doesn’t have a diversity position within it. It is imperative that we change this. The DAC would be responsible for working with the many student groups and with SU to have policy-level input on all kinds of issues of diversity. It would advise both SU Execs and Senate and would use SU’s legitimacy and infrastructure to facilitate dialogue and co-programming between the many diversity groups on our campus and between the appropriate diversity-oriented members of the University administration.

Connect 4 will continue to exist as a student group and will continue with its mission. But the DAC is an essential addition to the structure of SU that will allow diversity to be furthered on our campus, and issues of hate, discrimination and prejudice to be dealt with more effectively in the future. I strongly support the formation of the DAC and encourage you to express your support for it at an upcoming Senate meeting as well!

Fernando Cutz
Senior Class President, Class of 2010

ROUNDTABLE| The State of DIVERSITY on Campus

Regarding Diversity Affairs at WashU

Important proposal for addressing student diversity affairs upcoming on campus. Please read and pass along to your peers and constituents. 

For years and semesters, members of our student community have have voiced a desire and need for an official and legitimate student-led entity that can provide:

• centralization of student-led communication, resources, and support for multicultural and diversity-related affairs,
• a rapid- action based source to aid in the address of bias-based incidents as they occur (think: ethnic profiling, Right Side of History, etc),
• a legitimized and collective voice for the student body when advocating greater desires of "diversity" to SU and the appropriate members of the University administration,
• more direct facilitation and accountability for collaboration and co-programming between cultural groups,
• increased provision and centralization of diversity training and workshops for student groups and individuals,
• and more.

Since returning this semester, many of us have worked with various members of the community to conceive a proposal to Student Union for the legislation of a Diversity Affairs Council (DAC) that will strive to address these and other interests. With a defined structure and much closer ties to SU, the DAC would represent the creation of an explicit diversity element within Student Union oriented towards helping a wide array of groups and individuals— including cultural, religious, LGBTQIA and social justice—reach common goals.


It would hope to provide policy recommendations to the Student Union Senate and support them into action as incidents occur on campus.  It would help coordinate diversity training on campus, connect new groups and initiatives (like WU/FUSED or Culture Shock) with campus leaders, and host a monthly Roundtable as meeting grounds for its constituents. The Chair of the DAC would be appointed by the SU President, and then would appoint a Cabinet to provide direction for the council, and it is with great hopes that with your support, members of the student body will have thorough representation within the DAC and unite towards enhancing and activating what the term "diversity" means on our campus. 


WE NEED YOUR HELP AND SUPPORT TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN.

SU Senate recently set the legislative consideration and voting for this initiative for February 10. As work on this legislation proposal is relatively new, communication of it to the wider student body has been limited. But we want you to join us in showing Student Union student support for the DAC

INPUT is needed.
On Monday and/or Tuesday of this upcoming week, we will be launching a "State of Diversity" campaign to garner a vast array of student perspectives on what is perceived to have become just a "buzz word" on campus.  We will be videotaping random and self-selected students in the DUC Commons sharing how they regard the current state of the term "diversity" on our campus. These will be shared all week in prep for the Senate legislation. 

DIALOGUE is needed.
With the new developments of the DAC concept, we will be hosting a Roundtable on Thursday February 4 at 7:30pm in DUC 234 about the "State of 'Diversity'" on campus whereby we will analyze and discuss the issues that have been prevalent over the past year and pitch why the DAC could serve as a foundational solution for such issues. We need honest and raw dialogue about this, so please bring diverse and strong opinions. 

SUPPORT is needed.
The DAC legislation is currently set for February 10 in SU Senate. Please support this effort by attending this meeting, bringing your peers, and voicing your opinions about the DAC legislation.

For any questions, concerns, or suggestions, or to get involved, please contact Connect 4 at connect4.wustl@gmail.com. 

C4 Execs

Leave your comments below:

Pre-Semester Meeting, January 21, 2010

Big props to Betel for such succinct notes. Awesome. Also, great thanks to Aiko and Salma for joining us!

Connect4 1/21/10

·  Grace is still doing PR with Brittany

·  One of the main goals of this year is to make sure we hold ourselves and others accountable for our initiatives.

·  Activities Fair is on Wednesday from 4:30-6:40

·  Legislation: there will be a new draft sent out by next week

o   Main goal is to keep communication open

o   Meeting with non-C4 Ehi and Nate Ferguson to discuss the legislation

·  Ezell is in process of getting things in order to get the Diversity pre-o started

o   Sign up sheet passed around for those who want more info

·  Camille and Lexi will be starting “Operation Understanding WashU

o   Discussions and programming to discuss various issues

o   Info session on February 8^th and 9^th

·  Andreas: Need More Players

o   Get a group of people to crash a spot on campus to allow people to meet each other

o   First event will be at Activities Fair. Meet there and discuss what they’re going to do.

o   Only issue is with the tshirts. Probs do a community

·  Need a Roundtable Committee/ someone to actually head it also

o   Even if you don’t have experience, its ok.

·  Culture Shock

o   Brought up by Hana Schuster

o   First event is LNYF brought by AAA.

o   Next event is Black Anthology.

·  Brown Bag Lunches

o   A way to strengthen our relationships with our faculty and how we support each other

·  Brown Star

o   Sathya will be coming to WUSTL

·  We hope to have more bonding events and start it off with a retreat on the 31^st.

·  Hope to have C4 work with the new Dean Mcleod’s Scholarship

·  Thurtene: it’s still tentative if we want to do it or not. It is a busy month though as far as transitions go.

·  Leadershape: during spring break.

Give David Equality

Join the Facebook Page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Give-David-Equality/445362585528?v=wall

This morning, I was invited to join a Facebook page called "Give David Equality" that pertains to the injustice that leaders like David, leader in SigEg and campus leader of "The Right Side of History" face because he is gay. 


I read the following note on the Facebook page and immediately joined it and his site in support, offering Connect 4 as a group with whom he can possibly connect to help spread awareness on campus if he desires. In addition, I will be sharing the idea with Connect 4 of partnering with David to have a Straight Talk for Equality on campus and lending our faces and voices as straight talkers on the site. 


Please join the Facebook Page for this at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Give-David-Equality/445362585528?v=wall and support David and million of others in the LGBT community by learning more about The Right Side of History.

David is a good friend of mine, a normal guy who likes to hang out. He's in SigEp a fraternity at WashU and knows how to have a good time. However because David is gay he is not treated like me under the law.  

You may not know this, but David is not a full citizen of this country--nor are the millions of other gay Americans like him. David can be legally fired in 29 states for being gay, legally evicted from his house in over 30 states, barred access to the military and its government benefits, and restricted from getting access to the 1,100+ federal privileges that our government gives married couples. It's hard to believe that in our country, we all don't have the same legal rights and protections. 

David wants to have a family someday unless we change these laws, David's family won't have the same rights as the family that raised me, or as many other American families. How is this possible? How much longer will David have to wait? 

We can and must change these laws. This year, please help give David -- and millions of LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bi Trans) American--equal rights. Please show your support for David's 100% equality by joining this page and by inviting your friends. I'll keep you posted on how you can help David and other LGBT Americans gain full equality in the upcoming year. 

Thanks for your support

Join Connect 4 on the Catalysts Network

Connect 4 President, De Nichols, produced a book last semester called The Catalysts Paradigm that has now grown into a network amongst WashU students called The Creative Catalysts Network. The CCN is an online community whereby innovative/creative student thinkers and leaders and communicate and share the initiatives, creative projects, issues/causes, and businesses that they are forming and leading. This is a also a great place for student groups, for they can share their events/missions. This is a great place for student artists/designers/creatives, for they can connect with sg and initiatives leaders in efforts to make their design work better. AND this is a place for people who simply want to share ideas and vocalize needs/causes in the community. If any of these are you, please join, and join the Connect 4 page and group on it.

"Unity Fest", A Concept

 I found this idea online, and I think it would be something really cool to host either as it is described below or as an expanded concept for all ethnic communities on campus. It could even be something that students collaborate to create in order to serve a higher meaning with the term UnityFest.


I can't remember which university this is from, but it's cool.... and if you think "Connect 4" is a stranger group name, check out "SODA." 

Within the Asian American and Pacific Islander community are many ethnicities and experiences. This event will acknowledge and celebrate this diversity. There will be performances, discussion, and food from several distinct communities.This event is also part of a UnityFest and is sponsored by Raising Our Asian Rights (ROAR) and Students Organizing Diversity Activities (SODA).

Multicultural Retreat, A Concept

For a while, some members of Connect 4 have considered the idea of programming a multicultural retreat that would be open to all students and serve as an opportunity for us to explore our various identities, learn about leadership in diversity, and find ways to open more opportunities to learn and advocate for issues when we're on campus.

Well, I started looking around/researching what other universities are doing in this effort and came across the following retreat that is hosted by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Read the description. Sounds pretty similar to some of the goals that I have heard from WashU peeps.

Cultural Leadership Retreat: February 5th to the 7th

The Cultural Leadership Retreat is a three-day, two-night weekend with interactive workshops designed to create an environment for individuals to explore cultural identity, share experiences, and discuss the meaning of leadership within the context of a diverse society. The workshops create a safe climate for sharing activities. Participants need to come prepared to actively participate in activities by sharing views, attitudes, beliefs and experiences openly and honestly. The Cultural Leadership Retreat is an unique opportunity to learn more about yourself, connect with other students, and to make a positive impact at UNLV.

For students interested in applying as a participant for the retreat, please click here to apply. Application deadline is January 14, 2010!

For staff or faculty interested in applying as a facilitator for the retreat, please Click Here to apply.

What WashU Students are Doing for Haiti

The video below is NOT produced by WU students, but I thought I'd share this video as an opener to this post. Listen while you read. These are talented youth. Since arriving back at WU, I have received many emails and Facebook message/invites regarding initiatives that WU students are starting to have for supporting Haiti, so I thought I'd pass the word. Community Service Office. This previous post shares CSO suggestions and insight on how we can immediately get involved with the efforts to help Haiti. Please read it and participate. Student Union's Goals. SU President, Jeff Nelson, recently sent a challenge to all students to help SU raise and donate at least $20,000 to the Partners in Health (PIH) for relief efforts by Monday, January 25th. [They] ask that each student go to http://su.wustl.edu/help-haiti and donate $5 to this effort. Student Union will donate $500 from its fundraising account and an additional $1 for every $40 donated up to our $20,000 goal. Do it!!! Black Senior Alliance "Jump Off Party." This student group will be helping Haiti by hosting a back-to-school party THIS WEEKEND that will collect can goods and money in collaboration with Partners in Health. Visit http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=416277600393&ref=ts for more info. Touch the Sphere. Freshman and Catalyst member, Andrew Taliaferro recently launched his initiative, Touch the Sphere, which aims to keep WashU students alert and contributing to the cause via the Touch the Sphere: Students United for Change in Haiti Facebook cause that he created. Please join it and contribute- all proceeds go to the American Red Cross. These are each awesome endeavors in their own ways. Please support with as much generosity as possible. Share other things that WU peeps are doing as well! Peace

Culture Shock Initiative

Many Connect 4 members and student leaders attended the Office of Student Activities' Redefining Community Experience Retreat this past weekend, and boy, did we have a blast!

One of the awesome initiatives that emerged from RCE was Culture Shock, an initiative started by Hana Schuster that aims to

expose students to various cultures by attending one culture group event each week, and will create an open, welcoming, and more diverse campus environment. It will offer students opportunities to experience cultures they wouldn't normally be exposed to, and will create student ties and relationships between various groups, in hopes of promoting a more open and understanding student body.

Because this group's purpose relates so closely to Connect 4's mission to connect people and generate awareness of identity and culture, Culture Shock leaders will be attending the first Connect 4 meeting to share this idea. As well, it will be great to unite with them to attend the upcoming LNYF and Black Anthology shows. Post thoughts, opinions, and ideas.

To learn more about Culture Shock, visit its Facebook Group or email wucultureshock@gmail.com

We "Need More Players!" in Connect 4!

We are looking for a core group of committed students who would be interested in joining us in the Need More Players initiative, and we want you!

Image by "Mark" from Flickr.

Need More Players is a new initiative in Connect 4 led by member, Andreas Mitchell, that seeks to bring students together through spontaneous game playing around campus. We crash popular places like the DUC, Whispers, Sofoho, etc with a group of people, start playing a game and have people join in! The core group for NMP would do the following: - Be down to play whenever we "Need More Players!" - Help us identify prime locations, games, and times to play. - Help us Rally others for games prior to and during game-play. - Help us identify other cool peeps who would want to be a part of the core group. - HAVE FUN!

Click the link below to visit the form! 
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dEhFTUtQa2tjeVdQT3hzOTFrQnhJdWc6MA