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Thank you all for joining us. This Presidential Panel this afternoon, talking about a variety
of issues around race. It's going to be moderated by Alma Clayton Peterson, who I'm going to
introduce and then turn the floor over to her. Dr. Clayton Peterson has been a long
time, last couple of years, colleague of the President of Commission of Human Relations
and Equity. She comes with a long line of academic credentials and expertise in the
area of diversity and race relations and inclusiveness. She's authored several publications, one of
which we've been using as the template for our own plan, calling "Making a real difference
with diversity, a guide for institutional change. Alma is a true friend of the University
and a true friend of the PCHRE and I'm delighted that she has agreed to moderate today's forum
for us. So I'm going to turn the floor over to Dr. Clayton Peterson.
No need to clap, I'm one of you. I want to bring your attention to couple of things before
we get started, I'll take a minute or so to do that. I want you to find on your seat something
that looks like this, it's an evaluation form. No one knows how well you do unless you give
us feedback on how we're doing. But I want to bring your attention to it, before you
start, so that you can be thinking about the question as you engage in this dialogue with
our panel. If you have questions in mind is more likely that you'll respond, our response
rate goes up, and we get a better idea about what we need to do the next time to make this
more engaging for you. I had told the panelist that I'd give them a minute to introduce themselves,
they've already been introduced so I'm going to dispense with that notion and say that
we are here with a set of goals. Those goals are 1. To raise awareness and knowledge of
the campus community about the effects of stereotypes, remember the name of this session
is 'Everything is fine at Fresno State: Myths and Misconceptions about campus Diversity".
So, number 1. Raise awareness. But also to provide opportunities of different points
of view about the importance or lack of importance of campus diversity, to remain public , to
separate opinions from facts, and thirdly, to provide opportunities for you the community,
to provide viable addition or alternatives to our current plan of action, and that is
the aspired plan. In the back there are hand-outs, please make those materials really do a great
job of explaining what we're trying to do. So with that said, we have a series of questions
that we are going to post, that they have been made aware of, already. So, to fill your
head with knowledge and awareness of why this is an important topic. So, why do we need
a campus Strategic Plan for inclusion - respect and equity, that's our aspire plan. We'll
start with President Castro, please.
Good afternoon everybody, is nice to see all of you here. I want to thank all of you today
and I want to thank the Presidents of commission of Human Relation and Diversity for sponsoring
today's event and my panelist, I want to thank them for joining me. This is a very important
day for me here with all of you, because I believe this is one of the most important
issues that a university should grabble with. I think that way because of the rich history
that Fresno State has and the important role that public universities play in our society.
If there is any kind of institution that can be a model for how to think about, and talk
about and how to act upon, our values they reflect the broad diversity of our community
and the valley and that Nation and the world, that would be a place like Fresno State. We
were established in 1911, so we've been over 100 years and this is a great time to discuss
these important issues. So, to get to the question itself, I had a chance to re-read
the Strategic Plan today, and I read it a number of times since I've been here. I think
that it's a great thing that we have it, I think is inspirational in all the right ways
and I think that is important that we have here in Fresno State, that we strive for a
safe, inclusive, and a culture that is broadly reflective of so much diversity here in the
Valley. I think that is imperative that we work every day to aspire to those higher levels
and this is a plan that was developed prior to my arrival, and while I support it, I also
am open to the conversations that we are going to have today and in the weeks and months
ahead, that might enable us to strengthen our work together even more. I think that
is important that we have documents like this at universities like Fresno State because
we can showcase for other institutions, newer institutions, other kinds of institutions
a way to do this. And we can learn from what these other institutions are doing as well.
So, I like the learning part of this and I hope that as we reflect together that we'll
introduce the different perspectives that we have from our various experiences. When
I think about this work, I think about as a former student, as an alumnus of several
universities, as a faculty member, staff member. For a while during my career I was an equal
opportunity officer so I still remember a lot of those very important functions that
universities play in that area. On our way over, some of the faculty were talking about
how they can get involved in those kinds of important activities. So in short, I want
us to strive for a culture where everybody thrives at Fresno State, where everybody's
values are considered and embraced and that we have programs that we have initiatives
that we take actions in ways that really model that kind of behavior and I think that having
a document like this is one very important part of that Process.
Thank you President Castro. I'd like to remind you that you can interact
with the panel via the twitter. Let me see, how many people are twitters. Excellent! Can
you read this on the board? Yes? Okay those of you who are twitting. Please send us your
questions or comments, any time during the panel, these will be collected and this provides
us feedback. So, Rusty! Same question.
Thank you, first of all I am really delighted to be here. I have been to many events like
these and I'm not sure that I have ever seen a room full of faculty and staff the way you
all are represented. And I think that any strategic plan is only as good as the people
behind it. I thinks that's really important to say from the very beginning. I just want
to say this as a personal note, I shared it at lunch, I feel like I come home I was born,
just 50 miles north of here, in Merced Ca. So I really thank President Castro for this
opportunity to bring me home one more time. My grandmother is resting there, so it gives
me the opportunity to really reflect, so I'm kind of emotional about it. You know, when
I think about Diversity Strategic Plans, I've been doing this work whenever I like to say
since the day I was born and more professionally as a Diversity Officer in my career of over
30 years. But I think what a diversity plan does it brings diversity from the margins
of the institution All too often this work is seen as add-on and what this does it really
positions it in a way that holds the institution accountable and also gives you a future in
terms of what you might want to do. Weather is a five-year plan, a ten-year plan etc.
It helps keep the institution on target, because one of my concerns has always been that it's
only been seen as an add on and not as an important part of the institutional fabric
of the entire campus, via policy vie whatever divisions, the budget etc. and that's what
I think a strategic plan does. Because one of the things I think we have suffered from,
is that we haven't been able to develop strong measures of accountability and I think a diversity
plan does that. The other thing I think the diversity plan is important to do, and I'll
stop there because I'll go on all day and give you my talk later and I don't want to
do that, but the other thing that I think is really important that we sometimes forget,
is that diversity was introduced as a higher education as a political construct, not as
an educational value. What I think we have to do is change the conversation and we need
to start looking at diversity as part of any strategic plan as an educational goal of the
institution and place it with in an academic context and we have to revisit that, because,
if you want your students to succeed in Fresno, you want them to be able to be successful
in the global world, and so what is the responsibility of the institution to do that in every academic
discipline in all of our student support services. So that is something that needs to be playing
out in strategic plans, how is this an educational goal and not just a political right. Thank
you.
If you haven't had an opportunity to review the plan you will see that the plan does just
that. Not only does it address the educational imperative is it inistrickly linked to the
University Strategic Plan. So, is not one plan here and one plan here they are melded
together in a way that we grow together. So, I'm going to address this question to Gwen
Burks, Jody Hironaka-Juteau and
to Malik Simba. These questions go to you. Some people in the campus community think
that everything is just fine. While others find the environment very trying. What do
you believe triggers these racial tensions? I'll start with you Gwen.
We'll as a African-American, Christian women that works here on campus, and I am staff
here, unit 9 here, I believe these racial tensions come from people not going outside
of their comfort zone or burring their heads in the sand and not acknowledging that things
are not fine on campus. How can things be fine, where there is people like us, or me
and I can speak from my experience, why I feel sometimes I'm invisible where people
walk by and they don't acknowledge me or that I get pigeon hold into my position because
I've been there so long that they can't see me outside of that role. I've been on campus
twenty years, I have my bachelors degree and my masters degree and I graduated with distinction
but I hit that glass ceiling, it's hard to move up on campus and I know that's been some
of the concerns when the president asked for feedback from the community about people moving
up, and I don't know if it's a racial think, I think from my perspective, being a black
women, you know, what else do I have to go on. Also being viewed neglely because of the
color my skin or of my religion, I've been put down because I've been too religions and
to me that could be an issue. I just think, sometimes we feel undervalued, specially the
staff, were we feel don't feel like we play an important role here on this campus, and
I know that we do and I know that we've lost, we've just lost several staff members that
just retired with over 30 of service and they really served the student community but there
was no recognition of that.
Jody!
Good afternoon I appreciate the opportunity to be part of such a distinguished panel and
to experience diversity in various forms aspired plan as having opportunities as part of my
IC fellowship in working with Vice-President Matson on implementation of that. Reflecting
earlier on to work through the recommendation of the PCHRE years ago and establishing the
National Coalition Building Institute Team that's been responsible for engaging the campus
in welcoming diversity workshops since 2001. I look at the question and think -- lack of
awareness the assumptions that we carry with that we don't know what we don't know, right?
We don't wake up in the morning thinking you know, let me list all the things that I don't
know and find those out and yet as a result of journeying the day, I learn more about
what I don't know and what I need to ask by way of questions the conversations I need
to have with colleagues and I guest the strength and the struggle with that is that as a result
of a sure diversity of campus and the arrange of perspectives we're really in a rich environment
to have those conversations and at the same time creating those spaces and places where
folks feel safe to have those. The relationships that we have allies to have those conversations
to test those assumptions in a safe way that we are not going to be evaluated on in a performance
perspective or that it might be held against us in the RTP process.
I think sometimes, and I can speak from a personal perspective, the expectation that
I have of myself that I should know more and do more on behalf of diversity and inclusion
and at the same time knowing that is and ongoing journey. I too, I've done diversity all my
life I had a colleague once who asked me via email, I was working on a publication, how
often do you do diversity? And I kind of had to laugh, you know, there's things that I
do I don't know if I do diversity but it's an ongoing part of who I am and perhaps and
aspect of who we are as individuals but also a community of learners, a community of folks
who journey that on a day to day basis. So an environment where we test those assumptions
that we welcome those, there is a phrase that we use in NC guide training "you throw your
arms out" and I like to take risks and I like to make mistakes and I welcome you and I to
take risks and to make mistakes and learn more about myself and others in that group,
and I think part of that journey includes not only learning about others but that first
layer is really learning about oneself. And I think the university is such a wonderful
place to do that, not only as employees, as students but also folks who kind of take that
journey together. I think back as alumna of Fresno State and had to write a speech in
a communications class on an issue of importance and the issue that I thought was going to
be maybe an easy issue to tackle, right, students would be kind of— student's were going to
be like— the significance of including in text books the interments of the Japanese
American during the World War II and at that time, although that might kind of date me
a little bit, it was an important issue and it didn't appear in text books. And that process
of preparing for that speech, learning more about folks in my group. You know being fourth
generation Japanese-American, my parents grew up in Hawaii so they were not really part
of that intermit my perspective was very different, yet my classmates would look to me for the
answers and I didn't have them. In part it was I want to learn more, but perhaps it was
a little of that guilt that we have about maybe wanting to do more, that we should do
more and that kind of keeps that prejudice or that lack of expanded understanding kind
of in place. To be in a place like Fresno State to have those conversations I think
are so important.
Thank you Jodi.
Malik?
Trying to stay within the talking points here, I want to say that the issue of tensions and
conflict, those two things is addressed everyday in classrooms within Africana Studies, Chicano
Studies and Women Studies. These three programs are proactive in alleviating tensions and
preampting conflict. We're the only three programs that are pro-active every moment
and we outreach with thousands of students in this respect. And we have programs every
semester to alleviate tension and preamp conflict. Let me share this with you, we had a program,
the Martin Luther King gurtamurdal committee had a program in which we brought a speaker
Harry Flournoy, who participated in a very famous basketball game in 1966; between the
University of Kentucky an all white team and University of Texas, El Paso that started
a rarity which was five black players on the starting five. So for those who are a little
bit older you will remember that game in 1966, Harry Flournoy participated in that game,
and he came in to share with us about the game of change, that lead to the desegregation
of color sports. One of the things he said struck one of my students, and again, I want
to reemphasize. all three programs, Women Studies, Africana Studies, Chicano Studies
all three programs are constantly pro-active in alleviating tension and preampting conflict.
This is how we do it. So Mr. Floid Norin gave his lecture, after the movie, Glory Road,
if you haven't seen the movie Glory Road, is just as good as Remember the Titans. In
the previous year we brought in Coach Boone, the real coach within the movie and he tried
to get Denzel Washington to come in, because they became good friends by producing the
movie but he could not bring Denzel Washington, but Coach Boone also gave an inspirational
lecture centered around alleviating tensions and preempting conflict.
This is one of my student's response papers: What struck me deepest about Mr. Flournoy
lecture is his statement, and he puts in quotation marks 'the less you understand the more you
fear." The less you understand the more you fear. Africana Studies, Women Studies, and
Chicano Latino Studies we drive home that point we know the institution is desegregated.
Very few institutions are integrated. Separate tables, and you know the concept of separate
tables, you see it everywhere within the institution, except within those three programs. They bring
students of diverse origins, and ethnicities and faiths into our classroom. But no only
are they in our classrooms, the focus of the class and the curriculum is to inform and
educate so that fear would decrease, fear would be alleviated, fear would hopefully
be evaporated. He goes on to say, "As a white male, who has recentlystudied race and ethnicity
in my undergraduate studies, I can attest to the truth of that statement, "The less
you understand the more you fear."" I have been forced" and that's a very interesting
phrase, "I have been forced" and sometimes when you force people you know the human reaction
is to resist, and that's the dilemma within the three programs, I mean that's the dilemma
within the administration in supporting diversity within outside of those programs within traditional
departments. Faculty tend to be resistant to forcing academic departments to hire in
a diverse manner, as the student stated. He concludes by saying that "through my classes
I've been limited, I found myself becoming much more comfortable with people from different
and sometimes radical backgrounds—comfortable level, alleviating tension preempting conflict.
Thank you.
Thank you Malik. I want to make a comment here because it ties-us with something that
was said earlier today. Malik talked about three programs that really work at helping
students become ready for either graduate school or the workforce, in working with teams
of diverse people. But where else in the curriculum do we help students learn that? Those of you
who are faculty, know that if there's an issue in the class that if we are not comfortable
talking about it, it doesn't get discussed. So we have to ready ourselves as educators
to be ready for that conversation, so that students then learn from us. How do we have
that difficult dialogue with people who are different from ourselves, it starts with us,
not the students, but I heard the students today say, it starts with them. But it should
be the institutions responsibility to teach them. We wouldn't send an engineer out in
to the community without having them be fasel in calculus so why do we say that Diversity
is less important when in those engineering teams they will be working with people from
all over world, including people who are from different races and ethnicity from this county.
It's our responsibility to do so. So with that said, the question is, what can be done
on campus to address the misconceptions and myths about race? These questions go to everyone
and let's start in the middle with you Gwen and then Rusty and back to Jodi.
Okay, first of all, I think what the campus can do; I think the campus needs to hear the
stories. They need to hear the stories of the good and the bad of what people are experiencing
here on campus and they need to feel safe to hear those stories. I believe that there
has to be a safe place where we can tell those stories so that other people that have experienced
racial discrimination or have experienced misconception about who they are or who their
race of people are, there needs to be a safe place for them to be able to go and to talk.
Because I don't know if there's anywhere on campus where we can go, so that people can
go and learn more about the different nationalities that are hare on campus, that's something
that I think would help on campus. Jodi
Make sure I follow directions. I was just owning my Japanese heritage were are followers
and make sure that we are doing things correctly. I say that a little bit in jest, but I think
in of having those places where we can have those dialogues and that the relations are
such that we can kind of call each other or at least check in with each other as to some
of those assumptions; to look for example at the makeup of committees so that there
is diverse representation whether it be staff representation, different bargaining units,
different gender, ethnicity, the whole range of diversity. Prior to that, being able to
have engaged already in those conversations where I become more aware of those places
that may be my first thoughts about a particular group, I already come to work through that
little bit, when I am in a group and we're working on a task together, I can remain focused
on the broader task and not necessary that internal piece that I would of had to work
on before. I think also recognizing the importance of
those places for those conversations for our students. I think sometimes we may make assumptions
about who students are who they are not base on in what the box, our system kind of forces
them to check. I have a daughter who turns 21 next month and it was quite interesting
she had an opportunity to sit in a panel in one of Kathy Reed's classes and has this French-Canadian—one
of the questions she was asked, I don't remember the details, I do remember the enwreathe question
that was post to my daughter was, "Which cultural group was she most identified with?" And my
assumption as her mother, as a Japanese-American women was that she would identify with her
Japanese-American culture, and she didn't. You know she took great pride in her French-Canadian
culture and I'm thinking, god, that's like 3000 miles away, what is she thinking about.
And yet, in kind of processing some other pieces in understanding that she too is going
through this process of learning more about her identity and maybe overtime having to
choose one or the other, and if you look at her she's quite beautiful and yet sometimes
folks don't know what her identify is and people may say so what are you? The other
question that some of us may have heard in the pass, which kind of raises that "what
am I?" I guess recognizing that just as each of us are on that journey and understanding
how we can create those safe places for conversation. Our students are there as well, and the assumptions
that we may make about them, just as I have about my daughter and how she identifies is
an ongoing journey and I recognize that for myself and I think recognizing that for ourselves
and for our students is really important.
Thank you Jodi. Rusty?
Thank you. As I was sitting here it took me back to the University of Iowa, and we received
a grant. I believe conversations as the one you are having is very critical at looking
at myths and misconceptions. So we got a grant to have a faculty dialog along difference
and it was scheduled for one semester, we thought, and we picked a handful of faculty
and there was this couple, every campus has them on the faculty, who is against the diversity
requirement from the stem field, and I thought, oh no, this conversations is going to go completely
downhill, there's no way we're-- it's going to be real difficult. Well in fact, these
conversations started at 5 o'clock and were supposed to go until 7o'clock, they would
go until 11 o'clock at night they met throughout the year and what's important about this,
and they even studied Gloria Anzaldua, cause they asked me to come in and talk about her
work. And they sat there, the couple, with their hands crossed the entire time, I looked
at everyone of them, but at the end of the year when we asked them to check out in terms
of what did they think about the experience, to their credit, he responded on their behalf
of course, he said "We didn't always agree with everything that was said in this dialogue,
but we now have a better understanding of why you all believe that way." And that was
important. This isn't just about getting people to agree, but is about understanding where
we locate ourselves in this conversation and one of the other things I think we should
do, you don't always have to talk diversity to say about why is important or to address
these myths but, you know I haven't looked on your website, I don't know how students
who represent differences are portrayed here, is the scholarship--if a student is going
to go to the National Association for Chicano studies to present a paper, is that not newsworthy?
To refute the notion that somehow we are not academically prepared, how are we promoting
all of our students not just for marshal scholarships but for the other kinds of things that are
diversity related? Not only in terms of students but in terms of our faculty and our staff
and the kinds of things that they are doing, because then begins to undermined sort of
misconceptions and the myths that we are not contributing etc. We had a conversation at
lunch today, there was a number of informal organizations on this campus that aren't actually
funded, but they play an important role in the history of this institution as well as
breaking ground, I think that should be embraced by your campus in terms of your website, but
I haven't looked at your website to be really honest and maybe is there. But I think there's
some promotional things that I think we underestimate that I think could really help address issues
of myths and misconceptions. And gain, there is a lot more but those are two points I just
wanted to make.
Malik Interesting question. I think that Dr.Oputa
I saw her here earlier, I think she does an excellent job with her program in the Women's
Center in outreaching to provide safe in reaching to provide a safe environment for students
to address their diversities, so I'd like to thank Dr. Oputa for her efforts at that.
What she does, I think, is really on point and I'm hoping that her program will become
even more successful and the participation rates will increase over time.
I'd like to address another point about this issue of diversity. My first point of course
we address diversity with student outreach and so-forth. I know that the administration
run diversity workshops for administrators, but what's important is that the resistance
to change of fear, of isolation is not only the concern that I have with students but
I also have it with faculty and administration. I remember one incident about five-years ago
every year the History Department take the lead to celebrate Constitution Day, Because
I'm a legal historian I do a critique as well as a celebration of Constitution Day, and
so we had a stand alone only of students and some faculty and a few administrators and
when I shared with the audience that day was the racial restrictive covenant in Fig-Garden
Estates in 1955 and I gave them a copy of the Racial Restrictive Covenant and then I
talked about the U.S. Supreme Court Case in 1956 that made them Illegal to be enforced,
you could still sign a covenant but you can't look to the law to enforce the covenant. And
so, around constitution issues override property and ownership; one very well place administrator
wrote me a nasty note saying that the Constitution Day was not to citizen the constitution is
to celebrate it, and so it was interesting as a sidebar, the Covenant restricted of a
wide variety of people, from living in Fig-Garden Estates including Armenian and I wrote a subsequent
op piece on the Fresno Bee talking about racial restive covenant in Fresno and restrictions
upon Armenians. As I went back to my athletic club and interacted with men of the very well
rich Armenian farmers, the older gentlemen really embraced the article in the Fresno
Bee; because they say the younger generation don't know the struggles they had to establish
themselves as equals to quote-on-quote whites. And the younger generations Armenian men,
not one of them said anything about the article even though they knew about it. And the older
Armenian men said, that's your service your service as an educator is to teach the young
who did not live experience that we did. And I would dare to say, that's the same thing
with administrators. And so I think to be proactive about diversity and so forth is
complex it's generational. Thank you.
Thank you President Castro. There's been some very thoughtful comments.
I guess I would start with my mother. My mother game me the gift of embracing different cultures
and I leaned that at a very young age and was definitely ahead of her time before diversity
was a term was even used. As I think about growing and interacting with a wide variety
of people that she knew that helped me immensely as I went through different university settings
and as I think about what I'd like to see on Fresno State going forward, is to build
on the work that has been done before to honor and respect the work that has been done here.
To take steps to open up our culture even more, to embrace a sense of curiosity and
I think about last week, Mary and I went to the Islamic Cultural Center and how powerful
that was to go and to learn about what happens there or the Cambodian Temple downtown. I've
had a number of experiences like that over the last several months here in Fresno, and
have seen the rich diversity that exist throughout the campus and the community, cause there
have been many events here on campus. I guess as President, what I'd like to see happen
is more of that. That we take those opportunities to learn more and through that learning my
hope is that we'll be able to strengthen our relationships and take the university to the
next level. Our policies and practices I believe will need to be as transparent as possible.
Gwen made a great point about grown and I think that we need to continue and enhance
our investment in our own people and in their development. Faculty and Staff from all backgrounds
and I'd like us to become a model in that area to really make a huge difference in that
area. I just appointed Gwen to a search committee, so Gwen you are no invisible to me, I, I want
you to know that, you are not invisible. I have a special obligation to try to model
that with other members of the cabinet, with leaders from the senate with our student body
president with the student leaders, I think I have a special responsibility— Deans,
I see many of them here today, to really model that through our actions. I think if we can
do that together we're going to make extraordinary progress, and we talk about being bold, being
BOLD in this area would be to not run away from these conversations but to embrace them
and to learn from them and to become stronger together and to become an even greater university
where that is valued. I'd love to do that with all of you in these coming years.
Thank you.
So our last question before we open it up to you, so get your questions ready we want
somebody at the mic as soon as were done okay. This one goes to Jodi, Gwen and Malik.
In your view, what can individuals on the campus do to further enhance race relations
and aspire the Strategic Plan?
Gwen you want to start?
Personally for me, it's important that I don't think that I --that my race is better than
another race. I think that is important to get to know the different cultures that are
out here on campus, cause Fresno State were a vast campus and we have vast cultures and
it's important that we support each other as we have events, like RACE and the BFSA
have the panel on privilege today and that was really good, and then going to support
the students to see what the students have to say. It's important that we as faculty
and staff and administrators support the people that we are suppose to serve, and that's the
students. But also, I think that it's important that staff feel like they are supported. I
think we can attend different events at my church on Sunday we just had Super Sunday
and that's when Fresno State comes out to the different African American churches; but
we also had a presentation because this is African American History month , we also had
a presentation from different cultures come in to the church and we had a presentation
from the Sikh community, and it was very interesting to hear about their culture because usually
this is one of the things that our speaker talked about, is that usually when you see
the turbans and the beards you think that their either Hindus or Muslims, but it was
interning to ding out that there's more to Fresno and to the Diversity and the cultures
that are here. So I think is just me going out and getting to know who my brother and
sisters are, cause we are brother and sisters. That was just something that I picked up. Is also important that we don't
assume or judge people based on maybe interactions that we've had with one person, because I
think a lot of times that what happens, is that we assume that because this one person
is like this then the whole race, the whole group is like this. It's important that we
expand our minds. And a lot of times we deal with people out of fear, and I think Dr. Simbra
brought that up, that we allow fear to not let us go pass our own boundaries, so I think
that's important also. Jodi
I think also in addition to this idea of fear is sometimes we look at it like or I look
at it like what was the persons intentions. Well we didn't intend to leave a particular
voice out, we didn't intend to— "Oh I know that person they are very nice or don't worry
about it he's pretty cool" and sometimes that could be an excuse for not pushing forward
and not taking the time that is necessary in engaging in these difficult dialogues,taking
that time to assemble that committee that's diverse taking the time to walk through some
of those conversations that are a little more difficult that maybe acquire us to give our
colleagues a little space or for our students to chew on that information a little bit more.
I think just being engaged with activity but also so that voice who's missing, what perspective
are we missing because without that our potential to come up with the best possible solution
may fall a little short and how that diversity enriches not only the discussions but the
decisions that we make in terms of the decisions we would hope our students would be able to
make upon graduation and be able to respond to the changing needs and the broader community
and globally. I think we owe that to ourselves and to the community to be at our best in
making those possible decisions, getting outside of that comfort zone. Just because the Asian
faculty and staff host the event you don't have to be Asian or even look Asian to show
up and we have lots of friends and I would say that to be true for other organizations
as well so take advantage of the range of opportunity on campus. I know the Fresno State
talks this evening this week and next week as well , taking advantage of all those opportunities
Malik you have the last word here.
On this issue I think that ugh program that was established by Dr. Gonzalez in the College
of Social Science was the Faculty Mentor program it was very successful most one to one with
young students and in that type of setting we can really extricate from them, their fear
and their apprehension I know that when Dr. Gonzalez established the mentoring program
we were pretty proactive in trying to get students to talk about what they are afraid
of what their expectations so on and so forth. Maybe that can be modeled campus wide a mentoring
program in which you kind of mix match faculty with another student of another different
culture so that might work campus wide. Let me just share this with you, to be proactive
to break that type of barrier the apprehension --with academics you have to be really insightful,
so I require students to in practically every one of my classes to visit the probably one
of the better memorials I have seen on Japanese-American interment, and its right here in Fresno, it's
at Alluvial and Palm. Its called the Palm Bluff Circle, just East of Palm on Alluvial
it's a brilliant pictorial history all weathered protected that you walk in a large semi-circle
with a base Japanese garden where you can sit a view a visual image of Japanese intermit
and in the distance you can see where they were interned in Pinedale all my students
are required to actually to interact with that memorial and write a review. You break
down the unknown and you become familiar and comfortable and by so you meet your daughter
and you have something to talk about, a touch stone. My last point about semantics, I try
to share with students and I give them pedagogically information to support this there's the human
race and then there's the social historical groups and I try to train them and they are
graded on this not the use race as an identification. Sometimes it might not matter because its
social historical groups and the prejudice between the groups to strongly the concept
of race but we try and as educators we try to make students enlighten and progressive
to help not only themselves but others to eliminate what Mike Wallas in his famous documentary,
around 1960 produced by CBS that The Hate that Hate produced and so every single student
within this nation, within this community, every single faculty and staff within this
nation, this community has to address The Hate that Hate Produced. The prejudgment of
African American students are no less or no worse prejudgment of white students that needs
to be addressed and this is a racial mountain its huge, but that's what we do in African
Studies Women Studies and Chicano Latino studies did I miss one? Armenian studies also.
I think this last comment gives me rise to say how really far Fresno State has come.
Cindy and the members of the PCHRE would you mind standing so people know who you are,
so when there's a comment you know who to go to, if there's feedback— do you know
who these people are? Come on stand-up, give them a hand they started 2 years ago with
as semblance of a plan they all worked extremely hard to pull this together. I'm just giving
you time to think of your questions so you can get to the microphone now and to say that
I frankly do work nationally and I use Fresno State, I hate to say it, as my poster child,
I have never seen a campus move from a disarray of ideas to a coherent compressive plan that
they rolled out to the various constituent groups as spectacularly as they have done
and to continue to do this work in implementation and trying to assess it and to hold people
accountable to the actions that are within it. I want to say thank you very much and
I hope you thank them for their work everyday not just today. Please.
I speak with a little trepidation given that I have the mask of a white male privilege.
Can you say who you are? Phillip Newphil in Technology Services: I
speak with a little trepidation given that I have the mask of a white male privilege
But first of all I want to honor and just value the wonderful work of diversity and
inclusion that Fresno State's about and that Fresno is a place of that's the beauty of
it. I been to 34 countries, I love diversity. I had a chance to visit Egypt and go mossic
and go worship with— even though I come with a different background with the Muslims
with the coptics. Gwen actually went to the country I grew up in was Zaire and I went
to Pinedalle Elementary where I was the only one of the only Caucasians there at the time
and it actually had a Japanese intermit camp the pads were still there when I went to elementary
school. The reason I mention that and come to the mic, is that I have this mask and the
challenge of conversation and sometimes we are treated as people not as persons as Dr.
Zimba said. The interesting thing is that I played in an all African-soccer team in
central San Joaquin Valley and I was experiencing --actually seeing in the 90s still the discriminations
that happening white and Hispanics towards the African Americans still in the 90s and
for me it was another eye opener. But the reason I come to the mic as we have the conversation
about inclusion, those with power and privilege and that landscape changes and will change;
Armenians didn't have power and now probably do in our Valley. But we need to make sure
we have sanctuary for those who come from power and privilege so they can somehow leave
it safely at the door and be able to be persons and to tell their stories, because sometimes
we come with a mask and we don't all have that mask and even all those who really truly
are about that power and privilege— particularly in our culture and our institution, there
is truly a community where there is sanctuary so that we can actually really celebrate the
richness of this diversity in the Valley and at Fresno State .
I think you raise an important point would anybody on the panel like to react? I think
you're right about this space, but how do we do that? Talk to us how do we do that?
How do we create a space when we have a session like this afternoon the choir shows up and
I think the choir needs to learn how to sing better, we need new music but we also need
to expand the choir and include others, but it takes you walking through the door and
saying I'm here to learn in the same way we walk in the door and say I'm here to learn
how can we bring that about please come to the mic please just walk up to it.
I'm sorry I might not answer your question but my name is Christine Edmonson and I am
from the Psychology Department and I have a couple questions but before I asked them
I guess I do want to express my deep appreciation for the folks I have been able to get to know
and love here on campus. Over 18 years now and they have supported me in going on the
journey of understanding myself as a white person understanding ethnic diversity and
what that means, the lived experiences that people have and I really feel like I need
to express this appreciation because I know in doing that my dear friends and colleagues
had to be patient with me when I made mistakes , they had to be vulnerable with me in terms
of telling stories and so I just have to give a lot of appreciation I see them as a gift.
I see some of them here and I think some of you know who you are some have left and I
miss them terribly, I thank them. My first question, one thing that allowed me access
to these folks is my field I am a clinical psychologist and a clinical psychology is
about personal growth and development and so on that journey of learning about personal
growth development certainly ethnically identity I had great fortune along the way starting
in high school in Indiana of all places people actually allowed me to get exposed to diversity
issues so when I got here I was able to grow and so this personal growth and development
and ethnicity is so much a part of my professional development. That brings me to my question
and kind of my issue. I was able to do what I've done and I still have a ways to go because
diversity has intercepted my personal and professional development as a counselor I
have to grow and so my question for the panel than is what are opportunities that we can
create to encourage people on campus particularly faculty and staff to engage in to find ways
to intersect their personal and professional development and I'm particularly challenged
when I think about this myself in fields like stem fields engineering and so I'm done thank
you!
Thank you, thank you for your question. I also want to address the privilege one if
I may because that's sort has been rumbling around in my head and I don't believe in having
somebody sit down and there be absolute silence. And that gets us in trouble. But let me go
to that you know that I think a good way to bring people together I'm a strong believer
in this has work throughout in my career is to help people read a common article or a
book and they get sit down and talk about it because they all are going to have a different
perspective about it. I think it's a really safe thing to do as long there is some ground
rules. That people are not being criticized for their point of view etc, but again it's
about where everybody locates themselves that's just one strategy, there s probably many,
many more. In terms of the privilege question if I may, if I understood the point, I was
sitting here and thinking, I also have privilege you know I'm a Mexican and most people don't
believe me, but I am and I'm indigenous and most people don't believe me and I can could
go through the world like that sort of living on that privilege but what I also know I think
is really interesting if I heard the question correctly is to create a space for privilege,
did I hear that correctly? Space for interaction. Space for interaction that is safe, I never
known me anyway and other people who have privilege and who don't have that privileged
to enter to any space and sometimes that also closes down conversations. I think it's an
important thing though that needs to be address but because privilege people, I have—when
I go into a community for example that doesn't have the educational status that I do I do
take I listen because I go in there not to just to take over the conversation although
I might be doing that today but I'm with all you privileged folks, so I'm you know standing
my ground so we speak. But you know I thinks it's a really complicated kind of thing because
I always worried as a youngster especially when I was a student activist that non folks
or privilege folks would come in and take over. That's the other part. And so I think
it requires the dial up I think he had a lot of courage to bring that up by the way, I
think it was. And clearly we don't have a really a strong answer but I think we really
have to think about it because clearly I can move in and out of this world and nobody would
know who I was if I chose to do that but I chose not to that for all kind of reason.
And is how we use our privileged what I don't want is privilege to be a missionary approach
to how you work with people and color also. I mean those are those issues as well. So
I'm going think about this question more, I think it's an important question, but I'm
not sure about how folks can who are disenfranchise can create that type of space in a unprivileged
kind of way. And there we have to understand the baggage that comes with the historical
baggage cause there's a lot there so I don't know if that was helpful or not maybe I just
complicated. No I think it was very helpful. Well I may
not go there. I think we have, okay so here my dilemma, and rusty this is to you too,
we are suppose to be done right now, okay, I won't say anything about anything except
I also have 3 questions excuse me 4 question, that came through twitter and three people
in line, so the question becomes the next session starts at 2:45 so we have a few minutes
so I wonder if we can get the questions on the table so that you can have something to
chew on seriously and then will let the panel take one of the question and each person take
one of the question and respond to one of the 7 questions that was here and that should
take us up to about 2:40, is that okay? check in with the group okay. So let me starts with
these, cause there right there, and you can start you know, what about age discrimination.
In a young culture do we only value what's new and young?
That's questions one. Two, are donors are mostly white? Will a move
toward diversity increase more diverse donors; I got something to say about that.
Sometimes, question three sometime, sometimes when we talk about diversity, we forget to
include about white people, how do we make sure they are included. Our conversations
on twitter lots of comments on that one remember that. And number four should we place pressure
on the term diversity, place pressure on the term on diversity. Okay Janel thank you, say
who you are and what department Yes, hi good afternoon my name is Janel Pitt
and I'm a faculty member in the School of Education. As my colleague Christine Edmondson
mention thank you all very much deep appreciation for what's happening here today. I fully acknowledge
that this is a panel on campus diversity and this is with intention that I ask very specific
questions, I was told several years ago that being a single mom, being black and working
here at Fresno state wouldn't go well for tenure and it wasn't until April 2013 until
I attended a Faculty Women of Color in the Academy of National Conference at the University
of Illinois-- and I heard and have the opportunity to hear you talk- Dr. Barselo. That I found
that there were other ways of existing academia, I heard women fully tenure at research intensive
institutions talks about their experience of being a single mom and kind of rising to
the ranks, so my question is if anyone can speak to how women faculty of color and also
administrations of color can be more fully supported here at Fresno state. I acknowledge
I am not a administrator but also given what has happen very recently with Chancellor Philip
Wise at university of Illinois in Chicago, I'm just wondering in terms of more fully
supporting a specific segment of the community here on campus.
Rusty we are going to get all the questions on the table first and then we are going to
answer it, okay thank you. go I don't have a question, I'm Nora Chapman
a member of the Modern and Classical Languages department here at Fresno state. Thank you
for being here and holding this panel. I wanted to answer your question Alma about what we
can do. I would personally like to see an office of diversity and equity on this campus
so we can have a safe neutral confidential place where people can go have conversations
with people who understand the issue, are experts in mediation, understand how to talk
to people in a really respectful way. I would truly appreciate that. I have good news, I
wanted to answer your question about do we tune our horn well enough, I just saw the
statistics for all of intrafraternal council all of the Greek groups on campus, the highest
performance group on campus is a group of black women who belongs to Alpha Kappa Alpha,
yes!
Thank you, thank you, thank you very much Hi I am Alex Espinoza, I'm associate professor
of English, I'm also the interim chair of Chicano Latin American studies I also wanted
to say thank you to my wonderful colleague Milak Simba for addressing the important things
that CLAS, Africana studies women studies do. I have a couple of questions and one of
those might ruffle a couple of feathers, but I'm the youngest of 11 so I use to ruffling
feathers. I'd like to know specifically what we can do as a university to protect those
departments and programs that offer those services that CLAS ,Africana studies and Women
Studies do, we seen a lot recently what's going on nationally with a lot of the Ethnics
study programs That is the dismantling of them.
Yes Okay now the second question.
My other question is how do we change attitude on this campus because I encounter a lot of
people on this university who have told me flat-out everything fine, we don't have a
problem here, just move along we always been diverse. How do we change that attitude, because
you know what, we're not we're diverse but we're not aware though, we're not sensitive
to the needs and the reality of faculty and staff students of that color face so how do
we change that attitude and third. No you said 2
I said 2 and third and I'm going to ask the president say this again and I know I said
this to you in meetings before we really need a Chief Diversity Officer on this campus
Okay, pick your question, Rusty first, awe wait rusty you are going to be here for the
next-- Well since I work in Advancement I'll talk
to about to the diverse donors. I think that's important I think that we do leave a lot of
money on the table when we don't have development officer that go out and look we need to look
for the richness in the minorities. I think but I think that needs to be reflected in
the people that gos out and talk too. We can't ask people to go talk to diverse constituencies
when we don't have a diverse development staff, I think that's important. I think we need
people understand about the culture that is out there we need people because I think a
lot of time people will respond better to people that look like them so that they have
that commonality together so I think that's important. I think that's a great question
about having diverse donors. I will say more if we have time, thank you
okay. Pick your question, Jody . I don't remember the question but I know how
I like to answer. Well answer it and we will figure out what
the question it is. I think there was a question in regards to
how do we change attitude in assumption that everything. Actually okay. I think looking
at our data looking at ways of gathering that in more accurate ways , I understand that
there's a climate survey that will be initiated soon, I think there was one overtime and there
were some gaps in that and will be looking at what is that next cut on assessing on our
community. I think we can make assumption just as I did with my daughter without asking
those questions and I think a few folks don't represent the whole and we certainly are very
diverse there are so many o the shirt size of the community and how that might be different
or similar across staff faculty and students and administrators. But really looking at
in a systematic way that information to inform those next steps not assuming that if a few
folk say it's okay and that we have a plan that looks lovely and that a lot of hard work
into it, than we are good to go. But it's an ongoing journey snapshot in time as to
where are but you just utilize the information to better assess where we are at.
Malik give me a minute. Those who are in the back please there is a whole bunch of seats
come around this way come sit down please, because we are going to run just a little
bit long. Fresno State we do not exist isolation, we
have the States College district and they are feeders to our student body and I'd like
to see, and maybe you are doing this already president Castro, but we need to work with
the State College Community District because they have a new campus Willow/International
and now they basically have what they we call chocolate city and the vanilla suburbs. Willow
International is probably about 90% plus white. Fresno City College downtown is very diverse
we will be getting students coming out of the Clovis district going through Willow International
have never really experience series diversity and so the headache that it creates we will
be receiving it. So we need to be proactive and working with the State College to deal
with how they are addressing diversity at Willow International .
President Castro would you like to say the last word on the response whichever one you
want to answer. Sure, I think I just want to say a few words
about how women faculty and administrators can be supported and this is actually an area
where I done some research and was part of the Rutgers University Institute that focus
on this area. I would be very interested in our President's Commission looking at this
with me and with others and coming up with recommendations for how we can we further
strengthen our work in this important area. Thank you
Would you— I would say to the question about diversity please look at the plan there, there
is a definition of diversity there and it includes white people, so that answer to that
question and how do we get engage is for you to show up, people to come and engage in the
conversation and get uncomfortable just in the same way we get uncomfortable when we
are talking about it. So with regards to donors to say at Vanderbilt in 1982 they started
a Black Alumni Association that is a very vibrate group we celebrate our 25th anniversary
4 years ago and they are major source of donors and so you have to support the people who
you want to donor and it was us doing that doing the outreach it was African American
administrators linking them with students helping us recruit students and helping us
keep students and that's why the retention rate right now is where it is. Thank you very
much. I think the age discrimination, I don't know if I can answer that one because I am
way too old for that. And with that said let me ask you to thank our panelist so much for
being with us. Thank you