What I've Learned

I know we've all said this at one point or another, but I really enjoyed this class. I feel that I was somewhat aware of my surroundings and things that were going on, but now I feel like I make it more of a point to look for things. I'll be the first to admit that I'm still very naive about a lot of things. This class has helped to open my eyes more and make me realize that the issues of our past our still very much present. This week while walking around for my section of the diversity audit I was able to draw more conclusions or make more assumptions about my observations after all we've talked about in class. I won't go into detail at this time because I don't want to take anything away from my presentation.

I feel that this class will greatly benefit me when it comes to dealing with students in the future. I think now I'll be more prone to think twice about what they might be going through in life, especially if it's a student from a different background than myself. Before this class I would have been one of the white kids in the sample group thinking our campus had a great campus climate and was open to diversity, not saying that it's not. But now I know that my perceptions might not be entirely correct. As evident by many of our reading, student development still has a long way to go to make everyone feel completely welcomed on college campuses around the world. More than likely it will never be perfect, but at least we're trying to move in the right direction by putting our best foot forward.

It's Been A While

My apologies for lack of blogging.  I have no excuse other than I just haven't been doing it.  

I can't believe that this semester is almost over.  Where did all the time go?  

On to the readings.  This week I found it hard to stay focused on the readings.  I'm not sure why.  I guess I just had a hard time finding them as interesting as previous readings, which is odd since most of these readings seemed to deal with actually implementing things we've been reading about in class and trying to make campuses more inclusive.  I did like Understanding Leadership Strategies.  I feel like the sample obtained for this study was one that was truly diverse.  I like that 50% of those that actually were interviewed were people of color and that women made up a good portion of interviewees as well.  It made me believe more in the study since they made it a point to really diversify and find programs that have tried embracing diversity.  I feel like most of our earlier readings focused on colleges or universities that would have an obvious outcome when it came to measuring diversity or campus climate.  For instance, when you survey the minority and a PWI you know that those surveyed are going to feel negatively about the racial climate.

Another topic that seemed to keep popping up was that of the role of affirmative action and the admittance of students of color to college based on their race/ethnicity.  To me this would seem like a double edged sword.  While I believe that a student population should be diverse I also think that a University should still be able to have standards that they wish for students to meet.  I'm sure this is a hot topic for debate but I can't say that I strongly support one side over the other.  

On a complete side note...as we have all mentioned at one point or the other, being in this class has made me look at things in a different way.  The other day I was at the UNT bookstore.  There have been numerous occasions where I've been there and seen people leaving that set off the security system near the entrances.  More often than not the sales people don't even acknowledge the sound and if they do they give a courtesy wave to those walking out that implies, "it's cool we know you didn't take anything."  The other day I was at the bookstore and this occurred.  A young, African American gentleman set off the alarm.  Upon doing so an older sales associate, who happened to be a Caucasian female, rushed over to him and immediately questioned what he was doing.  The guy informed her that he had nothing on him that would make him set off the alarm.  The lady continued to question him and even asked to search through his bag and show his pockets.  This just took me a little by surprise, especially since I've seen students in the same situation be totally disregarded.  So it just made me wonder if this was an act of racial profiling or if the sales associate had a good reason for her actions.

Lots of Little Thoughts

Reading through the various sections of the Rothenberg book this week, I seemed to have a comment on most of the readings. In Smells Like Racism I thought it was interesting that a small portion focused on accents. I never really considered basing an opinion on an accent to be racisist but I can see how in some cases it is. The thing that first popped into my mind after reading this was the idea of the English accent. I feel that the English typically are viewed as pompous or overly propper, in large part due to their accent. In numerous interviews I've seen, mainly with British actors, they tend to comment on the fact that everyone believes they're prim and proper just because they're from England.



One of the points from the Opression article kind of bugged me a little bit. I felt like too much was being made about the man opening the door for a woman. Call me old fashioned but if I'm with a guy I feel like he should open the door for me. I see this as a common courtesy. I know I can open the door on my own and I'm happy to do so if necessary. But I don't feel that a man opening a door for me means that he thinks I'm "weak" in some way. But maybe this has to do with the way that I was raised and the fact that I don't feel I've experienced a lot of oppression in my life because of the time in which I was raised. I know that women have had it rough in the past and that it still continues today. I've been fortunate enough to work in a field that is typically dominated by women. If fact, for the past 5 years or so by direct supervisor has always been a woman. I'm sure at some point in my future I will experience opression but luckily I have yet to be affected by it.

Recurring Thought

As I was doing the reading for this week, one thought kept coming to mind.  Are those that are discriminating always doing so on purpose?  Don't get me wrong.  I understand that there are hateful, racist people in the world who discriminate and do it knowingly.  But this can't always be the case.  It just makes me wonder if people are discriminating or just acting in accordance with the way they were brought up or raised. (does that make sense?)  And if so then whose to blame for their acts of discrimination?  The person themselves because they should know better?  Their parent's for teaching them that attitude?  The grandparents for teaching the parents?  You see where I'm going with this.  Anyway...just a thought I felt like sharing.

I enjoyed all the readings this week.  Like I mentioned last week I like the Rothenberg book and how it's broken down into anecdotes, news stories, and short articles.  Now a days I don't ever think about discrimination against women, but thanks to the Women in the State Police article I realize it's still very prevalent.  It was shocking some of the things that happened to the female officers.  To be honest all the readings made me think and realize even more how much I take for granted.

I really liked the two articles that we had to read as well.  I like how both studies had personal aspects to them.  Using personal stories and experiences made the articles much more enjoyable to read.

Race, Class, and Gender

Over the past week I really enjoyed reading the Rothenberg book. For one it was a nice change of topics. Even though a lot was centered on race it didn't seem to be as much about Black and White as our other readings. My favorite reading was The Ethics of Living Jim Crow. I really liked that this piece was someone's personal account and that it was told in story form. When stories are told in this manner it makes it much easier to put things in perspective and realize what some people have had to go through in life. In Karen Brodkin's How Jews Became White Folks I was surprised at how much she actually talked about African Americans. I felt that the piece focused more on this aspect than the title would have suggested. It was also refreshing to read more about gender and sexuality and the formation of classifications used today.

When looking at Part V and realizing that the main topic was about economics I immediately thought to myself "man this part's going to be boring." To my surprise I found all these sections to be rather interesting. Granted in helped that a lot of the sections were only a few pages. It also was more interesting to me because I am also in Economic Development in Higher Ed. this semester and these reading serve as a great supplement to that class.

Opening My Eyes

Since starting this class I'm starting to realize that there are many things I have taken for granted in my life. The most obvious being my college experience. I wouldn't say that I had it easy coming to college, meaning college wasn't handed to me on a silver platter. Before reading "Scholarship Girl" and Museus' article I never really thought about what it might be like for students coming from a more cultured backgroud to enter into a land of unkown culture. Granted college can be considered an unknown land for any new student, but possibly having to "give up" your culture in order to fit in is something I never really thought of before.

Personally I don't feel that anyone should have to deny who they are in order to be accepted into a particular setting or group. I found Tinto's theory to be quite interesting. The idea that one must detach themselves from their original culture and adopt the values and norms of the culture they are joining in order to succeed just doesn't seem right. Although sadly it seems that this is true for the most part. It seems that most of the articles we've read so far say that underrepresented students don't feel a part of their campus culture so they tend to not complete school or succeed as much as White students. It just makes me wonder how many more years it will be before this is no longer the norm? It seems that the change has begun because everyone talks about the millennial generation and how they are a much more engaging generation. It seems that children now are starting to be raised where they no longer see as much of a difference in race. I guess we'll see when our children get to college how prominent these issues still are.

Possibly more to come...

First Post About Readings

There was a comment that I wanted to make about the video from last week so I'll start with that. I enjoyed the video that we watched in class last week. It would be such an experience to be a part of something like that. Although I must say after watching the video I feel like as white person I would feel bad about myself after every class. I'm sure the same can be said for all the students of various backgrouds. But for some reason after watching the video I felt like a lot of the sessions where an attack on the white students. I guess it's just hard to not personalize things when it comes to race, especially if you're the one being attacked. It's like one of the incidents with one of the white students where another student was commenting that he was the enemy. I just feel like it came down to Whites against everyone else and that issues between other races and cultures didn't seem to be addressed as much.

I enjoyed this weeks readings and am finding the Creating Inclusive Campus Environment book to be a very easy read. A couple of things really stood out to me in Chapter 7. It talked about how when you come to college it's important to get involved and how you need to join student groups right away. I feel like, while this a great idea and theory, it's hard for students to reach out on their own. I know when I went through freshman orientation the last thing I wanted to do was go to another activity fair and approach even more new people and step outside of my comfort zone. After reading the chapter I never thought about how hard it might be for students who are part of underrepresented populations because not only are they dealing with the insecurities that all freshman might face they might also have to struggle with not even having a group to identify with. I also like that the chapter listed actual strategies that could be effective in reaching out to underrepresented students.

I liked that Chapter 8 addressed the issue of MACCs and SAOs working together. I'd be interested to see or hear how well the two offices work together on our campus. I also thought it was an interesting and valid point about the MACC needing to be careful to make it's own identity and show that it needs to stand alone and not get sucked into being a part of the SAO.