OSU Student Affairs Assessment Council
Minutes
April 21, 2010
Attendance & where you want to go but have never been: Angi Baxter- New Zealand, Kent
Sumner-New Zealand, Linda Reid-Prague, Kami Hammerschmith-Hearst Castle, Ann
Robinson-Yellowstone, Victor Santana-Melgoza-Mexico D.F., Jennifer Viña-Cuba, Eric HansenItaly, Kerry Evans-Ireland, Melissa Yamamoto-Italy & Japan, Doug Severs-England, Jo
Alexander-Scotland, Rebecca Sanderson-Alaska, Netherlands/Belgium
Welcome & Introduction
Announcements
2011 OSU Accreditation by NW Commission
Rebecca will be writing about the assessment council and will likely need editors/readers
if anyone is willing to assist with that. First outline is due in mid May. You may be asked
to provide data/short reports on some things so this is a heads up.
Retreat committee
 Retreat scheduled for June 17, 2010 at Adair Clubhouse
 Next meeting we will discuss how we want to spend the day together so think about
what you want to do that’s meaningful for the group
 Need planning committee, so think about who wants to be part of that
Our diversity project discussion
Process, clarity & direction- we will continue to talk about this project
UHDS Process/Structure for their Difficult/Courageous conversations work
Eric, Jennifer and Victor presented to the group on their process and structure for the
educational efforts on Difficult/Courageous Conversations work.
The link to the items that Eric, Victor, and Jennifer presented are contained below:
http://oregonstate.edu/uhds/diversity_initiative/implementation_priorities/index.php
Questions and Discussion Following the Presentation:
How did you create the over-arching structure? Or the Matrix?
Created a draft of activities and compared them to the outcomes to ensure they
were meeting the learning objectives, filled in gaps
How did you come up with the identities that needed to be worked on?
Asked folks in the department and through the research done in the beginning
Race and ethnicity has been the most difficult to talk about and was most
challenging, so that was a focus
In addition they felt that it had to be more complex that just race and ethnicity
thus two other categories, sexual orientation and religious differences were
added to begin.
Do you address the intersections of identities?
Yes trying to address them but we are in process and still growing to that level of
complexity
Do people with disabilities come up?
1
There doesn’t seem to be an “I can’t talk about this topic” so they haven’t focused
on this much
Can’t talk about everything right now but we have to talk about everything
eventually, we still have a long way to go and we had to start somewhere
This can apply to multiple people and we are focusing on the process rather than
a specific identity
Who is coming to this workshop, is it the choir?
Try to be as inclusive as possible, make it welcoming to people with diverse
perspectives. Not everyone is the choir and they are trying to be very open about
the work they are doing.
How have you navigated the political landscape?
Building relationships, people are people and there is little social distance.
Use analogies/metaphors in their work and it’s not necessarily how one feels
about the topic but how do we create a open and welcoming, inclusive
environment.
How do you manage concerns about the power differential pieces of people who work
with each other?
Name the power differential in the room and work with it, the alternative is simply
not doable because they have to say things that may seem to create possible
hostile situations. They call upon the respect guidelines and build trust within the
group over time.
Don’t take it personally and remain curious. We all have this opportunity to learn,
there is oppression within group and between groups. It is something we learn
over time.
What mistakes did you make that you won’t make again?
Always looking for new ways to be more inclusive and being very real in how
they talk about this, naming power structures within the room.
Would like to do more reflection and journaling, people learning things about
themselves and it is helpful.
Practice is also very important, would like to create more ways to practice.
Are there any plans to get these 25 people back together? Is there continual feeding?
There are plans to do a get together to do a reflection for the participants and
facilitators, and a year sounds like a good time.
Just changed their model last year and now they are looking to incorporate a
continued get together once a term and they are now mentors for the new year.
Starting conversation with what have they noticed since the session was over
and people have realized that they haven’t thought about it since the session
ended. Good suggestion to add more to contact beyond the sessions.
Throwing it out to the participants and asking if they want continue the
conversation.
Do they have reading assignments to go along with it?
Sometimes they have articles or provide more resources for the folks to utilize.
As a group they seem to be in the public space mostly, a little in the self
exploration and not so much in the private learning space.
We (Eric’s group) have a human relations advisory group to help with cultural aspects of
the program, they are talking about the need for this throughout the campus.
2
Also there is a white faculty group caucus to talk about our whiteness and other issues
throughout our journey. We need to talk about this as a campus. Also, we do not know
about all the educational efforts that occur throughout the campus and we need to in
order to map a curriculum. The white identity social justice training group that Eric is a
part of is trying to do this.
We need a university curriculum around diversity and need to know what everyone else
is doing. Bac Core Review group may help to define some of this through DPD.
Next Meeting
May 12, 2010
9-10:30am
MU Council Room
3