COMMITTEE ON MULTICULTURAL CURRICULUM TRANSFORMATION
Notes from Meeting of
18 February 2014
The fifth meeting of the Committee on Multicultural Curriculum Transformation was held on
Tuesday, February 18, 2014 at 10:00 a.m. in Altgeld 203.
Committee Member Attendance
Gary Chen (Engineering & Engineering Technology), Carolinda Douglass (Vice Provost for
Academic Planning & Development), Teresa Fisher (Education), William Goldenberg (Visual &
Performing Arts), LaVerne Gyant (Director, Center for Black Studies), Murali Krishnamurthi
(Director, Faculty Development & Instructional Design Center), Anita Maddali (Law), Robin
Moremen (Liberal Arts & Sciences), Kristen Myers (CMCT Chair; Director, Women’s Studies),
Jane Rose Njue (Health & Human Sciences), Mark Rosenbaum (Business), Donna Smith
(Supportive Professional Staff, Catalog Editor/Curriculum Coordinator), Beth Towell
(Curricular Dean College of Business), and Carly Seibel (CMCT Graduate Assistant).
Guests:
President Doug Baker and Dr. Lisa Freeman (Executive Vice President and Provost)
Minutes
The minutes from the meeting of January 21, 2014 had one amendment, but still need to be
approved at the next meeting.
Announcements
Myers announced that the President Baker and Dr. Freeman will be attending a meeting with a
delegation from the University of Guadalajara and will be attending the CMCT meeting after
they are finished at that meeting. She also shared that we are providing the President and Provost
with the program and a flyer from the recent fall 2013 presentations, a list of the courses that
were transformed after the MCTI, and access to the binder of compiled reports.
Myers also announced that when the new Chief Diversity Officer is hired, that the CMCT will
want to meet with him/her to brainstorm the future of the MCTI.
Myers informed the committee members that she, Huffine, and Gyant met with Douglass and
Freeman to talk about the structure of the CMCT. She said that it was agreed that it may be
appropriate for the CMCT to change its structure and announced that they received an approval
to do so. She said that they discussed ideas for changes in structure, such as electing a chair. She
added that, as a committee, we need to discuss what that structure transition will entail. Douglass
added that they also discussed broadening the membership of the CMCT.
Visit from President Baker and Dr. Freeman
Updates from Dr. Freeman:
Freeman announced that they have received overall positive feedback regarding the decision to
create a position for a Chief Diversity Officer and Associate Vice President for Academic
Diversity. Freeman shared they are very committed to the search for this position, but there is a
lot to do moving forward. They are in the process of appointing a task force to help in the hiring
process. She added that they have looked at the timeline for making this hire, and it was
determined that it may not be possible to get this hire done this semester when they have a
Provost search and Chief Financial Officer search in progress. She announced that the National
Association of Chief Diversity Officers has their spring meeting on March 8th.
Discussions during President and Provost Visit:
President Baker began by addressing student career success, and how it is a very diverse world
for students. As a university, he stated that we want students to be successful for their lives and
their careers.
Myers and the committee provided President Baker and Dr. Freeman with a history, overview,
and purpose of the MCTI. She added that the committee is currently trying to assess student
learning outcomes after professors transform their courses to be more diverse and multicultural.
President Baker probed a question asking the committee the following question: “I know it’s a
curriculum committee, but students learn a lot of stuff outside of the classroom with all of the
other activities they do. Is that part of this domain or is that somewhere else?”
Myers opened up the question to the committee. Towell explained that at previous meetings, it
was determined that this is just a curriculum-based committee. Gyant added that when the
committee first started that they had some conversation about student activities and what they did
outside of the classroom. She added that when the committee started the student panels, they
wanted the students to integrate what they did outside of the classroom, but most of the people
on the committee agreed that that was not was not what this committee was all about.
President Baker suggested that the committee may want to take this on together and map out
where students learn about cultural diversity, interpersonal skills, sensitivities, etc. Then
determine how much of it is learned in the classroom setting, how much of it is in classes
focused on multicultural issues, and how much of it is learned in other settings outside of the
classroom. He added that “if we do things in isolation, we might leave cracks in the co-curricular
world.” He asked the question, “how do we use the co-curricular world as learning environments
for students?”
Moremen made a pitch by saying “that student career success is often is often tied to faculty who
serve as role models and mentors to students, and there I think that we [the committee] play a
unique part in the sense that we are not only asking the participants in the institute to look at the
content of their curriculum, but also to examine their pedagogical strategies…also to interrogate
their own personal transformation…in the plan to become more aware of these issues
themselves.” She added that because of this, she would argue that if we are able to, through the
institute, to produce sensitive, multicultural, aware faculty then that will also impact student
career success through both mentorship and role modeling.
Towell shared that one of the problems the MCTI faces is that a large percentage of the faculty is
gone untouched, as the MCTI only transforms about twenty faculty members every two years.
Goldenberg shared that several students become involved in the community as a result of their
professor attending the MCTI. He explained that one of his small group members was involved
in teaching food service and asked that his class get involved in food service around the
community as an assignment.
President Baker mentioned that some universities have a multicultural requirement. Moremen
added that the committee has urged the idea of including a General Education requirement in a
multicultural course.
Njue discussed that after a faculty member participates in the institute, they should not restrict
their transformation to only one course as the institute requires. She explained that she has
participated in the institute and received positive feedback from her students after she
transformed her course.
President Baker asked the committee if they have ongoing research about the effectiveness of the
MCTI, the diversity efforts, and student educational outcomes. Myers answered that we are in
the process of working on research and have brand new, pilot research.
There was much discussion on how to bring multicultural and diversity awareness to students.
President Baker shared some personal stories about students in the residence halls eating lunches
in their rooms. He also shared stories about students not being informed of activities going on
campus. He wonders how we can get students informed about these activities. He also probed the
question of “how do we get the students to collaborate and learn from each other?”
Myers said that President Baker’s stories and thoughts are very helpful. She said that going to the
students and beginning from the students’ point of view is very important and is something we
haven’t done in a long time. She thinks that the committee could do that. Gyant commented that
most students do not know anything about the MCTI.
Fisher asked President Baker if there are any key priorities that we should follow up on as a
committee. President Baker there is a lot of things that need to be addressed as an institution
regarding these types of issues. He stated that it is important to pull together all dimensions
including faculty, staff, students, cultural, community, and broader community. He said that his
main concern is pace and prioritizing things to get done. He suggested “a journey of discovery
this Spring to start to get some of these things done.”
Rosenbaum shared a story about a student as related the accessibility and availability of ethnic
food in the DeKalb area. He brought up the importance of food within individual cultures. He
added that some cultures do not have social outlets available to them in the broader community.
Other committee members agreed that maybe the community could be more diverse in some
aspects. Another topic brought up was that some cultures don’t have access to ethnic hair salons.
President Baker agreed that those were all great examples. He probed the following questions in
response to the discussion: “How do we transform it?, How will we do it?, and How would we
enhance student career success in the process of transformation?”
Possible ideas/suggestions:
Rosenbaum suggested meeting with the DeKalb Chamber of Commerce to have a weekend bus
that would take students to these diverse places. He added this may also help in “trying to get
businesses to understand the importance of sending signals to diverse groups that they are
welcomed here.” Freeman added “that diversity is a moral imperative, but it is also an excellent
business decision. When we talk about student career success in thriving communities, both of
those things are important in influencing our way forward.”
Freeman suggested reaching out to supermarkets within the DeKalb region about supplying
diverse ethnic foods.
Gyant stated that another important aspect is the hiring of diverse individuals.
President Baker suggested working with the community to address some of these diverse issues.
He suggested talking to businesses as well as the mayor to discuss ideas of implementation. He
added that it may even be a good idea for a student project.
President Baker asked if there was a hair salon or barber shop in the Holmes Student Center. The
committee members added that they don’t believe so. He suggested that we develop this service
and possibly influence the hiring.
Towell added that “this would be a wonderful Experiential Learning Center project.”
President Baker suggested that we talk to Mike Malone, the foundation director, about donors
that would help us start such things as “a pride café or other diverse businesses.” Freeman added
that these businesses may be a good opportunity for classes to student-run businesses. She added
that if the students were involved in creating these successful businesses, this might attribute to
student career success.
Moremen added that we do have a natural foods store in the area that has multicultural foods,
although she is unsure if it is well-known within the community. President Baker and Moremen
agreed that there needs to be better communication within the college about what our community
does have to offer.
The committee made suggestions for the use of the Duke Ellington Restaurant in use for a place
where people meet and exchange ideas freely. President Baker also added having different ethnic
cuisines served in the restaurant on a rotating basis. Maddali shared that at a university she
attended in her undergraduate career had ethnic food carts available to students. Another
suggestion was to have ethnic food trucks on campus with a “Food Truck App” so that students
could locate where the ethnic food trucks were on campus. It was also added to have food trucks
located in areas where student events were occurring in order to bring students together on
campus.
Rosenbaum suggested encouraging a more personalized and humanistic interactions between
faculty and students on Blackboard by simply being a role model to students.
Myers suggested that along with doing the institute, maybe implementing an MCTI course at the
college where students from all different colleges completed a project that transforms the
community and themselves.
Freeman recommended collaborating with the NIU Center for Governmental Studies to provide a
connection to the DeKalb community.
The committee thanked President Baker and Dr. Freeman for their time and extended
appreciation to them for attending the meeting.
Other Business
Myers suggested doing focus groups with students.
Potential Plenary/Session Speakers for next MCTI
The committee asked President Baker about the speaker that he heard at a conference. He
confirmed that the speaker was Jesus Trevino.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:18 a.m. The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday,
March 18, 2014 from 10:00-11:30 a.m. in Altgeld 203.