COMMITTEE FOR MULTICULTURAL CURRICULUM TRANSFORMATION
Notes from Meeting of
20 October 2009
The Second meeting of the committee for multicultural curriculum transformation was held
on Tuesday, 20 October 2009, at 10:00 a.m. in Altgeld 203.
Attendance
Sally Conklin, Bill Goldenberg, Laverne Gyant, Robin Moremen, Virginia Cassidy, Michael
Gonzales, Judy Santacaterina, Sabiha Daudi
Announcements
Mansour Tahernezhadi has stepped down from the committee and has asked that Dr. Seaver
find a replacement
Minutes
September 15, 2009 minutes approved unanimously.
Fall Presentations
The location for the presentations on October 23 has changed to the Center for Black
Studies due to audiovisual needs. All other presentations remain unchanged and will be
continuing at the Holmes Student Center as planned.
The committee discussed the two individual cases of participants that are not presenting.
Suggestions to aid this problem in the future included: Providing tentative presentation dates
during the institute, and give a monthly time span.
Overall comments include: there is a large number of individuals from the college of
Education, Certain participants have a high impact because of broader positions (for
example, the entire student teacher program).
Discussion of Spring MCTI workshop
The committee discussed working with Deb Pierce from global studies to include two
videos, “A Day without a Mexican” and “Immigrants from South Mexico”. These movies
provide a breakdown of stereotypes and raises human/civil right questions. Comments
include: meets with Provost Alden’s suggestions to work with other organizations. The
voting concluded all members in favor of showing these videos.
The committee discussed a focus group with students. “Dialog on Diversity” was
mentioned as a resource for students that includes a guided discussion focused on sensitizing
students. Concerns include: this may be time consuming and take a large amount of
planning, representativeness within the focus group may not be spread, self-selection bias.
Suggestions include: using students from transformed courses, include a pre/mid/post
course assessments for students, conduct a survey of a non-transformed course. Consensus
was to submit a proposal to Provost Alden.
Discussion of MCT Institute 2010
Discussion of an annual or biannual institute continued from the last committee meeting.
Suggestions include: don’t want to offer it and then cancel, there may not be enough interest;
a semester could be used to channel data and get a proposal, assessment of the institute in
the off year, plan in alternate years, use the time to reflect on format of the institute.
Consensus was agreed upon to hold the institute every other year.
Keynote speaker was addressed. Suggested that the committee think about what they want
in a Keynote Speaker, what sets of activities should be included. A number of exemplar
speakers were mentioned: Paula Rothenberg, Roman Gutiérrez. Suggestions included:
inviting old speakers back.
Assignments for the next meeting
Robin Moremen is to bring in copies of the assessment conducted.
Katy Smith is to bring copies of the pre/post institute surveys.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:03 a.m. The next meeting is scheduled for 17 November,
2009 from 10:00-11:30 in Altgeld 203.