STUDENT DIVERSITY/CURRICULUM JAM NOTES
The jam was held on Friday 3/30/12, 930am-noon, and included break-out groups and discussion with
twelve students (broadly representing Pratt’s schools and programs) and six faculty/staff facilitators.
Small groups were assigned to focus on particular kinds of diversity: (1) ethnic/racial, (2)
gender/sexuality, (3) cultural/cross-cultural, (4) learning modes/styles. Students were asked to jot down
(a) an EXPERIENCE of diversity; i.e., where diversity was engaged in the curriculum, (b) their observation
of a GAP in the curriculum; i.e., where diversity could/should have been engaged but wasn’t, and (c)
their DESIRE for particular courses, topics, approaches involving diversity. These were used to start
discussion. Students posted and presented their comments to the whole group, and then voted as to
what they regarded as the most important.
Included below are, first, very short summary versions of student comments about their experiences,
curricular gaps and desires in each area, each preceded by the number of votes it received as to its
priority.
Student comment summaries are followed by facilitators’ notes on discussion in each group.
Student Comments, By Area
Please keep in mind that (1) since students were free to make whatever comments they were moved to
contribute, there is overlap between areas; (2) comments represent a mix of “experiences, gaps, and
desires”; and (3) given the size of the group, comments and rankings should be taken seriously as a
representative sampling of student views but are not to be regarded as exhaustive.
Cultural Differences
(3) each cultural group needs its own face/club/presence
(2) encourage cross-cultural interactions and collaborations
(2) develop learning/sharing opportunities between diverse groups
(1) better connect Higgins/Architecture with rest of campus community
(1) more foreign language courses
(1) more courses/programs that include focus on minority studies
(1) create opportunities for cross-ethnic dialogue/interaction
balance the use of Western writers/sources
more diversity in student body
awareness training for cultural practices
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create awareness of diversity in students
need for Black student union/association
build more sensibility to cultural differences in students/faculty
Race and Ethnicity
(3) more community outreach
(3) use class diversity as a learning tool
(3) create/develop globalized perspectives
(2) include non-western perspectives in curriculum
(1) faculty diversity would improve curricular diversity
(1) develop ways for local community to participate
(1) texts by non-white authors enrich learning
(1) use technology to help create more inclusive community
need/benefit for local community involvement in classes/programs/events
artistic process is impoverished without diversity in curriculum
create inclusiveness
use student perspectives
engage race/ethnicity in classroom
more diversity in sources used in class
globalize sources used in class
make room for relevant dialogue in classes
use sources that don’t stereotype
Learning Styles
(2) enable students to invest/engage more in their learning via collaboration
(2) students & profs should share responsibility for what’s learned
(1) re-examine/re-invent function & form of critique
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(1) need to enable multiple learning styles in courses
(2) help students identify their own learning styles
(1) classes that use multiple perspectives/methodologies are most effective
(1) enable students to identify their learning styles and create resources for them
(1) undervaluing of student perspective vs. teacher-dominated classes
(1) more experimental learning & multiple modes/perspectives
need more visibility/accommodation of disabled people & their needs
need to be share info & be aware of students’ very different educational backgrounds
more field trips to foster real understanding of processes
faculty should become much more aware of learning styles & use this knowledge in the classroom
create awareness of cultural differences in learning styles & enable them to better intersect
use variety of resources in classroom
too much lecture & not enough discussion/collaboration
Art & Design Education exemplary in shared responsibility for learning & respect for student
perspectives
in various areas, use of discussion in class is very positive
but student perspectives are also routinely undervalued
prof-dominated classes in Writing Program and general lack of multi-modality in classes
Gender and Sexuality
(2) intersection of various orientations/backgrounds enriches learning experience
(2) stronger presence of GLBTQ community/clubs
include more GLBTQ & feminist issues in curriculum
more representation of women & G/L writers
male-dominated art history; women’s art stereotyped as “craft”
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Focus Group: Cultural Differences & Experiences
Facilitator: Mai McDonald
Note-taker: Cheryl Costello
Participants 2 undergrad architecture students; 1 grad architecture student; 1 writing program student
Summary of Student Discussion:
Student (1): I am of Puerto Rican descent and have a Catholic background. When I came to Pratt, I met
people of different backgrounds. It opened my eyes completely to different options and perspectives. I
realized in the past that I thought in a more “black and white” way. My current best friend is a Muslim
Indian from Dubai. We have great cultural differences such as in the food we eat and the music we listen
to. You grow up thinking that everybody has the same experiences. Now I see the world in a much more
“gray” way (as opposed to “black and white”).
Student (2): I was born in Brooklyn of Cyprian descent and went back to Cyprus when I was 6 years old.
Here in Brooklyn I have an accent, and now when I go back to Cyprus, I also have an accent there. I’m a
foreigner here, and I’m a foreigner in Cyprus. Where is my home? I have experiences of diversity all the
time.
Student (3): My high school was really diverse. I’m from Maryland. My friends came from all
backgrounds (black, white, latino, etc.). We were all open to one another and to each other’s’ cultures.
Student (2): Pratt is composed of (a) whites, (b) Asians and then (c) a selection of minorities. Pratt is
segregated. Maybe the segregation and racial majorities are about income.
Student (1): I work with Orientation programs on campus, and I notice (though I don’t judge) that
Korean students in particular form cliques because they share a common language. To me it seems like
there is the Koreans, and then there’s everybody else.
Student (4) Joined Late: I don’t have the impression that Pratt is segregated. I got involved in both a
Jewish organization on campus as well as Latin Pratt. Both groups are open to attendance by people
coming from any culture. These groups were completely student-driven (as opposed to faculty or
administration-driven), but became very much nurtured by faculty once they formed. If it wasn’t for the
students having the impetus to create these organizations, they wouldn’t have come to exist at all. It
was great that that the student-formed organizations were welcome with open arms by faculty.
Student (3): I have been hoping that a Black Student Union or an African-American group would form on
campus. Me and my friends jokingly point out black people whenever we see them on campus, since it’s
an infrequent sight.
Student (1): Yeah, I thought I was supposed to be the token black guy on campus. But then my friend
who’s black thought he was supposed to be the token black guy. So we make jokes about it—we say
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stuff like, “OK, you take the front of the building, and I’ll be the token black guy in the back of the
building.”
Student (2): There are 500 people in Higgins Hall. There is one black professor, and like 2 black students.
This gives you a good idea of the “color culture” at Pratt. I’ve been surprised that the black people on
campus are not like the black people in the local community outside of Pratt. When we were moving
back to Cyprus when I was little, my mom was like, “There won’t be any black people there” as though
this was a good thing. She lived in New York City in the 1980s when the City was a very different place.
Student (1): Having worked student orientations, you would think that the people of color at Pratt
would huddle together and isolate themselves from the others, but they’re the one that seem the most
open to me at orientations. God, those Koreans! Try to get them to mingle! But they’re probably
homesick and it’s probably comforting to be able to speak their home language with one another.
Student (4): Very few students from campus are actually from the Five Burroughs—so there are very few
commuting students. I believe in the past there were more students who were native New Yorkers. This
is a whole other bag unto itself, though. I think it’s important for every group on campus to have a
presence. Since I’m in architecture, it’s amazing to me how well Koreans do considering how deep and
complex critiques can be when they’re conducted in the English language. It’s remarkable that they’re
able to do so well at all, considering that English is their second language.
Student (1): Yeah, I think the Koreans pour extra energy into their projects to make up for the fact that
speaking at their own critiques won’t be strong.
Student (4): For me, celebrating Jewish holidays with the campus organization and honoring the Sabbath
every Friday and Saturday has been incredibly important. No matter what, I know that I have Friday
night and Saturday to not work (due to the Sabbath). It has allowed me breathing room that I wouldn’t
normal have and I think has been the best thing for me.
Student (2): In Cyprus, Easter is a very big celebration, a very significant holiday. I feel like it’s kinda
disrespectful on the part of Pratt to not allow more time for religious holiday celebrations.
Student (4): I don’t expect Pratt to give everybody a day off for a religious holiday, but I do expect Pratt
Administration to be respectful of and tolerate my participation in religious holidays, and work with me
when I need to take religious time off. I’ve had the experience of a professor not being willing at all to
work with me regarding my need to extend a deadline due to the fact that I was going to be busy
participating in holiday activities. I came to realize that it wasn’t personal, that that is just how things
work in the field of architecture, but it would be great if faculty could work more with you when it
comes to stuff like that.
Student (1): Pratt isn’t a physically active community. People are reluctant to play sports and get
physical. For instance I’ve tried to throw whiffle ball and football events but nobody is really interested.
Student (2): Art school and sports kinda don’t go together. Can you see artists playing football? They’re
like opposites.
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Student (1): But it’d be cool to see like football players running around in gowns designed by the fashion
department . . .
Student (2): and Industrial Design could do the football—it’d change colors depending upon which side
of the field it was on . . .[laughter]
End.
Focus Group: Race & Ethnicity
(Facilitated by Amir Parsa; Notes by Tom Greene)
At the outset students were asked to jot down one example of each of the 3 categories a) an experience
of diversity in the curriculum, b) a gap in the curriculum where diversity could have been engaged but
was not, and c) a desire for particular topics, approaches, or courses related to diversity. They were also
advised that they had the freedom and flexibility to expand on or even take issue with the categories
and that it was more important to engender ideas and promote discussion from the exercise rather than
have their answers fit neatly into categories. The discussion started with the facilitator (Amir Parsa,
Chair of Art Education) asking each student to start by mentioning something they had written that they
felt very strongly about.
1) The first thing mentioned by a student was the desire to have Pratt be more integrated into the
surrounding community, that it was a bit isolated and there was a lack of interaction with local
residents. Ideally there would be some integration of community interaction into the curriculum,
perhaps even some classes that involved working with community members. When questioned as to
how this could be done, one response was to better use the PrattStore building and other campus space
to work on common projects, such as showing movies and collaboratively curating movies with
community members.
Amir mentioned that there is a teaching practicum currently in Art & Design Education wherein Pratt
students teach young children from the community. There is currently a class within the department
that involves reaching out to the local community. Students cautioned that we should be sure to also
invite community members into the campus as well as reaching out to visit them. An example would be
hosting a barbecue on campus and inviting people from the community. It was also stated that we
should be careful not to appear imposing or patronizing in our interactions with the community, to
remember that we want to collaborate and that community members have as much to offer Pratt as we
do to them.
The existing diversity at Pratt includes various forms of diversity, such as international, so it would be
interesting to see the interaction of students from different backgrounds with people and the impact on
the community. The idea of a cross-department project focused on interaction with local ethnic
restaurants was also mentioned. Students could work on the design of fruit and vegetable stands in
community stores, for instance. It was also suggested that visual technology such as skype could be
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utilized more within the curriculum, to access different communities, even overseas in Korea for
instance, and thus re-think what race and ethnicity and interaction mean. Alternative means could be
utilized to see how others are thinking of these concepts from a different perspective and we can thus
open “the gates in our minds.”
2) The second major topic or theme to arise was around the belief that all required courses are whitecentric and European. There is only a bare-bones look at Asian literature within the introductory
courses for example. Students expressed that they shouldn’t have to go out of their way to access these
areas of study and that the curriculum should be more inclusive. It was mentioned that the issue of
language and translation always is present here also. Another issue here is how non-western material is
incorporated into the curriculum. Often there is a dichotomy created by referring to “world literature”
or “world music” suggesting that it is “the other” and not the norm or standard. This is a basic curricular
inconsistency that is easily solved by purposeful inclusion of new subjects. There also can be a false
implication that the “other” is easily categorized. Asian literature and other bodies of literature are not
as monolithic as we may think. Our efforts should be focused on acknowledging diversity and not trying
to homogenize it.
It was stated that there is now a very small volume of non-western pedagogy within Pratt’s curriculum.
Regarding the issue of the separation between western and non-western curricula and pedagogies, one
student volunteered that he deliberately came to Pratt from Pakistan to get a western education. The
distinction between race/ethnicity and internationalism was noted. It was suggested that perhaps the
pedagogical theories at Pratt were too limited. For example Asian pedagogy may be more Confucianbased. There is a need to balance the rigor of study of the material, the area of expertise, and the role
of the department to present singular or a variety of approaches to learning.
3) The session concluded with several suggestions for improving diversity within the Pratt curriculum:
 Offering credits for student work outside of the classroom with the community, for example
through a student club, similar to how students are given credit for working on the Prattler
publication.
 Developing a more open and broader portrayal of diverse subjects that are incorporated into
the curriculum, beyond simply victimhood, so it’s not instinctively viewed with defensiveness by
the establishment, as a reaction and criticism of white-centric, Euro-centric literature or works.
 There should be distinctions within the material so it’s not all lumped into an overly broad
category of world literature for instance and is too all-encompassing.
 There should be more inclusion of diversity within introductory courses so students may
become more interested in taking other more focused courses on the subject matter.
 There should be a combination of different viewpoints, including looking at other cultures’
approaches and integration of studio practice and vision of place into the class.
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Focus Group: Learning Styles
(Facilitated by Amir Parsa; Notes by Tom Greene)
1) The suggestion was made that there could be more group discussion classes where the teacher
operates more as a guide and facilitator of the group discussion rather than imposing a particular
learning style. As an example, a student mentioned a class taught by Professor Negar Mottahedeh,
Social Media and Social Movements, which focused on the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement and
was based on a group discussion with plenty of flexibility in the approach to learning. Amir mentioned
that oftentimes in a college class the topic is removed and remote from the teaching style (i.e. lecture).
Thinking experimentally, considering alternatives, and creating content within the class may be more
desirable.
One student mentioned that in once class that was conducted 50% online he realized that he seemed to
learn well online. However there seems to be no more than a trial and error approach to discerning a
student’s optimum learning style. Only by taking a class with an alternative approach can you
determine whether a particular style suits you. Perhaps a better approach would be to have some sort
of testing so that a student can have a better idea what kind of learner (i.e. visual, kinesthetic) s/he is
and where s/he fits, although the learning categories probably should not be overly rigorous.
In many classes there is a feeling among students that if you just show up and take the exam you’ll pass.
There needs to be some way to have many students become more engaged in learning and make them
feel more responsible, possibly by having them submit their own projects for example. Amir stated that
there is a school of thought that nothing should ever be forced on any student, even the standards for
the age when a child should be able to read for instance, because of unique learning styles. Many
classes are comprised just of straight lecture and note-taking by students without any real processing of
the information and no visual component because it’s within the writing department. It would be
preferable if there were more opportunities to get out of their seats. Another example offered was of
fatigue and tedium within Fine Arts classes. It would make sense to move some painting classes off
campus and into galleries or to invite visiting artists to class. Standing in front of the actual painting
while studying it would make sense. The intensity and type of engagement with the object radically
changes when you’re right there in front of it. A later comment suggested that the same could be done
for Architecture students, having more on-site learning so that students can see how buildings are made
from a more practical perspective.
2) The subject of critiques of student work was raised next. Critiques are considered sacred at an art
school but it is important that they be done right and the question was raised whether students actually
learn from them. Because critiques can sometimes be harsh, the student needs to be ready for it and
receptive to criticism. The function of the critique is for the student to learn from constructive criticism.
There is a more subtle form of learning and a student’s reaction depends on who is doing the critique,
what visitors are present, and the timing as well as other factors. Some forms of critique work better for
some people. For example some students are motivated by criticism to prove the critic wrong. Despite
the centrality and importance of critiques, the nature and function of critiques are not really ever
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discussed in class. The style of critiques also varies across schools within Pratt. Architecture critiques
entail the students standing in front of a group of jurors and defending their work in response to
questions and criticisms from jurors. In other departments there is no opportunity for the student to
defend or explain the work. Overall the feeling of students was that there should be more consideration
of how critiques function since it is so central to learning at Pratt.
3) There was some discussion of whether faculty should be more aware of the different learning styles
students have because the nature of college teaching has changed. Someone indicated that many Fine
Arts teachers seem devoted to a particular learning style and approach. The suggestion was made that
faculty may benefit from seeing the product of this discussion to prompt them to reconsider their
teaching approach. Faculty should be aware of the various learning approaches and there should also
be more self-reflection and self-critique by the student. A Korean student noted that there is often a
different approach to learning by international students who didn’t go through an American high school
system. For example there is relatively little support for art supplies for students in South Korean high
schools. There was also a feeling expressed that many faculty undervalue the opinions of their students
in general.
Focus Group: Gender and Sexuality
(facilitated by Ira Livingston; notes by Mai Mcdonald Graves)
Students had the following concerns and feelings:
-There’s a lack of a “face” of the gay community, same for the female community.
-Regarding gender and preference, one student wondered how preference would be expressed?
-A male perspective predominates at Pratt, so any expression other than that appears to be harsh.
-There are many buildings that make up the Pratt campus, but who occupies them? Who’s here?
-The LGBTQ&Q community seems to be closeted at Pratt, and there’s a lack of “connectedness.”
-There’s only one class in Architecture that discusses gender related issues.
-The position of Higgins Hall in relation to the rest of the campus presents a “gap” in itself. The block
between Higgins Hall and the main campus seems to be much wider than a block and is isolating.
-A need exists for multiple perspectives to be heard in the Writing Program, especially regarding gender
issues.
-Students need more information and more transparency regarding course availability in both majors
and electives.
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-An overall lack of information exists about course content, from the professors and the Institute
Bulletins.
-Students hoped Pratt would offer wider perspectives on race, culture and gender, but the opics are
rarely discussed.
-There’s little or no connection to the City beyond Pratt’s campus.
-Art History seems to be male dominated and are introduced through a male perspective only, with little
attention paid to gender issues. Sexuality, pornography or anything other than accepted norms are
introduced as deviant.
-There’s a lack of inclusiveness around disability and cultural visibility. Discussions on gender and
identity should begin at Orientation.
-There’s a need to go beyond having a club or organization to address LGBTQ&Q issues
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