Infusing Diversity into the College Culture: The Stand Together Group

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Infusing Diversity into the College Culture
The Stand Together Group

• Community College League of California
• Oakland, California, November 2003
• Gavilan Community College
• Terrence Willett, Researcher
• Leah Halper, History Instructor
• Verónica Guajardo, MESA Director
• Jan Bernstein Chargin, Public Information Officer

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Introduction

• Who are we?
• How did we come to be?
• How do we do it?
• What have we accomplished?
• What next?

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STG Mission Statement

• The Stand Together Group exists to promote and
  celebrate diversity, inclusiveness, and mutual
  respect in our campus community, so everyone at
  Gavilan College feels safe, respected, and
  included.

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STG Values

• Special events planning for community involvement
• Developing the Stand Together Group as a model of
  diversity, inclusiveness and mutual respect
• Making the curriculum more culturally diverse
• Working to improve the campus climate

Click here for maps
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Demographics
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Campus Climate Research

• Mostly positive
• Strong agreement that all students, regardless
  of ethnicity, gender, age, disability or sexual
  orientation have an equal chance of reaching
  their goals at my college
• Some potential for improvement
• I would feel comfortable in class with someone
  whom I knew was gay, lesbian, or bisexual felt
  of low importance
• Concern about hate crime incident on campus
• People not members of two predominate ethnicities
  might feel marginalized
• This information used by STG and college
  administration for planning and policy making
• Hate crimes policy
• Chinese New Year

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How we work

• Opt in, grassroots participation
• Not a formal committee no representative
  constituencies, no quorum, no funding
• Internal consultant/watchdog/think tank/trouble
  maker that informs the institutional
  decision-making process
• Participants rotate roles and share
  responsibility
• Process is as important as final outcome
• Anyone on campus can bring in an issue
• We work in collaboration with other groups

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What we have done

• Mission statement and planning process
• Hate crime policy
• GLBTQ climate and benefits
• Free speech campus climate
• GE requirement
• Flyers and Information Tables
• A zillion events
• Watch dogging/inside consultants/think
  tank/troublemakers

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GE requirements
STG Home Page
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Challenges

• Political and economic climate in district
• Getting consistent student and support staff
  participation when no crisis looms
• Being a group rather than an official committee
• Resisting becoming just event-planners or
  activists
• Choosing battles wisely
• No funding or corporate donations (but willing to
  take bids)

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How are we perceived?

• Out of town troublemakers
• Imposing radical leftist views onto rabidly
  reactionary country bumpkins
• tree hugging earth muffins
• Filling a void on campus
• A safe place to bring issues that arent
  addressed elsewhere

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Short Term Goals

• Improve access for student and support staff
  participation
• Develop funding for activities, events, trips,
  and administrative support
• Increase mentorship/skills sharing with others on
  campus

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Long Term Goals

• Carry values of diversity, tolerance, and respect
  into the larger communities we serve
• Ingrain STG values into college culture so
  effectively that Stand Together Group is no
  longer needed

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Conclusion

• Diversity is good
• What we hope you take away from this presentation
• Q A

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Contacts

• http//www.gavilan.edu/stand/

Jan Bernstein Chargin Director, Public Information Office [phone] jbchargin_at_gavilan.edu
Leah Halper History Instructor [phone] lhalper_at_gavilan.edu
Vernonica Guajardo Director, MESA [phone] vguajardo_at_gavilan.edu
Terrence Willett Director, Institutional Research [phone] twillett_at_gavilan.edu
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Thank You!