Category: Updates

On May 3, President Ana Mari Cauce invited the University community and our partners to join in the development of a 25-year vision to advance the health and well-being of people around the world by leveraging capabilities and opportunities at the UW and beyond.

Read the transcript  

We are pleased to announce that registration for the spring Race & Equity Leadership Workshops program is now open. We are offering a series of free half day leadership-development sessions with varying emphases, including unconscious bias, micro-aggression, and cultural competence. These will be conducted at all three campuses. Given that this is a pilot program, your full participation in the workshop of your choice, and the assessment process (including follow up questionnaires), will inform the design of future race and equity focused workshops and trainings.

Please see below for session titles and registration links. We encourage early registration as we anticipate the sessions will reach capacity.

Available Workshops

Cultural Competence: Addressing Race Relations in the 21st Century (Caprice Hollins) 

Click here to view workshop schedule and register

This workshop will develop participants’ appreciation of their role in becoming culturally competent leaders by:

1. Providing a framework on how to address issues of equity and race.
2. Creating common language for entering into discourse.

This framework takes a look at deepening awareness of moving from color blindness to racial cognizance; increasing knowledge of others and their experiences of racism and oppression; developing skills to work effectively across cultures; and advocating and taking action to initiate change.

What I Said and What I Meant: Cross-Cultural Communication (Rosetta Lee)

Click here to view workshop schedule and register

Humans communicate on many levels: spoken language, tone, body language, style and personality. The fact that we have complex cultural identities and a host of differing past experiences increases the probability of cross-cultural miscommunications. This workshop presents major cross-cultural communication theories, ways that cultural values, power, privilege and differences affect the way we communicate, tools for questioning assumptions and navigating microaggressions, and ways to improve cross-cultural communications skills.

 

New UW program aims to create ‘brotherhood’ for male students of color | UW Today

For some young men of color, college might seem a world away.To an African-American boy growing up in poverty, a Latino son of migrant farmworkers or a young Native American man living on a remote reservation, the path to post-secondary education can be hard to visualize. And once on campus, the reality can be daunting. Role models might be lacking, the sense of isolation overwhelming. A new University of Washington pilot program aims to address those obstacles and boost enrollment, retention and graduation rates among young males of color. The Brotherhood Initiative, to launch this fall, includes a yearlong freshman course focused on introducing students to research and providing guidance in areas like choosing a major and financial literacy.

See the full article.

Theater for Change UW presents: “#HereWeGoAgain”

TfC UW uses Theater of the Oppressed and other interactive, participatory theater approaches to advance community dialogue, address issues related to classroom and institutional climate, and take action for change.

The Play: “#HereWeGoAgain”

When something unjust happens we often fight, freeze, or flee. Is there another choice?

Dive into the deep waters and explore: Racial microaggressions, White privilege and Equitable exchange

Theater for Change UW (formerly Interactive Theater as Pedagogy Project)

Monday, May 9, 2016

2:30 p.m. – 4:20 p.m. Interactive performance
4:20 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Reception
wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ – Intellectual House, UW Seattle

The event is free but space is limited. RSVP today! 

 

TfC UW is a collaboration between the UW Center for Teaching and Learning and Memory War Theater.

Sponsored by:

The Center for Teaching and Learning
The Graduate School
Memory War Theater

Race & Equity at the UW

One year has passed since University of Washington President Ana Mari Cauce launched the UW Race & Equity Initiative to address race, equity and her desire to realize the university’s promise to be welcoming, inclusive and just. The initiative is a tri-campus effort aimed to bring social justice issues to the forefront and build upon the university’s commitment to diversity. The Initiative was established to focus on three main goals: enrich the personal experience of UW students, faculty and staff; address institutional bias; and engage with communities. Several activities have taken place around these goals since last April.

A series of facilitated conversations has brought students together to engage in challenging dialogues about how race plays a role in their lives, as well as the lives of their peers. Moving forward, students will have the opportunity to serve as facilitators for these discussions. In addition, students (graduate and undergraduate) have been selected to join the Race & Equity Steering Committee where they will play an active role alongside UW leadership in making strategic decisions under the Initiative.

To address institutional bias, the Initiative is examining policies and practices related to diverse faculty and staff recruitment, hiring and retention. A staff hiring toolkit, a handbook of best practices for conducting faculty searches, and other guiding materials have already been developed and are being adopted by campus administration. Faculty-focused trainings like UW Tacoma’s Strengthening Educational Excellence with Diversity (SEED) is also an example of work being done to create more inclusive classrooms. Another aspect of the work focuses on engaging the community.

Another aspect of the work focuses on engaging the community. The UW will initiate conversations with partners in King County, the City of Seattle and throughout the greater community in order to learn from history and best practices. The Initiative will continue collaborations across campuses and departments to create opportunities for student involvement, as well as faculty and staff support for undoing institutional bias.

“As we look ahead, we recognize that there is more we must do to achieve the goals of the initiative,” says Ed Taylor, chair of the Initiative steering committee and vice provost and dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs. “However, we are poised to advance this work alongside students, alumni, schools, colleges, centers, partners and everyone who engages with the UW community to bring about positive change on campus.”

See the full issue of the spring 2016 Viewpoint Magazine

Viewpoint is a publication in partnership with the diversity community of the University of Washington and the UW Alumni Association. Published twice a year, Viewpoint tells stories and profiles UW students, faculty and alumni who are making a difference.

In this special issue, read about the Race & Equity Initiative and see how several outstanding alumni share details of their time as students at UW.

Read the Spring 2016 Viewpoint Magazine

Flip Book 

PDF

When I launched the Race & Equity Initiative almost a year ago, I noted that these were difficult times for those of us who view diversity and equity as core values, who believe in justice and fairness, and who are committed to making this an inclusive and openhearted campus for all. Many of our students, along with faculty and staff, have taken strong stands in opposition to the bias and racism that is present in our society and on our campuses, both from individuals but also embedded in our institutional structures. And they continue to stand in support of needed change.

From marches and public demonstrations to coalition-building and engaging with the administration, faculty, staff and students across all campuses are working to bring about change through many venues. We welcome and encourage your involvement. To the extent possible, we will be using the Race & Equity webpage as a place to inform you of the work taking place across our campuses to address equity and social justice issues. You will find new information there about the progress we have made to date, resources on diversity efforts on all three campuses and actions planned for this spring and summer, many of which address specific issues raised in recent months.

Change, especially when it is long overdue, is always too slow. This may be especially the case in colleges and universities, where power is distributed and change rarely takes place in a top-down fashion. I recognize this, as do my colleagues in positions of leadership at the UW. Racism and bigotry have no place on our campuses; we condemn any and all incidents of this nature here (and everywhere!). They are antithetical to our mission as a public university, and as a place for learning and promoting the health and welfare of all members of our community, state, nation and world. So I am taking this opportunity to reiterate that we stand in solidarity with all of you who oppose oppression and inequity.

I am very grateful for the hard work that the Race & Equity Steering Committee is taking on, on behalf of all of us. There is no doubt that there will be missteps, miscues and challenges along the way, as we struggle with problems that have vexed society across the ages. But we are 100% committed to listening to your concerns and making changes for the better. Together, we can make progress toward equity and inclusion and toward building the kind of university and world that will allow ALL of us the opportunity to realize our human potential.

Mark this webpage, so you can return to it to track our progress and learn about new initiatives. Let’s keep the dialogue open and thank you for staying engaged

The Advisory Search Committee for the Vice President of Minority Affairs & Diversity and Chief Diversity Officer has selected three candidates for public interviews on the Seattle campus this month: Gabriel Gallardo (interim vice president for minority affairs and vice provost for diversity, University of Washington), Yolanda Spiva (president and chief executive officer, College Success Foundation) and Rickey Hall (vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion, University of Tennessee).

Each candidate will make a public presentation on their vision for equity and inclusion during their interview schedule. Candidate information and the dates for open forums are available on the provost’s web site.

During the 2015-2016 academic year, the UW Graduate School and the Alumni Association presents a series of talks that expose and explain transgressions and struggles—both systematic and personal—experienced by too many in our communities today. The series features thought leaders from our campus and around the world, Ana Mari Cauce, Harry Belafonte, Touré, Ralina Joseph and more, who are working to open our eyes to the consequences of prejudice, and seeking solutions for change. Find more about the Equity & Difference Series on the UWAA website.

 

Over the past three years, the UW College of Arts & Sciences has added seven faculty members focused on Indigenous studies. Those include three anthropology professors and two Native faculty members in the Department of American Indian Studies — including its chair, Christopher Teuton, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. American Indian Studies and the College of the Environment is each searching for an assistant professor with Indigenous studies experience, and the UW Information School is taking the unusual step of hiring two faculty members focused on Native North American Indigenous knowledge systems, replacing one faculty member who recently retired and adding a second position.

Read more…