CIDE Meeting Summary 11/14/19
Attending: Theodore Bartholomew, Wendy Cheng, Abigail Clarke, Courtney Espiritu, Daphne Liu, Marnita Martin, Brittani Morris, Denise Nelson Nash, Marissa Sloane Parks, Aayushi Trivedi, Tressi Mehana Turkmany, and Jennifer Wells.
Denise informed the group that President Tiedens will attend the CIDE meeting in the Spring of 2020. It is better for her to come to the last meeting when groups present their recommendations. It will be helpful to have her hear directly from the individual working groups. The committee is charged with looking for recommendations that can be implemented within the next 1-2 years.
Working Group 1 Project Together: Institutional Equity and Inclusion (formerly Inclusion vs. Separation)
- Rather than reinventing the wheel, the purpose is to explore pathways to a universal commitment to equity and inclusion.
- The working group plans to collect different types of data including through a campus-wide survey and student focus group. •
- Plans to follow up this data with a literature review that supports findings.
- Plans to create an inventory of existing programs, (in collaboration with the IDEA 2.0 Implementation Team) using some kind of collection method about what we do currently (and evaluating it), while also conducting a gap analysis to determine what we should do to bridge that gap.
Denise: Recommends committee meet with Junelyn on existing data. She believes resources are available in different offices around campus and that the group should research existing data before requesting to conduct a survey. Suggests the group review the College’s Statement of Diversity and Principles of Community documents. This looks like a really big project and may need to have a more specified goal for the year.
Why the name change?
- There are student, faculty, and staff concerns, which are separate, but also have common threads. Everyone being included and considered in community is important. Thinking about how it can be equitable for everybody and inclusive of all.
- Gap analysis: Focus on what exists and what’s missing. How do we bridge what we’re already doing with what’s needed?
- How do gather this info from faculty: Centre for Teaching and Learning to learn about how they’re training faculty on inclusivity, diversity, and equity.
- Faculty survey: Wendy is on FEC and will formally announce it, if and when a survey is done. Both faculty members will remind faculty about survey and encourage them to complete it.
- Completion of this work for this group might be the collection of data. The next year of CIDE might be able to take the rest on. Figuring out what exists and what’s missing might be the project for this year.
- The project fits solidly into Jenn’s charge as implementation leader of IDEA 2.0, which is a Strategic Plan initiative.
- Significant culture change like this takes time.
- Emphasis on stability and creating commitment that will actually be followed through.
Working Group 2 Decolonization
- Realistic goal is to create an internal report. Proactively build relationships with Indigenous people and cultures especially in Tongva and Serrano communities. Review practices of reparation.
- Identified Areas: Admissions, Student Affairs, and Student Organizations
- How many Indigenous and Pacific Islander students are at Scripps?
- Must also have intercollegiate focus on recruitment and support. The working group is aware that there has been discussion about creating an Indigenous Studies department for many years.
- Interested in reporting on other college’s relationships with Indigenous communities, specifically at Pitzer with the Robert Redford Conservancy, Native American Collection at Pomona College Art Museum.
- Possible outcomes: deciding what we could share on the Scripps website. Possibly draft a land acknowledgment statement for Scripps.
- Indigenous Studies Department, Native Faculty, and statement of acknowledgment are focuses of interest
Denise: Encourages group to speak with Amy Marcus-Newhall regarding intercollegiate department of Indigenous Studies efforts over the years because there is some history that might be helpful. Also encourages them to speak with Mary McNaughton at Williamson Art Gallery regarding question of teaching collection: If and how there has been any teaching relationship with Pomona on its Indigenous collection. This topic has come up before in previous iteration of CIDE (PACDI), will share notes. Believes repository of information is do-able and could be linked to the IDEA website. Encourages working group to think in addition to acknowledgement: “what else” (related to community statements). Encourages group to look at Statement of Community and Statement on Diversity and potential for both groups (Project Together and Decolonization) to collaborate.
Question of physical recognition:
• At Redford Conservancy, Tongva people were involved in creation (layout/plans) of the space. Tongva community have access to the Pitzer land. What if there was a garden or space at Scripps acknowledging the Tongva and Serrano people? A plaque?
Student comment on website related to decolonization:
- Incorporate into International Student Orientation? Many students are unaware of the history of the land and only become aware through other students.
Denise: Asks all to take a look at Scripps website on Diversity and Inclusion. Recommendations on things that could be here.
Question of “Global Calendar?”:
- Are there new/better ways to push out student emails?
- There is software being considered at a Student Affairs level.
Working Group 3 Wellness
- Gathering data is really important to this group as well.
- Thinking about intersection of technology and wellness. Maybe there are apps that support wellness that can be shared with students. We were thinking on the health end, but this could really apply to Scripps-wide access. This could even touch on the “global calendar” issue. Suggestion to connect with Deb Gisvold, director of Field House, has access to a large body of information on this topic at Scripps. Also Center for Collegiate Mental Health information is good resource. Question of student health contexts:
- Lots of students coming in with need for mental health resources. What can we do if we don’t know students’ support needs when joining the Scripps community?
- What’s happening at the high school level? Students are coming to Scripps with need for mental health resources. Denise: Will follow-up with Victoria on Wellness Group.
Closing: Everyone is strongly encouraged to review working-group documents on Box site. A Doodle Poll will be sent out for next semester’s meetings.