TOCAR Assessment Committee

Minutes for July 8, 2002 

Present:  David Crockett (MSUM); Claudia Simon (NTC); Johnathan Judd (Concordia); Phyllis May-Machunda (MSUM); Paul Boswell (NDSU); Larry Peterson (NDSU); Sandy Holbrook (NDSU); Ted Guerrero (NTC); Maureen Reed (MSUM); Linda Palmer (MSUM); Michelle Stevier (Concordia); Joy Lintelman (Concordia); Kara Stack (NDSU); Dawn Tommerdahl (Concordia); Jane Hewitt (Concordia); Amy Phillips (MSUM)

(Assignments are in bold)

I.             Introductions

In round-robin fashion, the individuals present introduced themselves.

II.             Future meeting dates

Phyllis announced that the 8/15 meeting with Jim and Carmen has been cancelled.  The meeting will be rescheduled for early fall when Jim and Carmen are here for a training.  This rescheduling will give the teams more time to meet and develop questions regarding their directions for Jim and Carmen.

            Fall meeting dates for the Collaborative are:

                        September 10, 4:00 at Concordia

                        October 8, 4:00 at NTC

                        November 12, 4:00, at MSUM

                        December 10, 4:00 at NDSU

 III.              Training for Trainers

            Phyllis announced that the MCARI training for trainers tentatively scheduled for late July will be postponed due to a conflict with Jim's and Carmen's schedules.  Amy reported that Jim and Carmen have expressed interest in training individuals who can be trainers as well as institutional organizers.  She noted that it seemed that the first type of training for trainers that TOCAR needs is training for individuals to be able to do Level 1 training so that we will have people here in the community to do these trainings on an ongoing basis.  The group agreed with this.  Phyllis and Amy will discuss this with Jim and Carmen.

             Joy Lintelman discussed and presented material from the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) regarding anti-racism training for trainers that the ELCA offers.  She passed the material around.  She was asked about the content of this training and how it might differ from MCARI's.  She said she had not yet had time to talk with anyone at the ELCA about this.  Phyllis and others commented that the more resources TOCAR has to draw on, the better, and that MCARI is only one organization that can provide assistance.  Joy will further investigate what the ELCA has to offer and will report this at the next Collaborative meeting in September.

IV.              Review of 3-day training

            The group discussed several comments related to the 3-day training.  It was observed that teams especially enjoyed being able to have discussions as teams and that more time doing this would have been helpful.  Several people commented that some individual participants had difficulty with the definition of racism as offered by the trainers, especially since the definition holds white people accountable for institutional racism.  There seemed to be some difficulty understanding systemic racism.  Phyllis asked the group if the teams nevertheless accepted the training's definition of racism as a premise for the teams' work.  Everyone answered affirmatively.  Phyllis also commented that some members of MSUM's team felt that the training was religious in nature.  She asked if any training participants from the other campuses felt this way.  No one indicated a perception of the training as religious, or that other team members felt that way.

            Johnathan and Joy expressed concern about a comment related to Concordia made by another team's member during the training.  The comment seemed to reflect some misconceptions about Concordia.  The group discussed the importance of building trust within the Collaborative and across teams and that within each team there should be ongoing discussion regarding our own biases/perceptions about our own and others' campuses.  The teams need to engage in regular reflection and discussion about potential blindspots/prejudices so as to ensure that the teams' work is as unbiased as possible.

V.        Team Reports

             Each team reported on upcoming team meetings.  Claudia Simon also reported that both the President and Vice President of NW Technical College had recently resigned, placing into question the level of support that TOCAR at NTC will be getting.  The group offered assistance to Claudia, Ted and the other NTC team members in any way that might be needed.

VI.            Expansion of TOCAR to MnSCU and NDUS

            Phyllis reported that the MnSCU (Minnesota State Colleges and Universities) main office had written a successful grant proposal to the Otto Bremer Foundation to provide seed money to other MnSCU campuses for initiating TOCAR-type activities.  In addition, MCARI is planning a training for MnSCU officials.

            Paul Boswell reported that the North Dakota University System (NDUS) Diversity Council is asking the ND Board of Higher Education for funding to begin a TOCAR-type process on NDUS campuses.  Paul has been in conversation with Jim Addington and Carmen Valenzuela of MCARI regarding scheduling trainings in ND.  An initial Level 1 training will be held in Fargo for Diversity Council members.  A meeting between the Diversity Council and the TOCAR Collaborative may take place at that time so that the Diversity Council can talk with the Collaborative about the Collaborative's past and future work.  Paul is hoping to develop an NDUS Collaborative similar to the TOCAR Collaborative and to hold trainings on all NDUS campuses.  An effort will also be made to include tribal colleges and private colleges.

VII.            Institutional Assessments

            Kay Schneider reported that the institutional assessment tool for faculty and staff is closing in on its final draft.  She thanked all who gave her feedback on the last draft.  The Assessment Committee will be meeting again on July 31^st.  The committee hopes that by the next Collaborative meeting the final draft will be ready and the Collaborative can discuss implementation of the assessment process on each campus.  Each campus team will take responsibility for distribution and collection of the surveys.  Amy suggested that incentives, such as a intra- and intercampus competition for the most surveys completed, might encourage a high return rate.  She suggested that TOCAR purchase a catered lunch for the department/office/group with the fastest or highest return, or an award for the campus with the highest return.  Everyone looked at Amy kind of funny, but seemed to like the idea….

            Phyllis and Kay noted that the Assessment Committee had been working on including more questions into the survey which addressed white privilege and institutional racism issues.  Once the faculty/staff survey is complete, the committee will begin work on a student survey.

            Anyone with any questions or comments about the assessment tool should contact Kay at schneide@cord.edu.

VIII.     Role of Collaborative

            Phyllis presented the question to the group regarding the role of the Collaborative now that individual campus teams have been formed.  Claudia responded that she sees the Collaborative as a useful resource for teams as a whole and campus coordinators in particular.  Everyone agreed with this.  Amy noted that the Collaborative could also encourage teams regarding their process, such as promoting caucasing (such as occurred during the 3-cay training) both within teams and between campuses.  Phyllis asked the group how they would feel about including the YWCA in the Collaborative.  The Y may not be interested, or have the time, to participate, but their presence could provide another community connection for the campuses.  Everyone agreed that the Y should be invited.  Amy and Phyllis will contact the Y.

            The group also discussed the relationship of the campus anti-racism teams to the campus TOCAR chapters.  Concordia reported that their chapter would focus on continuing to sponsor campus trainings and educational events, activities that would feed into their team's work.  NDSU doesn't really have a chapter -- their team and the NDSU Diversity Council function also as the chapter.  NTC's team functions both as chapter and team and will continue to place its emphasis on team building.  MSUM will continue to have a chapter separate from the team.

IX.       Anti-Racism Plan Process

The group talked about team work plans for the upcoming academic year. Amy and Phyllis discussed the fact that this fall the MSUM team would be concentrating on gathering information through the assessment process and engaging in team-building and further education for the team.  Other teams expressed a similar process.  All teams would also begin discussing developing an initial concrete plan for implementation on each campus.  Someone recommended contacting Thomas Lane at MSUM who has assisted group with strategic planning.  He's familiar with resources for this process.  Amy will contact Thomas and report back to the group at the next meeting.

X.        Other

Larry Peterson asked for references to resources that faculty could use in helping them recognize their own biases in the context of teaching and working at the university.  Anyone with resources should contact Larry at larry.petereson@ndsu.nodak.edu.

NEXT MEETING

The next meeting of the Collaborative will be Tuesday, September 10, 4:00-5:30 at Concordia (place to be announced).

Minutes submitted by Amy Phillips.