The Meeting

Yesterday, the brown students finally had the meeting at the dean's house. It was supposed to be 1.5 hours, but it was more like 3.5! She has one of the most beautiful homes I've ever, ever seen and the spread of food was wonderful, and she is a very, very good host.

I had a goal of not complaining about anything for the entire night, and just listening, but it didn't work, mainly because I ended up semi-co-leading the meeting with dean, which is not want I wanted...but I can't say it's not what I expected, because when you put students in the room with faculty and administrators, they get nervous and they aren't as articulate as would be otherwise. Because I was the notetaker at the pre-meetings the students had to prepare for the "big meeting," there was a lot of "Can you talk about what I said at meeting last Monday about the curriculum?" And of course I would say, "You go ahead and say it!" But then they would start to stumble (which I think people should work through and keep talking because that's the only way you're going to learn), or they wouldn't speak at all. I thought it was very interesting that the dean wants everyone to "stand up, be loud, and be heard" at the school, as though she didn't recognize that students right there at the meeting couldn't manage to do that in a room full of people who were "on their side." But at least a few people spoke up. And then, because I was taking notes, the dean made me recap the first half of the meeting at the mid point, which was, seriously, like 4 pages of stuff that I did not have organized in any kind of way because they were just "my notes." But anyway, here are some positive things that came out of the meeting:

* We showed up, I mean in a critical mass kind of way!

* A student group (or 2, if we separate brown from rainbow) will be formed, separate from the administrative ad hoc committee---> and it will be funded!

* We got permission to call incoming diversity students, using the student affairs office for a call space

* We are invited to be on the curriculum planning, teaching and learning, and peer review committees (these are administrative committees that we will now take turns to attend the meetings where these issues are discussed, so that we can provide the "student perspective")

* We know what the current diversity committee is and is not, what they have and have not done, and what power they have or don't have (Can I just say that this ad hoc - there's your clue - committee is a joke?)

Some problems at the meeting:
* It was all about student responsibility...Ahem, it not only a student responsibility, but an institutional responsibility to improve the diversity issues at the school...it is not the responsibility of the students to do the job of the recruitment office and student affairs! At one point during the meeting she even suggested the students teach the faculty about diversity through giving presentations...huh? No. How about faculty take the initiative to educate themselves...and do us the favor of not spewing statistics until you do so.

* There were too many faculty/administrators, the ratio was 1:1 and they spent too much trying to tell us what they had already done, without asking us what we already knew...ie: 5 minute long ramblings about how we could volunteer at such and such clinic that they helped start, without first asking how many people already do (which was more than half the room!) It's like yes, we know about that, but one clinic doesn't negate your responsibility to not spew racist ideology from the lectern...nor does it have anything to do with what we're talking about ...we are asking for better discussion in the classroom, not a list of places to go to "get some diversity," hear me now? And they kept making suggestions for what we could do...and this is where my silent thing 1st fell through completely, because at one point I said "raise your hand if you..." and went through the list, because obviously they had underestimated how involved we've already been and the students were getting frustrated with all that "You guys can" and "You guys should" No, ma'am, we already did, so let's get to what you guys can do.

Updates from the things we criticized last semester:
* We're getting an actual Pharm professor! Imagine that, our very own full time professor of Pharm stationed right at the nursing school.
* Biomed is being completely redone. "The only thing that stays the same is the teacher." Hmph, I hate tenure.
* A new brown faculty member is coming for the fall! Doesn't that sound so ridiculous? I mean, we are so desperate, but when she said it I was really, really happy because that's how few we have...and one girl (a Latina) mentioned that all of our "diverse" faculty members are black...
* We secured a massive amount of money for scholarships...which won't trickle down to us, but hey, I'm happy for the next group.

So there it is (in as few words a s possible).