As an institution with a shared governance system, it is important to know the connections between such structures and the work of Anti-Racism. This ties into previous discussions about "white supremacy organizations" (see resources from 4 November - 22 November 2023) and may provide a framework for how we can leverage the shared governance of Champlain College to make actionable changes. The following resources offer some definitions and perspectives on Governance and Anti-Racism.
Discussion Readings
"AAUP Statement" on shared governance
Bean, Buul, and Imhof, "How to Start Anti-racism Work at a Colorblind Institution"
Gasman, "What if We Used Our Shared Governance Power to Undo Systemic Racism?"
Bonus Readings
Here are a few more resources that are somewhat related to the above topics and provide further insights into how governance works in certain situations.
Kaufman-Osborn, "Shared Governance Within the Autocratic Academy"
Sorensen, "Reflecting Strength and Unity: Shared Governance at Tribal Colleges"
It is important to know when anti-racism work requires grace and compassion and when kindness is ineffective. This prompt explores The Role of Truth and Grace in Anti-Racism. In addition to the resources here, you may find it helpful to revisit the prior resources on "calling in/out" from 19 October - 4 November 2022.
Discussion Readings
Mai and Whitlock, "How to Respond with Compassion When Someone is Hurt by Racism"
Sprague, "Kindness is Not the Solution to Racism"
Quintero, "Toxic positivity"
Bonus Readings
Hearing Untold Stories for Change with Neil Phillips - Somewhat lengthy audio interview with Neil Phillips.
There have been a number of instances on college campuses lately where free speech and issues of DEI have intertwined. This slate of resources relates to Free Speech, Religion, and DEI Issues. Please check out the following resources (you can pick and choose as there are a few of them) to get a sense of some of the concerns being raised about these connections.
Discussion Readings
Bonus Readings
This prompt is all about action. What actions, big or small, can we take toward social justice? A small action might be reflecting on our own personal biases. A big action might be requiring a certain number of diversity hires in the next few years. The resources below should give us some ideas and a starting point for determining what actions we will take.
Discussion Readings
One of the things we hope the members of each ARC will do during their first meeting is to develop an understanding of how they intend to work with one another. Something you may want to discuss is the idea that ARCs were developed as a space for “calling in” those who are willing to learn. However, “calling in” is controversial and has potential downsides. It’s important to have clarity on what you mean by “calling in” and when you feel it’s appropriate to do it (and not do it!), both within your ARC and outside it.
We hope you will find these articles thought-expanding and helpful and that they get your ARC off to a good start with a productive and interesting discussion.
Discussion Readings
Bonus Readings
If you’re curious to learn more about this topic, here are some additional resources that may be of interest.
"What if Instead of Calling People Out, We Called Them In?" (NYT profile of Professor Loretta Ross, who wrote the first discussion reading)
Interrupting Bias: Calling Out vs Calling In (An excellent handout by VT-based nonprofit "Seed the Way")
Call-out vs Call-in Culture: What Makes Progress? (A video panel discussion featuring some Vermonters)
As a "professionally-focused" institution, Champlain has been grappling with what "professional" means, and how notions of "professionalism" can be profoundly unfair and exclusionary. We hope that these readings are a good way into the topic for your group.
Discussion Readings
Okun and Jones, "White Dominant Culture and Something Different". The work of Teka Okun and Kenneth Jones is mentioned in the Gray article. This is a short handout they created to help people understand what they mean by “white supremacy culture” in the workplace - and how we could envision a different, more inclusive way of working together.
Bonus Readings
If you’re curious to learn more about this topic, here are some additional resources that may be of interest.
In 2018, the Faculty Senate voted to abolish merit pay for faculty on the grounds that evaluations of merit by supervisors are subject to implicit (or even explicit) bias. Merit pay was not abolished for staff at Champlain, however, and President Hernandez has indicated an interest in reinstating it for faculty.
We hope these readings and your group conversations will help you participate more knowledgably in institutional discussions about merit pay. While two of the readings relate specifically to faculty evaluations by students, the others are about the pitfalls of subjective evaluations in any workplace. The fourth reading offers some potential ways of reducing bias in merit evaluations.
Discussion Readings
Please read one of the following:
Ciciora, Merit-based employment practices contribute to gender pay gap, study says, University of Illinois News Bureau. (If you're interested, here is the abstract of the study mentioned in this article - we don't seem to have institutional access to the full text, but our wonderful librarians can probably hook you up if you're interested.)
Reid, Langdon D. “The Role of Perceived Race and Gender in the Evaluation of College Teaching on RateMyProfessors.com”. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. 2010. Vol. 3 No. 3, 137-152. (If you choose to read this one, feel free to skim it quickly.)
Mitchell, "Student Evaluations Can't Be Used to Assess Professors. Our research shows they’re biased against women. That means using them is illegal", Slate
And please read pp. 35-38 of this article (you can read the whole thing if you want, but these are the pages that focus on possible solutions):
Castilla, "Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace", MIT Sloan Management Review
Bonus Readings
If you’re curious to learn more about this topic, here are some additional resources that may be of interest.
Gender Action Portal of Harvard's K School, "The Paradox of Meritocracy in Organizations"
Lilienfeld, "How Student Evaluations Are Skewed against Women and Minority Professors", The Century Foundation
Ricketts, White Women Ain’t Fragile (Nor is White Supremacy)
Menakem, My Grandmother's Hands, Chapter 4, "European Trauma and White Supremacy"
(You need to log into the library with your Champlain account to access the eBook.)
If you're interested, you can also read Menakem, My Grandmother's Hands, Chapter 1, "Your Body and Blood"
Human Rights Watch, "Ukraine: Unequal Treatment for Foreigners Attempting to Flee - Pattern of Blocking, Delaying Non-Ukrainians"
NPR, "Why Ukrainians are being treated differently than refugees from other countries"
Thys, "Gov. Scott asks Legislature to fund humanitarian aid for Ukraine"
Other options (you might want to use these as prompts in coming weeks if your ARC wants to think more about the Ukraine situation - up to you):
Anti-Racism Daily, "Do Sanctions Defend or Violate Human Rights?"
Nicole Narea and Rajaa Elidrissi (Vox), "Why it’s more difficult to flee Ukraine if you’re not from Ukraine"
Monika Pronczuk and Ruth Maclean (New York Times), "Africans Say Ukrainian Authorities Hindered Them From Fleeing"
Watch this 2-minute video: Baroness Von Sketch Show - Theatre Acknowledgement
Discussion questions:
If indigenous folx say that they'd prefer a return of land instead of a spoken or written land acknowledgement, would we concede?
What does land acknowledgement do for Indigenous Persons if there is no discipline of study designed with their sovereignty at the College?
What are the personal, communal, academic, institutional, etc. goals for making land acknowledgments? And, how might those goals inform course design, curriculum development, language, concepts of time, etc.?
Additional resources IF you want more food for thought:
Thanks to Emily Crist and Faith Yacubian for these suggestions!
Read and discuss: "When Professors Offend Students"
Thanks to Jen Berger for these excellent suggestions!
Read and discuss:
Additional resources IF you want more food for thought:
Thanks to Faith Yacubian for these excellent suggestions!
Read and discuss: "What if Instead of Calling People Out, We Called Them In?"
Additional resources IF you want more food for thought:
Interrupting Bias: Calling Out vs Calling In - excellent handout by VT-based nonprofit "Seed the Way"
Have ideas for a prompt? Please email us at antiracismcircles@gmail.com!