The Daily Cardinal asked for the campus' input on the current social climate at UW-Madison. These are the responses we received. If you want to contribute to the discussion, email actionproject@dailycardinal.com, and we will publish your input.
Hi all,
As a student from a minor cultural background, I would like to share my thought on some ethnic issues.
Although the University of Wisconsin-Madison has emphasized on diversity and representation, there are still tendency of isolation and exclusion. With the majority student being locally from this area or as American, the issue is obvious. Students still tend to gather with people from similar background and who shares same value with them. The problem is cultural misunderstanding. Majority students seem does not have the motive to step outside of their ‘safe circle’ and explore different cultures. Because they are well represented, they do not need to challenge their dominance, they do not need to adjust themselves to anything to please. This makes hard for the mainstream to step outside the echo chamber that only reflects their agreeing views and for the minority to be recognized by the mainstream.
The work that student association, such as ISS, AIS and DARS, should be recognized and highly valued. However, to solve the ethnic issues further, cooperation with other mainstream organizations is necessary. By rising awareness that the mainstream has lack of initiative to interact with other culture, the issue can be further solved.
It is reflected by everyday life, such as the attitude to students in the dining hall while you are serving, in discussions who you tend to sit with, in resident who do you say hi to, what messages you share on the internet, who do you ask when you have a question……If we have to solve the issue to exclusion and separation between cultures, the student organizations and other media should be a bridge figures to facilitate interaction. Certainly things are getting better, but to go further, we need to work together.
Jacinta Tian, UW-Madison student
Graduate student instructors run many of the labs, discussion sections, and lectures on Madison's campus. Yet, with the exception of a brief, one-time, Equity Training, Teaching Assistants and Lecturers receive no guidance or financial support for learning how we can meet the needs of students from multiple backgrounds and groups. To improve classroom climate for undergraduate students, the university must provide the necessary monetary and professional support to graduate student instructors to do so.
UW-Madison classrooms have many diversity-related challenges. The "achievement gap" between majority students and their minority and first-generation peers persists in many campus classrooms. According to a recent campus survey, minority students are disadvantaged by competition in some classrooms and have anxiety about working with majority students. LGBTQ students also report feeling marginalized and tokenized (asked to represent their whole group) in some classrooms. Also, many underrepresented minority students reportedly feel ignored by faculty, mistreated even (and especially) in courses with multicultural foci, and left with low- confidence in their abilities to achieve academic success (see: http://diversity.wisc.edu/content/uploads/2013/07/Final_SDU.pdf).
Not surprisingly, the same surveys also show that instructors in courses with positive climate ratings by minority students reported spending greater effort on teaching. Most likely, instructors who spend more time on teaching can more successfully draw on student diversity to foster learning outcomes of critical thinking and global and cultural competence for all students and create inclusive and equitable college classroom environments (all are university-wide goals for student learning).
Though the university has made strides in diversity programming, it hasn't gone far enough in providing financial and professional support to graduate students to implement the aformentioned objectives. TAs and Lecturers receive low wages while paying ever-increasing segregated fees and costs; so for many of us, doing "extra" unpaid teacher training is financially unfeasible. The larger academic job market (for graduate students who want professor positions) also pressures graduate students to focus on research publications and research grants, for which [some of us] are eventually rewarded with jobs and money. By comparison, teaching and diversity efforts are routinely uncompensated.
To counter these pressures, UW-Madison must provide graduate student instructors with substantial, financial and professional support towards creating inclusive and equitable classrooms. This could take several forms:
Increased paid diversity training for graduate student instructors on how to practically implement teaching practices that equitably serve undergraduates;
Additional pay-raises or promotions for graduate student instructors that improve the equity in the learning environment for their students;
Individual or group grants and/or awards for graduate students for implementing innovative equitable and inclusive teaching practices and related evaluation;
A clearinghouse of easy-to-use resources for graduate student instructors designing and assessing inclusion and equity in their classrooms.
UW-Madison has the opportunity to become a leader in recognizing and addressing diversity challenges in graduate student instructor-led classrooms, but needs to provide the necessary financial and professional support for teaching and learning success.
Gina Spitz is a PhD Student and Lecturer in Sociology. Her dissertation research is on neighborhood racial diversity. She is also the co-chair of the Teaching Assistants' Association's Diversity Committee.
Companies have access to new technologies, are subject to tough competition, and now serve customers of different cultures, religions, beliefs, and ambitions across the United Stated and in most parts of the world. Twenty-first century business is astoundingly nuanced and complex. It is easy to see why most premier US companies actively recruit workers from an array of racial backgrounds, countries, and sexual orientations.
When I came to UW-Madison, I was not surprised when there was no student organization for LGBT undergraduates in business. As a sixteen year old I was told to keep my identity secret since I may not be hired for a job if an employer found out I was gay. Looking back now, that conversation seems unimaginable. Proctor & Gamble, Google, McKinsey & Co., JPMorgan Chase, and KPMG are a few of countless companies that actively celebrate LGBTs in their workforce.
We need to rid ourselves of the assumption that our differences make us unsuitable; we should see them and our perspectives for the assets they really are.
Cooper Boland, Benjamin Steinert, and Nicholas Maupin founded a UW-Madison Registered Student Organization and BBA Student Organization called Out for Business (O4B). O4B provides a casual forum for LGBT and allied undergraduate students interested in business and connects those students with companies that value diversity. Cooper Boland is also The Daily Cardinal’s marketing director.
The Associated Students of Madison has been waiting for the Diversity Plan template, and we are excited to work with Administrators, Faculty, Staff, and Students to improve our campus climate through this plan. We also appreciate the effort to work with shared governance groups, and look forward to the presentation to students in ASM Student Council, where we can provide meaningful feedback.
ASM Diversity Committee is in the process of reviewing the draft, and making initial recommendations. Our primary concern is with the emphasis on ‘optional’ changes and opportunities. For these recommendations to be effective, they need to be presented to students who do not already seek out diversity training on campus. Further, we need to take an intentional step toward making our campus community, academically as well as socially, supportive of all students and in order for this to happen the changes for faculty, staff and administration cannot be optional either.
Besides the overall vagueness and leniency throughout, the draft of the plan has several concerning holes. Despite strong conversation regarding changes to the ethnic studies requirement to ensure that it accomplishes what it is meant to, there is no mention of any changes to the requirement in the plan thus far. Further, there is no mention of graduate students, which make up a large portion of our student body and have the power to have great impact on the undergraduate population through TA positions.
Finally, one of the strongest concerns ASM Diversity Committee has with the plan thus far is the lack of detail on how any changes will be executed over time, with assessments and improvements as needed. Though we are very excited to see that our campus is finally taking steps to create a new diversity plan, we believe that something this important needs to be taken more seriously and handled with more intentionality to ensure that we come out with a strong, change-making document.
Jessica Behling, ASM Diversity Committee Chair
David Gardner, ASM Chair
