MONT ALTO, Pa. -自2020年7月起, “比赛, 股本, and Action” (REA) program at 宾州州立大学蒙阿尔托分校 has brought conversations, workshops and professional-development sessions to the campus to encourage dialogue and help fulfill part of the 2020-25 strategic plan to advance a culture of inclusion, equity and 多样性 at 宾州州立大学蒙阿尔托分校 and beyond.
When applying in 2020 for a $15,000 grant awarded from Barnes & 尊贵的公司., 基拉洗澡, assistant teaching professor in mathematics and honors program coordinator at 宾州州立大学蒙阿尔托分校, outlined how the Penn State community shared in the national heartbreak resulting from the killings of Ahmaud Arbery in February 2020 in Georgia, 2020年3月，布雷欧娜·泰勒在肯塔基州, 乔治·弗洛伊德，2020年5月在明尼阿波利斯, 和其他人. 这些资金确保了REA, 由她组织, continued through the spring 2021 semester, and financial support from the local campus has sustained it.
While the series was a response to national events, it wasn’t a one-off. “We needed to have a more robust program around race and equity,哈曼说. “We didn’t have a consistent and sustained effort to talk about these things.”
现在，蒙奥图校区做到了.
自REA成立以来的每个学期, there has been either a campus reading program, 系列讲座, 展览, 跨学科研讨会, 独角戏或表演, 作者:著名作家, 演员, 活动家和政府官员.
“There has always been a need to have conversations about race and racism in our country, 在我们的校园,哈曼说. “These things are hard to talk about and we have to talk about them.”
Survey results show that students are doing just that. According to information that Hamman shared with 宾州州立大学蒙阿尔托分校’s advisory board at the end of January, the number of students who said they often talk about race and racism rose from less than 20% before an REA seminar to nearly 70%. There also was a spike in the number of students who, 在参加了REA项目后, said they were comfortable talking about race with people they don’t know well.
One student who responded to the survey noted: “The biggest thing I got out of this class was a better understanding about systemic racism and finding the courage to speak up for people of color. Now, I feel more confident to participate in these conversations.”
弗朗西斯·K. Achampong, 欧博体育官网蒙奥图分校的校长, said educational offerings like REA are vital to students’ personal development by allowing them to examine and challenge their preconceptions and biases.
“我们生活在一个多元化的环境中, global world in which we have to engage with all kinds of people — people from all sorts of nationalities, 种族, 社会经济和政治背景, and gender identities that may be similar to or different from ours,阿昌蓬说. “These interactions may occur on a whole range of fronts — the classroom, 工作场所, 我们的当地社区, 政治舞台, 更广泛的公共领域, or during travel abroad for work or study. It is crucial that we all learn how to engage in this diverse community in a way that is constructive, 尊重差异，有意义.”
迈克尔Doncheski, chief academic officer at 宾州州立大学蒙阿尔托分校, said it’s important for verbal exchanges about race to take place in all areas of education.
“多样性, equity and inclusion (DEI) are not the responsibility of any one academic program or discipline, but it is really the responsibility of all disciplines and programs,唐切斯基说. “对于某些学科或课程, the connection to DEI is evident; for others, 并不总是那么清楚. A campus-wide program like REA supports DEI education by bringing students together from all disciplines and allowing for a sharing of experiences that helps our students grow. The seminar series last spring was facilitated by faculty across all disciplines and open to all students, 不管他们的学术重点是什么. Because of the breadth of the REA program, students who are unable to attend activities still benefit through peer engagement.”
Hamman said REA is different from typical 多样性 training programs in that it gives participants concrete experiences to think about and discuss.
“我们读了一本书, 我们去看展览, 我们一起看戏, we listen to a lecture — and then we talk about it,哈曼说. “People have a common experience that naturally brings up conversations about race and racism, and we make space for them to have those conversations respectfully and productively. Our mission is to teach people to think about and talk about difficult issues,” which advances the goal of higher education to broaden people’s scope of understanding.
For more information about the Race, 股本, and Action program, go to montalto.事业单位.edu.
