UDEC Minutes
November 28, 2006
11:00 a.m., 01-409

Notetaker: Valene Mathews

Attendees: Will Bailey, Renoda Campbell-Monza, Matt Carlton, David Conn (Chair), Jean DeCosta, Erin Echols, Brent Goodman, Brad Kyker, Heidi Lorge, Brian McElwain, Cornel Morton, Cheryl Ney, Jeffrey Sklar, Jillian Smillie, Shannon Stephens

1. Announcements
Distributed

• World Aids Day Flyer
• The Cal Poly Mural Project Design Contest Announcement

Events Information

World Aids Day – Erin Echols distributed a flyer on a week long series of events in honor of World Aids Day. Ribbons are available for everyone to wear for the week. Pride Alliance will be working with the Women’s Center and health educators to offer a Women’s Forum on Wednesday, November 29th. Everyone is welcome.

Renoda Campbell-Monza thanked everyone who attended the CultureFest, it was a very successful event and she appreciated the support and the feedback that she received.

The Multicultural Center is still in celebration of Latino Heritage month and everyone is invited to attend a presentation of Robert Maja’s work, a muralist from the Dominican Republic. There will also be a documentary film shown about the Cuban Boat People. Information regarding Latino Heritage presentations is available on the Multicultural website in the calendar section.

Shannon Stephens announced that the Women’s Volleyball team is ranked #15 in the country and will be hosting the first round of the NCAA Championships on Friday and Saturday, everyone is invited to attend!

Cheryl Ney announced the CSU Community Based Teaching and Research Conference will be held in February. The theme will be Diversity in California. If anyone is interested in attending, visit the conference website.

There will be a Web Conference held on December 4th on "Approaches to Improving the First Year Student Experience." If you would like to attend, please contact the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs to reserve a space.

2. Status of Work Groups
a. 1st Generation College Student Projects
The 1st Generation Panel group met with the Social Science Department for a quick 25 minute session in early November. Susan hopes to receive more requests for 25-50 minute panels for Winter Quarter. Susan will be looking for new panelists and will be receiving nominations to select new panelists for Winter Quarter. Susan has obtained an alias from ITS to send out emails offering tips and information to First Generation Students, hopefully by Winter Quarter if not before.

b. 1st Generation College Student Scholarships
David reminded the Council that the decision to offer the scholarships strictly to Sophomore students was made and that, as one of the by-products, there would be essays collected from these students about their experiences and made available to future applicants.

c. Mural
Jean DeCosta distributed a flyer on the Cal Poly Mural Project’s Design Contest. Jean stated that the project has been quite a struggle because of the many different layers of difficulty, but the work group is making slow and steady progress. A panel of Art Instructors and students will be choosing the top two design finalists, which will then be presented to the Multicultural groups for their feedback. The final review will then be submitted to UDEC.

Instructors from the Art Department are providing guidance and assistance. In addition, the work group will be meeting with Robert Maja to consult with him on serving as a facilitator in the implementation of the Mural. Approximately $10,000 has been promised, but has not as yet been transferred. Jean has taken two students with her and has met with the Deans at the various colleges to ask for support. Jean will be following up with those who have promised the funds but have not as yet made the transfers, and will continue to work on raising money. The work group will be meeting with Facilities Planning to discuss locations for the Mural. There are many hoops to go through on this process. The Mural committee is meeting every Friday at 2:00pm in UU 218. Everyone is welcome to attend.

d. Pride Alliance Center
Will Bailey stated that he received a pretty disappointing response to his request for additional members of the group. Will requested that if members of the Council know of anyone that might be interested, to please refer them to Will or Lisa Mendel.

Erin Echols stated that there is a new college guide published by the "Advocate" which is an LGBT news magazine. They surveyed colleges throughout the country and came up with the top 100 colleges that are considered "LGBT Friendly" campuses. Cal Poly is currently not on the list. There are a number of activities in the college guide that the students in the Pride Alliance Center would like to initiate at Cal Poly. Erin stated that she would like to work on some of them with the backing of UDEC. Will stated that the group historically identifies a couple of projects, and this appears to be a tangible and fun project to do.
David Conn reminded the Council that individuals who would be interested in joining the work group do not have to be UDEC members in order to do so. There will be a meeting scheduled before the end of the quarter.

e. Retention
David Conn stated that the group would like to figure out a way to use the data gathered from the NSSE (National Survey of Student Engagement) and other national surveys that Cal Poly has participated in. The work group would like to use the information to produce tangible improvements. Limited time and labor have prevented Cal Poly from doing the appropriate analysis to date. Other information that could be helpful might come from Senior Projects, Theses, and Doctoral dissertations. The key concerns regarding Retention were discussed and the first on the list was “Change of Major”. Change of Major has been an on-going problem and is still viewed as a major challenge, particularly for underrepresented students. The Retention group will also be looking at Senior Project as well as Financial Aid issues. The group will work toward developing recommendations.

f. White Privilege Reading Group
Brian McElwain announced that a "Conversations on Privilege" brown bag luncheon discussion series has been organized. The first session will be held on Wednesday, December 13th at 12 noon, located in UU 216. Donna Davis advised that we be very cautious and sensitive to the fact that there could be a possible backlash on our students as a result of this. It could stir up controversy in the Mustang Daily and other arenas. Students of color are already dealing with different issues of climate, and the possibility of making them feel unwelcome is something that we should try and prevent. Donna suggested that we make our students of color aware that these conversations are taking place.

Brad Kyker stated that he would suggest that we start small and ramp up over time. If we are really going to use this as an instrument to change culture, we need to come to the white privilege topic gradually and slowly. Cheryl Ney suggested that it might be helpful to start with the first group by being explicit about "our" experiences with Privilege.

Brad suggested that the beginning conversations should be kept as benign as possible in defining "Privilege." In this way we would have less risk of experiencing a backlash.

Cornel Morton stated that there must be a development of trust in the conversations so that all feel comfortable and are not demonized for expressing their thoughts. Only then will this become a productive and insightful exercise.

Next Meeting: Tuesday, December 12, 2006, 11:00am – 12:00pm, 01-409