Juntura Committee Meeting minutes - Nov. 14, 2000
Present: Dennis Falk, Rodney Frey, Jerry Wegman, Elinor Michel, Dona Walker, Erika Pendroza, and Lily Wai. Guests: Bill Voxman and Georgia Johnson.
Corrections to the Oct. 17th minutes: (email sent in by Carrie Huskinson) The open house on Dec. 1, 7pm on the 4th floor of the Commons is sponsored by Students for Equal Opportunities in Education. It is a club that "represents not only non-traditional students, but also multicultural students, students with disabilities, low income, and single parents as well."
Lily Wai called the Meeting to order at 3:30 pm in the Library Conference Room. The following items were discussed:
1. Diversity and Core Discovery Courses:
Bill Voxman explained to the group about the Core Discovery Courses. They are designed to be highly interdisciplinary, and team-taught. They can be taught in any form and the themes can be very broad. There is strong
emphasis on teaching study skills and learning skills. One basic requirement for the Core Discovery Course is including the diversity issues in the delivery of the courses. There are 10 sections and two Core Discovery Courses taught this year with 40 students in each section. With the large grant, he hopes to open up 16 more sections and 4 or 5 courses offered next year.
Georgia Johnson, one of the team faculties for the Core Discovery Course, School Daze, was invited to talk about her own experience in teaching this course. She has an overall concern about the contrast between the unique way this course is taught and the other traditional core courses are taught on campus. She is very concerned that five of her students may flunk the course due to the lack of understanding of the alternative and innovative way of teaching in the Core Discovery courses. Students in the traditional core courses can easily get away with not attending classes and still receive a fair grade, but in the Core Discovery Courses they are expected to participate actively in the classroom. Questions were raised about the CAMP students who dropped out of the course and the Committee members would like to find out the cause behind it. She said that they are also concerned about this problem and may suggest that next year one or two sections be open for specifically the CAMP or other "under-prepared" students. Bill Voxman also agreed to look into this issue. Bill said he is open for suggestions and welcome people to submit proposals for next year's Core Discovery Courses.
After the guests left the meeting, Erika Pendroza, a freshman CAMP student, was asked to express her feelings about this discussion. She said that she did not enroll in the Core Discovery Course, but has friends who were in these courses. She said that the problems the CAMP students encountered are not necessarily unique to the CAMP students. The problems of not being able to keep up with the class reading material, and needing help with the study and writing skills are common with the other
traditional students as well. Most of the CAMP students recruited from the high schools to attend UI are usually from the top of the class and are on the honor rolls. They came to the university to get diversified experience and the idea of "segregating" them into a special section in the Core Discovery course is not a good idea. Members suggested that we might need to find out how successful are all the other multicultural students in these Core Discovery Courses.
2. Campus wide Diversity plan:
Dona Walker told the group that Raul asked her to convey to the Committee that he is still in the process of preparing a campuswide plan. As soon as he gets approval from President Hoover of the plan, he will share it with the Juntura Committee.
3. Diversity Cinema Advisory Board:
Jerry Wegman reported that a list of films has been suggested. He would like to get input from students in selecting the films. Erika volunteered to participate. There will be 4-5 feature films shown for the Spring semester in the Borah Theater, and other smaller documentary or foreign films shown in the Commons. The feature films will be tied in with other speaker forum building on the themes of these films. The previous ad hoc committee status has changed this year. The Diversity Cinema series is supported by the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Diversity and Human Rights Office. The Provost office has provided $5,000 budget for the showing of the films.
4. Interviews of candidates for the Coordinator of Multicultural Affairs:
Dona Walker announced that two candidates have been selected for the interviews. One finalist has dropped out because he just accepted another job on campus. The two interviews are scheduled for Wed., Nov. 15, and Thursday, Nov. 16. Juntura Committee members are welcomed to participate. The open session for the campus is scheduled at 10-11am each day in the Library Conference Room.
5. Students concerns:
Carrie Huskinson, Juntura student member, who is ill today and not able to attend the meeting, had asked Erika to bring up the issue of having a common "room" or place large enough where the multicultural student groups can hold meetings, get together or work on their group projects for the multicultural activities on campus. Erika said that she knew that the International student association groups also found it hard to find a large enough place to conduct their groups' activities indoor. There was a "Diversity Center" in the Student Union before the remodeling, but apparently it no longer exists. It was suggested that there should be a room or place in the Commons designated as the "Diversity Center." Lily said that she would work with Raul Sanchez and the International Programs Office to see if we can replace the lost "Diversity Center" in the Commons.
6. Announcements:
Dona Walker announced AAPIA is holding a bake sale to raise funds on Thursday, Nov. 16, in the Library "fish bowl" from 10 am to 2 pm. The newly elected President of OELA is Jaima Barajas. Erika said that a new organization for CAMP is being organized following the national CAMP structure. This new organization is formed to promote their culture, and raise funds for scholarship to support CAMP students.
7. Next meeting date: Dec. 12, 3:30 pm. (Please mark on your calendar!)
Meeting adjourned at 5 pm.
Submitted by:
Lily Wai, Chair, Juntura Committee
Nov. 15, 2000