This has been a difficult year for many Berkeley students and faculty. At the national level, we have seen an increase in hateful rhetoric and exclusionary policies directed at many identities and communities. And, here on campus, we have been deeply challenged by tensions around recent speaker events, as well as by increased policing, painful intergroup dynamics, and repeated instances of bias and harassment. All of this has led to an increase in individual and collective stress, trauma, and anxiety, which research shows can negatively impact learning, memory...
Discussions of disability on college campuses often focus on how we can support and accommodate individual needs and meet compliance requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act. With this panel of and dialogue sessions, we hope to expand that important conversation. On November 18, 2019, Berkeley faculty, graduate student instructors, staff, and students were invited to think in creative and visionary ways about culture, structure, teaching and learning, and broader institutional transformation. Some key discussion questions included:
According to a July 2017 nation-wide report, 60 percent or more of the total cost of attending a college or university comes from expenses other than tuition, and the cost of living for college students has increased by more than 80 percent over the past 40 years. In a high-cost area such as Berkeley, affordability is especially acute and impacts many aspects of students' lives beyond the financial: housing and food insecurity, commute time, mental and emotional health, the ability to pay for course materials, working for money vs. doing research or taking...
In higher education, we want learning to be relevant to students’ lives, but how often do we explicitly incorporate students’ lives--who they are, what they know, where they come from--into our teaching and research? How do we take an asset-based approach, drawing upon the diversity of Berkeley's student population as well as our own subject matter expertise, to create a richer learning experience for everyone? What does this look like across different disciplines and what's at stake?
A discussion is a powerful tool, but facilitating challenging discussions often leaves many of us feeling ill-equipped to address the very complex emotional and intellectual topics that enter our classrooms.
In this pre-semester conversation, we considered a variety of perspectives, methods, and frameworks for these discussions and considerations that we might take back to our classrooms. Questions we have considered include:
What is the history of the use of terms such as trigger warnings and safe spaces that populate our concerns for the...
As we move towards the end of thesemester, we invite you to join us for two timely conversations, one focused on research impacts during COVID-19 and one focused on teaching. Both will center issues of equity, inclusion, diversity and belonging. The programs are intended as open-ended, peer conversations for participants to talk about their experiences, ask questions, and share ideas and resources with colleagues from across campus. We hope you will join us. If possible, please RSVP so...
During times of crisis and disruption, it’s natural to default to very practical and immediate concerns. These are important. But as instructors, we also care about our students as people and as members of families and communities facing a multitude of challenges. We want to create conditions for them to thrive, even as we ourselves are learning to adapt to new and unfamiliar challenges. How do we ground ourselves in what’s important for each of us and our values, when everything is being upended? How do we sustain ourselves, meet the ever-changing needs of our students--...
How can we use the misunderstandings and conflicts that arise in the classroom as points of embarkation toward more honest and rigorous intellectual pursuits? How can we think of our evolving values and priorities, not as accommodations or concessions, but as opportunities for deeper learning? Dr. Sarah Lappas moderates a conversation revolving around these questions and more as we imagine new strategies for equitable learning through dialogue and collaboration.
The event has been rescheduled to Tuesday, November 2nd, 12-1:30pm on Zoom. If you previously registered for the event, we kindly ask that you confirm whether or not you can attend the event on the new date on this Google form.
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Commitments to the work that connects diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging/justice, anti-racism, anti-Blackness, anti-white...
