Deans' Dinner Agenda
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HARVARD T.H. CHAN STUDENT ASSOCIATION Deans’ Dinner Agenda October 30, 2018 Introductions Proposal Presentations 1.) Task Force for a Multicultural Initiative at Harvard University Presented by: Noor Zanial and Vidiana Cervantes Prepared by: Noor Zanial, Vidiana Cervantes, Amanda Graff, Alexandria Lee 2.) Shared Governance at Harvard Chan Presented by: Vidur Sharma Prepared by: Sam Zepeda, Bryan Buckley, Melanie Chitwood 3.) Proposal for Spaces with Acoustic Privacy Presented by: Sanjana Sundaresan Prepared by: Jayson Toweh, Mathew Samuel, Nicholas Arisco, Ryan Ortizo, Sanjana Sundaresan, Sarah Zelasky, Spyros Potiris Next Steps Task Force for a Multicultural Initiative at Harvard University Presented by: Noor Zanial and Vidiana Cervantes Prepared by: Vidiana Cervantes, Amanda Graff, Alexandria Lee, Noor Zanial EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Multicultural spaces at institutions of higher learning allow underrepresented minorities to feel a sense of belonging, inclusion, and empowerment. These spaces provide students with workshops, resources, events, and staff dedicated to celebrating their backgrounds and providing them with the tools they need to thrive at a university. Research has shown that underrepresented students who have access to these types of spaces have higher retention rates than underrepresented minorities who do not have such spaces and programming. With over 40% of enrolled students at Harvard Chan being international and 11% identifying as underrepresented minorities, diversity is clearly an important component of life at Harvard Chan. Therefore, a multicultural space could add tremendous value and support to the student body at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the Longwood campus, and the greater Harvard community. Survey data collected from the Chan student body has demonstrated an interest and need for a supportive and inclusive space like a multicultural space. BACKGROUND A multicultural space is an inclusive space for campus communities to come explore, learn, network, and share their cultural identities. These spaces provide students and faculty with a physical location that allows them to feel included, celebrated, and empowered. In addition, multicultural spaces often times serve as nexuses in which students and faculty from different disciplines are able to work together on interdisciplinary initiatives that service their communities. In 2017, available data found that 40% of enrolled students at Harvard Chan were international, with 11% of all students identified as underrepresented minorities and 48% of all students identified as non- underrepresented minorities. These figures reflect a growing trend in both international and underrepresented minorities across all Harvard campuses; 52.7% of students at Harvard College were underrepresented minorities in 2017 and 12.8% of students were international students. As a result of these growing figures, students across Harvard have called for a multicultural space that would fill some of the gaps in support currently experienced by minority students at Harvard.1 As reported by the Harvard Crimson several times, this popular idea has not been accepted by the administration for over 40 years for a variety of reasons such as being potentially divisive for the student body.2 Nonetheless, students are still invested in constructing this space and gaining the Harvard administration and leadership support in doing so.3 As the surrounding political and sociocultural climate in the United States continues to progress, there is a heightened importance in engaging with the different identities that are experiencing this change and providing a space for them to feel empowered and included in the larger Harvard student body. The responsibility of ensuring diversity and multiculturalism on college and university campuses is a challenging goal that has often been designated and overseen by offices of multicultural affairs, such as HSPH’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion. However, this effort is found to be better integrated and engaging when multiculturalism is promoted collaboratively across campuses and involving partnerships between university policies, programs and organizations, and curriculum.4 In addition, offices like ODI at HSPH have a limited capacity in what cross-Harvard engagement it can initiate for minority students. Its finite resources work tirelessly to ensure that Chan students feel welcomed within the walls of HSPH, and that is something that is well acknowledged and appreciated with the Chan student body. Moreover, there are several universities that have been promoting and instituting multicultural programming and spaces. Yale University has four cultural centers that have provide numerous programs and initiatives for students of a particular background while also advocating for intercultural collaboration through the Intercultural Affairs Council. The Office of Multicultural Affairs at MIT consistently unites various student groups and recently worked with the LGBTQ Office at MIT to open the MIT SPXCE Intercultural Center. 1 Diversity statistics demonstrate that we have a large number of underrepresented minorities and international students that could benefit from a multicultural space. Research shows that first generation and underrepresented minorities face more challenges than their non-underrepresented minority peers. Retention rates are much lower because they struggle with: inclusivity, having to work part-jobs to help financially support themselves and families, academic challenges, and more. Furthermore, students of color often experience isolation and marginalization by their white counterparts due to microaggressions, intentional and unintentional alike. These microaggressions include assumptions of being first-generation, athletes, or acceptance only due to affirmative action.5 6 7 From the beginning of higher education, underrepresented minorities feel a general lack of belonging across campuses.8 However, an increasing body of literature supports that these students (e.g. students of color, LBGT communities, etc.) are more likely to continue pursuing their education if they feel that they belong and can partake in building a community at their university or institution.9 10 11 While individual cultural organizations promote, include, and celebrate particular communities, there is concern that involvement in only self-identified groups may contribute to separatism on campuses.12 13 This may lead to students missing opportunities on campus and decrease cultural sharing and interactions between various identities. In this context, a multicultural space, where many of these organizations could more easily interact and collaborate, could reduce division between communities and promote greater involvement and cooperation.14 15 Such a multicultural space could thereby provide more opportunities for growth and development, as a result of greater exposure to various life experiences. Lastly, promoting diversity and inclusion is one of the core values of public health. By promoting healthy educational environments in which students feel belongingness and connectivity with students of similar backgrounds, there is a subsequent effect of empowering students. This leads to healthier mindsets that allow students to succeed academically and have more positive growth trajectories. Therefore, promoting a multicultural space is a step towards improving the well-being of students at Harvard. WHAT DO HARVARD CHAN STUDENTS THINK? A survey conducted amongst the Harvard Chan student body assessed the views that current students have on efforts towards inclusivity and feelings of belongingness at Harvard. It also assessed what students believed a multicultural space would do for their Harvard student experience. The survey was conducted as part of the larger HCSA survey on other proposals being put forth. Out of the 115 students who completed the HCSA survey, 86 chose to complete the survey questions regarding the proposition of a multicultural center. Firstly, 70% of students expressed that they sometimes only felt integrated in the larger Harvard community as compared to 16% who expressed that they never do and 14% that they always do. Secondly, over half of the participants expressed that they wish that Harvard administration, faculty, and schools would facilitate connections between student organizations at the different Harvard graduate schools and Harvard college. Additionally, 23% of students expressed that they wished they could be connected to alumni that come from similar backgrounds. Lastly, 41% of students expressed that a multicultural space would potentially make them feel more supported and included compared to 32% who believe it would and 28% who believe it would not. Overall, the responses indicate that there is a larger need for cross-Harvard programming conducted by student and staff alike to include and promote all cultural and ethnic backgrounds at Harvard. THE PROPOSAL: CREATING A TASK FORCE TO CHART A PATH FORWARD A multicultural space is an initiative that will take much effort and time to advocate for and construct. Therefore, it is important to begin this initiative with an exploratory angle that would be informative of the need and perceptions of students at the different Harvard schools. The proposal at hand is to create a task force whose mission would be to conduct a thorough exploration of all of the initiatives at the different 2 Harvard schools that have a similar mission of promoting cross-culturism. In addition, the