presentation on creating and maintaining inclusive campus spaces

1. Dr. Chris Linder
Twitter: @proflinder
linder@uga.edu
University of Georgia
July 16, 2014
Creating
Inclusive
Campus
Spaces

2. Introductions: Who’s Here?
• Name
• Role at UGA
• One-word description of your summer so
far

3. Learning Objectives
• Describe four frames of campus environments
theory
• Explore the concept of microaggressions in the
context of a college campus
• Consider the role of social identities on the
campus environment
• Develop strategies for creating inclusive campus
environments within your circle of influence

5. Where we’re headed…
• Introductions
• Learning Community Guidelines
• Campus Environments Theory
• Common Language & Terminology
• Break
• Microaggressions Activity & Discussion
• Strategies for Inclusion
• Wrap-up & Evaluation

6. Lined side:
What are your
hopes for today’s
session?
Non-lined side:
What are your
fears/anxieties
about today’s
session?

7. Learning Community
Agreements
• Use “I” statements
• Listen to understand
• Be present
• Allow for complexity…find the both/and…recognize multiple
truths
• Attempt compassion for yourself and others…be lovingly
critical
• Consider how your identities relate to the amount of space you
take up
• Just because you are, doesn’t mean you understand. Just
because you’re not, does not mean you can’t or don’t want to
• What’s shared here stays here, what’s learned here leaves
here

8. Campus Environments:
• Physical
• Human Aggregate
• Organizational
• Constructed

9. Microaggressions
• “everyday verbal, nonverbal, and
environmental slights, snubs, or insults,
whether intentional or unintentional, that
communicate hostile, derogatory, or
negative messages” (Sue, 2010, p. 3)
• Million little paper cuts
• Consistently linked to poor psychological,
mental, emotional, and physical health (Sue,
Lin, Torino, Capodilupo, & Rivera, 2009)

10. Identity: What is it?
• “one’s personally held
beliefs about the self in
relation to social groups”
(Torres, Jones, & Renn,
2009, p. 577)
• Individual characteristics,
family dynamics, historical
factors, and social and
political contexts (Tatum,
2001)
• Socially
constructed….what does

11. Social Identities: Things
to Consider
• Created by society to “label” or
“categorize” people
– Not all people with a shared identity share the
same perspective; however, there are likely
some common experiences
• Categories/labels are not inherently bad
– value assigned to categories and
“difference” is bad
• We all experience multiple identities at
once
• Goal is acceptance and recognition,
NOT neutrality (gender-neutral, color-
blind, etc)
• US-based context
• Visible and invisible group identities

12. Identity Description Example
Gender &
Gender
Identity
Social construction of traits associated with
“masculinity” and “femininity” – may or may
not match biological sex. Gender is both
internally defined and externally perceived.
cisgender,
transgender, woman
Race Social construction used to categorize
people based on phenotypical features (skin
color, eye color, etc); often associated with
ethnicity
Asian, White,
Black/African
American, Native
American, Latin@
Ability Mental, physical, and emotional capacity to
navigate our socially and physically
constructed environments
Able-bodied, Person
with a disability
Religion /
Spirituality
Set of values and/or beliefs to which a
person subscribes
Christian, Muslim,
Agnostic
Nationality A person’s national origin – often where they
were born and/or grew up
American/USian,
Mexican, Chinese
Sexual
Orientation/
Sexuality
Label to describe mental, physical, and
emotional attraction to another person
gay, queer, bisexual
Class Access to social capital, including wealth,
power, education, etc.
working class,
owning class

13. Privilege Puzzle

14. • Unearned benefit
• Invisible/ “normal”
• Defines societal norms
• Paradox of Privilege
– Does NOT mean that I did not work hard
• Grants access to power (informal and formal)
• Based on socially constructed identities (groups)
– Complicated by intersections of dom/sub identities
• Systemic in nature
– Oppression can only occur where it is culturally,
socially, and legally supported.
Privilege

15. Strategies for Creating Inclusive
Campus Spaces
• Seek input from various students/people – our
own perspectives are limited!
• LISTEN to feedback!
• Recognize no space can be everything to
everyone – own and acknowledge what your
space is and is not.
• Continually work to make the unconscious
conscious.
• When you can make small changes, do it.
• Acknowledge and validate students’ negative
experiences. Do NOT minimize the experiences.
• Support and empower students to take ownership

16. References
Strange, C. C., & Banning, J. H. (2001). Educating by design: Creating
campus learning environments that work. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-
Bass.
Sue, D. W. (2010). Microaggressions and marginality: Manifestation,
dynamics, and impact. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Sue, D. W., Lin, A. I., Torino, G. C., Capodilupo, C. M., & Rivera, D. P.
(2009). Racial microaggressions and difficult dialogues on race in the
classroom. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 15(2),
183-190.
Tatum, B. D. (2000). Complexity of identity. In In M. Adams, W.
Blumenfield, R. Castaneda, H. Hackman, M. Peters, & X. Zuniga
(Eds.), pp. 9-14, Readings for diversity and social justice. Routledge:
New York.
The Strivers Row (2013, September 17). Sh*t I’m not creative enough
to make up or a series of unrelated events [video log]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD6tNemhSNg