BY HAE-IN PARK

In print | September 18, 2008

Student Council hosted its second annual anti-oppression workshop entitled, “Training for Change” last Saturday, Sept. 13. The workshop was designed to facilitate communication between Student Council representatives and numerous cultural groups around campus. Student Council hosted the workshop, which was also attended by representatives of the Social Affairs Committee (SAC) and the Student Budget Committee (SBC).

Representatives from the Intercultural Center (IC) and the Black Cultural Center (BCC) were also present at the workshop to express their concerns over Student Council’s current relationship with cultural groups on campus and to suggest ways of improving dialogue between them.

The first “Training for Change” workshop was organized in Fall 2007, as a result of the Spring 2007 Student Council election, during which cultural groups reacted negatively to a slate of candidates that they claimed was not representative of Swarthmore’s diverse student body. After the first workshop was deemed a success, Student Council decided to make it an annual tradition. “During the Student Council election period, the presidential candidates for the student council were deemed as insensitive and not in touch with IC/BCC groups,” co-director of the Social Affairs Committee Jessica Hamilton ’09 said. “This program was implemented last fall as a way to bridge the gap.” In the past, Student Council has been criticized for its alleged indifference to the concerns of IC/BCC groups as well as the lack of transparency in its decision-making mechanisms. “We’re trying to make sure that we’re as open as we can be, and making sure all the students have access to the StuCo and same amount of knowledge of different processes that go on inside it,” Educational Policy Representative of the Student Council Ayanna Johnson ’09 said.

The workshop began with an introduction to the topic, followed by a skill-building session that focused on strategies for facilitating inclusive dialogue. “It taught me that I really need to be proactive and go to their group meetings and communicate with them for constructive criticism, so I have already contacted some of the group meetings so that I can bring their constructive criticism back to my committee. I really felt that I needed to go out there rather than just sit here and let them bring their concerns to us,” Student Budget Committee Manager Fletcher Coleman ’09 said.

Cecilia Marquez ’11, the only IC representative who attended the workshop, explained in an e-mail response that she, as an individual, could not adequately represent the collective concerns of the IC/BCC groups. “Of course, I don’t think that I could ever begin to represent the huge range of diversity in the IC/BCC communities. I’m only one person who has learned so much from everyone in those communities,” Marquez said, also expressing concern over Student Council’s tendency to conflate the IC and BCC as a single entity. “I think it’s problematic to link the IC/BCC communities together as some monolithic group. Similar to white students, we have a large diversity of opinions and politics, we are not all the same just because we identify as of color,” Marquez said.

During the workshop, the Student Council also enumerated the achievements of last year’s workshop and outlined its plans for the rest of the year. “We [the Student Council] agreed with what Cecilia has said,” Johnson said. “We haven’t even talked to all of the 17 IC groups. We had a meeting the next day [and] invited the Swarthmore Womyn of Color Collective (SWOCC) along with some IC/BCC group members.” They discussed various ways of making Student Council more accessible, including updating its Web site and possibly publishing a newsletter.

Council representatives said that they are also considering ways of reaching out to student organizations who may have been hesitant to approach them in the past. “Instead of asking students to come to our meeting, we also decided to actually make an effort for each member to go out to meetings of four or five student organizations,” Johnson said.

Johnson said she was confident that many of Student Council’s current members have acquired valuable experience through their personal involvement with various cultural groups on campus. Johnson, who served as outreach coordinator for the Executive Board of the Swarthmore African-American Student Society (SASS), said that this experience has helped her related to the concerns of IC/BCC groups.

“For SAC, too, going out to the workshop and hearing [IC/BCC groups’] expressions of concern was very helpful. Since our specific aim is the improvement of social life on campus, it was really important to bring all of us into a room. We will strongly try not to show bias against any groups and really want to reach out. For instance, Fletcher and I will go out to the other groups’ meetings,” Hamilton said.

Coleman agreed with Hamilton’s statement, adding that SBC would strive to make its funding decisions more transparent. “We learned how to understand these marginal groups having needs outside of the needs of the mainstream groups, and I felt I should have more personal interaction as well to understand them, for example, attending their meetings by myself,” Coleman said. “I can’t guarantee that I’m going to meet everyone’s need, but I can guarantee that I’m going to make as many changes, as best I can,” he said.

Student Council Vice President Sven David Udekwu said in an e-mail that Student Council representatives can enhance the quality of dialogue on campus by approaching the IC/BCC groups directly, rather than waiting for these groups to bring their grievances to the Council.

“Taking the risk of approaching people on their own ground, basically wherever they feel most comfortable, is something that I think each person here should try at least once. If welcomed, a person can gain new insights and relationships that might have otherwise been avoided were each of us to stay safely on our little isles of comfort,” Udekwu said.

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