RC and Ending Racism on Campus
This is about a project to teach RC in the context of ending racism on our campus at West Chester University (WCU) in West Chester, Pennsylvania, USA.
PREPARATION AND PRACTICE
I’ve been teaching and leading in RC for about thirty years. In 2006, I began a tenure-track position in the Psychology Department at WCU.
Three different projects at WCU prepared me for the current one. The first was integrating the insights of RC into courses I taught, including an internship course on working with poor and working-class children through the lens of ending classism, racism, and young people’s oppression. The second was leading an RC feminist faculty support group. The third was inviting colleagues and former students who expressed an interest to seek information about RC classes. Several of the people who took these classes are now RC teachers, including two colleagues, Mallory Garnett and Hannah Ashley, who have led the current project with me.
A PILOT PROJECT
In 2015, a couple of the students in my internship course were part of a student group, the Black Friday Coalition, that had begun to organize demonstrations and meetings with administrators about ending racism. They liked what they knew of RC from my course and wanted to learn more. Their efforts brought the topic of ending racism to a university-wide diversity committee I serve on and provided an opening for me to meet with two of my deans—both People of the Global Majority who are widely respected for working toward a diverse, inclusive, and just campus. I told them about RC and how we use it for ending racism and said that I thought it could fill a gap in existing diversity efforts on campus. We agreed on a tentative plan for helping more ending-racism leaders on campus learn RC.
The pilot project included me teaching two RC fundamentals classes—one for student leaders and one for faculty, staff, and administrators—and Barbara Love (the International Liberation Reference Person for African Heritage People) leading a daylong workshop for all the participants. Mallory assisted with the class for students, and Hannah assisted with the class for faculty, staff, and administrators, which included the two deans. We taught straight RC with a focus on using it to become more effective in ending racism on campus. The classes met every other week, and on the alternate weeks people paired up for Co-Counseling sessions.
Halfway through the academic year, Barbara led us in a daylong workshop. The university provided funding for it on the condition that Barbara also give a talk, open to the whole campus community, on ending racism—which she gladly did, under the banner of United to End Racism. The talk took place on the day of a blizzard and after the university had officially closed down due to the storm. Still, the room was overflowing with about two hundred eager participants.
After the workshop we alternated between meeting all together as faculty, administrators, staff, and students and meeting separately in our two original classes.
The project was highly successful, so we decided to try another phase.
THE CURRENT PHASE
The current phase of the project has included a leaders’ class and three new fundamentals groups. This has made sense because nearly everyone from the pilot project who remained on campus wanted to help teach new people. (Most of the students graduated, and one staff member left her position. These people are still interested in RC, and some have stayed involved off campus.)
We held an open RC introduction, took applications from self-identified leaders in ending racism, and selected the applicants whom we thought could work well together. That led to two faculty fundamentals groups and a small group of students. The groups meet all together for the first half of class—sharing “new and goods,” RC theory, and mini-sessions—and then divide into the smaller groups for discharge, with experienced RCers leading and assisting. We continue to alternate between weeks with class meetings and weeks with Co-Counseling sessions.
Barbara Love led us all in another daylong workshop and gave another United to End Racism talk for the entire campus community. We reserved a bigger ballroom for the talk this time, and still the room was overflowing, with many attendees eagerly asking for more.
Our RC classes also held a United to End Racism event, after the U.S. presidential election, which we aimed at self-identified leaders in ending racism. A faculty member of the Global Majority who attended one of our pilot classes played the key leadership role, backed [supported] by Mallory, Hannah, and me and the other pilot class members.
At the event we gave a brief introduction to RC and the work of United to End Racism. We paired people for mini-sessions and made space for grieving about the election results. A panel of RCers from our classes, all People of the Global Majority, took turns answering questions about racism and the election, discharging, and sharing thoughts about next steps toward ending racism on campus.
Toward the end of the event, the attendees got into pairs in which they set goals for their next steps in ending racism on campus and noticed any feelings that could get in their way of thinking clearly and acting effectively. We also invited them to choose a partner, exchange contact information, and meet with their partner for two additional mini-sessions on their goals. Nearly everyone chose to plan to do this, including several administrators and the director of our campus police.
MOVING FORWARD
We are thrilled about the project! People who have taken the RC classes have had a good experience and can see the value of the work. Nearly all of them want to stay involved, and many have.
Although a lot remains to be figured out, we have the beginnings of an RC Community on campus. At least a dozen Co-Counselors will remain on campus this coming year and are committed to participating in RC classes. Five are African heritage, two are Asian heritage, one is Latina, and four are white; and nine are faculty, two are students, and one is staff. Several committees and initiatives on campus that focus on diversity or ending racism now include at least one Co-Counselor. We have begun to integrate RC tools into diversity initiatives. Key administrators, including our university president, know the basic premise of our work and support it, and many have a fuller picture from attending an RC introduction, Barbara Love’s talks, or our other United to End Racism event. A lot seems possible.
Having an RC Community on campus has been a big contradiction [to distress]. We grin as we walk into the university boardroom, make eye contact with each other in meetings, and find each other for hugs before our RC classes start. We laugh when one of us happens to knock on an office door while a pair of us are Co-Counseling inside. We breathe sighs of relief as we fall into each other’s arms to sob about old hurts and current challenges around ending racism. And we leave our sessions standing taller—reinvigorated to take on [undertake] the challenges ahead.
I am grateful for Barbara Love’s leadership and support and for how Tim Jackins, Pam Roby, Gwen Brown, and many other RC colleagues and comrades have backed Mallory, Hannah, and me and the other RCers on our campus. It has been especially wonderful to discharge and think with other RC colleagues who are also sharing RC on their campuses. We are a powerful group. Let’s keep moving forward!
Wilmington, Delaware, USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders of college and university faculty
(Present Time 192, July 2018)