Forum Archives

Sarah C. Mangelsdorf, Provost and Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs

Sarah C. Mangelsdorf serves as the provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs and is the chief operating officer and deputy to the chancellor in the academic leadership and administrative management at UW–Madison. Prior to being named provost in 2014, Mangelsdorf was the Dean of the Judd A. and Majorie Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University.

Patrick J. Sims, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Inclusion

Sims has served as Chief Diversity Officer for UW–Madison since 2013 and leads the Division of Diversity, Equity and Educational Achievement, which operates some of the most celebrated and longstanding equity and inclusion efforts in the country and spearheads many of UW–Madison’s efforts to improve campus climate and identify and address inequities and biases at the university. In 2018 he was named Deputy Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Inclusion and Elzie Higginbottom Vice Provost. Sims is also a professor in the Department of Theatre and Drama, where in 2004 he founded the Theatre for Cultural and Social Awareness, an interdisciplinary service-learning and outreach effort.

Native November Poetry Reading

Roberta Hill, Professor of English and American Indian Studies

Hill is a professor of English and American Indian Studies and is affiliated with the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. An Oneida poet and fiction writer, she has published four books of poetry, including most recently “Cicadas: New and Selected Poetry” (2013). Her poems and stories have appeared in The Southern Review, Northwest Review, American Poetry Review, The Nation, North American Review, The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry and elsewhere.

What can predominantly white institutions like UW–Madison do to transform STEM educational settings into more welcoming and inclusive environments for students and faculty from underrepresented groups?

• Thomas Browne, Senior Assistant Dean at the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
• Molly Carnes, Co-Director of Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Institute, Director of Center for Women’s Health Research
• Sherri A. Charleston, Assistant Vice Provost in the Division of Diversity, Equity & Educational Achievement
• Kent Mok, Posse Scholar, Hilldale Research Fellow for the Wisconsin Institute of Medical Research
• Miona Grae Short, Research Assistant at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Chancellor Becky Blank Remarks

Blank is an internationally respected economist now in her 5th year as chancellor of UW–Madison. Prior to her appointment as chancellor, she spent time in Washington, D.C., working in three different administrations. Most recently, she served as deputy secretary and acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce under President Obama.

Outstanding Women of Color Awards Announcement

Introducing the honorees of the 2018 Outstanding Women of Color Awards. Awards will be presented at a reception in the spring.

The multipart documentary series “America to Me” by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Steve James (Hoop Dreams, Life Itself) grapples with issues of race and equity in the Chicago-area’s Oak Park and River Forest High School through the lives of its students and teachers. The episode being screened, “There Is No Pain That Compares to the Struggle,” explores a wide range of issues, including microaggressions by teachers and referees, restorative classroom practices, racial segregation within the school and administrative roadblocks to change.

Following the documentary screening there will be a Q&A with two alumni who were featured in the series, Jessica Stovall and Adam Levin, moderated by School of Education professor Erica Halverson. They will discuss what it was like to be part of the documentary, their work for equity in the school system and their time at UW–Madison.

Deaths now outnumber births among the white population in 26 U.S. states, demographers at UW–Madison’s Applied Population Lab have found, signaling what could be a faster-than-expected transition to a future in which whites are no longer a majority of the American population. This trend has come to be known by a few names in mass media, including the “browning of America” and the transition to a “majority minority country.” We will explore the facts of the demographic changes taking place in the U.S., and how those changes are being processed and reacted to in American media, culture and politics.

• Karen Menéndez Coller, Executive Director of Centro Hispano of Dane County
• Kathleen Culver, Assistant Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication, Director of the Center for Journalism Ethics
• Gail C. Groy, Partner at Axley law firm
• Sarah Kemp, Applied Population Laboratory Researcher, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
• Benjamin Marquez, Professor of American Politics, Director of Chicano/Latino Studies Program

Breakout Session 1

CULTIVATING TRUST BETWEEN POLICE AND THE COMMUNITY

The challenged relationships that exist between police and marginalized groups have been shaped over many years. In this session participants will discuss the role of police in a free society and within the criminal justice system, learn about the philosophy and practice of community policing and identify current challenges that exist in cultivating police-community trust. UW Police Chief Kristen Roman will share various initiatives underway nationally and within the UW–Madison Police Department that endeavor to address existing barriers, engage in relationship building and promote procedural justice and legitimacy in policing.

Presenter: Kristen Roman, Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief of UW-Madison University Police Department

TRANS/FORMING ALLYSHIP: INCLUSIVE PRACTICES TO SUPPORT TRANSGENDER PEOPLE AND GENDER DIVERSITY

Many educators have good intentions about inclusion for all students but lack the tools and understanding to support transgender students and colleagues effectively. In this session participants will gain familiarity with key terms and concepts, common barriers that trans people face, and important resilience factors that they can easily build into their everyday practices. Participants will begin to practice concrete ways of supporting trans individuals while building a broadly gender-inclusive environment for everyone.

Presenter: Davey Shlasko, Director of Think Again Training, Lecturer in Gender and Women’s Studies

THE COLOR OF DRINKING AND BEYOND: ALCOHOL AS A SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUE

This session will examine the intersection of alcohol prevention and social justice and strategies to create a more inclusive environment. For years UW–Madison has been focusing its work on reducing high-risk drinking among the high-risk drinking population. Data show that students of color are some of the university’s lowest-risk drinkers. Knowing this, UW–Madison decided to investigate the impact of its alcohol culture on students of color through the Color of Drinking Survey in 2015 and 2017. Findings from both surveys will be discussed in this session.

Presenter: Reonda Washington, Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs Prevention Coordinator

Washington is Substance Abuse Prevention Specialist at University Health Services. Her work involves helping students make healthy choices around alcohol, researching alcohol culture, collaborating with campus partners to build capacity, implementing alcohol prevention programs and data analysis. She has been a member of the UHS Healthy Campus staff since 2013. She is currently examining how the UW–Madison alcohol culture impacts students of color, working with Greek Life on alcohol risk reduction, researching why students go to detox and collaborating with Housing and UW Police on programming for high-risk students.

Breakout Session 2

ADDRESSING SEXUAL ASSAULT AND MISCONDUCT ON CAMPUS

In 2015, UW–Madison was one of 27 institutions of higher education that participated in the Association of American Universities Sexual Misconduct and Sexual Assault Climate Survey. The survey found that more than one in four (27.6 percent) UW–Madison undergraduate female students reported experiencing sexual assault and misconduct. In the spring semester of 2019, UW will participate again in the climate survey and expects to share the results in the fall of 2019. This breakout session will review the 2015 findings and share work done on the recommendations, including UHS’ efforts to expand prevention efforts and bystander training, strategies to respond to graduate and professional student needs, an increase in the availability of confidential victim advocacy services on campus and plans for implementing the 2019 survey.

• Lauren Hasselbacher, Title IX Coordinator
• Marlena Holden, Director of Marketing and Health Communications at University Health Services

OUR PLACE ON CAMPUS: CULTURAL CENTERS AT UW–MADISON

Professional staff of the Multicultural Student Center offer reflections on the establishment of cultural centers at UW, and how those centers complement the work and priorities of the MSC itself and have a positive impact on campus climate. The Black Cultural Center, Amer­i­can Indian Stu­dent and Cul­tural Cen­ter, APIDA Cultural Center and Latinx Cultural Center serve as spaces for students to organize, gather in community and have their experiences centered in the wider narrative of being a Wisconsin Badger. Panelists will discuss national, Big Ten and campus data and research that support the efficacy of cultural centers and their experiences organizing communities of color.

• Karla Foster, Assistant Director, Cultural Programming
• Gabriel “Gabe” Javier, Assistant Dean of Students and Director of the Multicultural Student Center

CRISIS ON CAMPUS: TURNING MENTAL ILLNESS INTO WELLNESS

This panel of local and state leaders from the National Alliance on Mental Illness will help participants learn about mental illness and what the campus community should know to be better peers and advocates for people living with mental illness in housing, classrooms and workplaces. This session will provide ways to improve the quality of life and promote recovery for people with mental illnesses.

• Jessica L. Gruneich, Executive Director of NAMI Wisconsin
• Kenia Link, Outreach Coordinator of NAMI UW–Madison
• Chrisanna Manders, Associate Director of NAMI Wisconsin
• Kristen Roman, past board member of both NAMI Dane County and Journey Mental Health Center, Chief of University Police

Breakout Session 3

HOW DOES MASCULINITY EVOLVE?

What can men do to make sure we are part of moving society forward toward greater social justice and equity? How can men use their lived experiences as fuel to challenge the status quo? An open discussion — with some leading questions — examining how traditional models of masculinity have been the source of oppression and violence, and have impeded male-identifying people from fully experiencing their own and others’ humanness. This session will begin a conversation about how to liberate ourselves from the myths of masculinity.

• Stephen Montagna, Learning Communities Facilitator at Learning Communities for Institutional Change & Excellence
• Raymond Neal, Learning Communities Facilitator at Learning Communities for Institutional Change & Excellence

CREATING GENDER-INCLUSIVE RESTROOMS ON CAMPUS

Facilities Planning and Management often receives requests to retrofit campus restroom facilities as gender-inclusive restroom facilities. In October 2017 UW–Madison established a task force to provide guidance and policy recommendations to FPM with these efforts. In this workshop, members of the task force will discuss their committee’s charge, review the first round of recommendations and give a status update of the implementation. With phase two of the task force beginning this fall, panelists will also discuss current efforts to develop a campus-wide usage policy to address the need for providing safe, accessible and convenient restroom facilities.

• Gary Brown, Director of Campus Planning and Landscape Architecture
• Katherine Charek Briggs, Assistant Director of the Gender and Sexuality Campus Center
• Kelly Krein, Assistant Director of Staff and Programs and Campus Organizer

THE CENTER FOR EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY: 25 YEARS OF SUPPORTING ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

The Center for Educational Opportunity provides an array of services that support academic achievement, retention and graduation among undergraduates who are first-generation college students, students who meet federal income guidelines and students with disabilities. Journey through the last 25 years of CeO’s impact and stories of student success. Participants will be inspired to find ways to partner with CeO as it moves ahead into the next quarter-century.

Presenter: Claudia Mosley, Director of the Center for Educational Opportunity

Breakout Session 4

HOSTILE AND INTIMIDATING BEHAVIOR PREVENTION

This session will provide an overview of campus policies on the prevention of hostile and intimidating behavior, how to prevent it and how to address it when it happens. Participants will have the opportunity to work on cases to help them understand what hostile and intimidating behavior looks like and what to do when they experience or see it.

• Michael Bernard-Donals, Vice Provost for Faculty and Staff
• Patrick Sheehan, Director of Talent Acquisition and Retention

BETTER RELATIONSHIPS, BETTER REALITY: A MEDITATION WORKSHOP

In this workshop participants will start identifying their internal landscapes and ways to change them. The group will mediate, practice breathing techniques, talk and stretch their bodies and imaginations regarding what’s possible.

Presenter: Esty Dinur, Director of Marketing and Communications, Wisconsin Union

Dinur is a longtime student and practitioner of spiritual traditions. She has been leading meditations at various spaces in Madison and California and she initiated and led the first-ever meditation room and meditation workshops at the national convention of Veterans for Peace.