Eighth Annual
Quest for Community: A Call to Action
Conference Schedule
Friday, April 18, 2008
8:00–9:00 a.m
Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:50 –9:00 a.m.
Welcome by Conference Co-chairs and WSU President David R. Hopkins
9:00–9:50 a.m.
Keynote Speaker Nadinne Cruz Service Learning Consultant
10:15–11:15 a.m.
Concurrent Sessions I
11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Concurrent Sessions II
12:30–2:00 p.m.
Luncheon/Presentation
Presentation of the Annual Kim Goldenberg Quest for Community Award
2:15–3:15 p.m.
Concurrent Sessions III
3:15–4:00 p.m.
Closing Session Ice Cream Reception
Concurrent Sessions
Session I, 10:15–11:15 a.m.
Exploring Lesbian and Gay Sexual Orientation
Rev. Dr. Michael D. Castle, Cross Creek Community Church, United Church of Christ
Honorable Mary Wiseman, Montgomery County Common Pleas Court
Two community members, one from the legal profession and one from the religious profession, will share their personal stories of coming out as a lesbian woman and as a gay man. The presenters will discuss how their professions are affected by what people think they know about lesbian women and gay men. They will offer alternative ways of seeing sexual orientation that are more inclusive and human, more honest and holistic, and more compassionate and just.
Senior Adults, College Students, and Prisoners: Using a Policy Service Learning Project to Advocate for Diverse Populations
Megan Cherry, Wright State University
Sarah Minnix, Wright State University
Ashleigh Wilcox, Wright State University
Sheri McEldowney, Wright State University
Mary Ritchie, Wright State University
William Amour, Wright State University
Jessica Thornton, Wright State University
Karen Schmalstig, Wright State University
Kimberly DeLong, Wright State University
This presentation will focus on the use of service learning as a tool to help students become social justice advocates with and for diverse populations. Student service learning participants will discuss three advocacy projects in which they sought to influence public policy in Ohio. Implications for social policy and suggestions to enhance services to diverse populations will be discussed.
Orientation for Advocates of Diversity
Dr. Sean Creighton, Southwestern Ohio Council for Higher Education (SOCHE)
Art Brooks, Wilmington College
Dr. Susan Price, Kettering College of Medical Arts
Robert Reid, Cedarville University
Dr. Forest Wortham, Wittenberg College
Developed by SOCHE’s Diversity Initiatives Committee, this session is an orientation on diversity advocacy and provides networking and mentoring opportunities for attendees. Senior diversity officers share experiential knowledge about their diversity initiatives on SOCHE Campuses in an effort to educate conference participants with their “collective wisdom.” Particular focus is on foundations of knowledge, program planning and implementation, campus collaboration, and mentorship.
Activism, Education, and the College Experience: Building Leadership Skills and Promoting Analytical Engagement with Society
Morgan Patten, Wright State University
Toby Kling, Wright State University
Activism—the use of direct action to promote change—is a useful tool to improve leadership abilities, develop communication skills, and increase self-confidence. Highlighting the activism of the Wright State chapter of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, this presentation explores activism’s role in undergraduate education and promoting societal well-being. This presentation will also debunk the myths about activism, demonstrate its benefits, and offer recommendations of how to become positive change agents in our communities.
An End to ‘Othering’: Examining Our Perceptions about Other Ethnicities
Dr. Beth VanRheenen, Lourdes College
What happens when what we think we know is determined by historical persons whose possibly flawed views are transmitted from generation to generation without being examined? In striving to challenge participants to change the Self/Other opposition, this presentation will contrast Christopher Columbus’s views to Jesus’s teachings on relating to and accepting others.
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Session II, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Ways of Knowing through the Community Academic Partnership
Dr. Katherine Cauley, Wright State University
Cathy Ponitz, Care Source Medicaid Managed Care Organization
Knowledge is a dynamic concept. Those who seek knowledge learn to value uncertainty. The Center for Healthy Communities, a 15-year partnership between the community and the academy, builds collaborative efforts to improve the health of the community, drawing on their collective expertise to respond to pressing needs and enhance resources. Workshop participants will leave with a plan of action to pursue partnership and collaboration as a way to expand their ways of knowing.
Knowing What We Know about Matthew Shepard: How to Cultivate a Positive Campus Environment for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Students
Dr. Rick Danals, Wright State University
Katherine Houser, Wright State University
From the coordinators of the Judy Shepard lecture, this session will intertwine the knowledge we have gained from the Matthew Shepard story with strategies to ensure a safe and productive environment for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) students on college campuses. The facilitators will share how involvement in a national assessment led to efforts of students and administrators working together to create a better environment for GLBT students on the Wright State campus.
From “Me” to “We”: Knowing and Embracing the Diversity of Personality Types for Inclusiveness, Feedback, and Success in Professional Field Experiences
Romena Holbert, Ohio State University
Leticia Wilson, Antioch McGregor
Personality type is a factor of diversity that contributes to individuals’ ways of knowing. This presentation will focus on promoting inclusiveness and success in field experiences through understanding how personality type shapes collaborative recognition and the construction of knowledge. A cooperating teacher/student teacher pair will discuss changes in communication, practice, and performance through the integration of personality type data/knowledge into the field experience.
Can You Trust Your Google Knowledge?
Sue Polanka, Wright State University
Ximena Chrisagis, Wright State University
Mary Lou Baker Jones, Wright State University
Is the knowledge you have trustworthy? Who is the authority and what types of bias are present in the information you receive from talk radio, news programs, and websites? Through interactive exercises, the Wright State University Librarians will help you apply critical thinking and evaluation criteria to various information sources in your lives.
Learning While Wearing Work Clothes: The Class Schedule and the Older Student
Steven Saus, Wright State University
This presentation will focus on the distinct needs of older, nontraditional students. Using the discussion of a recent local study as a catalyst, participants will be asked to generate concrete solutions to accommodate the needs of this growing student population.
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Session III, 2:15–3:15 p.m.
Outside the Box: Service Learning in New Orleans
Huntting W. Brown, Wright State University
Rebecca Courtney, Wright State University
Roger Fecher, Wright State University
Zachary Hayes, Wright State University
Kellie Kennedy, Wright State University
Off-campus service learning can expose students to unfamiliar conditions and confront them in unexpected ways. In this presentation, a faculty member and students discuss challenges and ultimate successes of a service learning project in New Orleans undertaken in conjunction with a University Honors course at Wright State University.
Dissed in the Classroom: Practical Issues for Teaching about Diversity
Dr. Carl Brun, Wright State University
Dr. Lynn Disbrow, Wright State University
Dr. Yvonne Seon, Wright State University
In 2007, a group of Wright State students from different racial and ethnic backgrounds created and performed a skit based upon their experiences called Dissed in the Classroom. This recorded skit, which especially focuses on the experiences of African American students, illustrates the tensions both between the professor and students as well as among the students themselves. The session will grapple with the tough questions of re/framing classroom authority and will explore the tensions that occur when teacher and students possess different ways of knowing in the classroom.
International Service: Encounters with Other Ways of Knowing
Cathy Sayer, Wright State University
Barbara Galbraith, Wright State University
Cherissa Rainey, Wright State University
Andrew Rouhier, Wright State University
This presentation will focus on international service as a type of dialogue that can “broaden our understanding of what constitutes knowledge.” Two students and one instructor will discuss the learning they experienced through service projects that were part of summer “study” abroad in France and the Dominican Republic. Particular attention will be given to how international service learning introduced the presenters to other ways of knowing and transformed their attitudes toward and knowledge of people from other cultures and socioeconomic groups.
Student Preconceptions Regarding Racial/Ethnic Groups and Implications for College Personnel
Dr. Dale Lanigan, Lourdes College
College students in Multicultural Diversity classes at a predominantly White liberal arts college were surveyed to discover their preconceptions about racial/ethnic groups and to inquire how they believe that their views evolved. Results from these surveys will be presented and explored through discussion. Particular attention will be given to the implications of the findings for college departments, faculty members, and staff as curricula are developed and programs are implemented.
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