A Brief Chronology of The Multicultural Initiative

at the College of Education

Following is a chronology with brief descriptions of the COE Multicultural Education Initiative. This chronology, with supporting documentation, is intended to demonstrate the process of evolution of this Initiative within the COE.

Spring, 1993

The Interdisciplinary Multicultural Education Ad Hoc Committee (IMEC), composed of faculty from across the college, was formed to discuss issues related to multicultural education and to share resources.

April, 1993

The IMEC developed and submitted a COE Multicultural Education Mission Statement to the Faculty Senate, The statement was officially adopted by the Senate and forwarded to the COE Dean and Executive Council for response and execution.

Fall, 1993

Multicultural Education was designated as a formal agenda and Initiative of the COE. Every faculty member was given a handbook highlighting the COE Initiatives.

The IMEC continued to meet on a regular basis, discussing issues related to, for example, multicultural curriculum; recruitment and retention of faculty, staff and students of color; and research in multicultural education. The numbers in attendance at these meetings continued to increase, as did resource sharing and building within the college.

September, 1993

A consultant/facilitator was hired part time to assist in defining the Initiative and the direction the Initiative should take. During the fall quarter, the COE entered into a period of self-examination with regard to multicultural education issues. During a four month period, the consultant conducted an “issues clarification effort” within the COE, focusing on six primary objectives.

November, 1993

The IMEC conducted a college wide survey to determine what courses were being offered in the COE related to diversity.

Winter, 1994

A “Summary Report” describing the process and outcomes of the issues clarification process was completed and disseminated to the entire faculty and staff of the COE. The report includes a list of the Multicultural Curriculum Resource holdings within the COE Curriculum Materials Center in 208 Aderhold — a bibliography developed by the COE to aid in the retention of students of color, and responses from some departments regarding efforts in place related to diversity.

Also included in this report are specific recommendations organized around the areas that were identified by those interviewed as areas where change should and could occur. These recommendations were sanctioned by the administration and faculty and have and do serve to direct the COE Initiative to date.

Providing “leadership” for the Initiative was among the recommendations made that needed immediate attention. Consequently, the Dean responded by forming the COE Task Force for Multicultural Education, composed of faculty, staff and students of the college. A roster of the initial 1993-94 Task Force is included on the March 1 letter from Dean Buccino. A copy of the current 1996-97 Task Force is available at the MCTF member page.

Formed from the membership of the Task Force, as well as faculty from the college, were subcommittees to coincide with the categories as identified in the recommendation section of the Summary Report. These included a sub-committee on: curriculum; recruitment and retention; faculty and staff development; communication; resources; and, research. A primary function of the sub-committees is to provide training, support and resources to the college faculty as they, for example, develop and redesign curriculum to be more inclusive; recruit faculty, staff and students of color, etc. These include examples spanning from the beginning of the Initiative in Spring, 1993, to events that are ongoing currently.

May, 1994

The COE Task Force for Multicultural Education sponsored a first ever, all day, all college conference on multicultural education. A national consultant (Professor Carl Grant) was retained to deliver the keynote address, with concurrent sessions scheduled in the afternoon conducted by college and university resources. Departmental action planning was an outcome of the day, which has carried over in a variety of ways per department. Over 400 COE faculty, staff and students attended this event.

July, 1994

The COE Task Force for Multicultural Education held an all day retreat to plan for academic year, 1994-95. The new Dean of the College, Russell Yeany, attended this meeting and sanctioned and encouraged the proposed activities in conjunction with the Initiative. Resulting from this planning was commitment for three college-wide events. They were 1) funds to provide another multicultural education conference in Spring, 1995; 2) funds to establish multicultural education mini-grants to support individual, departmental, and/or school research and activities related to multicultural education; and 3) the establishment of a seminar series for the college on multicultural education.

Fall, 1994 – Winter, 1995

The Task Force for Multicultural Education as well as the subcommittees met regularly to plan and monitor events related to the Initiative. A seminar series was ongoing, as well as planning for the college mini-grant process. Ongoing departmental activities included, for example, all day retreats facilitated by college and university consultants to assist departments in implementing their multicultural education plans.

January, 1995

The college multicultural education grant competition was introduced, resulting in awards to seven individuals/departments in the college, representing each of the four schools.

March, April, May, 1995

A proposal submitted to the Vice President for Academic Affairs from the COE supported a series of visits to the COE by “Minority Scholars’ Carl Grant of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The visits focused on the three areas targeted by the Task Force during the academic year Curriculum; Recruitment and Retention; and, Research. Among the activities Dr. Grant engaged in are: lecturing to undergraduate classes; presenting a public lecture; and, meeting individually with departments, faculty, students, and administrators.

Spring, 1995

Representatives from the COE Task Force for Multicultural Education joined with other individuals from around campus to organize the UGA Network for Multicultural Education., an advocacy and policy recommending network reflecting the campus climate and diversity.

May, 1995

The second annual COE Multicultural Education conference was held on May 24, 1995. Two consultants were brought in to work with the departments in a mode of “Reflection, Planning and Action”. The consultants were Dr. Carlos Cortes of the University of CA, Riverside, and Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftal of Spelman College.

June, 1995

End of the quarter Task Force meeting resulted in a prioritizing of agendas for the Initiative for academic year – Curriculum.

August, 1995

The Task Force retreat was held on August I in order to provide time to develop plans for the Initiative for the 1995-96 academic year. The “curriculum” had already surfaced as the primary agenda for the academic year. This decision was reached from both a practical and philosophical standpoint. With semester conversion underway, the Task Force considered the timing to be very opportune. Programmatically, it seemed that our Initiative had matured to the point of actually focusing on a specific part of the overall environment – with curriculum being one of the most influential educational tools available across the college.

Fall – Winter, 1995-1996

The curriculum sub-committee met frequently to educate themselves about cultural diversity curriculum revision so they could provide and become a resource for the departments and the college in their curriculum process. The sub-committee developed a template to assist departments in their process, as well as met with individual departments, as requested, to assist them in developing and working through a curriculum transformation plan. The impact of this committee was tremendous, both as a resource and as a ‘prompt’ to the departments to keep on task.

Another ongoing function sponsored by the Task Force was a series of monthly multicultural education seminars for faculty, staff and students. In addition, seminars developed specifically to sensitize staff for a diverse work environment were conducted with the assistance of the UGA Training and Development Office. College-wide multicultural education grants were again awarded to college faculty. This process continues to attract a wide variety and high quality of interest.

Spring, 1996

The third annual College of Education conference was held on May 9, 1996. Under the theme of “Journeying Toward a Multicultural Curriculum”, each department was provided resources to invite a consultant to work with their department on curriculum revision. Unlike previous conferences where the college was together all day, this conference provided individual departmental work time and brought all of the departments, with their consultants, together for a luncheon and Q&A panel, featuring the diverse and exciting consultants. The conference day was considered highly successful and helped to move many departments much closer to their goals of cultural diversity curriculum revision.

May, 1996

Generally, the momentum within the college was high, with regard to working through the curriculum for inclusion of issues of diversity. Because of the importance the Dean places on this issue, he issued a memo to all faculty and administrators asking that “Curriculum Action Plans” be presented to him by October 1, 1996. The plans could take a variety of forms, from specific plans to be implemented within the curriculum, to plans for how to actually begin this process.