Develop Greater
Multicultural Awareness
NASPA Multicultural Institute
December 9– 11, 2007, in Miami
The NASPA Multicultural Institute provides an
engaging forum for professionals across the
academy to explore multicultural competencies for
a new generation. Topics and plenary speakers guide
participants in developing greater multicultural awareness. Opportunities are discussed for partnering with
other professionals and students around the issues of
multiculturalism and student achievement and advocating
for a campus community that serves and educates all.
Featured speakers include Milton Bennett and Rev. Jamie
Washington, whose articles are included in this issue of
Leadership Exchange, as well as Consuelo Castillo
Many principles have guided planning for the program. By
intentionally emphasizing the following key points, colleagues
and students are successfully engaged and are making the
most of the changing learning environment—
• collaboration among institutional leaders and across
organization lines;
• recognition that the student has responsibility for actively
engaging in the learning process;
• identification of learning outcomes targeting discipline-based knowledge and experiences in the university
community; and
• creation of relationships that model collaboration.
Arcadia Explorations engages colleagues in student and
academic affairs and includes the requirement that all undergraduates participate in a Global Connections Experience and
Reflection. That reflection is defined as “a sustained, cross-cultural experience that places students in cultural settings
different from those in which they have previously lived.” The
university moves from international to global learning by
allowing this requirement to be satisfied by “studying abroad
or immersions in approved, domestic cross-cultural settings
such as off-campus study, internships, service learning, or
student teaching.” The reflection component helps students
lose their tourist gazes and understand the interconnections,
interdependencies, and resultant inequities among cultures.
The intended learning outcome is that students examine how
their individual actions impact society. For more information,
see www.arcadia.edu/GenEd.
Norah Shultz is dean of undergraduate studies at Arcadia University
outside Philadelphia.
Jan Walbert is vice president for student affairs at Arcadia University
and president of NASPA.
Kickbush, Educational Achievement Services, Inc.; Iris
PrettyPaint, co-director of research opportunities in
science for Native Americans at the University of
Montana; and Mike Segawa, vice president for student
affairs and dean of students at the University of Puget
Sound. See www.naspa.org/nmi for details.
Goucher College:
A Strategic Plan
Component
BY GAIL NEVERDON EDMONDS
Acommitment to social justice is a prominent part of
Goucher College’s strategic plan and is evidenced in
any number of initiatives, including service learning
courses, community service, a peace studies major, pre-orien-tation programs, and a requirement for study abroad. In all
Goucher social justice programs, students consistently remark
about the ways in which their lives have been transformed by
these experiences. They evolve from these programs with new
and more complex understandings of inequities and feel more
empowered to confront and respond to injustice. They are
better able to make meaning of their lives having been
informed by rich and authentic interactions that challenged
their assumptions and privilege.
In service learning courses, students gain additional credit
for practical experiences working with non-profit organizations. These courses focus on social justice issues and
provide students with opportunities to explore issues of
inequity, primarily the ways in which local public school
students are underserved and disenfranchised. For the last
four years, Goucher students have worked in a collaborative
relationship with several non-profit organizations in
Baltimore City that provide after-school programs for
elementary school students. The physical location in the city
is very close to the original site of Goucher’s old campus,
and the college has been intentional about creating a presence in the city. The after-school programs address academic
