Diversity and Learning: A Defining Moment

Edgar F. Beckham Student Diversity Leadership Symposium
Mobilizing Knowledge: Transforming the Future of Diversity

The student leadership symposium is designed to mobilize students to actively participate in and influence a national higher education conference organized around defining new directions for and understandings of diversity work.  The symposium starts on in the morning of Thursday October 19, and activities include student-led workshops, guest speakers, and a luncheon.  The symposium then integrates with the 2006 Diversity and Learning conference, beginning on Thursday evening, October 19.  It includes all Diversity & Learning activities, but with additional activities tailored for students maximum benefit. To help facilitate students’ full participation in the main conference, sessions that might be of particular interest to students are highlighted.  In addition, daily check-in and networking activities are scheduled to enable students to reconnect with each other at the beginning of each day.

Meeting Rationale

Naming students as an integral part of defining diversity stems naturally from the premise that, without them, our attempts at definition would be woefully incomplete.  Our goal is to integrate students into the Diversity & Learning conference by encouraging them to contribute their insights, values, perspectives, and experiences during concurrent sessions and by highlighting their voices in dedicated plenaries.  Their contributions will be felt in myriad ways—through their participation in concurrent sessions, the student plenary, the student voices in the reflective closing session, and their more informal interaction with other attendees throughout the conference. 

We call not only on those students attending the pre-conference symposium, but also on students who attend only the conference itself to play a key role in shaping our understandings of diversity and its continued challenges. We encourage them to act as change agents not only in the sessions they attend, but also once they return to their home campuses and communities.  

About the Student Pre-Conference Symposium
Thursday, October 19, 2006 | 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

This pre-conference symposium will focus on collaborative leadership and building other skills, as well as exploring the relation of identity/ies to change efforts and to deepening and expanding understandings and constructions of diversity.  The pre-conference symposium and larger Diversity and Learning conference will provide students with the opportunity for their expertise to emerge and be recognized.

Symposium Goals

• Increased leadership skills
• Deeper sense of own identity
• Enhanced ideas about issues related to diversity
• Increased understanding of students as change agents
• Inspiration to contribute to campus understandings about diversity and student realities
• Recognition of the importance of “inclusive” multi-sector discussions about diversity on campus

Main Themes

• Cross-cultural alliances and mobilizations
• Health, sciences, and diversity
• Community engagement
• Leadership
• Global and domestic connections (the “glocal”)
• Student agency
• Identity as a tool for increased agency and leadership

Workshop Structure and Pedagogy

• Student/Youth-led
• Participatory
• Problem solving/action planning
• Reflective
• Interactive
• Small groups

For a preliminary program please click HERE.

Student Participation in the Network Conference
Thursday, October 19 - Saturday. October 21, 2006

While the full-day student symposium is scheduled for Thursday, October 19, student-oriented programming will continue throughout the entire Diversity & Learning conference.  By participating in this conference, students will join and contribute to a national conversation regarding the future of diversity on American campuses.  Our goal is to integrate students into the conference as active and vocal participants.  As the title suggests, this conference will center around a defining moment: one in which diversity is at a crossroads, in need of critical discussion, reflection, and the evolution of new strategies, approaches, and directions. 

AAC&U’s sixth biennial Diversity and Learning conference will examine:

• consensus, contested, and evolving definitions of diversity;
• institutional change models that promote inclusive learning;
• new frontiers in diversity scholarship, programs, and curricular designs;
• points of tension that propel or hamper progress;
• research and assessment findings that can inform new models and approaches to diversity learning.

We encourage students to consider their role in this defining moment, both as it is currently constructed and as what they want it to be.  We expect them to contribute to the ongoing discussions regarding the future this movement might take.  What is the role of students in the diversity movement? What can faculty, administrators, and staff learn from the student experience? How can students transmit their learned and cumulative experiences in a conference setting? How can students be involved in institutional change? What are the challenges to defining diversity at this juncture in history? How can students, faculty, administrators, and staff work together effectively and comprehensively to ensure that everyone’s voices are brought to the table? 

In addition to participating in regular sessions, two plenary sessions featuring students are a special highlight of this year’s Diversity and Learning Conference.  The first of these is a plenary session featuring only student panelists; the second will feature students, faculty, and administrators modeling respectful cross-sector dialogue exploring current realities and future directions for diversity work.

Plenary 1, Friday, October 20, 4:15 – 5:15 p.m.
Students’ Perceptions, Experiences, and Insights about the Next Generation of Diversity Work
In this plenary student panelists will draw on the knowledge and experiences they bring with them, as well as their experiences at the conference, to address many of the questions raised during the conference sessions, on their campuses, and in their communities. They will explore such possible topics as the connections between diversity and civic/community engagement, the relationship between diversity and learning as they experience it in their daily lives, and new and evolving tensions and directions for diversity work.

Plenary 2, Saturday, October 21, 2:15 – 3:30 p.m.
Diversity for Learning: A Common Purpose to Unite All on Campus
This panel of faculty, administrators and students will provide distinct, iterative, and collaborative insights into how we can move forward together with common purpose to develop new initiatives on campus that will make diversity an inextricable part of learning. They will reflect on what has been learned during the conference and discuss how this learning might lead to more deliberate and self-conscious actions to incorporate diversity into their work throughout all areas of campus life.

Breakfast and Lunch Meetings for Students

Recognizing that Diversity and Learning is a large national conference whose primary audience is faculty, staff, and administrators, several “student only” activities are scheduled throughout the conference to encourage students to network and convene with each other   This programming, which is optional for student attendees, will consist primarily of gatherings during meals to give students a place to share their conference experiences with one another and process what they are learning.  We will have designated student space on Friday and Saturday for both breakfast and lunch*.  We also have a student debriefing scheduled immediately following the closing plenary on Saturday, October 21 where for students can come together one final time, share their thoughts and experiences, and begin to develop action plans for their future campus work.

*If You Are Attending the Student Luncheons

All students attending the Network Conference are invited to attenda complimentary breakfast and lunch -- for students only -- on both Friday and Saturday. Once you have registered as a student participant, conference organizers will contact you with additional details about meals.  There is no charge for these meals, but participation is limited and confirmation of your attendance at the lunches will be required.