CO-DIRECTORS’ MESSAGE
W
e are excited to share our 2021 Annual Report for The Program on Intergroup Relations (IGR) at the University of Michigan. IGR is a partnership between Student Life and the College of Literature, Science and the Arts (LSA), and it is the first program of its kind in higher education in the country. We believe that understanding the differences between us is crucial Donna Rich Kaplowitz and Monita C. Thompson to the development of thoughtful global citizens. We teach and learn about social group identity, intergroup and social relations, intercultural communication, and examining ways to create a more socially just society and world. We encourage students, staff, and faculty to learn about differences and similarities, to embrace them and to find commonality in the human experience. To this end, we focus on gender, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, religion, ability status, socio-economic class, nationality, and topics that foreground inequality. This annual report includes information about all facets of the program. Our program was undergoing exciting new changes prior to COVID19. This year IGR launched a new course sequence that included changes to our minor requirements. We are really pleased that our changes yielded significantly increased enrollment in our training course which has allowed us to increase the number of dialogue courses we offer from 3 per semester in 2019-2020 to 9 each semester this year. Demand for IGR resources and pedagogy continue to be high on campus and across the country. Our National Intergroup Dialogue Institute filled within two hours this year, and was conducted entirely remotely for the second year. We have continued to engage in consultations with institutions across the country - all virtually this year, as others seek to provide intergroup education on their campuses. Our student-led CommonGround program thrives as campus workshops continue to be highly requested. These workshops, all virtual this year, provide students with experiential opportunities to learn about multiple issues around identity, power and privilege. The pandemic ushered in an entirely new way for us to think about and carry out our dialogic work. This year has been one of deep learning as we experimented with entirely new ways of engaging in dialogue in remote formats. We discovered that not only could we deliver quality dialogic experiences remotely, but that our students continue to grow in many ways. Our end-of-semester IGR retrospective surveys indicate that student outcomes maintained pace despite the shift in delivery this year. This year we said farewell to our Communications Specialist Henry Mochida as well as Senior Program Manager, Hamida Bhagirathy. Both have moved on to advance their careers. One of the joys in our work is that we are continually pushing growth and learning so we wish our colleagues good fortune in their new positions. We hope you find the following pages informational and inspiring. We are committed to developing strong relationships rooted in authentic and open communication. Please feel free to contact us directly.
ANNUAL REPORT 2020-2021: Co-Directors’ Message
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