The Ithacan ∙
Thursday, F ebrua ry 2, 20 12
Group sparks discussion on racial issues By Patrick Feeney staff writer
Ithaca College began tackling diversity issues yesterday with Talking Circles on Race and Racism, a series of dialogues with a select group of students on campus that will go on for five sessions. The meetings, facilitated by the college’s Diversity Awareness Committee and the Town of Ithaca’s Multicultural Resource Center, are an at- BOROWSKI said tempt by the college interest in the chat increased during to open discussion MLK Week. about race and diversity issues in the community. Though the MRC has been arranging communitywide circles since February 2007, this is the first time such a group has been arranged on campus. Femi Ogundele, an admissions counselor at the college and chair of the Talking Circles subcommittee, said the project's main goal is to encourage individual growth and discussion with students about touchy topics of race outside the boundaries of academia. “We thought it would be a great opportunity to have students across the board — not just in a specific classroom or major, sit down and talk about diversity, their own personal reflections on it and interactions with it,” he said. MRC has held 25 talking circles since it was first formed and has more than 300 participants. MRC staff have helped facilitate circles with Cornell University, the Ithaca Police Department and other locations in the area to foster greater understanding about diversity. Sarah Reistetter, diversity and inclusion special projects coordinator at the MRC, said the idea for such talking circles arose in the community because of a need for dialogue about social justice. “Every community needs some source of advocacy, some body or people to speak for or support, folks that are advocates for social justice and system change,” she said. Rebecca Borowski ’06, a staff member at the college library and co-chair of the DAC, said the college first showed interest in the talking circles a few years ago during MLK Week. Last winter, the committee formed a group to arrange the discussions for this year. “We used the multicultural resource center facilitators to do a talking circle,” she said. “We knew we wanted to do some sort of event like this on our campus.” The college’s talking circles will stick to the format originally devised by the MRC. The discussions will be drawn out over five two-hour sessions, the first of which
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Volume 79, Is s u e 1 6
NamE: DeAsia Gilmer Where: Newark, N.J.
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Subject: Chemistry
College students fight the achievement gap in America's classrooms
Name: Andrea Perrone Where: Eastern North Carolina Subject: English Design By Molly Apfelroth
By Kelsey O'Connor news editor
For the first three months of his career, Cornell Woodson ’09 cried on his way home from work. He left Ithaca College thinking he’d be able to make a difference, but the inner-city students he hoped to inspire barely let him speak. “I called my mom and I said, ‘Mom, I’m quitting. I can’t do this. I’m not a teacher,’” he said. “She said, ‘Get over yourself.’ It really slapped me in the face.” After two years as a high school English
teacher for Teach For America, a non-profit organization that recruits recent college graduates to teach in low-income schools, Woodson learned how to make his apathetic students care. He joined the program to help give more students an opportunity to succeed. “I was able to remind myself that I wasn’t there for myself,” he said. “I was there for a group of students who really needed somebody to invest in them and help them to invest in themselves.”
As the Feb. 10 application deadline for TFA approaches, students weighing in on the benefits of the program and the national discussion surrounding the achievement gap. Hillary Wool, recruitment manager in the greater New York City area for TFA, said the organization’s mission is to work toward closing the educational inequity gap. “Right now in America unfortunately, a child’s zip code or what their parents do for a living or
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College ramps up mental health response strategy by Tina Craven staff writer
In the wake of a string of national student deaths and suicides that gained attention last year, Ithaca College's Mental Health Response Team is bolstering its efforts to take on campus-wide mental health issues. The MHRT aims to boost the group by adding new members every year. This year, nine new staff and faculty members became part of the team after a two-day training in January. The MHRT was established five years ago by Dr. Suki Montgomery Hall, assistant director in the Office of Counseling and Wellness. Montgomery Hall said the Center for Counseling and Psychological Services came up with the idea six years ago because after Sept. 11, many colleges initiated crisis response teams to help students cope with campus-wide
commitment Devoted parents motivate senior gymnast to excel in athletics, page 23
From left, Ithaca College Mental Health Response Team member Cathy Wood and Margie Arnold talk yesterday outside Campus Center.
Rachel Orlow/the ithacan
or national disasters. In the past five years, the team has been active almost every year, not to deal with campus disasters, but to deal with student deaths.
Freshman Victoria Cheng's death after an off-campus party and most recently Gregory Mantone's death in a fatal car accident last year had strong
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impact on the student body, Montgomery Hall said. After both of these deaths the collegewide emergency team contacted CAPS to deploy the MHRT. After Cheng's death, the group offered counseling services and safe places for students to grieve. “We offered to the campus community places such as the Chapel or the lounge of the residence hall where Victoria lived," she said. The team guides students to help them find other resources at the counseling center that students would find helpful during a difficult time. “They’re not counselors,” Montgomery Hall said. “This is a team that reminds people of the resources they already have.” MHRT volunteer Benjamin Costello said he feels that it’s important to have the MHRT on
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moneybags Core curriculum funding shouldn't rise above existing programs, page 10