MINUTES: IC INTERNS MEETING
TUESDAY OCTOBER 28 TH , 2003
4:15
(all present)
note: in past interns meetings the updates have been pretty lengthy and have taken up a large chunk of the time we have to meet. Let's try to shorten updates while still communicating what is important so that these meetings can also be used to strategize and brainstorm.
Michelle
- Korean Peace Day
- November 6 th .
- Will hear back from Forum for Free Speech by tonight (Tuesday night) about funding for the events. Also will talk to departments about additional funding.
- Flyers are drafted and soon will be posted.
- APA Heritage Month Planning Meeting
- Tonight (Tuesday night) at the SAO meeting (9PM) with pizza.
- Plans to get people excited about organizing events. The meeting is to serve as a place to think about possible ideas, themes, and events for the month and to begin thinking of securing dates.
- Michelle talked to us about some issues between DU and SAO in the planning of a possible event/fundraiser. They were planning to cosponsor a party/auction.
- Ways to dialogue about sexuality and gender reflecting on this issue.
- SAO-DESHI meeting to talk about relations between the groups and relation to the IC will happen on Thursday at 8PM in the IC.
- APA Women's Leadership Workshop
- Mixed feelings in reaction to the workshop. There were good dynamics in the room, having all of these women together (from Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore) was a great chance to meet new people and make connections. However, the way that leadership was defined in this workshop was based on partriarchal images of leaders, where the notion of leadership is being constructed and defined by men. Perhaps it was a better experience for younger underclass women, a chance for them to think about being Asian and female. Belinda replied afterwards that we challenged her. They also had discussion about career and home obligations and ways of making sense of both.
- Think about ways to continue these types of supportive opportunities to bring people together and dialogue about important issues in supporting our communities.
Allejandra
- ENLACE Logo
- The logo is being finalized at tonite's meeting (Tuesday) and will be presented by Becky
- Discovery Weekend
- Planning a breakout session for the weekend and finalizing activities planned that are ENLACE sponsored
- Note on Discovery Weekend: approximate count (announced by Powen) is 44 Latino specs, 21 Asian specs, 32 Black specs and a total of about 150 prosepctive students
- Community Service Component
- ENLACE is working on adding a community service component to the work they do, reaching out to school kids who are working towards going to college, tutoring them and helping them with preparations for the SAT, etc.
- Also, ENLACE is thinking about what types of events they would like to sponsor in the future, large or small
Powen
- Coming Out Week
- Was a huge success!
- Tried to do a tri-co event but there was some miscommunication; thinking about trying to organize another event together with tri-co groups
- Issues with some sound equipment during some events and the party
- SQU Outing
- SQU's outing to Woody's is happening on November 5 th
- This week's meeting will be a social meeting
- SAGER
- Nora Johnson has a list of who is on the committee
- Will set up a group of students to work with faculty
- SQU Board bonding- a chance for the board to get to know each other better and have fun
- Engaging alumni: thinking about planning a queer alumni event to being mentor/mentee relationships
Jyothi
- Diya Week
- Things are rolling with Diya week. The events for the whole week are planned out and funding is being requested this week. DESHI is looking towards collaborating with other groups for several of the events.
- Also another update on the APA Women's Leadership Workshop
Rafael
- Interns
- Wanted to reinforce the importance of us keeping in touch and checking in regularly in order to have face time every week so things can get done in time.
- Wondering whether he should set more strict guidelines so that there is a clearer idea of what is expected and what needs to get done, by when, etc.
- Let's look to each other for assistance and support and to help each other out. This can only happen if we have enough notice from each other when we'll be in the IC (getting things out sooner than later).
- Get time sheets in on time – important to managing the IC budget
- IC Awards
- About restructuring the awards we design.
- Let's open up the awards to the community and not limited to people strictly involved in IC groups (while recognizing the contribution that members of the IC make)
- Recognize academic excellence, leadership, social justice work.
- Also think about ways to use the significance of the awards and their names to educate ourselves about historical and political figures in the communities we work in, people who have had an influence on how we do the work we do. (Think about any particular people)
- Next meeting Rafael will bring in some examples and we can brainstorm and build on the ideas.
Impressions from Last Week's Meeting on IC Relations and the Sign Issues
- Thought of as first of a continuing dialogue. Wondering how much we actually worked out.
- The need for another dialogue/meeting about this issue.
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- Thought of meeting as dialogue about IC as an institution. Felt frustration.
- Concern over the venue of the meeting, whether we should construct it as more of a retreat atmosphere away from the IC.
- Should we have a listener, someone to facilitate and track where the conversation is going.
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- Rafael talked about how he tried to facilitate and that he will try to focus on helping to give that larger perspective. That he needs to help us process what we're discussing
- It's hard not to be involved and just listen.
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- There are so many questions that still need to be asked and answered together. How is the IC evolving? How do we see it now?
- Questions of a safe space and clarifying what we mean by a safe space.
- Also ways of using safe space strategically and thinking about opening up when possible and engaging other communities together – collaborations
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- How do we go about bringing groups into the IC
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- There was a comparative study of the intercultural centers at Penn and at Swarthmore done by Sonny (a former Swattie)
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- Structurally it looks like we cannot accommodate more groups – issues of funding, space, etc. and we have to acknowledge those structural limitations. But what sort of relationship will we and can we have in the face of such limitations?
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- Before having the next all IC meeting again there needs to be a few more discussions (SAO and DESHI are meeting to talk about their issues)
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- We should have patience in this process and think about it carefully because this is a very complicated, important issues that has long-term effects for the IC.
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- How do we communicate with each other then?
- Not everyone is on the same page within the groups.
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- Thinking about getting another banner to put outside (including the new ENLACE logo)
- Thinking about how the sign is really symbolic of who we are
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- At the next interns meeting we will be focusing on talking about the issues that are involved here and what needs to be resolved.
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- Hopefully we can meet collectively again before the end of the semester (everyone involved in the dialogue).
- The next all-IC Boards meeting is this coming Monday. We decided that we would open up this meeting to everyone (not just the boards) and allow for a discussion about the IC group relations issues. Think about importance of talking with each other. How we keep the process going.
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- Questions of what we want the all IC boards meetings to be about. Initially to build a sense of the IC community – relationships that lead to collaboration. Concern that we are not focusing on the things we can do with each other now (keeping these meetings about business). At the same time we can't ignore the conversations that need to be had.
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- So, send out email about this meeting on Monday November 3 rd . one hour meeting in the IC. Open meeting to IC and IC-affiliated groups. Doesn't have to be exclusively a followup discussion from last Thursday's discussion.