Chancellor’s Feinstone Grants awarded for 12 multicultural initiatives at Syracuse University

Chancellor’s Feinstone Grants awarded for 12 multicultural initiatives at Syracuse UniversityFebruary 18, 2002Kelly Homan Rodoskikahoman@syr.edu

Twelve proposed initiatives aimed at advancing awareness and dialogue on cross-ethnic relations at Syracuse University have been awarded Chancellor’s Feinstone Grants for Multicultural Initiatives.

Consideration for grant awards included project focus in areas such as alliance building across ethnic identities, identification of methods to eliminate learned patterns of prejudice, skill and leadership building, and identification of goals that could be achieved during 2002.

The Chancellor’s Feinstone Grants for Multicultural Initiatives Program, now in its sixth year, awards grants up to $1,000 to students, faculty, and staff to support projects that encourage a creation of community through diversity. Twenty-five proposals, a record number, were received this year.

Award recipients will be honored by Chancellor Kenneth A. Shaw and Mary Ann Shaw, associate of the Chancellor, in April.

“Every year since its inception, this program has grown not only in the number of proposals submitted but also in the diversity-focused, results-oriented scope of the initiatives,” says Barry L. Wells, senior vice president and dean of student affairs. “This year’s programming will truly benefit our students and our campus community on many fronts-from diversity education and awareness to building leadership and communications skills.”

Diversity is identified as a priority in both the Division of Student Affairs 2001-2006 Strategic Plan and the University’s Academic Plan.

This year’s Feinstone Grant recipients are:

• Rahnold Thomas ’03, and Charles Hayward ’02 of the Alpha Cooperative Society (ACS) Book Club, to hold a mini-conference for students of color on internalized racism and oppression. The conference will engage students through lectures and interactive training to help them confront internalized oppression, recognize stereotypes and build alliances.
• Susan E. Donovan, dean of admissions, to support a dinner and guest speaker on April 15 during Multicultural Weekend 2002. All admitted African American, Asian American, Latino/Latina and Native American students are invited to attend. The objective is to provide prospective students of color a motivational experience, to engage students in a meaningful activity that promotes cultural diversity and acceptance, and to introduce strategies for success at the college level.
• Office of Residence Life staff members Dan Cutler (residence director), Thanya Jeanty, (residence director) and Mariana Lebron, (assistant director), for incoming first-year SummerStart students to participate in one or more phases of a five-phased leadership program. The program will teach leadership concepts, recruit diverse students into campus leadership initiatives, and ultimately, retain these students as agents for positive change. The grant will also support the establishment of a SummerStart Hall Council, a spring reunion and development of leadership recruiting materials.
• The College of Law’s Margery C. Connor (associate dean for student affairs), Allison C. Williams, (chairwoman of the college’s Cultural and Ethnic Affairs Committee), and law students Maureen Wagner, Katie Besha, Joo-Young Chung, Marcie Montgomery and Cherise Williams, for a one-day conference to identify similarities and differences between diverse groups in the college, as well as conflict resolution approaches between people with dissimilar communication methodologies.
• Cynthia Fulford, assistant director of the Center for Career Services, for an interactive project to heighten participants’ awareness of oppressive systems, provide participants with a framework to understand and discuss these systems, and to empower them tools to confront racism through readings, dialogue and film.
• The Graduate Muslim Students Association (GMSA) and Hendricks Chapel, to host Imam Siraj Wahaj, a Muslim scholar and social activist from New York City, during Islamic Awareness Week in February.
• Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Theta Tau Chapter, for a series of events to promote diversity throughout the SU community. Events include a platanos and collard greens meal and speaker on the African American and Latino/Latina cultures, a unity dinner, a Black History Month Showcase and a “We Unite” day.
• Office of Supportive Services staff members Joann K. May (director) and Christopher Weiss, (counselor) for “Diversity & Religion: Explorations in Cross-Cultural Religious Experiences.” SummerStart students will be asked to volunteer in a phase-based program to experience cross-cultural encounters that bring them face-to-face with different paradigms and alternative perspectives. They will experience diversity through observation and reflection in one of society’s established institutions, the religious community.
• Mary Lee Hodgens, program coordinator of Light Work, for a “Photography Workshop and Exhibition for High School Students Exploring Issues of Multiculturalism.” Eleven area high school students from varying cultural backgrounds will attend an intensive five-week photography workshop to learn basic black and white photography and explore issues of ethnic identity and cultural heritage. Students will come from the Onondaga Nation School, Syracuse City Schools, CNY Asian American Association, Islamic Society of Central New York, and the Jewish Community Center. An exhibition of the students’ completed work will be displayed in the Community Darkrooms in the Robert B. Menschel Media Center and will then travel throughout the participating communities.
• Pamela Peter, assistant director in the Office of Residence Life, to initiate a residence hall mentoring program for incoming first-year students of color to provide a connection with successful, upper-class students who would be available to role model positive coping strategies and demonstrated academic success. Recruitment, training, and social events of the program will be supported.
• Lauren McCabe ’02 of the Goldstein Activities Board, to bring national artist and muralist Amy Bartell to SU to complete a mural project on South Campus. The original piece of art will deal with diversity and coming together and will be displayed in a prominent location in the Goldstein Student Center on South Campus.
• David Coryell, adjunct instructor in Newhouse’s Department of Television-Radio-Film, for “Storytelling Workshops with the Onondaga and Oneida Nations.” The storytelling workshops for five SU students, five Onondaga students, and five Oneida students will lead to adapting their stories as a short film screen play or play for the stage. A concluding event will consist of the students performing their completed scripts.