Faculty and Staff Retreat About Social Class on Campus

Indianapolis, IN (February 2015) – The Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) will host a retreat for all division faculty and staff on Friday, February 20, 2015, from 8:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. at Hine Hall on IUPUI’s campus. 

Regina Turner, chair of the planning committee, stated, “I’m excited about the retreat. The theme is on [social] class and how class affects the learning enterprise. Class is hard to get a handle on because we pretend it doesn’t exist. The intent of the retreat is to pull it out of the closet and take an informed look at it from the top end to the lower end because class touches all of us.”

Dr. Will Barrett, author of the book Social Class on Campus, will be leading the retreat. Barrett teaches masters and doctoral students in the Department of Educational Leadership at Indiana State University. In 2008, he received the Caleb Mills Distinguished Teaching Award, and in 2006-2007, he was the Holmstedt Distinguished Professor at Bayh College of Education. A copy of the book will be available to attendees at the end of the day. Reviewers say, “The book is a playful read and enjoyable.” 

A stimulating, “U See Me; U Know Me,” 15-minute ice breaker will start the morning off. Turner noted, “The opening exercise is designed to direct our attention to the humanity of someone we may not know.” She continued, “As an experienced retreat leader, Dr. Barratt’s presentations are a combination of vital information about social class on campus and activities to help us look at ourselves through the newly acquired information, examining our own class with attendant biases.” Jonathan Rossing, committee member, commented, “He [Barrett] wants us to reflect on our own personal history,” while Turner stated that the key take away from there treat is “to have learned something to make us look at what we’re doing and how we’ll make changes.”

Another speaker for the retreat will be Dr. Nicole McDonald from the Lumina Foundation, where she serves as a strategy officer. In this role, McDonald assists institutions to plan and implement policies, partnerships, and practices in the creation of quality credential systems and pathways to increase student attainment and success. She has served as a systems director for transfer and retention with the Kentucky Community Technical College System and an associate in academic affairs for the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education.

The other planning committee members include Sarah Baker, Xiaoqiu Bao, Harriett Bennett, Heather Bowman, Amanda Buck, Cristina Caputo, Heather Carson, Wendy Crandall, Connie Ely, Gina Gibau, Michele Hansen, David Jones, Kadija Khaja, Chris Medrano, Jonathan Rossing, J. R. Russell, Khalilah Shabazz, Sylvia White-Hooks, Eric Williams, and Carlos Zapata.