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Multicultural Resource Center, fall 2020

September 24, 2020

MRC goes virtual

We continued to adapt in an effort to meet our mission in a virtual world, which also allowed us to successfully achieve our goals of Goal 1: To engage students to enhance cultural awareness; Goal 2: Create and support leadership initiatives within the MRC; and Goal 3: To provide direct resources to the cultural campus community. These new learning modalities also provided new challenges and opportunities for the Multicultural Resource Center:

  • Virtual support by MRC staff: During the summer months, the MRC provided its services and support for students using 100% virtual methods, with organized office hours and appointment slots as well as using our newsletter and social media posts via Instagram more frequently than previous summers; conducting meetings, events and information sharing via phone conferences; a new Facebook Group; GroupMe; Zoom meetings as well as exploring a new platform called Hopin. Adapting to these methods allowed the MRC to create programs for our students personally impacted by COVID-19; students impacted by instances of police violence, protests and activism as well as those impacted by the outpouring of stories shared via the ShareYourStoryBing platforms. Additionally, the MRC was able to offer open Zoom meetings to support students attending summer orientation programs, as well as private appointments for leaders of student organizations preparing for the upcoming fall semester and those taking summer courses.
  • Summer Orientation virtual initiatives, programs and workshops: The MRC continued to support students throughout the summer and early fall by providing signature programs and events virtually that continue to meet our organizational goals as outlined in the WEAVE assessment system. (To enhance cultural awareness among students (goal 1) and provide direct resources to the cultural campus community (goal 3). Some of these initiatives were also directly informed by student input. Our focus was to assist new students with the difficult transition into the University in the new virtual atmosphere. The events and initiatives included:
  1. Welcome to the Culture Facebook Group: New multicultural students and students of color were invited to join the “Welcome to The Culture 2020” private Facebook Group created by our Student Association and the Graduate Student Organization’s vice president of multicultural affairs and the Multicultural Resource Center to connect new and returning students in the cultural community. The group, with over 140 members, provides a hub for new students to learn information about the campus and cultural student organizations, receive advice from students who may share similar identities and begin building community through discussions, events and more.
  2. Café Aravit: Café Aravit, held on Aug. 20, was a virtual event that highlighted the differences and similarities between Arabic and Hebrew languages and helped new students begin to get to know the religious communities on campus. The event featured a kahoot game, educational videos and a discussion about the two Semitic languages and cultures.
  3. Let’s Meet: Build your Bearcat Community series: This series consisted of five separate virtual sessions, introducing new students of color to various aspects of the cultural community on campus. The sessions included campus resources, cultural student organizations, tips on community development and introductions to student activities on campus. The series addressed specific questions pertaining to multicultural students. This series was developed after discussions with some student leaders of who identified some of the difficulties of acclimating to campus when identifying with a historically underrepresented population. With the challenge of not having on-campus orientations, which assists in building rapport prior to the fall semester, this series allowed the MRC to meet the WEAVE objective of providing new programming informed by review of student reporting.
  4. A Conversation with Daniel Yesin Kim: To provide a space for our Asian and Asian American students to discuss issues pertaining to this specific student population on our campus, the MRC summer graduate intern Yumi Otsu created a virtual panel centered on Daniel Yesin Kim, a Binghamton alumnus (2018), and his zine called “Our Skin, This Land.” The panel consisted of Kim, alongside three other alumni who assisted with the zine project, discussing Asian American culture, art and belonging on the Binghamton University campus. The event was very successful, with a total audience of 35 students, and positive feedback from attendees.
  5. Matinee with the MRC: Each month, the MRC features a movie that can assist in creating critical conversations around issues in diversity, equity and inclusion. The purpose is to engage in fruitful dialogue with viewers before and after each movie that can aid in our efforts to improve our community on campus and beyond. On Friday, Aug. 21, the MRC sponsored the film “I Am Not Your Negro.” The next matinee event was held Sept. 24.
  6. Cultural Student Leader Panels: All new students of diverse backgrounds were invited to join the Student Association, Orientation and the Multicultural Resource Center for three Cultural Student Leader Panels to help support the students in beginning to form connections and get to know more about navigating Binghamton University as students of diverse backgrounds. Each panel was conducted via Zoom and was hosted by MRC Associate Director Tanyah Barnes and moderated by Student Association Vice President of Multicultural Affairs David Hatami, and featured presidents and vice presidents of different cultural student organizations who shared their experiences and offered an opportunity for students to ask questions. The events had approximately 50 in attendance and included representation from the Pakistani Students Association, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (BUNAACP), Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Juvenile Urban Multicultural Program (JUMP Nation), Black Dance Repertoire, Thurgood Marshall Pre-Law Society, Caribbean Student Association (CSA), Dzidefo Africa Choir, Latin American Student Union(LASU), Black Student Union (BSU), Chabad, Hillel Jewish Student Union, Binghamton University Gospel Choir, Asian Student Union(ASU), Powerful United Ladies Striving to Elevate (PULSE), Men Of Color Scholastic Society, Women’s Student Union (WSU) and the Student Association. The Cultural Student Leader Panels were a part of New Student Orientation events and the Intercultural Welcome Kick-Off Series.
  • MRC TIP support: The MRC’s Translation and Interpretation Program (TIP) also served the campus community virtually with three translation requests this quarter, one each in Mandarin, Korean and Spanish. Our student translators were able to translate steps for COVID-19 quarantining for both on-campus and off-campus students, and provided the campus community with six interpreters for students and their families during Move-In Week to assist with COVID-19 guideline communications.
  1. MRC TIP updated contracts with six local school districts in the greater Binghamton area in September. Fulfilling these services allows MRC TIP to meet our WEAVE assessment objectives to provide translation/interpretation services to the greater community in addition to the campus.

MRC Signature Events and Initiatives

During the summer and early fall, the MRC hosted a number of successful special events and programmatic and workshop collaborations to serve the campus community, which included:

The Common Read Project and “A Conversation with Anthony Ray Hinton”

The MRC and DEI assisted in supporting the inaugural Common Read Project: Diversity, Unity and Justice; Building a Bearcat perspective together. Assistant Director Richie Sebuharara assisted the collegiate professors in Residential Life with securing faculty and staff facilitators across campus for the Common Read’s Tent Talks. MRC Associate Director Tanyah Barnes collaborated with the Office of Student Success by providing logistical planning for the virtual “A Conversation with Anthony Ray Hinton” event that nearly 300 participants attended. Hinton spent 30 years on Alabama’s death row for a crime he didn’t commit until he was exonerated in 2015. It was an intensely powerful discussion about the intersection of race and incarceration rates in the United States and why the prison industrial complex requires overhaul.

Intercultural Welcome Series 2020

  • New Student of Color Networking Event - The New Student of Color Networking Event is designed to assist new students of color on campus in creating a network of faculty, staff and other students of color who will aid their growth and success while at Binghamton and beyond. For this year, the MRC held two separate events to maximize the nature of holding them virtually for the first time. The first was held Aug. 27, during welcome week, followed by the second one Sept. 3. These events were co-sponsored by the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; Student Affairs Divisional Diversity Initiative Committee; Intercultural Welcome Committee; and the Division of Academic Affairs, which allowed the MRC to meet our WEAVE objectives of G3. O2. M1: to host programs co-sponsored by student organizations and/or campus partners in MRC programming space each semester.
  • Cultural Student Leader Panels: The MRC collaborated with New Student Orientation and the Student Association to host three Cultural Student Leader Panels for new students.
  • Multicultural Extravaganza: The Intercultural Welcome Committee planned the 5th annual Multicultural Extravaganza: Weaving our Web with support from the MRC. To meet the challenges of students attending Binghamton University both in person and remotely, the Multicultural Extravaganza (ME) was held virtually Sunday, Aug. 30. The ME allows the MRC to achieve WEAVE assessment goals to engage students, enhance cultural awareness and provide direct resources to the cultural campus community. The event featured a keynote talk by Waikinya J.S. Clanton, senior advisor to the Democratic National Committee chairman, as well as performances and virtual tabling presentations by cultural student organizations. The ME had over 350 participants registered, with a high of 180 attending live (simultaneously). The event was an overwhelming success virtually.
  • Culture Chats: For fall 2020, the MRC has increased the number of Culture Chat lunches from three per semester to three each month in September, October and November, in collaboration with the Student Association Vice President of Multicultural Affairs office (VPMA). Culture Chat lunches provide additional engagement for students, faculty and staff of color on campus. The purpose of these lunches are to encourage mentorship and dialogue pertaining to current topics/issues and how they affect our multicultural community. The September chats concluded with the third one Friday, Sept. 25.

Student staff selection and training

MRC staff provided our student staff training virtually this year. The Graduate Assistant training sessions held from Aug. 3-5, allowed three incoming graduate student staff to explore their new positions, learn more about the MRC and hold discussions on current issues in diversity. Our undergraduate student staff training sessions were held from Aug. 24-25. The sessions included a total of six new undergraduate interns as well as nine Federal CWork Study student managers. Both groups of trainings have given our student staff insight into their leadership roles on campus.

MRC Workshop Collaborations

The MRC partnered with Residential Life and Health Prevention and Promotion Services (HPPS) for their student staff training. For Residential Life, the MRC prepared a Virtual Diversity Film Festival for 217 resident advisors (RAs). In this session, RAs watched clips from various movies and then participated in dialogue about areas addressed in the clips (i.e. intersectionality, race relations, social injustice and inequities, etc.). This session was designed to encourage critical thinking around diversity, equity and inclusion and to have RAs consider ways to be proactive in addressing issues that may arise during the semester. The HPPS, MRC and Q Center shared general resources about each center, followed by a discussion around implicit bias in health education and how to address bias when planning new programs for students.

MRC fall 2020 reopening preparations

Campus reopening plans called for campus departments to make preparations to follow state and local social distancing guidelines and encouraged a reduction of staff in non-essential areas as well as implementation of additional strategies to limit in-person contact. Therefore, the MRC utilized this period to adjust operating practices. Some of these steps included:

  • Revising staff schedules to accommodate shift staggering.
  • Securing Plexiglass shields and sneeze guards for our student manager and office Mmanager front desks
  • Creating a center reopening plan and guidelines to share with all patrons of the center

As per the reopening plan, the MRC made preparations for virtual appointments with MRC staff. Due to current COVID-19 social distancing guidelines, the center will not be open for room reservations and prolonged visits. Thus, preparation was mostly focused on Multifaith Meditation and Prayer Room usage, Bartle Library tabling and resource requests. Virtual appointments will still allow the center to meet its WEAVE assessment objective of engagement with students around multiculturalism. The Bartle Library tabling guidelines were revised to include: (a) reducing the number of tabling spots from eight to four, and (b) one person managing each table. The preparation of resource requests included: updating JotForm and creating an instruction manual to use the resource request information as generated by the form. These changes allow the MRC to continue to meet our WEAVE assessment goals of providing non-financial resources of the MRC to support programming for the cultural campus community.

  • Lastly, in order to identify strengths and opportunities of the MRC, we prepared a benchmark survey that is planned to be distributed to Binghamton University’s peer institutions and other universities this semester.
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