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Navigating the Course: Strategies for Individual and Collective Empowerment

Working Group on the Retention, Success, and Satisfaction

of African American and Latino Male College Students

SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE

November 10-12, 2006

Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts

CONFERENCE AGENDA

Friday, November 10, 2006

3:00 – 7:00 p.m. Check-in at the Williams Inn

5:00 – 7:00 p.m. Conference Registration, Faculty Club Living Room

7:00 – 7:45 p.m. WELCOMING RECEPTION, Faculty Club Living Room

8:00 p.m.                   Program: “A Day Without A Mexican”
                                     Discussion featuring co-writers, director and
                                     star, Sergio Arau & Yareli Arizmendi
                                    at ’62 Center for Theatre & Dance

Saturday, November 11, 2006

8:00 – 9:00 a.m. Continental Breakfast
Faculty Club Lounge (downstairs)

9:00 – 9:15 a.m. Opening Remarks, Faculty Club Lounge (downstairs)

9:15 – 10:45 a.m. Best Practices Panel, Faculty Club Lounge (downstairs)
Best Practices and models offering alternatives to “color blind” programs.

             Panelists: Shaun Harper, Associate Professor in the Center for the Study of Higher Education at Penn State;
             Frank Tuitt, Assistant Professor of Higher Education with the University of Denver College of Education;
             and Darryl Smaw, Associate Dean for Multicultural Affairs, Swarthmore College

10:50 a.m. – Faculty Club, Breakout Rooms

12:20 p.m.                 (EVERYONE IS WELCOME)
                                    Freedom of speech and respect for ‘otherness’: strategies for
                                   effective student activism that sustain academic success
                                    Facilitator: Darryl Smaw, Associate Dean for Multicultural Affairs, Swarthmore College

                                    After an introduction by the facilitator, participants will break into
                                    four groups of 15 to 20 people and will share experiences on campus incidents and how the various
                                    campus groups responded to racist, offensive, or derogatory discourse or actions (one hour).
                                    The four groups will then reconvene and share with the larger group effective ways to address such incidents
                                    (30 minutes).

12:30 – 1:55 p.m. Lunch, Faculty Club Dining Room

Keynote Speaker:

Dr. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva,

Eduardo Bonilla Silva is Professor of Sociology at Duke University. His areas of interest include race and ethnic relations, political sociology, stratification, Latin American studies, and Puerto Rican history. He is the author of 16 scholarly publications and five books, the most recent are, White Supremacy and Racism in the Post-Civil Rights Era (2001), and Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America (2003). In these works Bonilla-Silva explores the shift in U.S. racial ideology from Jim Crow racism to more subtle forms of racism in the post-Civil Rights Era, specifically the persistent denial of a "race problem" among white Americans.

2:00 – 3:20 p.m.      Faculty Club, Breakout Rooms
                                    STUDENT WORKSHOP:
                                   Addressing ‘White Privilege’ through student leadership and activism

Co-facilitators: Kenneth Miles ’06, Vassar College; and Robert Bland ‘07, Williams College

FACULTY AND ADMINISTRATOR WORKSHOP:

Facilitator: Shaun Harper

                                   This session is based on findings from the National Black MaleCollege Achievement Study, which
                                    magnifies lessons learned for more than 200 undergraduate student leaders who successfully navigated
                                    their campuses and maximized their experiences at 42 different institutions across America, including 12
                                    liberal arts colleges. Conversations and attempts to reverse disengagement and attrition among Black and
                                    Latino male students have gained momentum over the past decade, yet trends and outcomes remain largely
                                   unchanged. Practices and conditions leading to student success and persistence will be described, followed
                                   by the presentation of a model for creating a culture that fosters increased student engagement in educationally
                                   purposeful activities and yields improved outcomes for Black and Latino men at liberal arts colleges.

3:30 – 4:30 p.m.    Action Plan Development Session,
                                 FACULTY CLUB Breakout Rooms

                                    Each campus team of students, administrators, and faculty meets to develop an agenda for
                                    implementing best practices, programs, and activities at their institution. Teams meet in the
                                   prescribed breakout rooms found in the registration packet.

4:40 – 5:50 p.m.       Plenary Session – Reports by the Campus Teams Faculty Club (downstairs) Each team gives a 5-minute
                                     report on its action plan.

6:00 – 7:30 p.m. Dinner, Williams Inn

7:00 – 8:00p.m.      Jamele Adams, Assistant Dean for Student Life at Brandeis University
                                   Poetry Performance and Discussion
                                   Campus Activities and Events

8:00 p.m. Sankofa: Williams College Step Team, Lasell Gym

Symphonic Winds, Chapin Hall

Sunday, November 12, 2006

9:00 – 10:30 a.m. Optional Continental Breakfast for all Guests, WILLIAMS INN

10:30 a.m. – CHAS Students Brunch and Network Meeting, WILLIAMS INN
12:00 noon

Students meet to discuss various topics including the CHAS Students Network.
(FOR STUDENTS ONLY)

12:00 noon Conference Ends – Departures

The Consortium on High Achievement and Success

6:00 – 7:30 p.m. Dinner, Williams Inn