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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

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
                                          
                                          Stephen Sneed, Associate Dean of the College

8:00  p.m.                  Aboulaye Diabate:Music of Mali
                                  Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall

8:00  p.m.                  SANKOFA: Williams College Step Team
                                  '62 Center for Theatre and Dance
                                   
10:00 p.m.                 Bhangra Party
                                  Spencer Hall               

Saturday, November 11, 2006

8:00 – 9:00 a.m.        Continental Breakfast
                                     Faculty Club Lounge (downstairs)
                                     Shuttle departs Williams Inn for Faculty Club at 7:45 & 8:00 a.m.

 9:00 – 9:15a.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.
Tentative 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. –  12:20 p.m. Faculty Club, Breakout Rooms
                                      (EVERYONE IS WELCOME)

Freedom of speech and respect for "otherness": strategies for for effective student activism that sustain success.

Facilitator: Darryl Smaw, Associate Dean for Multicultural Affairs, Swarthmore College.

After an introduction by the facilitator, participants will break into four groups of 15-20 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 then will  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
Dr. 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
                                   Small Group Discussion:

                                   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 Male College
                                   Achievement Study, which magnifies lessons learned from more than 200
                                   undergraduate student leaders who successfully navigated their campuses
                                   and maximized their experiences at 42 different institutions across
                                   American, including 12 liberal arts college. 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 at the breakout rooms found in
            the registration packs.

4:40 – 5:50 p.m.        Plenary Session – Reports from the Campus Teams
                                     Faculty Club (downstairs)

                                     Each of the teams gives a 5-minute report on their action plans.

 6:45 – 7:30 p.m.        Dinner, Williams Inn
                                     Speaker:
                                     Jamele Adams, Assistant Dean for Student Life at Brandeis University                                     

7:30 – 9:30 p.m.         Coalition Building and the Power of Song:
                                      Bernice Johnson Reagon
                                      Thompson Memorial

                                    Campus Activities and Events          

8:00 p.m.                   Sankofa: Williams College Step Team, Lasell Gym
8:00 p.m.                   Symphonic Winds, Chapin Hall 

9:00 p.m.                   Informal discussion with Jamele Adams
                                   On Spoken Word
                                   Rice House 

11:00 p.m.                SANKOFA PARTY
                                   Brooks House                                               

  Sunday, November 12, 2006

9:00 – 10:30 a.m.      Optional Continental  Breakfast for All Guests
                                     Williams  Inn

11:00 – 12:30 p.m.   CHAS Students Brunch and Network Meeting
                                    Williams Inn

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

12:30 p.m.                  Conference Ends - Departures.