I along with other MAC members have participated in this seminar.  It was
an engaging and powerful learning experience!  I highly recommend it.

Camilla

At 01:36 PM 10/2/2006 -0500, Lillie M. Fears, Ph.D. wrote:
>Good afternoon, MAC members,
>
>It appears the article written by Berea Willingham that I sent everybody
>last week and the subsequent discussion about a teaching panel on this
>topic has really ignited a healthy discussion over the past few days.
>Thats great!
>
>Anyway, one of our members, Lillian Dunlap, of Poynter Institute, sent the
>following related information today and asked me to share it with MAC
>Members. Below are excerpts from her note to me in which she announces the
>annual Poynter Divesity Across the Curriculum Seminar.
>
>Thanks again, Lillian!
>
>-- Lillie M. Fears, Ph.D.
>Associate Professor of Journalism
>Arkansas State University
>& Head, Minorities & Communications Division of AEJMC
>POB 2733
>State University, AR 72467
>870.972.3210
>870.972-3321 (FAX)
>
>
>------ Forwarded Message
>From: Lillian Dunlap <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: Mon, 2 Oct 2006 14:10:48 -0400
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Lillian Dunlap calling
>
>Lillie,
>
>When I saw your name attached to the essay at the bottom of the page, I
>had to write and tell you the rest of the story.  ........
>Breea Willingham, the author of the essay, says that she based the essay
>on one she submitted to Poynter for the Diversity Across the Curriculum
>Seminar this summer.  The seminar is scheduled again for May 20-25, 2007.
>Ill again be one of the seminar leaders along with Keith Woods and others.
>Id like you to consider applying as a participant and encouraging others
>in MAC Division to think about spending the week in St Petersburg.  I
>would love to see you here.  Heres the seminar description
><http://poynter.org/seminar/seminar_view.asp?int_seminarID=4073>http://poynter.org/seminar/seminar_view.asp?int_seminarID=4073
>:
>
>
>   Seminar Description:
>   If tomorrows journalists are to report and write about a dynamic,
> increasingly diverse society, theyll need guidance in the classroom.
> Whatever the course, theres a place for teaching diversity across the
> journalism curriculum.
>
>  You'll learn:
>    * How to define diversity so that students see the ways it connects to
> journalisms core values
>    * To teach diversity modules that reinforce the universal skills
> journalists need to succeed
>    * Strategic ways to include elements of diversity in the syllabus
> throughout the course
>    * New ways of framing journalisms approach to matters of race,
> ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and other diversity concerns
>
>
>________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
>
>Dear MAC Member:
>
>My university diversity officer sent me the article below. I thought some
>of you might be interested in reading it. --- Lillie Fears
>
>
>Current News
>Perspectives: Improving Race Relations One Journalism Class At A Time  By
>Breea C. Willingham  Sep 28, 2006, 06:56
>
>
>I was standing in line in the Dollar Tree store recently when a
>blonde-haired little girl who looked to be about 5 years old flashed a
>toothless smile at me. 3Hello,2 she said. 3You have a black face. How did
>you get that black face?2
>
>I9m usually quick with a comeback, but the girl caught me off guard. After
>pausing for a few minutes I simply replied, 3I was born with it just like
>you were born with your white face.2
>
>3Oh,2 the little girl said, and went about her business.
>
>Imagine that little girl in my classroom 13 years from now. I recognize
>that little girl in a few of my students.
>
>I9m an African-American faculty member on a predominantly White campus in
>a town where less than 5 percent of the population is minority.
>
>Many of my students are from White suburban communities or small towns,
>where diversity is not an issue because there is none. For many of them,
>their first experiences with minorities and discussions about race happen
>in my classroom.
>
>Getting my students to talk about race is challenging, at best, on most days.
>
>And on the days when my students write papers where they call Black people
>3coloreds2 or say the majority of crimes in the United States are
>committed by Black men, that goal seems more frustrating than attainable.
>
>The biggest challenge for me is figuring out how to use those frustrations
>as learning tools and examples of precisely why diversity is needed across
>the curriculum. Just as newsrooms across the nation celebrate Time Out for
>Diversity and Accuracy once a year, journalism educators need to be
>reminded why they have to bring these issues to the classroom.
>
>I9ve always been passionate about issues dealing with race, ethnicity and
>diversity, and how they relate to the media. I covered these matters as a
>reporter for the Times Union in Albany, and I work hard to incorporate
>them into my courses.
>
>For instance, during an exercise in my 3Women, Minorities and the Media2
>class I drew four columns on the blackboard and labeled each one
>African-American, Asian American, American Indian or Hispanic. I then
>asked the students to call out stereotypes for each group.
>
>The students had no problem calling out stereotypes such as 3lazy,2 3like
>to eat fried chicken2 and 3can9t speak English well.2 But when I drew a
>fifth column for White people and asked for the stereotypes, the students
>were hard pressed to find any. I repeated the exercise asking for positive
>attributes for each group; the lists for the minorities were considerably
>shorter.
>
>At the end I asked my students why it was so easy for them to point out
>the negatives and not the positives. They all blamed the media for
>portraying negative images of minorities.
>
>I try to teach my students that before they can even begin to report on
>and write about race-related issues, they have to be willing to talk about
>them first and confront their prejudices.
>
>Teaching that lesson isn9t always easy, and I even became discouraged when
>I read course evaluations from last fall semester where some students
>criticized me for talking about diversity too much in class.
>
>But then I read one student9s paper in the spring semester. 3Because of
>this class I feel better prepared to deal with many social issues and
>situations, especially race, on a day-to-day basis,2 the student wrote. I
>felt an overwhelming sense of satisfaction knowing I at least reached one.
>
>My efforts so far have taught me that adding diversity to the curriculum
>is more than just adding a new course to the roster, and simply having a
>3Women, Minorities and the Media2 course is not enough.
>
>I9m learning it9s more about changing the way students think about and
>look at diversity issues, and challenging their biases. Professors also
>need to learn before they can deal with these issues as an educator; they
>need to acknowledge and challenge their own biases.
>
>Although I have my moments when I feel like I want to give up trying to
>teach diversity to the next generation of journalists, my passion for the
>issue won9t let me.
>
>And on the days when I feel my efforts are in vain, I remember the advice
>a colleague recently gave me: 3You9re the only education some of these
>students will ever get on race issues. I don9t know if that9s more
>frustrating than consoling, but I see it as a legitimate chance for you to
>make a difference in some of their lives and in the world around you.
>Yeah, it seems small-scale, but if the world9s gonna change, it9s going to
>be one person at a time. At least you9re doing some good things to try to
>initiate that change. Keep at it.2
>
>And so I do.
>
>Breea C. Willingham spent 10 years as a reporter for papers in the
>Carolinas and New York State. She is now a journalism professor at St.
>Bonaventure University in Allegany, N.Y.
>
>
>) Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
>
>All the best,
>Lillian
>
>Lillian R Dunlap, Ph.D.
>
>Vice President
>
>Stinsights, Inc.
>
>727-432-1602
>
>[log in to unmask]
>
>www.stinsights.com
>
>
>
>
>------ End of Forwarded Message
>

Camilla Gant, Ph.D.
Faculty Assistant to the President
Associate Professor
Department of Mass Communications & Theatre Arts
University of West Georgia