Students of color to share college experiences in panel discussion
Faculty, staff and students will receive a lesson in making classrooms more inclusive on Central Michigan University’s campus.
“Hearing Diverse Voices: Students of Color Speak About Their Experiences at CMU” is a panel discussion sponsored by the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL).
The panel will take place from noon to 1:30 p.m. April 4 in Charles V. Park Library Room 413.
Educational Leadership faculty member Matt Johnson is one of the facilitators of the event. He came up with the idea of creating this panel after connecting with senior Alize Mott-Jones. She explained to Johnson her frustration with the lack of student representation in panels.
“There will be panel discussions on campus that have some faculty and staff members and one student, and they will say they are representing student voices” Johnson said.
Johnson decided to put together an all-student panel to make sure student voices are truly being heard.
The audience members, who had to register for the event ahead of time, are composed of mostly faculty and staff, with just a handful of students.
The discussion will focus on the student panel and their positive and negative experiences at CMU.
The discussion will include pre-planned questions from Johnson and questions the audience members write down and submit during the event.
The questions will ask about ways the panelists have felt marginalized in classrooms, how offices devoted to diversity have helped them, and how professors have helped them feel engaged or affirmed.
Johnson said this is the first panel of its kind at CMU, but he hopes to hold more in the future.
“I’d love to have one or two of these each semester,” Johnson said. “I’d like to have each panel focus on a different sub-population at CMU.”
At the end of the discussion, audience members will receive a handout with a list of concerns students of color have on campus and suggestions on how to address those concerns in and out of the classroom.
