Multicultural Resource Center, summer 2020

MRC goes virtual

The onset of the novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) drastically impacted the operations of every industry across the globe, but especially in the United States and this included higher education. As a state institution, Binghamton University was obligated to meet all federal, state, local and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, which meant that all on-campus events were canceled and many campus operations were moved to the virtual environment beginning in March 2020. These changes provided both challenges and opportunities for the Multicultural Resource Center:

• Virtual support by staff: As the MRC shifted its operations to working virtually, the number of campus events dropped and typical end-of-spring obligations were either postponed or canceled, opening up room for MRC to redefine our calendars. MRC professional staff organized more officers and created virtual booking forms through Youcanbookme so that staff could provide virtual office hours, conduct virtual staff/team meetings and even conduct virtual events. Lastly, staff assisted with a campus-wide student outreach program. Through the outreach program, “We were able to reach a very significant number of students, helping them get connected to appropriate resources and also showing our Binghamton ethic of care in a way that was especially meaningful in this challenging time. Thank you for taking the time to help and volunteer, going above and beyond your normal duties with our virtual check-in program.” - Kelli Smith, assistant vice president for student success
• Virtual Course for CDCI: One of the greatest impacts of COVID-19 on higher education was the need to switch to fully remote teaching in the middle of the spring 2020 semester. The MRC was not exempt from this change; instruction of the MRC internship program and the accompanying seminar course, part of the Career Development Centralized Internship Program (CDCI), was moved to a virtual format. This brought about many challenges as the 13 MRC undergraduate interns had to complete their required internship hours remotely. In addition, the virtual instruction of the course challenged not only the students in the course but the instructors as well, as they had not used online instruction in the past.
• Bing-Go/virtual in the lounge programming: In an effort to support students through the difficult transition to virtual and the stress of the season, the MRC virtual student managers and staff created virtual programming to be included on the campus-wide Bing-Go virtual programming and initiatives listing. The events included: International COVID-19 Kahoot Challenge, Virtual Yoga D-stress, Virtual Screening Movie Night, Cooking with the MRC, Managing the Stress of Social Distancing, Bring Your Pets to Zoom Day, Slam Poetry Zoom and Listening with MRC.
• MRC TIP support: The MRC’s Translation and Interpretation Program (TIP) also served the campus community and off-campus partners virtually with two translation requests and two interpretation requests in Mandarin and Spanish this quarter.

MRC signature events and initiatives

During this quarter, the Multicultural Resource Center hosted a number of special events to serve the campus community. A few of these events included:

• Asian Graduate Student Support Session: Due to the negative impact COVID-19 had on the Asian and Asian American population, the MRC collaborated with Angella Kim, a graduate student in the College of Community and Public Affairs, to create a virtual support session for students of this population to discuss the impact the virus had on their lives and the negative response from their peers. The event itself was not successful in reaching a large audience due to a number of factors (i.e. timing, advertisement, online format), however, this topic will continue to be addressed as students return for the fall 2020 semester.
• Open Space and Celebration of Life for Dominic Davy: At the conclusion of the spring semester the cultural community mourned the tremendous loss of Dominic Davy, a doctoral student in the College of Community and Public Affairs (CCPA) and adjunct lecturer at Binghamton University. A virtual processing space for students was held from 3-4 p.m. Thursday, May 21, when his family and scores of colleagues, friends, alumni and community partners were able to share memories, stories and connect to process his loss. During the virtual processing space there were 18 speakers; eight were alumni, seven were students, two staff and one faculty member. Additionally, a hybrid, in-person, socially distanced and virtual celebration of his life was planned for Sunday, May 24 and had over 300 students, alumni, faculty/staff, friends, family and comrades in attendance.
• Speak Up, Sign In and Show Out: National March on Washington: While the COVID-19 pandemic was already disproportionately impacting the multicultural community, civil unrest reached an all-time high as a string of murders of Black people at the hands of law enforcement swept the country. Throughout the United States and globally, protests and marches demanding justice received viral attention via social media and national news outlets. Binghamton University students participated in protests in their local communities as well as in the city of Binghamton. The MRC associate director also assisted two students in creating a virtual event, “Speak Up, Sign In and Show Out,” for over 160 students who were unable to participate in local demonstrations to address the extreme levels of anger and civil unrest happening in New York state and across the country. One national initiative planned this fall is a march on Washington, D.C., for racial justice. DEI and the MRC immediately began planning the trip for the campus community that will occur in August 2020.

MRC collaborations

The MRC saw a decrease in collaborations this quarter amid the COVID-19 program restrictions. Programs were either canceled or postponed to the following academic year. The MRC received 10 collaboration requests planned for this quarter; six were approved, however, four were canceled due to the pandemic. In conjunction with our Romance Languages and Literatures Department, the MRC postponed a new event called the LOCO Festival that was to raise awareness on refugee experiences and human rights issues in America. The project was originally created by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Spain, and we were planning to do the first one at Binghamton University this year. With the COVID-19 outbreak, the program has been tentatively rescheduled for April 26-29, 2021; each day will have a different event leading up to Thursday’s LOCO Festival.

The MRC partnered with Angella Kim, a graduate student in the College of Community and Public Affairs, as noted above, to create a virtual support session for Asian and Asian American students to discuss the impact the virus has had on their lives and the negative response from their peers. The MRC also partnered with the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) Peer Counselors (spring 2020) and TRiO Upward Bound Tutor Counselors (summer 2020) to develop presentations regarding community development in their roles. The MRC also served on several committees in this quarter. These committees included: Homecoming Planning, Orientation Planning, A-OK Scholarship Selection, Mental Health Sub-Committee, Virtual Student Life Programming and the search for the dean of students.