Multicultural Resource Center, winter 2021
Hiring of new director of intercultural affairs
The Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion hired a new director of intercultural affairs, Anne Guanciale, who provides oversight for both the Multicultural Resource Center and the Q Center. Situated as the director of both centers, she assists with strategic planning, budgetary management, and programmatic and policy implementation, allowing for greater collaboration between the two centers.
In the Lounge programming
In the Lounge programming was designed to provide opportunities for students to spend time in the MRC weekly with a range of different programs. This quarter the MRC hosted two open discussions in the Faculty Dialogue Series.
Sandra Casanova-Vizcaino: The first open discussion took place Oct. 20, in the MRC Lounge. The discussion featured Sandra Casanova-Vizcaino, associate professor of Spanish and graduate director for the Romance Languages Department, who provided text on Hispanic Caribbean literature, film and culture.
Sean Massey: The second discussion featured Sean Massey, associate professor of the Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies program. Massey’s discussion was titled “Everyday Politics: Meaning Making in Queer Life” and was presented Oct. 27, in the MRC Lounge. Two students and four faculty/staff attended.
Due to low turnout for these events, for the spring semester, the MRC will look to bring multiple faculty members together in panel discussions and provide additional programmatic adjustments to encourage more student participation. These larger panel discussions will focus on two heritage months in the spring semester: Black History Month and Asian, Asian-American, Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
The MRC also hosted Graduate Talks from 1-2 p.m. every Tuesday in the MRC Lounge. Graduate Talks are led by a MRC graduate intern and are designed to give students from the cultural community an opportunity to share their unique experiences in graduate school across a range of topics such as intersectionality, identity, etc. The MRC connected with the Q Center and the Graduate Student Organization in October to develop unified strategies for social mixers in conjunction with Graduate Talks in the spring. This quarter, the Graduate Talks did not record any attendance. The MRC is planning to collaborate more intentionally with the Student Affairs Administration master’s program to provide the space for graduate assistants and interns to discuss their unique experiences.
The MRC also hosted three separate UNIV 101 courses in the MRC, which provided an overview of MRC resources, initiatives and a discussion on intercultural communication. Lastly, the MRC hosted “Brother’s Lunch,” which is a weekly luncheon for students, faculty and staff on campus who identify as men of color and serves as a space to encourage camaraderie and networking, and to improve sense of belonging.
Multicultural Resource Center operations
In the second half of the semester, the MRC extended its operating hours using feedback from students and student organization leaders. The new operational hours are 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday. An extension of the MRC’s hours allows more students to utilize the MRC Lounge for studying in the evening and allows more student organizations to reserve the lounge for executive board and general body meetings and events. Additionally, these new hours have allowed more students to utilize the Multifaith Meditation and Prayer Room in the evening.
In this quarter, over 378 individuals visited the MRC (not including student staff numbers); the Multifaith Meditation and Prayer Room had 108 visitors. The MRC received 44 space reservations and 72 tabling requests. A total of 23 events were held in the MRC Lounge, including MRC/DEI events, student organization and campus partner events.
In this quarter, the MRC fulfilled 20 resource requests; 15 were for paid services. The MRC Resource Room received a total of $799 for external services rendered in this quarter.
Hiring of new student staff for spring 2022
MRC staff were able to successfully hire new undergraduate interns for the spring 2022 semester: three Human Development 475 practicum interns, four marketing interns and two cultural programming interns. All new interns will receive training Monday, Jan. 17.
Of these interns, six will be a part of the MRC CDCI internship program. Students will complete 60-120 hours in the semester in correlation to the number of CDCI credits they will be registered for. In addition to their internship hours, each of the six interns will attend a weekly seminar course from 3-5 p.m. Thursdays. This course will include both the MRC and the Q Center interns and will be co-instructed by MRC Assistant Director Nuray Seyidzade and Q Center Assistant Director Nick Martin. Over the course of the semester, interns will gain theoretical knowledge in the seminar course and learn ways to practically apply it to the work they do for their respective centers.
MRC TIP provides translation services
During this quarter, the Multicultural Resource Center’s Translation and Interpretation Program (MRC TIP) received and fulfilled two requests in Bangla from the Vestal Central School District. Additionally, one translation request in Mandarin was redirected to an outside agency due to limitations with completing official certified translations.
For the spring 2022 semester, MRC TIP will partner with the Romance Languages Department to create translation assignments in Spanish for Vanessa Cañete Jurado’s Spanish translation course/program. Undergraduate and graduate students in Cañete Jurado’s course will assist MRC TIP with Spanish translations for documents, notices, guidelines, etc. for various campus departments with the possibility of providing translations for Admissions, Decker Student Health Services and the Parent Connect newsletter. Additionally, MRC TIP will collaborate with the Translation Research and Instruction Program (TRIP) to increase recruitment of volunteer translators and interpreters, and serve as an internship site in the new TRIP master’s degree program.
Pathways to Inclusive Leadership Program
The Multicultural Resource Center (MRC), in collaboration with the Q Center and the UDiversity Educational Institute, have partnered with the Center for Civic Engagement, the Fleishman Center for Career and Professional Development, Residential Life and the School of Management to create the Pathways to Inclusive Leadership program. The collaborative initiative is between the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and the Division of Student Affairs; the pilot program will launch in spring 2022 and will give students from various class standings an opportunity to explore leadership from a diverse and inclusive perspective. The framework for the program involves students taking part in workshops, trainings and/or activities from four categories:
- Foundations of Leadership
- Leadership in a Diverse World
- Leadership in Your Career
- Leadership in Civic Engagement
Students will be able to explore these different aspects of leadership, and apply it to their college careers. To contribute to the category of “Leadership in a Diverse World,” the MRC has partnered with the Q Center and UDiversity to create a comprehensive edition of the Building Bridges to Cultural Competency training that focuses on stereotyping and microaggressions, intercultural communication and embracing queer identities. This core workshop will be presented to all students enrolled in the pathways program Sunday, Feb. 20; the opening event/orientation will be held Sunday, Feb. 6. In addition to this workshop, MRC staff will offer training on bystander intervention for hate and bias incidents, networking events and other cultural discussion-based events as part of the electives for the program.
New Student of Color Mentoring Program
The New Student of Color Mentoring Program is designed to help new students of color integrate themselves to the campus and develop bonds with other students, faculty and staff of color. This mentorship program helps enhance the college experience for first-year students of color by:
- improving integration into the student’s selected field of study,
- reducing social barriers that impact motivation and persistence, and
- expanding the student’s network of developmental mentoring relationships for long-term persistence and positive achievement outcomes.
This quarter, the MRC hosted two New Student of Color Mixers. The first mixer was held Nov. 4, and the second was on Dec. 2. The first mixer had 15 participants in attendance and the second had 22 participants. Next quarter, the MRC is planning for monthly mixers to build on relationships developed this semester.
B-College Bound Mentor Program
In collaboration with Upward Bound (UB), the B-College Bound Mentor Program was implemented to expand the services and support provided to Upward Bound students to ensure their success in college attendance and enhance connections between Binghamton University and the local community. Our mentors serve as role models who are currently navigating college successfully and share similar experiences to UB students. Mentors provide academic, social and career support to UB scholars.
Responsibilities of mentors in this program include:
- Provide weekly or bi-weekly one-on-one academic, social and career advising to UB students
- Host workshops to enhance UB student success
- Collectively plan one community partner event
During this quarter, the MRC successfully trained five mentors through a five-week mentoring course. After the course, mentors were matched with their potential mentees at our B-College Bound Mixer held Dec. 3. The program currently has eight mentees. Next quarter, the program will host workshops for mentees to develop skills that can improve their high school experience and mentors will facilitate their improvement.
Grants and collaborations
The MRC received 15 applications for the Culture Connects Grant from 13 different student organizations. Of the 15 applications, the MRC was able to approve 10 organizations’ applications and provide grants totaling $2,750. Grants will once again be available for the spring 2022 semester with applications due Jan. 30.
The MRC received 18 collaboration requests during this quarter. Of the 18 collaboration requests, 15 were approved and completed. Two of those requests were approved and postponed or canceled on behalf of the requestor. One request was referred to the UDiversity Educational Institute. The demographics of our requestors was as follows: nine student organizations or groups; five UNIV 101 courses that are serviced through Harpur Advising, Residential Life and the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; and four academic or student affairs departments. From academic affairs, we partnered with the Sociology Department and from student affairs we partnered with Late Nite, Residential Life and the Office of Alumni Engagement.
MRC events and initiatives
During the quarter, the Multicultural Resource Center (MRC) hosted several successful events and programmatic/workshop collaborations to serve the campus community, a few of which included:
- Graduate Opportunity Program (GOP) Panel: In collaboration with the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP), the MRC hosted the inaugural Graduate Opportunity Program (GOP) Panel for undergraduate EOP students interested in graduate school. The event began with an overview of GOP assistance in the SUNY system and how EOP students can apply for funding. After the overview, four current GOP recipients and graduate students at Binghamton answered questions about the process of receiving GOP, how they learned about it and any advice they could share with the students in attendance. The panel also took questions at the end and spent time after the presentation to network with students. The event took place on Nov. 19 in the MRC Lounge.
- Cultural Presidents’ Council meetings: In this quarter, the MRC collaborated with the Q Center and the vice presidents of multicultural affairs for the Student Association and the Graduate Student Organization to host three Cultural Presidents’ Council meetings. Over 40 student organization leaders attended the October and November meetings, held in the MRC Lounge. The December meeting was held in the University Union and had 34 student leaders in attendance. These meetings have allowed MRC staff and other collaborating partners to share updates, services and resources with the cultural student organizations and help grow solidarity between the groups. Feedback from these meetings has helped MRC staff assess the usage and knowledge of MRC services and implement new changes for the spring 2022 semester that will be beneficial to the cultural student organizations, including social mixers for all executive board members. There will be three CPC meetings in the spring 2022 semester: February, March and April.