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Highlights of The Month
The Mosa i c
SPEAK! Series featuring Meg Hutchinson The first SPEAK! event of the semester featured an amazing acoustic performance and intimate conversation with Meg Hutchinson. Meg shared her experiences living with bipolar disorder and the important role music, writing, spirituality, and family support played in her healing. After being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Meg made positive and healthy changes; she had a new outlook on how she wanted to live her life. Aside from sharing her music, Meg asked the audience to participate by sharing their own stories. One of Meg’s responses that many people could relate to was that when we’re feeling down we feel like we must force ourselves to stay inside our cave, but we must remember that it’s important to reach out and seek support.
Monthly Newsletter from the Department of Multicultural Life
The Allies Project at Full Speed! Created in 2003, the Lealtad-Suzuki Center’s Allies Project continues to expand and grow its reach, with 189 trained Allies currently on campus. Over the past 10 years, the project has trained 375 students, staff and fac-ulty. To become a part of the Allies Project community, students, staff, and faculty need to attend an initial training workshop. This initial training workshop provides you with the opportunity to learn about what it means to be an ally to people across differences, and how to work toward creating safe and inclusive environments for mar-ginalized populations. Upon completion of the initial training workshop, Allies Project Allies make a commit-ment to continue their education and understanding of current issues impacting multiple communities, and they also commit to being active and engaged allies within their privileged identities. Allies in the Allies Project are also able to attend ongoing ally development workshops that are provided 3-4 times each semester. The on-campus workshops provide space for the Allies community to continue to grow their knowledge and practice skills that enable them to demonstrate positive allyship in their daily lives on and off campus. If you are interested in joining the Allies Project, consider attending one of our upcoming training work-shops. To register, email Karla Benson Rutten at [email protected].
September 2013 Edition
By Jessica Munoz ‘14 Program Assistant, Lealtad-Suzuki Center
By Karla Benson Rutten Director, Lealtad-Suzuki Center
Meg Hutchinson
DML Corners!
Block Party
The C-House Block Party was just as big and successful as ever! Be-tween the music, snow-cones, chalk drawing, popcorn, tie-dye, and some intense games of four square, there was something for everyone to partake in while en-joying the last rays of summer and the re-opening of the Cultural House.
By Demetrius Colvin Assistant Director , Lealtad-Suzuki Center
C-House Moments
Students enjoying the Wobble at the C-House Block Party
Students making a mural at the C-House Block Party
From left to right: Marian Michaels ’15 , elisa lee ‘15, Emma Stout ‘15, and Erica Lee ‘15
Lavender Reception
The annual Lavender Reception ushered in yet another queer new year at Macalester on Septem-ber 2nd.
During this year’s reception the Lealtad-Suzuki Center’s Assistant Director, Demetrius Colvin, along with the Dean of Students, Jim Hoppe, and the Dean for Multicultural Life, Chris Mac-Donald-Dennis, welcomed a packed Weyer-haeuser Boardroom full of queer students and staff, and their allies, to a new academic year at Mac.
Student leaders from all of the queer identified student groups also provided a welcome at the reception, and introduced to the freshmen stu-dents what their organizations were about and when they meet.
DML Corners!
Gender & Sexuality (By Jessica Munoz ‘14 and Isabel M. Ruelas ‘15) Transgender Professor asked to Leave Azusa Pa-cific University Azusa Pacific University (APU), a Christian univer-sity in California, asked a professor to leave his po-sition after coming out as a transgender man. H. Adam Ackley had taught theology at APU for 15 years. Ackley felt that the university was more “concern[ed] that other people, such as donors, par-ents, and churches connected to the university will have problems not understanding transgender iden-tity.” Students began circulating a petition to sup-port Ackley and asked the school “to create a safer environment for students and faculty.” LGBTQ Rights Protest at The Metropolitan An LGBTQ rights protest emerged during The Metropolitan’s opening of a Russian themed opera. The protest was in response to June’s anti-LGBTQ laws passed by Russia’s president Vladimir V. Putin. The new laws banned “propaganda on non-traditional sexual relationships.” Protestors were asked to leave the auditorium, but picketing contin-ued outside.The manager of The Metropolitan stated that he “respect[s] the right of activists to picket our opening night and we realize that we’ve provided them with a platform to further raise awareness about serious human rights issues abroad.” Twin Cities Bring Back Miss Saigon The play focuses on a romance between an Ameri-can solider and a Vietnamese woman. Despite re-peated protests and objections from Asian Ameri-can artists and activist about the play’s racist, sexist, and colonialist messages the Ordway Theater is bringing it back.
Economic Justice (By Zoe Nardone ‘16 and Grace Zhu ‘16) Hundreds of dissatisfied workers from major American companies such as Walmart, and McDonalds have had joint protests nationwide in the past year demanding higher wages and better benefits. One company that has not had to deal with such protest is Costco. The ware-house chain pays its workers an average of $20 per hour, and provides them with health care and other benefits. Bank of America was ordered on September 23rd to pay 1,147 African American job applicants $2,181,593 in back wages and interest after a judge found that the company’s Charlotte office had racially discriminated against them. A 1993 review of the bank’s hiring practices showed evi-dence of “systematic hiring discrimination” against African Americans, in clerical and ad-ministrative positions. For over ten years, the median earnings of men and women in the U.S have remained at 77% - Women earn roughly 77 cents on the dollar. The policy director at the American Association of University Women, stated that “I don’t think women are ever choosing jobs that they con-sciously know are paying them unfairly……but in most cases the person who decides to do that is the person who makes less to begin with.”
LSC Issue Areas
By the Lealtad-Suzuki Center’s Program Assistants LSC Issue Areas research current events and policies, locally, nationally and internationally.
DML Corners!
Religion & Spirituality (By Lucy Andrews ‘14, elisa Lee ‘15 and Jinath Tasnim ‘16)
International media are abuzz with speculation about the direction that newly-anointed Pope Fran-cis will take to lead the Catholic Church. In an Ital-ian newspaper, Pope Francis stated that “the dog-matic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently.” Abortion, gay marriage, and contraception have been divisive issues among Catholics worldwide and it seems that the Vatican will be addressing them under the new leadership. A public school in Nashville, Tennessee is facing vocal backlash from community members after stu-dents in an honors world history studies course vis-ited a Hindu temple, and a mosque during a field trip. Some parents of the students have complained that the sources provided a pro-Islam bias. In re-sponse, the district has revised its field trip policy to eliminate field trips to religious sites. The Lilly Project for Vocation and Ethical Leader-ship at Macalester is working on a new series called “Let Your Life Speak” which will focus on transfor-mative moments of courage and commitment in speakers’ lives. On Friday, September 27th, Professor Omid Safi from the University of North Carolina visited Macalester and discussed modern Iran, and the dy-namics of its reformist movement.
Racial/Ethnic/National Identities (By Gaby Gomez ‘14, Mitch Paquette ’16 and Andjelka Radevic ‘16) The immigration reform bill recently passed by the Senate includes a provision to triple the budget of Operation Streamline, “a program that convicts undocumented immigrants en masse for illegal entry and funnels them into the prison system.” Initiated in 2005, Operation Streamline uses the threat of jail time to deter illegal border crossings. Immigration-related crime constitutes 60% percent of this year’s con-victions. The Brewster Douglass Projects in Detroit have begun their demolition plan this month. Sean Donovan, secretary of the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development considered the demolition of the projects as an “important and positive step in Detroit’s journey toward revitalization.” As described in this article, in the beginning of their existence, the Brewster Doug-lass Projects were not always stigmatized to the extent of today. On Sunday, September 15th, Nina Davuluri was crowned Miss America. Many individuals who disliked the new Miss America commented she was an Arab, a foreigner, and had terrorist ties with Al-Qaeda. Nina is the first American of In-dian descent to win the crown. She is Hindu, not Muslim, but she was still referred to as an Arab and a Muslim as those were invariably de-rogatory remarks.
LSC Issue Areas
By the Lealtad-Suzuki Center’s Program Assistants LSC Issue Areas research current events and policies, locally, nationally and internationally.
DML Corners! What’s Up! Emerging Scholars Program This past Saturday marked the first official Emerging Scholars Program outing. Joined by some of the Bonner Program students as well as several first generation college students, we took off for the Minneapolis Community Tour. Despite having to see much of the tour from the inside, rain covering bus windows, our enthusiastic tour guide Paul Schadewald, Associate Director for the Civic Engagement Center, took us on a journey from one side of Minneapolis to the other. Passing through the Gateway district to the Warehouse district (now rebranded as the "Northern Loop"), we made our way to the historical Mill City Mu-seum. Adjacent to the Guthrie Theater and Olympic Park, the Mill City Museum was crowded with visitors despite the dreary weather. Using the tickets fellow ESP mentor Cyrus Hair ’15 procured for the group, we quickly entered the museum itching to explore the space. However, before seeing the exhibits, we gathered into a small theater on the museum's lower level to watch a nineteen-minute clip about the history of Minneapolis. Expecting a His-tory Channel type narrator filled with black and white images, I, as well as others were surprised at the jocular yet informative nature of the film. With nineteen-minutes of knowledge about Minneapolis and its milling his-tory, we began exploring the interactive exhibit that took us into the past. Watching the ESP mentees as well as other first year students break off to investigate filled me with a mixture of happiness and nostalgia. I was elated that the first years students were bonding and learning about the city they would be spending the next four years in, yet at the same time I felt a yearning for the memories I had made dur-ing my own first year. As the year continues, and as we all begin to fill our already packed schedules, I can only hope we will continue building close relationships to bring a bright as well as wondrous year for all of us.
DML STAFF 2013-2014
By Carina Lee ‘14
ESP Mentees and Bon-ner Students 2013-2014
Lealtad-Suzuki Center 2013-2014 Student Staff
Cultural House 2013-2014 Student Staff
Emerging Scholars Program 2013-2014 Student Staff
What to Look For...
Tuesdays @ 6:00pm: “In the Kitchen With…”
(C-House, 37 Mac St.)
Tuesday, October 8 @ 5:00pm: The Working
Class Identity Collective Social
(Kagin Lounge, First Floor, Kagin)
Wednesday, October 16 @ 4:30pm: SPEAK!
Series featuring Malalai Joya
(Davis Court, Markim Hall)
Thursday, October 17 @ 11:45am: An(other)
Story Circle
(C-House, 37 Mac Street)
Friday, October 18 @ 4:45pm: The Tapas Series
“Home Alone”
(GSRC, Kagin Commons, Lower Level)
Friday, October 18-20: ACTC LGBTQIA Re-
treat
(Location TBA)
Monday, October 21 @ 10:00am: The Allies
Project training workshop for new allies
(Campus Center, Room 214)
Apply to the DML Cultural House Poetry
Slam! Contact [email protected] for
more information
Christopher MacDonald-Dennis
Dean
Multicultural Life
Karla Benson Rutten
Director
Lealtad-Suzuki Center
Demetrius Colvin
Assistant Director
Lealtad-Suzuki Center
Afifa Benwahoud
Department Coordinator
Multicultural Life
Sedric McClure
Multicultural Counselor
Macalester Academic Excellence Center
DML Contact Information
For questions and suggestions, please contact us at x6243, Monday through Friday, 8:00am-4:30pm
or email Afifa Benwahoud at [email protected].
Web: www.macalester.edu/multiculturalism
