Summer Time is Meeting Time!

Around the RAPP Office, summer is a time for many projects.  Training, long-range planning, analyzing the previous year's programs' impact, Accelerating Racial Justice updates & preps, grappling with big questions, and more is tackled by all the great people who make RAPP happen - student staff, volunteers, and the Steering Committee.

Here are some of the big projects we've been working on lately:

• Working through how to effectively implement "year one" of Kingian Nonviolence Conflict Reconciliation training through SALD.  With the support of the Diversity Council, RAPP Program Coordinator Rebecca Lehman was able to become a Level I certified trainer in this.  How do we make sure they made an excellent investment?
• "Refreshing" the curriculum, session plans, and materials of Accelerating Racial Justice.  Refreshing is what I call the process of reviewing and applying all of the feedback we gathered throughout the pilot week and during two-week, two-month, and eight-month follow-up surveys.
• Exploring whether and how we could further integrate faculty and staff into the RAPP's current programming.  There is an imperative to connect more with these groups, but RAPP lacks the resources to establish any new programming.

Much gratitude to the following people for all their work with these major projects!
Becca Hammond (Resident Education & Development)
Brice Mickey (XXV)
Corinne Patterson (Women in Leadership & Learning)
Ericka Duckworth Harrison (University Judicial Affairs)
Gregory Gamble (ARJ 2012)
Jamieson Williams (XXVII)
Kim Fulbright (Ombuds)
Lauren Clark (UC Learning Assistance Center)
Megan Kreaps (XXVII)
Nicole Mayo (Director, SALD)
Shyamal Ruparel (XXVI)
Susie Mahoney (SALD)
Terri Hurdle (SALD

Notes from the latest Kingian Nonviolence training planning meeting.

Impact of RAPP XXVIII - Pre- & Post-Test Analysis

The annual assessment of RAPP's impact through pre- and post-test analysis is completed (in first draft)!

Curriculum and Measurement

The flagship program of the Racial Awareness Program is the RAPP 9-month experiential social justice education program.  The 2012-13 class of RAPP was the 28th group of University of Cincinnati students to participate in this program.  As such, they are known as RAPP XXVIII.

The curricular objectives for the RAPP 9-month program were established in Fall 2008 and updated in Fall 2012 to be:

• Develop relationships with new people
• Develop ability to communicate across difference for learning and understanding
• Recognize that oppression is systemic, pervasive, interlocking, and imbedded
• Recognize own agency

The RAPP XXVIII experience was facilitated by the RAPP Program Coordinator Rebecca Lehman and RAPP Student Worker Brice Mickey.  Following the set of session goals that constitute the RAPP Curriculum, these facilitators developed 14 sessions and three overnight retreats utilizing social justice education resources and intergroup dialogue practices.  Three student volunteers also helped facilitate the RAPP XXVIII group process as peer educators and mentors – Farooq Alkhateeb, Tianshu Lu, and Kristen Myers-Young – having previously participated in the RAPP 9-month program and received pre-service and on-going training in social justice peer education.

The pre- and post-test instrument was developed and first implemented in Fall 2009 and has been updated annually by the facilitation team to reflect participant feedback and updates in the curriculum as well as issues found in assessment.  RAPP XXVIII is the fourth group on which it has been administered.  The pre-test was administered at the second meeting of the group and the post-test was administered at the twelfth (penultimate).

General Results

Twenty-eight students committed to RAPP XXVIII and 24of these graduated through the program in April 2012 (85.7% retention).  Twenty-one of these graduates completed both the pre- and post-test (87.5%).

All RAPP members committed to participating in all RAPP XXVIII meetings and retreats (each meeting is one session, each retreat has three sessions) and completing brief activities between sessions (e.g. "write the meeting dates in your calendar," "record a page of reflection in your journal"); RAPP XXVIII had a total of 22 sessions and 13 between sessions activities.  

The overall average for participation was attendance at 89.9% of sessions.  Previous analysis demonstrated that participating in 80% or more of sessions is critical to achieving the learning objectives; 21 participants (87.5%) of the group attended 80-100% of the sessions.

Key Findings

By section, the key highlights are:

• Identities – Participants reported an overall increase in racial and gender identity awareness.  When divided into dominant and subordinated group identities, the greatest reported change was among racial identity awareness of White/Caucasian students.
• Comfort in Discussion – Participants reported an increase in the number of people in the group with whom they report being comfortable discussing difficult topics.  Participants also reported any increase in their overall comfort discussing racism, sexism, cissexism, and heterosexism.  RAPP participation enhanced participants general awareness and knowledge related to oppression and their skill in having conversations around it.
• Key Words – Participants demonstrated an increased ability to define and quality of definition of key words related to social justice education (oppression, privilege, ally, social construct, and intersectionality).  The greatest demonstrated increase was for social construct.
• Challenging Others – Participants reported being more likely to verbally express disagreement with statements they found offensive made by people across all relationships surveyed.  The biggest reported increase was with expressing disagreement with co-workers and strangers.
• Communicating – Participants reported an increase in use of cross-cultural communication strategies with all relationships surveyed.  The greatest reported increase was in acknowledging multiple perspectives.
• Identifying Racism – Participants were slightly more likely to identify the connection with racism in institutional and social levels.
• Feedback – In response to open-ended questions on the post-test, participants provided feedback on the overall RAPP XXVIII experience.

o   Learnings/Enhancements:  All participants were able to describe something they learned or enhanced through their participation.  Most frequently noted were learning in line with the “each one teach one” philosophy, understanding privilege, recognizing oppression as complex, and communication skills.

o   Desired changes:  Participants provided a variety of suggestions for improving the RAPP 9-month process, most frequently noted were the meeting timeframe, providing social activities between sessions, and increasing the use of educational simulations in sessions.

o   Sense of connection with UC:  Four-fifths responded with an unequivocal yes when asked whether RAPP impacted their sense of connection with UC; all respondents described ways in which RAPP positively impacted their UC experience.

For full reporting of findings, please contact RAPP Program Coordinator Rebecca Lehman for the full report.  Included at the end are important-to-note limitations to the data and analysis.

Accelerating Racial Justice 2013 - Curriculum Refresh Underway

One of the ways RAPP programs keep their curricula up-to-date in terms of content and process is annual reviews & "refreshes" of our curricula.  Though it means an on-going time investment, it also means new people are able to participate in the curricular process each year, sharing their learning and insight.

Accelerating Racial Justice is currently undergoing its "curriculum refresh."  People from the RAPP Steering Committee and student staff of ARJ 2013 are reviewing the content, poring through a wealth of feedback from the pilot group, and identify then making needed changes.

ARJ's curriculum was initially developed by members of the RAPP Working Group using the Understanding by Design curriculum and assessment method throughout the summer of 2012.

We have three remaining meetings in the process - contact RAPP Program Coordinator Rebecca Lehman (rebecca.lehman@uc.edu) if you're interested in joining us!

Notes on ARJ's Enduring Understanding from the first curriculum refresh meeting.

Connected with Campus - Impact of RAPP XXVIII

Throughout the summer as analyses are completed on the 2012-13 groups in the RAPP 9-month, Accelerating Racial Justice, and the Social Justice League, I'll share insights from the results here on the blog.

A new question we added to the post-test for RAPP XXVIII was "Has participation in RAPP XXVIII impacted your sense of connection with the University of Cincinnati?  How and/or how not?"

Four-fifths of the group gave an unequivocal and literal yes - RAPP positively impacted their sense of connection with UC.  Here are some of their comments on how RAPP did this:

"I felt zero connection to the university.  I'm a non-traditional student who went to class and went home.  Now I know I have a family, a safe space, and the university is a living organism to me instead of a lifeless slab of concrete."

"At first when I arrived at UC I was another face in the crowd. Now I know people.  I'm not just a commuter and I do plan on joining more clubs."

"I'm glad I became a member of RAPP, I've expanded my knowledge about the world I live in, and I've also become a smarter and wiser person because of it.  Because of RAPP, next year I plan on joining more groups where I can apply the skills I've acquired through RAPP 28!!"

"I am proud that UC continues RAPP.  It lets me know that 'inclusivity' and 'acceptance' and 'diversity' aren't just filler words.  Some people are trying."

"I feel connected with students who are RAPP alumni and I get respect from faculty & staff.  I have a great understanding of the inequality in how this institution is run and leaders' positive and negative influence.  I have a greater awareness of my fellow students' demographics & issues and of programs related to RAPP."

Those who did not say a full "yes" to sense of connection with UC shared ways in which RAPP positively impacted their experience and and feelings toward the university:

"It has brought a positive to my feelings about the university."

"Not so much with the university itself but definitely with some of the students (RAPPmates) and faculty (facilitators)."

"It has made me realize that I am closer to the African American community on campus than I thought I was because many of our experiences are similar."

"I suppose. I'm NOT a school spirit person, but this program has a lot of value & is unique to UC."

While RAPP may do something people find risky for the institution - acknowledging that as an institution we practice the same oppression we're taught in our society - we also succeed at helping people connect with it.  We open up the complex ways that we work to combat the oppression we've been taught and are steeped in daily, just as we ask RAPPers to join us in doing as individuals.

It may initially seem like an unusual way to develop Bearcat Pride, but it certainly is a powerful and impactful way!

Notes from Nonviolence: Level I Assessment

Day Six of the 12th International Nonviolence Summer Institute is a short but somewhat stressful one.  After a week of participating in, digging deep into, and studying the content of the two-day Kingian Nonviolent Conflict Resolution training we take an assessment of our knowledge.

In other words, we take a test!

The written assessment covers a wide range of theory, history, and King's philosophy.  Its twenty questions are as complex and rich as the training itself.  It takes 2-3 hours for most to complete.

Thankfully, our group has spent much time both in the formal training process and informally in our free time working to understand and remember the information.  The remaining week of training will involve us mastering how to facilitate the two-day curriculum.

The Forum, in URI's Multiculutural Center, is usually full of voices talking through nonviolence.  Today it was silent as we all completed the assessment.