Thursday, 3 December 2015 - 11:47am
We seek not rest but transformation. We are dancing through each other as doorways. ~ Marge Piercy
Over the last several months, I’ve heard people contemplating the question, “Is ACPA a student affairs association using a social justice lens for its work or is ACPA a social justice organization?” Some members have suggested that social justice education is sufficient and that we must not drift into advocacy and activism. Others, not so much.
The idea that there is an “either/or” resolution to the question reminds me of a time when people in my church were resisting social justice work in the church because they just wanted to worship G_d, be fed and follow Jesus--as if one could follow Jesus and not do justice work.
I hope you will take time to reflect on the question raised by members and share your thoughts with me.
I think we are on a quest to clarify what we are as an organization within the bigger question of what is happening to the field of student affairs as a whole.
Our profession is changing, sometimes more reactively than reflectively (Dr. Susan Swayze, December 2015).
How does our legacy serve us best as the leading scholars and practitioners of work on identity formation and the publisher of more research on race than any other journal of our type in higher education?
I think our talents actually prepare us for what is to come in ways that most organizations and individuals cannot prepare. We are in a great place to emerge from Compliance U to Facilitator U and to illuminate the way in the emerging context of student activism.
Peter Lake describes this transition well.
A facilitator college (will) balance rights and responsibilities - it (will be) neither extremely authoritarian nor overly solicitous of student freedom. Importantly, a facilitator college seeks shared responsibility rather than allocating it unilaterally or not at all. Facilitation implies an appropriate and reasonable degree of risk. The goal of the university is to advise student organizations of the potential and perceived risks involved in their activities. Universities should also strive to facilitate the coordination of organization events and help student leaders take corrective actions and proactive steps to minimize accidental injury and/or loss. A facilitator institution seeks to balance the rights and responsibilities of students and the university.
--Bickel, R.D., & Lake, P.F. (1999). The Rights and Responsibilities of the Modern University: Who Assumes the Risks of College Life? Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press. Texas A & M University, Department of Student Activities, http://studentactivities.tamu.edu/orgmanual/stuact
Ann Tapp of the Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence suggests how we might take what we know and do very well and move forward. I’ve paraphrased some sections for ease of reading.
So, where do we go from here? How to we begin this transformation? First, let’s deal with the racism in our organizations and movements and stop behaving as if doing so is inconvenient to “the real work.” Our national legacy of colonization, racism, and white supremacy, combined with the changing demographics of our country and the fact that the injustices we work to end disproportionately affect people of color, should leave no room for hesitance or squeamishness.
Racism is alive and well in our white-led social justice movements (and all of our campuses). Let’s confront it through honest conversations about power and privilege that demand accountability, not euphemistic trainings on “difference and tolerance” that leave people of color tokenized and subject to white folks’ paternalism.
Second, let’s build genuine alliances and partnerships that promote real change, rather than settle for “collaborations” that are little more than self-serving referral networks. Let’s agree that unabashed truthfulness about our differences as well as our shared goals should frame every alliance.
Let’s continue to construct partnerships that don’t look like the ones of the past. Let’s ground them in honesty and candor and agree that even our most difficult conversations are essential for growth.
Let’s agree that those investing in “our work” must understand that this work includes not just student learning and development but a social change objective. Let’s push ourselves to get comfortable with social impact outcomes that may take a generation to manifest as they are measuring individuals served annually in a program.
Finally, let’s broaden our thinking and integrate our strategies our strategies regarding social justice. Our organizations, public policy agendas, and social change efforts must work with not against each other.
“Oppression Olympics” (to borrow from a brilliant colleague), setting “my injustice” against “your injustice,” is a waste of our time and passion. Let’s stop doing it. Breaking through the isolation and disconnection of social justice movements affords us room to create more meaningful solutions to multifaceted social issues.
–Adapted from Reclaiming Our Social Justice Organizations shttp://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/tapp1.pdf