collegio: help colleges be collegial
TRANSCRIPT
Communicate to connect.
Here’s the problem.In colleges across the U.S.,students, faculty, and staff increasingly express concern, distress and anger.
They feel:
Disengaged
Disrespected
Unheard
Misunderstood Excluded
Isolated
Under-valued Stigmatized
WHY?Colleges are daunting places for newcomers, whether students, faculty or staff. Each feels themselves to be "a stranger in a strange land."Newcomers are immediately plunged into the deep end: new rules, new processes, new people, new geography, new experiences, new expectations.
In this complex context exist innumerable opportunities to miscommunicate, misunderstand & BE misunderstood.
Concerns and conflict are amplified by unfolding political developments, social movements and social media.At the same time, long term
employees (faculty and staff) apply spoken and unspoken rules in a fast-evolving world.
Perceptions, experiences, expectations, and beliefs clash.
Not an easy answer. Our difficult history of race is a factor, but the college context itself is an incubator for growth, change, and conflict.
In 2015, students across the country began to voice their distress out loud, most specifically about race, making a range of demands to administrations. This approach will likely continue.
Many college responses: initiate and expand programs to support & affirm diversity, inclusion, and racial justice.
Plans include:
• Hiring more diverse faculty and staff• Admitting more diverse students• Mandating campus-wide diversity training• Including diversity courses in core requirements• Establishing and funding more multicultural clubs
: "
BUT While these actions demonstrate
good will, good intent & good risk management, they alone do not solve the underlying problem.
40 years after the turbulent ‘70s, students, faculty and staff STILL
feel isolated, powerless, excluded....
Brandeis: 1975
Brandeis: 2015
~ The Harvard Crimsom, April 30, 1975
~ The Boston Globe, November 23, 2015
for example:
As much as we might think colleges are automatically "collegial" -- most are inevitably hotbeds of miscommunication and conflict. Conflict itself is not a problem; in fact, it is a shared, universal human experience arising when goals and perceptions clash. The underlying problem is that many members of college "communities" are not taught or do not use effective communication and conflict management skills. Not only do people perceive conflict in many ways (or not see it at all), but many are extremely uncomfortable with conflict, and either avoid the problematic issue altogether or confront it using categorical, generic terms. All of these often exacerbate misunderstanding and conflict.
WHAT didyou say?!
What DIDyou say?!
What did I
SAY?!
Using categories to identify and make assumptions...
Race
Religion
Age
Disability
Gender
Nationality
Physical appearance
Ethnicity
US
US
THEM
THEM
THEM
THEM
THEM
THEM
....leads to disconnection,antagonism, and dehumanization.
versus
Painful results.• Decreasing retention rates across U.S.
colleges
• Plummeting morale
• Lower learning outcomes
• Decreasing alumni giving
• Increasing legal fees
• Increasing operating costs and tuition
So, what's thesolution?
Communicate to connect.
“AA divergent, skills-based, on-going program using diversityDNA® and structured storytelling to assist college students explore and compare their own and others' internal values, rules, expectations, actions and perceptions. This combination of insight and shared experienceis a powerful connector.”
~ Deb Volberg Pagnotta, Founder
Collegio™ is created and delivered
by a superhero team with deep experiencein teaching, storytelling, intercultural communication,
conflict resolution, and curriculum design.
Jen Gerometta, Ph.DCommunication faculty
Metrics, researcher, storyteller
Joseph Nwokeabia Creative director, content creator
Denise Chan, BA Storyteller, marketer,
designer
Deb Volberg Pagnotta, JDFounder, Interfacet, Inc.
Founder, diversityDNA llpCommunication faculty, twice awarded teaching excellence
awards
How doesit work?
Collegio™ combines THREE powerfultools to help students and other
campus members better understandthemselves and others, and communicate
to connect not divide.ddiversityDNA®, software which allows users to explore internal values, perceptions, expectations and beliefs as connective and evolving, rather than static and divisive. dDNA sparks curiosity, demonstrates commonalities of experience, and connects users as individuals not categories.
& Structured storytelling, whichreleases oxytocin, creates
neural coupling, and supports the theory of mind. All of thesehelp storytellers and listeners
strengthen empathic skills.
&Ongoing, immersive and experiential structure to
develop and support skills.
dDNA concept video (3 mins)
The following timeline and component description
cover the student-oriented program.
Collegio™ also offers counterpart programs (dDNA + storytelling)
for faculty, staff and administrators
Sample Timeline for Student Population
TIMELINE 4th – 6th weeks
6 weeks 8 weeks 10 weeks 12th – 13th weeks
End of semester
Post semester
diversityDNA® Providing readings, visuals (videos, etc) relating to dDNA categories
Revisit dDNA site, re-evaluate answers, change to reflect new perceptions
STORYTELLING Voluntary story skills workshops
Choose story themes based on dDNA concepts
Workshops to hone stories and delivery
Open mike story event/s Also, may submit written stories
Curated storytelling event on campus
Prize for top stories, oral and written
MATERIALS More story resources available through Collegio portal
Post videos of event and storytellers on portal
Compilation of stories
ADDITIONAL SUPPORT
Story coaching
Story coaching
Story coaching
Class discussion Select Collegio mentors for following semester
Student feedback and evaluation of utility of Collegio
Timeline Cont’d
• Collegio provides each incoming student with a private login username to diversityDNA®. (User group license from diversityDNA LLP.)
• Prior to orientation, students are required to create their own anonymized dDNA iceberg and explore their own internal values.
• Each student also must complete a 30-minute, interactive, online module reviewing the baseline dDNA concepts.
• Each student will be provided a dDNA workbook identifying range of perceptions related to experiential dimensions.
• At first-year orientation, leaders provide 30-minute overview of the Collegio program and distribute booklet with pertinent dates.
• Collegio will provide a dedicated portal for students to access, containing link to dDNA website, online module, written materials and video archives.
Menu elements of Collegio™(adaptable to organization)
• Students will watch/attend curated story event/s (2 to 3 weeks into the semester).
• Each student will be assigned a partner; they will interview each other based on dDNA-related questions.
• Workshops on storytelling skills.
• Choose dDNA-based themes for voluntary student story events.
• Coaching for storytelling (peer to peer).
• Campus-wide juried story event. Audiovisual recording.
• Create video archives: available and showcased to other students.
Menu elements of Collegio (cont'd)
Staff
Faculty
Collegio™ helps the entire campus community.
Students
Administrators
Develop the skills to communicate to connect.
Be an individual, see an individual.
Wholly owned and created by Interfacet, Inc.A licensed and certified dDNA® provider
2016 © Interfacet, Inc.
™
