report back from "town hall meeting" at tufts

Hey all,
I went to the Town Hall meeting on Stero-typing and campus climate at Tufts last week. This was one event in a series that is sponcered by the Office of Diversity. (yes there is such a thing.)
the meeting began with a presentation by 2 psychology professors on the psychological perspective on stero-typing, both in terms of why we do it, and what implications it has. This was a farily basic but interesting presentation. Then the BEAT (formally known as the Bias Intervention Team) gave a dramatic presentation about racist sterotyping on campus. All the skits were based on real experiences, and included things like a halloween party where people dressed as members of various racial/ethnic groups, a group of peers assuming that a friend would Obviously get into law school becuase she was a person of color, and a classroom setting where the professor consistantly called a student by the wrong name (Ms. Gomez, Ms. Rodriguez, Ms. Sanchez, instead of her actual last name) . I thought this piece was really well done, they also had slides in the back ground with information about sterotyping and unintentional racism and how harmful it can be.
After that there was a town hall style discussion facilitated by Jean Wu and Lisa Coleman. Lots of people shared their feelings and opinions about the climate on campus.

Many people were asking about how the conversation is going to continue, and what kinds of actual prgramming or change is going to be made. Lisa Coleman said that she has some plans and initiatvies in place through the office of Diversity, which she now heads, but unfortunaly I couldnt stay long enough to hear what those plans are.
So thats the report back from last week. Vagina Monologues and Emerging Black Leaders conference were also this past weekend.
:) Eva