Stretching Your Strengths in CEHS - Anti-Racism with Dr. Paul Springer and Special Guest John Raible

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10/21/2021 Added

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Stretching Your Strengths in CEHS - Anti-Racism with Dr. Paul Springer and Special Guest John Raible, CEHS Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

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[00:00:00.000]cehs.unl.edu
[00:00:05.529]Welcome to another episode of
[00:00:06.968]Stretching your Strengths in CEHS.
[00:00:08.910]I'm Dr. Paul Springer the
[00:00:10.313]Associate Dean for Student Success.
[00:00:12.000]And today we're going to be
[00:00:13.178]meeting with John Raible,
[00:00:14.453]our new Associate Dean for
[00:00:15.870]Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
[00:00:18.282]Thanks for joining us today, John.
[00:00:21.493]Thanks for the invitation, Paul.
[00:00:23.126]Great to be here.
[00:00:24.159]So John,
[00:00:25.869]I know that your expertise
[00:00:27.222]addresses anti-racism and
[00:00:29.018]I've heard you talk quite a
[00:00:30.123]bit about anti-racism and
[00:00:31.851]the work that you're doing.
[00:00:32.973]Can you kind of explain your approach
[00:00:34.841]so people have a clear idea
[00:00:36.772]of what anti-racism entails?
[00:00:40.512]Yeah.
[00:00:41.060]Sure.
[00:00:41.750]And the reason that I speak first and
[00:00:43.754]foremost about anti-racism is I feel like
[00:00:45.710]we can't accomplish our DEI
[00:00:48.000]Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion goals,
[00:00:50.462]unless it, they,
[00:00:51.512]all of those goals are looked at through
[00:00:53.465]the lens of anti-racism.
[00:00:55.256]And anti-racism of course,
[00:00:56.976]has to be intersectional.
[00:00:58.300]So we're,
[00:00:59.059]we're focused on ending
[00:01:00.381]racism and transforming it,
[00:01:01.799]but we're also looking at other
[00:01:03.747]systems of dominance, like sexism,
[00:01:07.098]homophobia,
[00:01:08.063]antisemitism,
[00:01:09.131]Islamophobia, and,
[00:01:10.128]and classism,
[00:01:11.432]and ableism,
[00:01:12.820]and other isms.
[00:01:14.601]But the idea of anti-racism
[00:01:16.174]is that marginalized,
[00:01:18.289]what is known as BIPOC people,
[00:01:20.179]black, indigenous,
[00:01:21.157]and other people of color.
[00:01:22.514]Have been excluded and
[00:01:23.731]marginalized and dominated for
[00:01:25.163]so long that in order to
[00:01:27.142]level the playing field,
[00:01:28.373]we really need to bend over backwards
[00:01:30.329]to elevate those perspectives
[00:01:32.375]and those voices.
[00:01:33.834]So that's, that's kinda
[00:01:34.930]what I mean by anti-racism.
[00:01:36.847]Oh, that's really great
[00:01:37.815]and very helpful as we start talking
[00:01:40.000]about this more in our college.
[00:01:42.220]So can you also talk about how
[00:01:43.948]you see yourself as a resource
[00:01:45.769]for our college community?
[00:01:48.381]Yeah, I think of myself
[00:01:49.725]as not the person that's
[00:01:50.720]gonna ride in on a
[00:01:51.894]white horse or a black horse
[00:01:54.456]to save the day,
[00:01:55.565]but really to kind of connect people and
[00:01:57.777]move the conversation forward
[00:01:59.626]and help people find each other.
[00:02:01.805]Another way that I think
[00:02:02.843]of myself as a resource,
[00:02:03.812]is that I want to empower people to
[00:02:05.646]find their own strengths
[00:02:07.653]and voices and to
[00:02:10.136]ignore some of the hierarchies in our
[00:02:12.049]college that put certain people at the
[00:02:14.396]bottom of the pyramid and,
[00:02:16.257]and, and elevate other voices
[00:02:17.786]so that they're louder.
[00:02:19.363]And so,
[00:02:20.000]my approach is to kind of convene groups.
[00:02:22.351]I'm thinking of them as crisis response teams
[00:02:25.878]that will include students, staff,
[00:02:27.894]faculty at different ranks, and an
[00:02:29.430]administrator or two,
[00:02:31.068]to kind of really be
[00:02:31.973]creative problem solvers.
[00:02:34.041]They'll know their department
[00:02:35.725]or their unit.
[00:02:36.844]They know what the department needs in
[00:02:39.006]terms of anti-racism and it will look
[00:02:40.954]different across the college,
[00:02:42.752]but I want to be like the wind beneath
[00:02:44.716]their wings to help elevate them so they
[00:02:46.900]can do their best work.
[00:02:48.688]It's not me coming in saying,
[00:02:49.965]this is what you're going to do.
[00:02:50.865]You must-do this,
[00:02:51.960]but it's more saying, okay,
[00:02:53.475]what do you all want to do? What,
[00:02:55.043]what does your unit need
[00:02:56.937]and really elevating student voices
[00:02:58.988]in those conversations.
[00:03:00.830]So they are equal partners
[00:03:02.000]in these deliberations.
[00:03:04.190]Well, you know, that's great
[00:03:05.223]and that's actually a great
[00:03:06.120]transition to my last question.
[00:03:08.000]What are some of your plans to support
[00:03:09.847]our students in particular in CEHS?
[00:03:13.383]Yeah, I think one
[00:03:14.485]of the things we need to do as leaders,
[00:03:16.225]those of us that are associate deans, or
[00:03:18.238]deans or department chairs is listen.
[00:03:20.599]We need to be good listeners
[00:03:22.527]and not patronizing listeners,
[00:03:24.491]but actual listeners.
[00:03:26.694]And
[00:03:27.928]so we've had you and I have
[00:03:29.373]hosted some listening sessions
[00:03:30.718]and so I want to continue those so
[00:03:32.717]that we keep the feedback loop going.
[00:03:35.302]And I think that's the second goal is
[00:03:36.793]how do we keep getting feedback from our
[00:03:38.823]students about their experience in
[00:03:40.750]classes, and assistantships, and UCARE
[00:03:43.228]experiences, and travel study experiences,
[00:03:46.517]how what's working and
[00:03:48.196]what's not working so well.
[00:03:49.255]So setting up those feedback loops.
[00:03:51.113]But the other thing that I'm pretty
[00:03:52.267]passionate about is self-care
[00:03:53.620]and mindfulness.
[00:03:54.997]And once we're back on campus,
[00:03:56.619]I hope that my office
[00:03:58.060]or the Dean's office in general
[00:04:00.052]will be seen as a place
[00:04:01.312]that students can just go to
[00:04:02.793]relax and have a quiet place.
[00:04:05.002]Maybe they can do some meditation.
[00:04:06.442]Maybe we'll offer some mindfulness
[00:04:07.926]activity breaks throughout the week.
[00:04:10.421]So the people can, cause this,
[00:04:12.005]these are pressurized times.
[00:04:13.754]And so I think that that's so key to
[00:04:15.950]doing this kind of anti-racism work.
[00:04:17.632]We've got to practice self-care because
[00:04:19.345]we're in this for the long haul
[00:04:20.734]and this work
[00:04:21.529]will sap our energy,
[00:04:23.232]and I'm not going to let it take
[00:04:24.995]any of our precious students out
[00:04:27.547]because we're taking
[00:04:28.763]too long to get it right.
[00:04:31.329]There's a lot more,
[00:04:32.132]I could say, Paul, but
[00:04:33.395]I know this is a short videos.
[00:04:34.808]We can do a part two.
[00:04:36.296]Yeah. Well, this has been so great.
[00:04:37.947]Maybe in closing,
[00:04:39.219]can you tell students how they
[00:04:40.747]can get in contact with you?
[00:04:42.838]Yeah. The quickest way is
[00:04:44.000]probably well not quickest way,
[00:04:45.374]but the easiest way is email
[00:04:46.861]jraible3@unl.edu.
[00:04:49.814]Hopefully, it'll be here on the screen.
[00:04:52.934]I look forward to
[00:04:53.582]hearing from people I'm
[00:04:54.391]pretty approachable and accessible and I
[00:04:56.363]really do love to hear from students.
[00:04:57.828]So thanks for the opportunity.
[00:04:59.438]Well, thanks, John.
[00:05:00.171]We really appreciate it.

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Stretching Your Strengths in CEHS - Anti-Racism with Dr. Paul Springer and Special Guest John Raible

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