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Team participates in Leadership Institute

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By Kathie Reid and Jody H. Hironaka-Juteau

In response to the events of Sept. 11 and based on strong recommendations from the Human Relations and Equity Committee, President Welty sent a campus team to the National Coalition Building Institute Training (NCBI) in Silver Springs, Maryland.

This five-day Leadership Training Institute, which was Nov. 6 through Nov. 11, 2001, trained the campus team to facilitate a variety of workshops that reduce prejudice and inter-group conflict. The Fresno State Campus Affiliate NCBI Team expects to conduct workshops for the campus community beginning in the spring semester.

Founded by Cherie Brown in the mid-1980s, NCBI's training provides a unique opportunity to learn about self and others through a broad range of experiential activities. The Fresno State team of two students, two staff and two faculty members is now ready to conduct the NCBI Prejudice Reduction Workshop, as well as the Controversial Issue Process.

In the Prejudice Reduction Workshop, participants first learn to identify and celebrate groups to which they belong. Next, inter-group similarities and differences are explored and celebrated. Key in this workshop is helping others tell stories to more effectively listen and learn from each other. The telling of personal stories is also an integral part of the Controversial Issues Process, a workshop that enables those struggling with conflict to move toward building productive coalitions with one another.

The campus team is composed of students Dawn Robinson, a Smittcamp Honors College freshman and Craig Business scholar, and Shelley Stuckey, a senior majoring in Child Development working toward a certificate in Victim Services; staff members Tambra Bane, Community Partnerships Coordinator; Francine Oputa, Coordinator of the Women's Resource Center; and faculty Jody Hironaka-Juteau, assistant professor in the Recreation Administration and Leisure Studies Program and Kathie Reid, assistant professor in the Child, Family, and Consumer Sciences Department. Oputa has been selected by the team to serve as the Campus Affiliate Director.

Shelley Stuckey summarized team sentiment this way: "NCBI is deeper than mere theories and philosophies. This workshop had no script; it was real, raw and went beyond the outer layers of racism, sexism, leaderism and all other prejudices and conflicts that shake our world today. And now, more than ever, I will forever be committed to this work."

Back to University Journal, 12/10/01 Issue