Addressing Racial Battle Fatigue at UW-Green Bay (Feb. 28, Mar. 28, & Apr. 25, 2023)

CATL is thrilled to sponsor a three-part series on Racial Battle Fatigue that will be led by Dr. Crystal Lepscier (Little Shell/Menominee/Stockbridge-Munsee), who currently serves UWGB as the First Nations Student Success Coordinator. The goal of the series is to center on the exploration of the idea of Racial Battle Fatigue and consider its impact on our holistic wellness in order to address the impacts of this phenomenon. This opportunity is open to faculty and staff who are engaged in race work and those from racially underrepresented groups who are interested in addressing the physical and psychological toll they have faced in this work. This is first and foremost a space to find balance and nourishment in our holistic wellness as educators and practitioners. While not intended to be a space equipped with a professional counselor, services and resources would be accessible and shared with any and all participants in this project.

All sessions will be from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. in person in the Center for First Nations Education – Conference Room (Wood Hall 473). If you are interested in attending one or more of these sessions, please register by clicking the button below. The descriptions, dates, and times for all three sessions in the series are further down.

Register

What is Racial Battle Fatigue?

Tuesday, February 28, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.

This session will focus on community building and creation of a space of wellness. Drawing from readings, we will learn about Racial Battle Fatigue (RBF) and Fasching-Varner’s (2015) definition, discuss impacts on health and wellness, and express our initial thoughts and reactions about the phenomenon. We will discuss connections to the idea of emotional labor in our work as well as discuss related subjects such as microaggressions and minority tax. It will be important to allow for an outward projection and comprehension of internalized fatigue, externalized fatigue, sole voice, and intergenerational responsibility and how one might carry this ‘emotional labor’ in their daily interactions.

Creative Methods to Address Racial Battle Fatigue

Tuesday, March 28, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.

The second session focuses on addressing the phenomenon of Racial Battle Fatigue (RBF). We will briefly review the definition of RBF as a refresher. Participants will discuss anything they carried forward from the previous session, reflecting on RBF and potential impacts on awareness. We will then explore creative methods to help express RBF. A journal exercise will be introduced, along with writing prompts from spiral writing method by Lynda Barry. Tapping into our own stories is an important part of confronting RBF.

Collective Reflective Space

Tuesday, April 25, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.

The third session will draw upon an Indigenous form for creation, connection, healing and expansion of our teachings. We will utilize a talking circle format to help consider our experiences, stories, and reflections on our journey to address Racial Battle Fatigue in ourselves. We will also use an arts-based project as another form of Indigenous expression for wellness and healing.

Language Inclusivity at UWGB: Reflecting on Our Practices and Policies to Serve Language-rich Students (Feb. 24, Mar. 3, Mar. 31, & Apr. 12, 2023)

What language practices do your students bring to our UWGB community? How do you value and sustain those language practices in your classrooms and other interactions with students? Join Dr. Cory Mathieu, 2022-23 EDI Consultant, and Edith Mendez, undergraduate student in Education, in a workshop series to prompt UWGB faculty and staff to engage in these questions to begin to cultivate a culture of language inclusivity across our campus. Each workshop is tailored to one of the four UWGB colleges with examples and recommendations that are responsive to the needs of various academic and professional fields. Workshops will be interactive, reflective, and in-person.

Save the date for your college!

  • CHESW: Friday, February 24, 12 – 1 p.m., Wood Hall 303
  • CAHSS: Friday, March 3, 12 – 1 p.m., MAC Hall 210
  • CSET: Friday, March 31, 12 – 1 p.m., STEM Innovation Center 136, 137, & 138
  • CSB: Wednesday, April 12, 12 – 1 p.m., Wood Hall 202

If you need an accommodation for any of the sessions, please contact CATL@uwgb.edu.

Events on AI, Machine-Generated Content, and ChatGPT (Feb. 10, Feb. 17, Mar. 24 & Apr. 7, 2023)

Have you heard the term “ChatGPT” and wondered what everyone was talking about? Are you thinking about how artificial intelligence and machine-generated content could help you as a teacher or complicate your ability to assess true student learning? Experts from across UW-Green Bay are coming together to help you! Please read on to learn more about the sessions being offered in Spring 2023.

ChatGPT Workshop (Feb. 10 & 17, 8 – 9:30 a.m.)

We are excited to announce that the Cofrin School of Business, with support from CATL, is hosting a workshop on ChatGPT! Come learn about ChatGPT by Open AI. Join CSB faculty in this interactive workshop to experience the most advanced chatbot and discuss implications for teaching and learning.

The workshop is moderated by Oliver Buechse, Executive in Residence, Cofrin School of Business. It will be offered on two different Fridays, Feb. 10 and 17, from 8 – 9:30 a.m. in the Willie D. Davis Finance and Investment Lab on the first floor of Wood Hall. The workshops are free and open to all UWGB employees.

If you need an accommodation for any of the sessions that are a part of the “ChaptGPT Workshop” please contact Kathryn Marten (martenk@uwgb.edu).

AI, Teaching, & Learning Series (Feb. 17, Mar. 24, & Apr. 7, 11:40 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.)

UW-Green Libraries, CATL, The Learning Center, and UWGB faculty are all coming together to offer a series of three workshops on machine-generated content applications and artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT and their potential impacts on teaching and learning. Participants will have the option to attend this series in-person or via Zoom. 

Teaching and Learning in the Time of ChatGPT | Friday, Feb. 17, 11:40 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

UW-Green Bay instructors with expertise in artificial intelligence and machine learning will introduce us to AI-content generating tools, like ChatGPT, and their potential uses and pitfalls. Join other instructors for an engaging discussion about the impact on teaching and learning and a brief opportunity to test the tools themselves. 

Writing Assignments and Artificial Intelligence | Friday, Mar. 24, 11:40 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

ChatGPT and other text-generating tools have raised concerns among instructors whose curriculum relies upon writing assignments from creative writing to lab reports and research papers. In this session, we’ll focus on the implications of these tools on writing and pedagogy, assessment, and curriculum design.  

Designing and Managing Authentic Assessments | Friday, Apr. 7, 11:40 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Students may inevitably use artificial intelligence and text-generating tools, but there are strategies instructors can explore and use to alleviate instructional stress around student learning. In this session, we will explore strategies for planning and developing authentic assessments to help students actively engage in their learning. This session will also offer instructors resources to help navigate the issues surrounding artificial intelligence and discuss ways to create assessments that embrace or acknowledge the use of AI and text-generating tools.

If you need an accommodation for any of the sessions that are a part of the “AI, Teaching & Learning Series,” please contact Kate Farley (farleyk@uwgb.edu).

Presentation & Discussion: Planning for Our Pedagogical Futures (Apr. 21, 1–2 p.m.)

Join Christin DePouw (Associate Professor, Education & 2021-22 EDI Consultant) for a presentation and guided conversation on Thursday, Apr. 21 from 1–2 p.m. Our institution’s strategic plan includes becoming a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), which means becoming more responsive and welcoming to the students within Green Bay Area Public Schools and surrounding districts. Together we will discuss some of the teaching implications of becoming an HSI and how we as culturally sustaining/responsive educators can ensure a welcoming and inclusive environment within the shifting demographics of our classrooms and university.

Resources and Session Recording

You can watch the recording from this session and engage with some reflection questions with the PlayPosit bulb in this blog post.

How Can We Help Our Student Parents?

Event Follow-Up: Student Parent Advocacy Workshop

This post was co-authored by Dr. Katia Levintova, a 2021-22 EDI Consultant, and Shannon Ribich, a 2021-22 EDI Intern.

How much do any of us know about the number of student parents in our classes or on our campus in general? What educational resources and solutions do our student parents want that we can, or already do, offer?

According to a campus survey and the childcare support program at the Dean of Students office, UWGB numbers are consistent with national statistics—about 16–20% of our students are also parents. They encompass all genders, they are veterans and consummate professionals, they are first generation students and returning students, and they represent various ethnic and racial groups. In many ways, they are just like the rest of our student body, but in many ways they are not. For one, student parents not only work 30+ hours a week on average, but also devote 10 hours a day to childcare responsibilities, leaving them with only 9 hours a day for sleeping, taking classes, studying, and any leisure activities. These precious 9 hours also often come in small increments, not in one block of time that coincides with typical class offerings.

Our student parents are also routinely disadvantaged when it comes to classroom policies, especially involving attendance and group work. They lack access to many high-impact practices or HIPs (especially study abroad opportunities, teaching assistantships, and leadership of student orgs), campus resources, and on-campus events. They do not have a sense of belonging on campus, but they value support, encouragement, and recognition of their dedication and persistence. And support has been coming, albeit not very fast.

The Taskforce on Student Caregiving, a new subcommittee of the UW System Caregiving Taskforce, recommends centralization of information about on campus resources and allies for student parents, priority course registration, better data collection reflecting the student parent population on campus, childcare subsidies, and universal childcare acknowledgements/statements in the syllabi. Nationally recognized best practices also include student parent-led and -focused campus orgs (to build community and network), specialized advising (ex: student orientation designed for student parents), cohorts, inclusion of student parents in marketing and campus materials, and access to changing tables and lactation rooms.

Some of these recommendations have already been implemented on our campus. Take, for example, our Dean of Students’ childcare support program, funded both by the federal grant and by UWGB SGA childcare student fees. We do have a lactation room and meeting rooms specifically for student parents, but more needs to be done. To this end, participants in the “Student Parent Advocacy Workshop” (held on campus on March 24, 2022) brought up several solutions that we can implement with relative ease and without major financial implications.

  • Priority registration was one universal theme and, in this regard, the work on our campus has begun. Participants also stressed the need for more evening classes options for in-person courses, like labs and practicums, though increased evening, online, and hybrid offerings for student parents should extend beyond the sciences and medical fields.
  • Another proposed initiative would aggregate all available student parents-related resources on campus—including the priority registration process—on one page, to be linked from the Dean of Students childcare support program page.
  • In our classrooms, CATL can help by adding to already existing syllabus checklists two additional items: (1) a child care syllabus statement and (2) sample attendance policies ensuring that all pregnancy and caregiving-related absences will be automatically excused.
  • Student parents are often distracted by the needs of their children and have shorter uninterrupted periods of time to devote to their studies. While preparing course materials, instructors might consider using shorter videos or reading materials (or breaking up longer materials into smaller chunks) which makes it easier to digest and retain the information.
  • For access to HIPs, there is funding available in the Dean of Students’ childcare support program specific for participation in HIPs. However, we also need to promote these learning experiences to student parents and be more intentional about inviting them to participate in undergraduate research, teaching assistantships, and internships—the three HIPs that seem to be more accessible to student parents. For study broad access (a persistent problem), shorter trips or a destination with childcare facilities on campus might offer partial solutions as well.

So, what is next? Please expect continued work by student parent advocates and allies on our campus. You will recognize them by the “Student Parent Advocate” badges that were awarded for participating in this year’s programs highlighting student caregiving.

If all of us are more aware of the increasing presence of student parents on our campus and in our classrooms, are sensitive to their unique needs, and make these sensible changes in our teaching and student support roles, we will create a more inclusive community where student parents, too, feel a sense of belonging. They are, after all, truly modeling the essence of transformative education for the next generation of learners and, potentially, our future students!