Talking Stick - May/June 2017 - 32

REGROUP

almost everywhere, but our RA training was set to begin a few weeks later,
and we proceeded as normal. For sure
there was diversity and inclusion training. Really good training, we thought.
We talked about the importance of
creating an inclusive campus environment, we had visits from campus partners whose offices work with special
underrepresented student populations,
and we had RAs brainstorm programs
for their residents. We even had them
talk in small groups about experiences
that they had on campus - but we mistakenly ignored what was happening
in the world around us. We failed to
fully acknowledge the world in which
we lived.

According to authors
Bell-Robinson and Slater,
holistic training and
supervision invites the real
world into the halls.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MIAMIOH PHOTOGRAPHY

Outside the Bubble
Strategies for integrating current events,
politics, and social movements into
supervision
by Vicka Bell-Robinson and Erin Slater

We regularly experience national and
international instances of political
turmoil and activism surrounding issues
of social justice. Last summer in the
United States alone brought the death
of 49 mostly Latinx/LGBTQA individuals at the Pulse Night Club in Orlando,
Florida; the shooting deaths of Alton
Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and
Philando Castile in St. Paul, Minnesota;
and the assassination of five police officers in Dallas, Texas. What do we do
when the world changes amidst our busy
lives? Should we pause in our schedules,
adjust our plans, or just ignore it?
Some people believe that those of
us who work in higher education are

KNOWLEDGE
DOMAINS
TALKING STICK
in this article

PHOTO COURTESY OF TREANORHL

attempting to indoctrinate students to a
certain political viewpoint for our own
gain. If we're only presenting one side
of an issue to our students and staff,
then perhaps we are removing both
their choice and their voice. To be clear,
this is not our intent. It is our desire to
promote a dialogue among students and
professionals who live and work in our
residential communities that is reflective
of the diversity of thoughts, opinions,
and lived experiences on our campuses.
In August of 2014, an unarmed
African American student named
Michael Brown was shot and killed
by a white police officer in Ferguson,
Missouri. There was outrage about it

In hindsight, we're not sure why we
ignored it. Maybe we were just afraid:
afraid to open the can of worms, afraid
of getting accused of only caring about
race (we always get accused of talking only about race), and afraid of not
having all the answers. Whatever the
reason, we ignored the world around
us, and we were wrong. We should have
taken the opportunity to be brave and to
discuss the difficulty and complexity of
the topic. We should have trusted in the
ability of our students to engage in civil
and open dialogue, and we should have
trusted ourselves to do the same.
We'd love to tell you that our students were outraged and disgusted at
our willful ignoring of national events,
but they weren't. They were content
with our willingness to ignore the strife
of the world around us and continue
on with business as usual. And we
thought we got away with it, but then
the feedback came in, and one RA had
the courage to call us out: "Considering
that RA training was going on during
the same time as the Ferguson shooting, I was disappointed that RA training
didn't even mention the importance of
racial diversity."
Learning from this feedback, we
began discussing diversity and inclu-

Human Resources
Ensure that supervisory functions are performed in a manner
that furthers departmental and institutional goals.

Talking Stick - May/June 2017

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