UNITYMULTICULTURALEDUCATIONCENTERVol.ume 1, Issue 2 February 14, 2011

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17 LEADS Identity Workshop18 Cultural Awareness Night: Malcom X25 Black History 101 Mobile Museum26 FASU Festival

Upcoming Events

newsletterthe

february

And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3:14

“Invigoratingly complex” is how I would sum up what has trans-pired the past two months in our department. Embarking upon fresh initiatives like planning an urban excursion to Chicago for spring break, selecting a new cadre of Act Six scholars,

campus, have been exciting.

The UMEC staff continues to seek ways to be intentional and creative about educating students, and the campus at large, about diversity on multiple levels. The institutional commitment to social justice creates the ideal platform for us to progres-sively move forward and support overall student development. We are truly blessed to have many devoted faculty and staff willing to join forces with us to promote the value of human dif-ference. That’s unity!

Tracy Ellis-Ward Director, UMEC

Director’s Corner inside this issue...The Canary E!ect

Black History MonthLEADS Holiday Potluck

International Day of ToleranceMeet Our Sta!

On Sunday, January 30, contestants threw down while attendees chowed down. That is, from 2-4 pm at Crosby, GU students shared a unique dish with the pub-lic and three professional judges. The GU community was invited to taste samples and cast a vote for their personal favorite. Attendees voted for the People’s Choice while professional culinary connoisseurs voted for the Judges’ Choice. Over 120 people attended this year’s event which featured nine contestants. Denise Flores, winner of the 2010 Judges’ Choice, brought yet another Sal-vadorian dish to the table in defense of her title. The dish, Bocado Gunaco, won the Judges’ Choice, making Denise a GU Iron Chef legend. She describes her Sal-vadorian sustenance as “…kind of like an empanada thing. It’s like a savory turnover. It’s a very traditional appetizer in El Salvador.” The People’s Choice award went to Dane Pav-lik for his Italian-inspired Spaghetti Squash Lasagna. Though there were only two winners, there is no doubt that all the participants’ recipes were delicious. The judges for the second annual GU Iron Chef were: Sergio de Leon, owner of De Leon Foods; Kelly Keller, a chef for Sodexo; and Ian Wingate, owner and chef of Moxie Restaurant in addition to partner of Ser-gio de Leon at Agave Latin Bistro. In just its second year, this new GU tradition has proved to be a great way to get involved and experi-ence different culinary customs.

Iron Chef

RYAN HEALY IS A FRESHMAN AND STUDENT WORKER AT UMEC.

16 Crafting Unity16 Raw Dialogue--Adding Insult to Inquiry: Standing by Racism24 Islamophobia by Amer Ahmed25 Cultural Awareness Night26 HPIC Luau31 Diversity Monologues

march

historical events such as the African Diaspora, to honor great black activist and civil rights leaders, and to recog-nize and think critically about the black struggle. Here at Gonzaga University, we try to contribute to the learning of the campus at large as well as the local community. This year’s month of February started off with a special dinner coordinated by GU’s Black Student Union. The event entitled “Unsung Heros.” There is also a lecture titled “Force: Understanding the Politics and Power of Violence in African American History” presented by Dr. Kellie Jackson from the History Department.

The following week, Khalid el-Hakim Enterprises will bring to Gonzaga University the Black History 101 Mobile Museum Necessary! Exhibit, where over 150 artifacts from the life and legacy of Malcolm X will be on display in Crosby Student Center. On that same day, Gonzaga faculty will participate in a panel discussion surrounding

Carter G. Woodson hoped that the need for Negro History Week and Black History Month would outlive its usefulness. In other words, he hoped for Black History to become OUR HISTORY. Woodson’s hopes are yet to become a reality and with that said, we must be cognizant that much work needs to get done until Black History is not just recognized in the shortest month of the year, but validated in our everyday culture.

RUDY MONDRAGON IS THE INTERCULTURAL RELATIONS SPECIALIST AT GONZAGA.

Presented by: Black Student Union, GSBA, History Department, Programming

Board, Unity Multicultural Education, Social Justice Club, Student Activities

BSU Dinner

“Unsong Heros”

February 12, 6 pmCataldo, Globe Room

BLACK HISTORY IS MORE THAN JUST A MONTH

Cultural Awareness Night

Malcolm X

February 18, 7 pmJepson Wolff Auditorium

Crafting Unity

February 16, 12 -‐ 2 pmCrosby Student Center Main Floor

“It Takes A Nation of Millions”

Lecture by: Professor Griff of iconic hip hop group, Public Enemy February 25, 7 pmJepson Wolff Auditorium

Black History 101 Mobile Museum:

Necessary! (Malcolm X Exhibit)

February 25, 9 am -‐ 5 pmCrosby Student Center Main Floor

Gonzaga University Celebrates

“Force: Understanding the Politics & Power

of Violence in African American History”

Lecture By: Dr. Kellie Carter JacksonFebruary 16, 7 pmJepson Wolff Auditorium

Gonzaga university unity multicultural education center

Gonzaga university unity multicultural education centerGonzaga university unity multicultural education center

(Shown) All events are free and open to the public. (Left page, top photo) The Gospel Choir sings at the Black Student Union dinner on Februray 12. Annette Aga, blank blank, blank blank, blank blank, Holly Ok-it-Okidi, Mercedes Hayes, blank blank, Jason Ilorete, Michaela Graham, and Ruben Yamada performed at Cataldo Hall last Saturday. (Left page, bottom photo) Kellie Jackson, BSU Advisor, stands with students from the Black Student Union proud of work the students have devoted to making “Unsung Heroes” a success-ful event leaving. The dinner was completely sold out and Cataldo was "lled with an eager spirit. The entire dinner was cooked by students and included a program dedicated to celebrating the unsung he-

Gonzaga university unity multicultural education center

The Cultural Awareness Night is a monthly

a movie that involves some kind of cultural and/or diversity issue. In November UMEC chose a documen-tary that celebrated Native American history month by revealing honest yet unknown facts about how Native American people have been treated through-out history. The Canary Effect was shown in the Foley Teleconference center in the Foley library on Novem-

groundbreaking, frighteningly factual in depicting the history of the treatment of the Native American people. The documentary chronologically discussed how foreign explorers and then the American people

Native American people’s homes. While doing so the Native American people have been stripped of their culture and lifestyle, forced to live on encamp-ments and now places that they call reservations. The reservations that Native American people live on today are full of crime, drugs, and alcoholism. Many young Native Americans see no connection between them and life off the reserva-tion. Due to this many of them turn to substance abuse or even worse, decide to commit suicide. The rates the documentary presented between the high rates of: suicide, alcohol abuse, and high school dropout rate were exponentially higher than their American teenager counterparts. To think that a

dreams is housed inside the country of freedom and innumerable opportunities is mind-boggling. The documentary went a step further in revealing the past and future lives of the Na-tive American people by inserting actual footage

-vide between reservations and the rest of America. None of the politicians promises followed through and it become evident to the reader that the plight of the Native American in the United States is not due to ignorance but to a nation of leaders that

-ing the need for improvement in the school system, better care and control of the youth of America, and the need to build and grow opportunities for people in the future; it seems that the Native American population has been left out of these necessary

Native American people, no doubt that after they left the Foley Teleconference room that they were educated and appalled.

to any thoughts, ideas, and feelings towards the content of the documentary. When asked about her thoughts on the event, Dr. Mau-cione responded, “I very much appreciated participants’ humility and openness in the following discussion. It was particularly interest-ing to note the lack of popular knowledge about U.S.-tribal relations and the complexities of tribal sovereignty.” The conversation was extensive and controversial at times as students discussed ideas to tackle the current troubles faced by many Native American people. It was interesting to note that once all students were educated in the basic injustices experienced by Native American people that they seemed determined to do something about it, and right away. I wonder (politicians and students aside) if the rest of America would be as prone to act for the betterment of the Native American population if they knew exactly what was going on in the reservations in America.

The Canary Effect

(Above, from left to right) Mariel Rodriquez, Sara Varela-Acevedo, Ger-aldine Enrico, and Alex Cassano pose with a Christmas tree and a snowman in hand for their mentoring group photo at the LEADS Holi

LAUREN TREACY WAS A BRIDGE CORE LEADER AND IS CURRENTLY A SENIOR AT GONZAGA.

film & discussion

Leadership,Education, Academic Development,& Success Skills

leadsHoliday Social

On December 4, LEADS participants gathered at UMEC to

LEADS mentees were required to cook a dish with their men-tors to share at the table. “I loved making gingerbread cook-ies with Ruben, my mentee. It gave us an opportunity to get

LEADS mentor.

Gonzaga university unity multicultural education center

(Above, from left to right) Mariel Rodriquez, Sara Varela-Acevedo, Geraldine Enrico, and Alex Cassano at the LEADS Holiday Dinner. Mentors and mentees prepared a potluck dish together to share with other LEADS participants.

Diversity has played signi"cant roles on college campuses ever since Universities started appealing to more and more students. The amal-gamation of di!erent backgrounds and experiences has come to de"ne the very culture of Universities. For as long as higher education has been an achievable goal, people of di!erent backgrounds have come together to show support for a common goal. This communal belief stems from a desire to create a comfortable world in which people of many di!erent cultures can live together in peace and prosperity. In fact this belief became so global that in 1996 UNESCO created the International Day of Tolerance, celebrated every year on November 16th. The goals of the International Day of Tolerance are to: Advance welfare, freedom and progress everywhere, encourage tolerance, respect and dialogue, and the last goal is to make proper coordina-tion between di!erent cultures, civilizations, and people to stop inequality. This belief in tolerance has been celebrated at Gonzaga University for the past two years and has, thus far, had an overwhelming amount of support from both the faculty and the student body. A purpose of the International Day of Tolerance is to promote acceptance of everyone who has a di!erent culture. This day is aimed at allowing people of di!erent races, religions, socio-economic statuses, and sexual orientations, to feel accepted by their communities. This past year Gonzaga had approximately 150 faculty and students link arms together across campus, to show our support on a global level. Although IDOT (International Day of Tolerance) is a progressive step towards communal inclusivity, a true community needs to hold this belief close every moment of every year in order to promote true acceptance. One day of toleration is not su#cient to build a healthy community. While we paused to recognize November 16th, the belief thatis pres-ent in IDOT is timeless. As a Jesuit community we cannot blindly lead our lives, only stopping to recognize intolerance on a speci"c day. IDOT is a day for re$ection and progression. On this day we look at what we have done in order to accomplish its principles. We also must re$ect on where we fell short of these goals, must importantly we must discern what it is we must do for the future.

International Day of Tolerance

unity

JUSTIN GARCIA IS AN ACT SIX SCHOLAR AND IS CURRENTLY A FRESHMAN AT GONZAGA.

5

RAJAH BOSE PHOTO

Meet Our Staff

Shawn Washington’s journey started in Anchorage, Alaska where he grew up and fought o! vicious polar bears to keep his food. No seriously, Shawn at a early age learned how important living in a diverse world was to him and that inspired him to major in Sociology at Whitworth University. While at Whitworth, Shawn was Vice-President of the Black Student Union, hosted a weekly cam-pus radio show and played football for the university’s NCAA a#liated team. Shawn is a GU alum with a master’s degree in Sport & Athletic Administration. Shawn’s wife of 5 % years is also a GU alum and teaches in the Spokane school district. They have a beautiful boy, 10 months old. Shawn loves watching all types of movies from “Coming to America” to “The Dark Knight”. In his spare time he watches anything sports related and great trashy reality TV shows. Shawn feels honored and blessed in being the new coordinator here at UMEC.

shawn washington

Ryan King hails from Coeur d’Alene, ID. He grew up dreaming of becoming the "rst in his family to earn a college degree and pursued that passion studying Math and Computer Science right here at Gonzaga and being an active member of HERO (Helping Educate Regarding Orientation), Spring 2009. Looking forward to giving back to the community that had given so much to him he accepted a job in Informa-tion Technology Services that summer. Excited to work with students and advance the dialogue on issues faced by sexual minorities on campus and in general society he added the work of LGBT Resource Center Coordinator to his role in ITS for this academic year. In his spare time he is working on a Master’s Degree in Communi-cation Leadership, is an avid yoga practitioner, and enjoys remaining informed on current events, issues, and trends in the "elds of activism, politics, and technology.

ryan king

At right: (First and second photo) Act Six Scholars participate in group activities at their an-nual retreat. (Third photo) MCHS members help serve desserts at the ISU Dinner. (Bottom) UMEC sta! participate in their retreat at Liberty Lake.