Students have the opportunity to discuss with the university president what it’s like to be a student at OCU.
President Martha Burger is hosting a student listening session in partnership with Student Affairs from noon-1 p.m. Wednesday in the Great Hall in Tom and Brenda McDaniel University Center.
All students are invited to attend and the event is come and go. The only officials that will be in attendance are Burger and Kanika Brown, assistant director of career services, who will be taking notes during the session.
The event was planned in part because of the recent racist acts at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, said Russ Tallchief, director of student diversity and inclusion.
“We want to be proactive in diversity and inclusion efforts to prevent something like that from happening here,” he said.
Tallchief said part of the solution to racism is education.
“How can we educate ourselves more about issues related to race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, philosophical, disability perspectives? All the things that diversity defines,” he said.
University officials want to include diversity in more obvious aspects of the campus community like faculty, staff, students, programming, and curriculum, Tallchief said. The listening session is for students to reveal some of the micro-inequities that officials haven’t seen, he said.
Tallchief also said officials want the students to feel that it’s a comfortable and safe space to speak freely, being both thoughtful and critical. He said he hopes this can become a semesterly event.
“We’re all in this together. There are some things the institution will be tasked with, and then there are some things that everybody has to take ownership in,” Tallchief said.
Tallchief encourages students to come prepared with questions to ask Burger.
Savannah Michalek, dance senior, said she has never seen officials lead an event like this during her time at OCU.
“One of the major benefits of directly speaking to the president is that she sees and hears the students on this campus share the struggles they’ve faced and changes they want,” Michalek said. “Putting faces and names to experiences and opinions.”
Michalek said Lavetra Stevenson, Walker Hall residence director, encouraged all the of Resident Assistants in the dorm to attend the listening session.
“My initial reason for going is because my resident director asked for the RAs to go and also to educate myself on the issues my residents and peers face,” she said. “If I feel the need to add to the dialogue I will, but I am primarily there to listen to my peers and see the university from their perspective.”
Michalek said she is thankful for Burger’s participation in the session.
“I applaud President Burger for noticing this is something that is important to the students at OCU and vital for OCU as an institution,” she said. “No campus or community is not touched by this topic, and I appreciate the president taking the initiative to discuss it.”
The event was also planned because students have an interest in this topic, Burger said.
“I have my own thoughts about OCU and one of the things I love about it is its sense of inclusivity,” Burger said. “And yet, we are not perfect. I would really like to hear about how we can be better, but also hope to hear that we are doing some things right.”
Burger said she hopes the session will be constructive and informative on how to improve the student experience, Burger said.
“I think there are people in our country that think we solved all of our racial tensions,” she said. “We can be lulled into this false sense of security about that. Low and behold, we have not fixed it.”
OCU embraces what is unique, Burger said.
“I know that we have had our issues here on campus,” Burger said. “But yet, I still see OCU as this special oasis here on 23rd Street where people can be safe and feel safe to be who they are.”
Burger said she always wants to have an open door policy with students when they have concerns about their experience on campus. She also wants students to attend the session, she said.
“I do encourage students to come, tell me how they’re feeling, good and bad, and know that I will listen and be honest with them,” Burger said.
If students have questions regarding the event or diversity and inclusion, they may email Tallchief at trtallchief@okcu.edu.
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