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The Living Our Values Experience (LOVE) program brings students, faculty, and staff together to do antiracist work and study and develop practices and interconnections between structural systems of discrimination and oppression, including bias, stereotype, prejudice, microaggressions, privilege, and power. It responds directly to the Black Lives Matter movement and calls from President Nair for an “open course” to address racial justice. The LOVE program invests in our community to formulate a much-needed space for students, staff, and faculty to collaborate on strengthening the Arcadia community and examining their role within society as agents of change. As you can see below, the Spring Semester builds on the Fall, is structured somewhat differently, and includes a core focus on planning for action.
In Spring 2021, there will be 4 components of the LOVE Pilot program. We will have regular group meetings on Friday afternoons from 3:30-5pm, as well as three evening "Act-Up" Sessions (the spring version of "Teach-Ins") throughout the semester. Weekly sessions will rotate between Affinity Groups, which will focus on personal, interpersonal, and group dynamics of race, and Working Groups, which participants can choose based on their interests and that develop a Culminating Action Project together. The total anticipated time commitment for participation in the LOVE Pilot Program in Spring 2021 is approximately 12-15 hours per month.
Students who join this program will receive a wide array of benefits, from the immediate and timely opportunity to become better equipped to understand and address racial inequality, to the valuable preparation to enter a diverse workforce, to become an effective agent in changing the structural systems that keep racism alive and well in our nation.
Space is limited. To allow for as diverse an applicant pool as possible, the LOVE pilot program admits students through three pathways: by application, nomination, and lottery.
Arcadia's LOVE Pilot Program offers a learning experience that addresses important skills in racial justice, including:
The structure of the LOVE Pilot Program is designed to combine large group (L) learning opportunities with a small group (S) experiential and discussion format to allow for integrating and understanding the topic on multiple levels. The culmination of the experience will include a group presentation of projects that will compete for a funding implementation grant. Participants will have to fulfill minimum participation requirements, and two-term participants will be granted a certificate of completion. No credits are being offered in the Fall, and two credits are offered for undergraduates in the Spring.
An Arcadia Call to Action: How Can We Be Better Anti-Racists? Speakers: Doreen Loury, Director of Pan-African Studies and Assistant Professor of Sociology; Jessie Guinn, Assistant Dean of STEM, College of Global Studies; Jennifer Riggan, Professor of International Studies
Bias/Microaggressions/Racial Abuse: How can we do better/heal? Speakers: Favian Guertin-Martin, Associate Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Director of the Criminal Justice Program; Lauren Reid, Assistant Professor, Graduate Program in Counseling
Working for Racial Justice at Arcadia: What are we doing; what more can we do? Speakers: Student Members, CTLM/Just Act Ensemble
Small-Group (S)
Small groups of 15 participants will hold six synchronous meetings per term. These groups will be facilitated by two staff/faculty and one peer mentor. There will be a place where the teach-in material can be discussed in greater depth, and experiential learning and dialogue can take place.
Fall 2020: The small group will be organized as affinity groups to allow those who identify similarly with each other to have a space to explore how racial equity issues impact them both individually and as a group. These groups will be held weekly (when there is not a Teach-In that week) starting the week of October 5th through the week of December 7th.
Spring 2021: The small groups will be re-organized in the spring term to be racially mixed and will focus on understanding intersectionality and generating solutions for persistent and systemic racial disparities. Each small group will create and collaborate on a project that addresses structural racism, either within Arcadia, the local community, or beyond, and prepare to present at the end of the term.
Final proposals from each group will be presented to the entire Arcadia community in the spring. One project will receive approval and funding to move forward the following year. This annual culminating project intends to begin a spiral that moves through each successive year, creating a culture of leadership and action in racial inequality and social justice and places Arcadia at the forefront of generating solutions and training leadership in the area of racial justice.
Spring Participant Invitation By Application: If you are a student and you already know this program is a fit for you, we encourage you to apply. Application deadline: January 29th.
By Nomination: We are asking faculty and staff to nominate students who might benefit from or contribute to this program. If you are nominated you will receive an invitation to apply.
By Continued Participation: Any student who participated in the fall and wishes to continue their involvement with the LOVE Pilot program does not need to re-apply.
Note: Participation is always optional, but if you are chosen to apply through nomination or lottery, you are strongly urged to consider applying. It is possible to join the program for one term only, but you are encouraged to participate for the entire year if possible. Certificates of completion are only available for full-year participants.
If you have further questions, please contact LOVEpilot@arcadia.edu.
If you have further questions, please contact LOVEpilot@arcadia.edu
Ellen Skilton, Ph.D. (she/her)
Faculty Director, Center for Teaching, Learning, and Mentoring (CTLM)
Professor of Education
Monica Anna Day (she/her)
CTLM Graduate Student Fellow
LOVE Pilot Intern
Spring Participant Invitation By Application: If you are a student and you already know this program is a fit for you, we encourage you to apply. Application deadline: January 29th.
By Nomination: We are asking faculty and staff to nominate students who might benefit from or contribute to this program. If you are nominated you will receive an invitation to apply.
By Continued Participation: Any student who participated in the fall and wishes to continue their involvement with the LOVE Pilot program does not need to re-apply.
Note: Participation is always optional, but if you are chosen to apply through nomination or lottery, you are strongly urged to consider applying. It is possible to join the program for one term only, but you are encouraged to participate for the entire year if possible. Certificates of completion are only available for full-year participants.