By Hayley Nau
As the new director of the Edgewood College Center for Multicultural Education, Dr. Phyllis Esposito has developed a new set of workshops that include “one-on-one consultations, departmental sessions and drop in hours.”
Dr. Esposito, who was hired for a new full-time position as director of the program for the 2019-2020 school year, is working with the advisory board and the program coordinator of the center.
These workshops are first being offered to a developmental pilot group, then eventually to the entire faculty.
The workshops are meant to develop the teachings of faculty members, but Dr. Esposito also said the program “aims to strengthen the faculty’s self-efficacy — confidence in their belief — for enacting inclusive teaching into their professional practice.”
Multicultural centers are very common for many colleges. They are meant to be a place for both students and faculty to learn to better their skills of inclusion on campus.
Parts of the Center for Multicultural Education at Edgewood were adapted from the center at the University of Michigan, whose director is Julio Cardona. His program has been developing since 1971 and is meant to serve “as a supportive home and environment committed to social justice and diversity.”
The main goal of his center is the same as the one at Edgewood – to produce an inclusive environment where students of every background can thrive.
After The Madison Capital Times wrote a July 10 article on racism on Edgewood’s campus, Dr. Esposito made it clear that it is her primary goal to “directly take on matters of race and how racism manifests itself on our campus.”
“ . . . This is intentional and deliberate work that the workshops are designed to take up,” she said.
Dr. Esposito said the center has many planned outcomes for this school year that “strengthen faculty’s pedagogical skills for enacting lessons/activities that provide equitable access to learning opportunities for all students, but particularly for students historically underserved in institutions of higher education.”
According to the Edgewood Center for Multicultural Education’s website and an interview with Dr. Esposito, the center provides a place for students to express ideas of inclusion and participate in inclusivity activities.
But it is just as crucial for faculty members to be able to bring those same values into the classroom.
Dr. Esposito said faculty interactions influence student behavior. “Positive, supportive, and empowering faculty interaction,” she said, “is particularly relevant to the success of female students, working-class students, students of color, and other students who have historically been underserved and underrepresented in institutions of higher education.”
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