History Shapers is an installation that will open at the University of Connecticut at Hartford in 2021. Meant to inspire and delight a broad audience, it is a provocative experience that will celebrate today’s UConn students and Hartford residents who are shaping their histories by rising up, sharing their voices, and telling their stories.
With a renewed focus on the importance of civil and edifying dialogue to democracy, UConn Hartford in partnership with UConn’s Democracy & Dialogues Initiative, is hosting a facilitator training for students, staff, and faculty. If you have a role on campus, professionally, or other that involves dialogue facilitation or you simply want to improve your leadership and group skills, then this event can benefit you. The event will dive deeply into subjects through facilitated, small-group dialogues followed by a “question and answer” -style conversation with content-area specialists.
The white accountability group (WAG) will occur over one hour a week for ten weeks. This will be a facilitated session by Joleen Nevers, Alaina Brenick and Mubera Bećirović. Through the examination of systems of privilege and white supremacy, participants will be able to understand the impacts of these systems and our behaviors on our community through anti-racism work. The commitment to this group is the hour a week and reflective time outside of the group. There may be some activities to prepare for outside of the group, which would amount to two hours over the course of the ten weeks.
White accountability groups are a place for white and white passing people to understand their own racism and privilege and how systems of oppression impact everyone. Through centering Black, Brown, Indigenous and People of Color in our lives and our world, we can start to understand our role in being complicit with racism and start to engage in action to work on ourselves and within all of the systems in which we are situated. We use a social-ecological lens to look at the impact of racism within ourselves, our relationships with others, within our community, and within our society.
By the end of the WAG participants will be able to:
Define terminology;
Define the impacts of racism on individuals;
Identify anti-racism strategies;
Practice anti-racism strategies.
We invite you to join us in this effort by dedicating an hour of your time per week over the course of 10 weeks. We plan to kick-off this effort on February 11th. All who plan to join will receive communication and calendar invites.
For more information, email us at engagement.hartford@uconn.edu.
“I’m most proud of our workers,” said Bill Pecor, Manager of Facilities Operations and Building Services. “Everyone pulled together. Everyone’s done a superb job. We are here to promote safety to our students and staff and we go above and beyond as much as possible. Our workers are the backbone to this Covid response.” Bill, whose job and passion are to make our campus not only safe, but beautiful as well, is proud of his team and their response to the health pandemic of our time. Having spent so many years managing the building operations of the UConn campus in West Hartford, Bill is proud to be in Hartford and embraces the advantages of being there. “Being in Hartford has increased our community services and connections. Our facilities team plays an important part in executing campus events,” said Bill. Dear Bill, thank you for aligning your team with our campus values and supporting our engagement activities while maintaining our campus grounds in pristine shape. We know you love to travel but cannot during this long moment, so we hope your sweet pets and love for hiking and Oculus Quest virtual reality are keeping your spirits high.
Do you know which film won Best Picture at the 1991 Oscars? Or who won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948? Don’t ask Google or Alexa, ask Steve Pasternack, our campus security guard. Steve, who is a keen storyteller and cinephile, may be the only face everyone sees on a daily basis when they walk into campus. When asked what he likes most about UConn Hartford, he couldn’t pick just one thing. “I like the building. I enjoy the staff, and most of all, I love the diversity of our students. I’m impressed by their honesty.” Steve is a fascinating individual and storyteller with a tenacious memory. When enrolled at the Yale Graduate School, where he studied theater, he aspired to be a stage director. He was a recipient of the prestigious Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship, which earned him the opportunity to perform at the Kennedy Center, which he did. When we asked what it’s like being on campus during the pandemic, he answers, “It’s like Edward Hopper’s ‘Nighthawks’ painting.” Look it up, you’ll understand. Steve, thank you for your support and your stories.
Do you have a piece of advice for the students, staff, and faculty you work with? “Did you try restarting your computer? It is surprising how well it works,” says Josh Forest, Director of Hartford Information Technology Services. Good jokes aside, Josh and his IT team are our emergency response system to all things computers and digital connection. What is your favorite part of the job? “Everything is changing so rapidly and there is so much to learn and we get to learn it on a monthly, weekly, and daily basis.” And how has the pandemic affected his role? “We had trouble getting people to buy into the Webex tool, but now most have mastered it and have a new tool in their tool box.” What Josh misses most about the job is grabbing a coffee from a local shop and taking a walk through Bushnell Park or over to the riverfront. Most importantly, Josh’s wife, whom he says is his role model, and who also is a nurse, gave birth to their daughter over the course of the pandemic. Josh, congrats to you and your growing family, and we thank you for responding to our tech needs at the speed of, like, really great internet.
“Disability is another form of diversity,” says Katie Halbruner, Regional Campus Coordinator, Center for Students with Disabilities (CSD). Katie and her partner welcomed a baby girl in April and we would like some life management tips from her! Of the 4,000 students registered with CSD across all campuses, Katie oversees about 300 students across the Hartford and Avery campuses, including graduate students, helping them to identify their disability or condition in order to optimize their access to resources. “My favorite part of my role is seeing that access can be granted.” The CSD has seen an increase in student registrations and the naming of anxiety and depression as conditions, which may have a lot to do with the pandemics of our time. “We typically assume students will need extra time for test-taking, but this semester we’ve worked more on course modifications, especially with asynchronous classes. Creating the environment to be successful at home is difficult. I’m also connecting with students more frequently. Sometimes I meet students whose accommodations don’t make too much of an impact, but through connecting with me, I’m able to connect them with other resources.” That is how access is made and thank you, Katie, for being a gateway, connecting our students to the most critical resources we could offer them.
“Students make connections with the people here, and not with the center. It’s our student coaches, interns, and mentors who keep these students coming back,” says Ada Rivera, Assistant Director of Academic Support, Hartford Academic Achievement Center (AAC). The mission of the AAC is to help students achieve the grades they want! The AAC does this by creating programs that help students with personal and academic goals, developing effective study strategies, and aiding in personal transitions through the university setting. In order to support students in the transition to virtual platforms, “we’ve been taking a more holistic approach to education,” said Ada. “Students are more overwhelmed and isolated and it’s important for them to know that all of our programs are online. More than before we are hearing from students, ‘I don’t belong here,’ and ‘this is too hard,’ and on top of that – Zoom fatigue. The brain is in crisis mode instead of learning mode. At the AAC, we are socially distant, but we want our students to know that they do not need to be isolated or tackle the semester on their own.” In spite of the conditions, what has deeply moved Ada has been the resiliency of students. “Sometimes, as instructors, we forget what it’s like to be a student and how challenging it is to learn in a completely different learning mode. Having one of my students earn a 3.5 GPA and get accepted into law school during a pandemic is a major accomplishment for that student and a reflection of our work here in the AAC.” And when Ada isn’t saving the world, she is enjoying aromatherapy, reading, solving crossword puzzles, and snuggling up to the Hallmark Channel. Thank you and rest up, dear Ada, we’ll need you again come Spring semester.