Monthly Archives: April 2013

Email Signatures & Acknowledgements

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One of the suggestions we made during the CTLT all-staff meeting was to include Musqueam Territory in our email signatures. It is a very small and simple act but holds symbolic value in acknowledging that we are on unceded Musqueam territory. It is part of the history and continuing story of this place we work, We are thankful to the Musqueam people for enabling us to do what we do.

A question came about on how does this affect UBC Branding Guidelines. The email branding guidelines can be found at http://brand.ubc.ca/working-with-our-brand/email/email-signatures/. If we are to follow the specifications, I suggest doing the following:

Internal Version

First Name Last Name, Credentials
Title 1, Title 2 | Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology
The University of British Columbia | Vancouver | Musqueam Territory
Phone 604 822 1234 | Cell 778 123 4567

September 18, 2013 is the Observance of Opening of West Coast National Event of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Learn more at http://irsi.aboriginal.ubc.ca.

External Version

First Name Last Name, Credentials
Title 1, Title 2 | Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology
The University of British Columbia | Vancouver
123 – 4567 Street Name | Musqueam Territory, Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1Z1
Phone 604 822 1234 | Cell 778 123 4567 | Fax 604 123 4567
first.last@ubc.ca | @UBC_CTLT
ctlt.ubc.ca

September 18, 2013 is the Observance of Opening of West Coast National Event of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Learn more at http://irsi.aboriginal.ubc.ca.

There is a third option for signatures with sub-identities but unfortunately, the CTLT wordmark does not work well with the “Place of Mind” logo.

Any thoughts from the team?

Meeting Minutes – April 11, 2013

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Facilitator: Amy Perrault
Notetaker: Zack Lee

1. Review & Reflections of the Pecha Kucha Presentation

Thoughts About the Event

  • Fun event, speakers came from diverse backgrounds
  • Some presentations were a bit problematic:
    • students on exchange
    • previous exchange students became mentors
  • Need to have time to unpack for discussions
  • Audience was very diverse

Team Presentation

  • Surprise that people participated and responded at both the pecha kucha night and at the all-staff meeting
  • Notice more facial responses
  • CTLT does not have a lot of opportunities to ask bigger questions or gain understanding of issues
  • Audience member at the Pecha Kucha night noted the presentation’s use of space and breaking of roles
  • CTLT staff member wanted CTLT to do something similar with things we’re thinking about or are already doing

2. Ideas to help promote the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Event on 18 SEP 2013

  • Presentation by Rick Ouellet during the CTLT all-staff meeting (March 27, 2013) did not give new information that wasn’t previously shared
  • It was good to emphasize the symbolism of UBC’s decision to suspend most classes on 18 SEP 2013
  • Do students know the symbolism of the day of suspended class?
  • Repetition of the information, history is important. Helps things to sink in.
  • CTLT Senior Management is considering organizing a more than 1 hour session to help CTLT staff come to a greater understanding of the significant of the TRC.
    • Maybe the Intercultural Working Group can design the session?

Amy typed up and printed out the responses from the CTLT all-staff meeting regarding the question: “What is CTLT’s role in the TRC event?” We then put them into three groups, which you can see below:

We had some ideas on how we can move forward as you can see from the image below:

Timeline for Work

There was a focus on sharing the small things CTLT staff can do right now and bigger actions we can plan ahead for. For the next all-staff meeting (24 APR 2013), we suggested to announce the following:

  1. Keep the date 18 SEP 2013. Ask people to set it in their calendars, see how that date is going to affect certain deadlines, if possible move due dates, etc.
  2. Add Musqueam Territory to our email address signatures.
  3. Share that there will be more plans coming in a few months.

A few of the suggestions for future plans were developing an infographic, tagging related work with something like #trc, how can we share stores.

What are the other ways we can engage people in the history and importance of the residential schools and the work of the truth and reconciliation commission?

3. Next Meeting

Time & Date: 2:00PM – 3:00PM, Thursday, May 23, 2013
Place: CTLT Resource Room, IKBLC
Facilitator: Zack Lee
Notetaker: TBD

What makes a class “unsafe”?

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We repeated our Pecha Kucha presentation from the Intercultural U event at the March 2013 CTLT all-staff meeting where we asked the same question, “What makes a class unsafe?” Everybody was given a sheet of paper, a pen, and a few moments to reflect and write down their responses. It was pleasantly surprising that everyone was willing to participate in the activity. We received a lot of responses, which you can see in the wordle below.

Made from wordle.net. Download the PDF.

If you’re interested in doing something with the responses (e.g. a different kind of visualization), you can copy the responses from a Google doc.

The responses gave me pause and made me realize the commonalities within their diversity. Below are a few of the take away points I learned:

  • Being put on the spot is a difficult situation to be in. You are pressured to answer questions that you may not have had time to think about or reflect on. Give people the time to think before they respond to questions or an opportunity to address the situation at a later time.
  • Discussions thrive from the diversity of ideas being shared. Enter discussions with an open mind. Defend for your ideas with respect towards your colleagues, students or friends. Be willing to change your mind or be convinced by others.
  • Be aware of the group dynamics. Invite others to the conversation and give them a chance to share their ideas. Value the diversity of everybody’s background, experience and skills.
  • Be aware of yourself. We may unintentionally use discriminatory language, share jokes with racist undertones, or be overly assertive and dominate the conversation. Many things we do may come from habit or we are just unaware. Be ready to learn and to change.

Take a look at the wordle and reflect on what people have mentioned. What are your take-aways? Did you experience any of these? Is there anything missing from the responses? What can you do to make a class safe to share ideas and hold difficult conversations?