Cultural identity conference with Fisk University students slated for March 22-24

Students from Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., will be arriving at Ripon College for a conference with the theme Cultural Identity Wednesday, March 21. All students, faculty and staff are encouraged to go to this conference, which is run by the students in the one credit pass-fail Fisk class here on campus.

"Activities for the conference start Thursday and the Fisk students will be departing campus on Sunday morning," says Suzanne Katz, assistant professor of educational studies.

The event's keynote speech March 22 will discuss cultural identity in times of globalization and will be given by Dr. Carolyn Calloway Thomas, the director of the Interracial Community Project and associate professor of communication and culture at Indiana University-Bloomington.

Other events include a professor panel Friday speaking on various identities within different cultures and a panel Saturday morning with students speaking on their experiences with different racial backgrounds while studying abroad.

The conference will close up Saturday afternoon with an open session and social activity between Fisk and Ripon students.

First year Misty Brum and her roommate plan to host one of the Fisk students.

"I am very excited about the students coming from Fisk," says Brum. "I hope we will get a fresh, new outlook from the Fisk students."

This relationship between the faculty and students at Fisk and Ripon began 15 years ago.

"Our partnership started about 15 years ago, and it's been ongoing. One of the ideas is that there are so many similarities between the colleges, like how we perceive our institutions of learning," says Katz.

David Seligman, professor of philosophy and executive director of the ethical leadership program, says that the birth of the Fisk program started with brief exchanges between the faculty of the colleges, and later, longer exchanges between students.

"This program is very unique. I don't think there is another exchange like it in the country," says Seligman.

The first student trip between Fisk and Ripon occurred in 1994, and have been occurring yearly since. Every other year, students from Ripon visit Fisk and on the opposite years, Fisk students visit Ripon for a conference where they share ideas on the differences and similarities of their cultures.

First year Brittney Wiggins says that even though the students in Ripon's Fisk class are doing the majority of the planning for the conference, Katz has input and makes sure things get done for the group.

"We have three different committees," says Wiggins. "The entertainment committee plans what we're going to do each night, the food committee, which plans meals and snacks, and the academic committee, which is the people who set up the different presentations that we will hear."

In the Fisk class, students attending Ripon College have the opportunity to study and discuss the culture and ethnic differences between Fisk and Ripon.

"We get together weekly, and the format changes, but we discuss issues of social and racial differences in society," says Katz.

Students searching for an extra credit found the class to be an interesting learning experience.

"I needed an extra credit to begin with and I took the class and I actually really liked it. We got to discuss different things, things I've never been exposed to before about race, and I heard many different points of view," says Wiggins.

Wiggins says that the environment of the class is also something she likes. Instead of a formal classroom manner, students eat dinner while the class is going on and they just talk and discuss instead of raising their hands.

"It's just such a neat experience and I think anyone should just come sit in to see what it's like," says Wiggins.

Their discussions have focused on planning the conference.

According to the exchange agreement between Fisk and Ripon, the conference has become an undertaking for both institutions to address the broad range of issues around the idea of membership in a multiracial, multicultural society.

"The thing that's really nice is that our students can have these dialogues and exposure with students from different areas of the country and different backgrounds," says Katz.