July 2, 2009

Award-winning program is catalyst for clarifying diversity of perspectives

Two people can look at an issue between two nations, or talk with a sales clerk in a busy store, or overhear a passel of teens at a public event, and experience two different things.

Perspective can range widely, and thus it is an element of diversity just as much as race, gender or age.

That idea is the basis for "Ten Lenses: Decoding Cultural Beliefs," the award-winning current program of the Housing and Food Services Cultural Programs Office.

"Its value relates to a passage in Purdue's strategic plan that I really like, which speaks about promoting cultural awareness, collegiality and respect," says Annette Benson, one of the program's leaders and HFS language program coordinator.

The initiative recently won the Purdue Catalyst Award, given by the Treasurer's Diversity Task Force and carrying a prize of $5,000 to be used for further diversity efforts.

The 12 members of HFS ProActors — the program team — have conducted about 18 sessions with more than 500 people ranging from HFS staff and Purdue resident advisors to the Lafayette Board of Realtors.

"Our initial goal was to increase dialogue and offer a new vocabulary among A/P staff in HFS," Benson says. "We're so pleased that we've been able to do that in more settings on campus and in the community.

"The ProActors' leadership team all agree that the freedom to take this type of quality training to such a widespread audience is in large part owed to the vision of HFS Vice President John Sautter and to Brenda Coulson, director of HFS human resources and cultural programs."

The team's presentation-discussion format, which its members created, uses the name and concepts of a book by Mark A. Williams. The book has chapters about each of 10 general perspectives on how people relate to their society and world.

Williams uses these 10 terms for the lenses: assimilationist, colorblind, culturalcentrist, elitist, integrationist, meritocratist, multiculturalist, seclusionist, transcendent and victim/caretaker.

Getting started

This two-year project is the second of its kind, with mostly different team members from the first. They range widely in area and jobs within HFS, from administrators to linen room staff.

Team leader Willie Cruz, HFS cultural programs administrator, says, "I liked how the group took time to bond, to challenge each other and learn from one another. I had never done anything like this using acting. People brought their skills — acting skills, IT skills, other skills — to the team."

Once selected, the team undertook a two-day workshop called "Interplay: Interactive Theater for Social Change."

"It really caused us to think about our own views of diversity, how wide a field it is," says Benson, "as well as how to use acting techniques," which come into play through character monologues evincing one or another lens.

A team member who had heard Williams at a human resources conference suggested "Ten Lenses," and the team spent four months translating it into a presentation.

"It really caused intriguing discussion about diversity," Benson says. "We could say, 'I see now why you feel that way.' It helped us to look at why we have the lens we have."

At the sessions

During presentations too, Cruz says, "the characters help people see how we have our own perspectives that come from our background."

Himself a Mexican-American — born in Mexico, raised in Southern California — Cruz often plays the culturalcentrist role, one who emphasizes identity with one's own cultural heritage. Early in his monologue, his character says, "I'm brown and I'm proud."

Cruz says, "When we did this with a group of student RAs and I said that, I could see a Mexican-American RA begin nodding, and in the discussion she began to show a side of herself the other RAs hadn't seen. It was like she was finding her own voice."

Benson says the character monologues are designed to be just provocative enough that people want to talk — not over the line.

"You see some tensing up, then some relaxing with the realization it was said so there would be something to talk about," she says. As things progress, people talk to the characters, often correcting them.

One of the more frequent surprises for audience members, she says, is recognizing themselves in the elitist lens. Often this is tied up in philanthropic efforts.

Each monologue develops a situation in which the character has a problem, such as a perception that choosing to dress in an ethnic style is creating a barrier to job advancement.

Taking it further

The "Ten Lenses" session cannot cover all of the concepts or issues.

Groups take a "pre-test" to add insight into how they compare with perspectives in the United States in general, Benson says.

Also, HFS ProActors have arranged several Lunch and Learn sessions to cover more about the lenses not portrayed by characters and discuss more issues.

"We also did a Lunch and Learn on law cases that relate, because things people say and do on these subjects can get them in trouble," Benson says. "Alvin Lee in the Office of Institutional Equity helped us with that."

HFS ProActors are available for other groups on the campus and in the community. Optimally, the session takes two hours and the participant group has about 40 people, but both figures are flexible.

Cruz says, "We help people understand that fellow workers come with different general experiences, including those experiences that are shaped by race and ethnicity. Knowing that this is true for everyone helps open the process of letting others tell their story. It helps people become more comfortable with each other, to acknowledge each other as people. It helps build community based on mutual respect.

"Out of that, something greater will come."

More about all four of the 2009 Purdue Catalyst Award finalist programs is at http://www.purdue.edu/treasurer/diversity/2009CatalystFinalists.htm