SILC: A Progressive Approach to Intercultural Learning

As you walk around campus this year and notice something new in Shriver Laboratory's

East Wing, you may ask yourself, "What does SILC mean?" SILC is the Student

Intercultural Learning Center, created by the Office of Human Relations Programs

(OHRP) as a new student-focused arm of the Diversity Initiative.

The goals of SILC include:

· Continuing to ask for and respond to self-identified student intercultural needs;

· Enhancing institution-wide intercultural programming and learning initiatives;

· Creating opportunities for students to interact and engage divergent perspectives through intercultural and intergroup dialogues; and,

· Developing opportunities for students at all levels of awareness and understanding to develop intercultural skills.

SILC will be the central hub connecting all of the current student-related activities

coordinated by OHRP and the Diversity Initiative, as well as all of the new programs,

initiatives and activities which are developed in order to continue addressing

student-identified intercultural needs.

In an attempt to provide a wide range of activities for people with different levels of

awareness and areas of interest, programs will include: opportunities for students to

develop facilitation and mediation skills through the Sexual Harassment Prevention

Peer Program, the Peer Mediation Program, and the Diversity Training Circle;

academic courses including "Facilitating Dialogue on Race, Gender and Ethnicity" and

"Multiculturalism in Self and Society"; interpersonal and intergroup dialogues on a

variety of topics; and various other dialogues, workshops and other programs hosted

throughout the academic year.

"While SILC is a student-focused initiative, it can also be a valuable resource for faculty

and staff. It is a place to which you can steer students who have an expressed interest in

diversity and intercultural learning, but SILC is also a place to refer students who are at

an earlier stage of intercultural awareness, comfort and understanding," says Paul

Gorski, coordinator for SILC.

Many of SILC’s initiatives will be in conjunction with other academic and non-academic

units on campus, including College Park Scholars, the Academy of Leadership, the

departments of comparative literature, American studies and family studies, the

Division of Student Affairs, and the Office of Campus Programs. SILC also will continue building coalitions with and across existing student groups.

SILC was created in response to these student-identified needs. Last year, with this in

mind, OHRP rededicated itself to strong student-focused outreach efforts. OHRP

facilitated a series of focus groups across campus through which students became

"teachers" about their diversity-related needs, according to Gorski. Thirteen focus

groups were conducted among student populations ranging from athletic club captains

to the Asian American Student Union. Several open-ended questions were posed

regarding their perceptions of diversity, the Diversity Initiative and their campus

experiences.

OHRP’s motivation for this progressive approach was based on those student

identified–needs, which Gorski says is the "best approach because the people with the

most expertise regarding student experience and student needs are . . . students. While

this seems an obvious point, there is too often a tendency in institutions of higher

education for ‘experts’ in various fields to make decisions on what students want and

need without spending sufficient time pulling ideas from the very population they attempt

to serve. This can be especially troubling, if not dangerous, when the role of the ‘experts’

is to create intercultural or diversity-related learning opportunities - a responsibility

which is already politically charged and emotional for everybody involved."

Three major points emerged and reemerged across the focus group transcripts:

1.Students value diversity and enjoy being at a university where there are many

different people and cultures, but most pointed to the need for more opportunities

for interaction among the diverse faces, perspectives and backgrounds.

2.Students want intercultural learning opportunities that meet them where they are in

terms of comfort level, awareness and development.

3.Students recognize the need to develop intercultural skills, but prefer to do so in

forums consistent with their learning styles. Some prefer academic classes, some

prefer intergroup dialogues, some prefer listening to guest speakers or panels

and most are completely uncomfortable with at least one of these options.

"We [OHRP] re-learned the obvious: if you really want to know about student intercultural needs, ask the students," Gorski adds.

OHRP is currently assembling a student advisory board that will meet monthly to provide

guidance, ideas and support for SILC and its continuing development. The office is also

creating a SILC lounge in Shriver Laboratory, East Wing, where students will find a

small resource library of books, magazines, journals, and videos dealing with various

intercultural issues.

To learn more about SILC and its programs, contact Paul Gorski, Coordinator for SILC,

at 405-8192 or pg92@umail.umd.edu or visit 0106E Shriver Laboratory, East Wing.

—Jamie Feehery-Simmons