Difficult Conversations: Recognizing Bias

November 29th 8-9pm

Jordan Atrium

Team Memebers:
Jordan Dodson, Jenn Sanchez, Megan Bomba, Kenedy Kieffer, Deanna Preziosi,
Jocelyn Chavous, Becca Heman and Megan Anderson

Event summary:
For this event, students will discuss racial and gender identities in friendships/romantic
relationships, microaggressions seen in conversations on campus, and implicit biases. The event
will include dramatized scenarios regarding the topics above, small group reflection and
discussion, further guided discussion/response, and snacks.

Purpose statement: The purpose of this event is to provide students with a safe space to discuss
and reflect on sensitive topics related to diversity.

Overall Prioritized Goals/Objectives:

Attendance of approximately 70 students of varying races, ages and genders
Advertise through Facebook invitations, The Pulse, mass email, mailbox flyers, posters
and napkin holders
Find one faculty member to facilitate and provide prompts for discussion
Find approximately 9 members of student body to write scripts to choose from for event
Assemble adequate number of students to act out scenarios
Stay within budget when supplying for event (snacks, stationery)
Create new Difficult Conversations logo to be relevant to this years event and to entice
students to become interested in attending

Overall Expected outcomes:

Equip students with the skills they need to ethically discuss diverse issues
Creating an open and honest environment in which students feel comfortable voicing
their opinion
Garner a diverse turnout from various groups of students (majors, genders, races)
Foster student awareness of future Difficult Conversations events
 Promotions

Promotions Team:
Jordan Dodson, Jenn Sanchez & Becca Hegman

Promotions Team Purpose:

To effectively promote the Difficult Conversation events diversity theme in a timely manner
using a variety of mediums; including but not limited to electronic and traditional media while
staying under budget.

Promotions Team Goal/Objectives:

Contact a diverse groups of people through various promotion techniques including
posters, social media and email
Equally distribute promotions task between group members
Clearly promote themes of event to publics
Complete timeline tasks in a timely manner
Stay within printing budget
Applying a minimum of 3 promotion tools
Correspond with heads of all chosen organizations

Promotions Timeline:
When What Who

October 13 Create timeline for promotions Jordan

Dodson
Jenn Sanchez
Becca
Hegman

October 14 Promotions logo sent to college press Jordan

Dodson
Jenn Sanchez

October 15 Contact Christine for details regarding promotions Jenn Sanchez

October 18 Meet as Promotions team to discuss timeline and roles Jordan

Dodson
Jenn Sanchez
Becca
Hegman

October 24 Contact college press regarding logo and poster design Jenn Sanchez

October 26 Finalize Promotions Plan Jordan

 Dodson
Jenn Sanchez
Becca
Hegman

November 1 Contact Kevin Villegas, Neryamn Nieves, Jake Edmunds, Becca

Scott Hwang, Nance McCown, & Bernardo Michael via email Hegman
Jordan
Dodson

November 4 Receive poster design from college press Jenn Sanchez

(tentative)

November 4 Send promotions materials from college press to Nance and Jenn Sanchez
(tentative) Christine for approval

November 6 Meet to discuss college press design Jordan

(tentative) Dodson
Jenn Sanchez
Becca
Hegman

November 7 Print material sent to Christine Walter for printing Jenn Sanchez

November 14 Printed invitations to proper address Jordan

Dodson
Becca
Hegman

November 15 Hang up posters Jordan

Dodson
Becca
Hegman

November 22 Submit mass email request via Christine Walter Jenn Sanchez

November 22 Publish Facebook page Becca

Hegman

November 28 Sidewalk chalk Jordan

Dodson

November 28 Send out mass email Christine

Walter

November 29 Difficult Conversation Event All Group

Members
Strategic Tactics:
Electronic Communications including a Facebook event, emailing organizations heads
and mass email. Organizational heads included: Student Involvement and Leadership
Programs, Martin and Amigo Scholarship Program, Student Government Association,
Multicultural Programs, Communication Department and Diversity Affairs
Traditional Communications including sidewalk chalk and posters around campus.

Research:
Marketing strategies to inspire attendance (social media, emails, etc.)
Talk to individuals who attended event in the past for ideas

Materials & Tools:

Sidewalk Chalk: Event details will be written on the sidewalk the day before the event.
Locations include: Old Main, Boyer, Union, and Murray Library
Posters: Posters for the event will be placed in various locations around campus. See
Logo/Brand section for sample poster
Mass Email: Mass email will be sent out to all students November 28, 2016. Email will
read as follows:
Want to learn how to address hard topics related to diversity?
Come to the Difficult Conversations event on November 29th from 8-9pm in Jordan
Atrium.
Discuss and reflect on hard topics like microaggressions and implicit bias
Food and drinks will be provided at the event

Head of Organization Email: An email will be sent to the heads of many organizations on
campus for them to promote the event among their groups. The list of those being
emailed is included in the timeline. Sample email will say:

Dear ______________________,
We are excited to announce that the Communication Department will be co-
hosting Difficult Conversations with SGA and Diversity Affairs. We feel that students
involved in ____(Organization Name)______ would benefit from attending this event.
We ask that you promote it among those involved in your organization. The event details
are as follows:
The Difficult Conversations event on November 29th from 8-9pm in Jordan
Atrium. Discuss and reflect on hard topics like microaggressions and implicit bias. Food
and drinks will be provided at the event
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email us back.
We would also enjoy meeting with you face to face to discuss this event if you would
like.

Thank you,

Difficult Conversations Staff

 Facebook Event Page: A Facebook event page will be published on November 22. The
information on the page will include the poster and the details for the event.

Sample Post:
All set up and ready to go! All we need is you! Jordan Atrium 8-9 PM Hope to see you
all soon!
Original Logo/ Branding Options
 Logistics

Logistics Team:
Kenedy Kieffer, Megan Bomba, and Jocelyn Chavous

Logistics Team Purpose:

To efficiently coordinate programming details, such as venue and theme, and correspond with
respected parties who will contribute in some way to the overall event. To also oversee
budgeting and ensure that all necessary food and resources are provided.

Goals/ Objectives
Attendance of approximately 70 students of varying races, ages and genders
Find a facilitator and provide prompts for discussion
Find approximately 9 members of student body to write scripts to choose from for event/
find narratives
Assemble adequate number of students to act out scenarios/read narratives
Stay within budget when supplying for event (snacks, stationery)

Expected Outcomes
Equip students with the skills they need to ethically discuss diverse issues
Creating an open and honest environment in which students feel comfortable voicing
their opinion
Garner a diverse turnout from various groups of students (majors, genders, races)
Foster student awareness of future Difficult Conversations events

Outside Organizations and Contributors:

Office of Diversity Affairs (donor of money for budget)
Student Government Association (support and resource for contacts or promotional aid)
Multicultural Programs (contact for student volunteers for scripts/ narratives)

Research:
Developed ideas for discussion questions from MTVs Look Different Campaign is a campaign
created to help people erase the hidden biases around them. This campaign has entire toolkit that
gives definitions, questions and videos displaying the various types of biases and discrimination.

To view the campaign: http://www.lookdifferent.org/about

Informational PowerPoint:
A PowerPoint will be given in the beginning of the event to go over the house rules for the
event (this is a safe space and no judging allowed) and to also go over the definitions for the
event.

Examples of Definitions for PowerPoint
Implicit Bias:

What it is: Implicit bias refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding,
actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. These implicit biases can be both positive and
negative, and can be activated without you even knowing it. They operate unconsciously and
differ from known biases that people may intentionally hide.

How it works: Even if you say that men and women are equally good at math, it is possible that
you associate math with men without knowing it. In this case we would say that you have an
implicit math-male stereotype. Another example: if a woman or person of color makes a point
in a meeting and is ignored, and then a white male is rewarded for making the same comment,
that may be implicit bias at work.

Why it matters: Implicit bias matters because it can cause inequities even despite peoples best
intentions. A study simulating decisions police officers make found that participants more
quickly chose to shoot armed black characters than armed white characters, and more quickly
chose not to shoot unarmed white characters than unarmed black characters and were also more
likely to commit mistakes like shooting unarmed black characters

Discussion Questions:
Can you describe implicit bias in your own words?
Where do you think this bias comes from?
How has implicit bias has affected you? How have you seen it affect others? What can you do to
address implicit bias?

Microaggressions:

What it is: Racial microaggressions are brief and commonplace statements or actions that can be
intentional or unintentional. They communicate slights and insults, and can have a harmful or
unpleasant impact on the person experiencing them.

How it works: Racial microaggressions may be sent verbally (You speak good English.),
nonverbally (clutching ones purse more tightly) or environ- mentally (symbols like the
Confederate ag or using American Indian mas- cots). Such communications are usually outside
the level of conscious aware- ness of perpetrators.

Why it matters: Racial microaggressions are often constant, continuous, and cumulative for
their targets. Even if theyre statements that are intended as positive (e.g. You speak such good
English!), they can have a negative im- pact when piled on top of other microaggressions. And
studies reveal that racial microaggressions have powerful detrimental consequences to people of
color. They have been found to affect the mental and physical health of recipients, create a
hostile work or campus environment, lower work productivity and problem solving abilities, and
be partially responsible for creating systemic inequities.
Discussion Questions:
What is a microaggression?
Can you think of a time when someone meant well, but what they said hurt your feelings?
Have you ever said anything to someone that youd consider a microaggression? Have you ever
been on the receiving end of a microaggression?
How do these things make you feel?
How do you think microaggressions impact society?
How do you think we can avoid microaggressions?

Post Presentation:
After the presentation, there will be the three dramatized scenarios featuring students. The
dramatized scenarios could possibly be either an enacted script of a short narrative of a negative
experience with regards to diversity and the topics for the evening (refer to goals and objectives
to see the number of students for the scenarios).

Scripting content is being furthered research until students provide scripts/narratives or a

resource is found to be able to use

Overall Logistics Timeline

When What Who

October 18th Finalize script/narrative topics and begin development of Jocelyn, Kenedy,
script criteria Megan

October 19th Determine food/ budget for catering Jocelyn Chavous

October 24th Finalize script/narrative criteria Log Team

October 25th Reach out to professors, faculty and students requesting Log Team
help on scripts/narratives

October 26th Acquire account numbers of from departments/ offices and Jocelyn Chavous
give them to Christine and Nance Christine Walter

October 28th Send catering order to Christine Jocelyn

November 8th Begin working on informational PowerPoint Log Team

November 11th Submission of all scripts/narratives TBD

November 15th Finalize scripts/narratives Log Team

November 15th Finalize Facilitator Log Team and

facilitator

November 18th Have informational PowerPoint completed and ready for Jocelyn
 group review

November Rehearsal of scripts/narratives (location TBD) Volunteers, Log

16th-28th Team

Event Formulary

When What Who

7:15 pm Oversee set up and food Jocelyn, Kenedy,

Megan

7:45-8 pm Doors open; mingling, snacking (food is available during Attendees

entire event)

8-8:10pm Begin PowerPoint Presentation Event Facilitator

8:10- First dramatized scenario Actors

8:15pm

8:15- Discussion, reflection time Facilitator, attendees

8:25pm

8:25- Second dramatized scenario Actors

8:30pm

8:30- Discussion, reflection time Facilitator, attendees

8:40pm

8:40- Third dramatized scenario Actors

8:50pm

8:50-9pm Discussion, reflection time Facilitator, attendees

9-9:05pm Closing remarks Facilitator

9:10pm Tear down All teams

Budget

Money available: $220

*per gallon serve 18 cups

What Amount

45 Posters $30

Hot water w/ tea $20.25 ($6.75 per gallon x3)

Hot Chocolate $30 ($7.50 per gallon x 4)

Ice Water $10 ($2.50 per gallon X4)

Assorted cookies $37.50 ($7.50 x 5 dozen)

Potato chips $7 ($3.50x 2 pounds)

Total Expense $134.75

 Evaluation

Evaluation Team:
Deanna Preziosi and Megan Anderson

Evaluation Team Purpose: To evaluate the success of our Difficult Conversations event
through the use of surveys. Through these surveys, we can analyze the success of our
promotional items, how effectively we reached our promotional and logistic goals, and receive
feedback from guests regarding what they enjoyed and what we could improve.

Evaluation Team Goals:

90% of guests to fill out evaluation surveys
80% of guests display positive responses on surveys
To evaluate issues presented in feedback and learn what will work for future events

Strategies/Tactics:
Be intentional in dispersing surveys to guests since there is no reward for filling them out
Creating a comprehensive survey that covers the events topics without being too
extensive
Troubleshoot before event/take possible issues into consideration

Materials:

Difficult Conversations

Name: ________________________________________________________________
Year: ___________________ Major: _____________________ Gender: ___________
How did you hear about this event? _________________________________________
Which topic did you think was most relevant in this day and age? Why? _____________
______________________________________________________________________
Please rate your experience (circle your answer): 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Please explain: ___________________________________________
Would you attend an event of this nature again? Yes or No
 Campus-Wide Event Assessment

Team Members:
Jordan Dodson, Jenn Sanchez, Megan Bomba, Kennedy Kieffer, Deanna Preziosi, Jocelyn
Chavous, Becca Hegman and Megan Anderson

Promotions Assessment:

Promotions Team:
Jordan Dodson, Jenn Sanchez & Becca Hegman

Report:
As a team we developed a promotions timeline, hung up posters, and wrote on sidewalks with
chalk to promote the event. Becca and Jordan contacted various leaders on campus including but
not limited to: Kevin Villegas, Neryamn Nieves, Jake Edmunds and Scott Hwang. Jordan created
preliminary designs for logos and met with Bernardo Michael to discuss his vision of and role in
the Difficult Conversation event. Jenn was the liaison for the group with college press and
Christine. Becca completed the task with me listed above and also created the Facebook page.

Analysis:
Overall, the promotions team worked very well together. Everyone knew their task and
completed them in a timely manner, mostly due to the timeline that we create before the event.
By following the timeline we left plenty of time to accomplish the task needed for promotions
We achieved our goal of developing a new logo through college press.

Word of mouth:7
Poster: 9
Class: 8
Email: 13
Facebook: 3
No answer: 1

Recommendations:
If we were to do this event over again our group would post more often into social media. Out of
the 549 people invited only 37 expressed interest and 20 people committed to attend. If our
group as a whole would have added more post and encouraged others to share we could have had
a stronger online presence. Another recommendation for those planning this event in the future,
is to remember the power of word of mouth. Often this type of promotions is overlooked. Our
group did not even have this in our promotional plan. Simply setting a goal of telling 5 people
and encouraging them to tell 5 people can cause an unstoppable chain reaction.
Logistics Assessment

Logistics Team:
Kenedy Kieffer, Megan Bomba and Jocelyn Chavous

Overview of Event Summary, Purpose, Goals and Objectives

Our event plan, underwent many major changes a few days prior to the actual event. In
particular, our event summary, original goals/ objectives. To mention, the purpose of the event
and expected outcomes remained the same. The reason for the changes to our event summary
and some of the goals was because we did not get enough actors or scripts in time (this will be
further explained in the logistics section). Below is the new event summary and goals/objectives
based on the last minute changes to the event:

Changed Event Summary:

For this event, students will discuss racial and gender identities in friendships/romantic
relationships, microaggressions seen in conversations on campus, and implicit biases. The event
will include exercises ranging from self-reflection, interactive discussion questions, small group
reflection and discussion, and role play scenarios. Snack and drinks will be provided at the event.

Added Goals:

-Create interactive discussion questions

- Provide self-reflection activities and a role play scenario
-Advertise with sidewalk chalk

Logistics Evaluation

The purpose of the logistics team was to develop event content and activities, oversee the
reservations of needed equipment for the event, create a catering request, reach out to donors,
purchase all necessary resources for sub teams and organize volunteers and facilitators for the
event.

To begin, our event underwent last minute changes that involved making an entirely new format
of activities. Originally, there were going to be three dramatized scenarios about diversity,
microaggressions and implicit bias. To do these scenarios, we needed at least three actors (total
of nine) for each scenario and someone to write the scripts for them.

Unfortunately, despite numerous attempts by asking various people in fields and departments to
provide volunteers and script writers, we only could find about two people to fully commit to
acting and one script writer. However, the scripts were not received in time to be reviewed and
approved. Thus, an executive decision was made to instead to a self-reflection activity, one role
pay scenario for attendees and add a video. After each activity, there were discussion questions
for attendees to reflect on at their tables and then as a collective group.
Recommendations:

One recommendation could be perhaps finding a new format for this event much like the one that
was done this year. Since there was no class or volunteers to provide scripts or actors like there
was in the past, it was incredibly difficult to plan this event even though it was in the works for a
month or so. You also cannot plan for actors no longer being available to do the event or the
script writer not giving you the scripts in time. It is best to maybe find a format that does not
have so many variables or at least have a backup plan on hand in case something were to go
wrong.

Another recommendation would be to definitely reach out to collaborators early in the year
through a liaison. This definitely helped with getting funds and the facilitators.

With regards to reservations there was some confusion that happened. Apparently, a projector
never got reserved at media services. Thankfully, they had an extra to give away. Likewise,
speakers were never discussed with group members and had to be reserved the day of the event.
A recommendation would be for the logistics team to have this on the checklist of the needed
tech resources. Students should communicate with Christine to see what she reserved and make
sure they put in requests for things that werent done in the initial reservations.

Logistics Analysis of Resources and Budget

The catering request provided the perfect amount of food for the event. There was still some
leftover, but not a lot. However, maybe instead of purchasing six dozen cookies, we probably
would have been fine with just four.

As for donors, we received $220 from the Office of Diversity Affairs. This was a sufficient
amount of money. We also had the Communication Department and Student Government
Association serve as sponsors.

The only resources that needed to be provided were the notepads, pens and sidewalk chalk. The
decision to purchase those items were made later in the event planning process.

To conclude, here is the final budget for the logistics team:

Total Budget: $220

What Amount

45 Posters $30

Hot water w/ tea $13

Hot Chocolate $22.50

Ice Water $10

Assorted cookies $45

Potato chips $6.50

Sidewalk Chalk $7.08

Pens $0

Notepads $0

Total Expense $134.08

Evaluation Assessment

Evaluation Team:
Megan Bomba and Deanna Preziosi

Overview of Event Summary, Purpose, Goals and Objectives

At the end of the event a survey was distributed among the attendees. All 40 attendees
completed the survey and gave us a holistic data. The answers of the survey are listed below.

Year:
Freshman- 8
Sophomore- 8
Junior- 8
Senior- 9
Graduate Student- 1
Staff- 7
The distribution of ages is relatively even except graduate students. This showed that the event
appealed to a variety of ages.
Major:
(Some attendees were double majors)
Environmental Science- 1
Social Work- 2
Spanish- 1
Musical Theatre- 2
Economic Development- 2
Human Development and Family Science- 1
Politics- 1
Education- 4
Psychology- 1
Biopsychology-1
Business- 6
Molecular Biology- 1
Engineering- 1
Communication- 2
Public Relations- 7
Digital Media-1
Journalism- 1
Digital Media- 1
Although the Communication Department hosted the event it reached students from
multiple departments.

How did you hear about this event?

Word of mouth-7
Poster- 9
 Class- 8
Email- 13
Facebook- 3
No answer- 1
All promotional efforts were effective.

Which topic did you think was most relevant in this day and age?
Microaggression- 20
Implicit Bias-12
Diversity- 3
All-5

Why? (some answers that stood out)

Microaggressions because they eventually lead to a lot of hurt if not dealt with
Implict Bias because we need more self-awareness (or at least I do)
Microaggressions because people dont always realize when they are occurring

Both topics were understood and appreciated by students.

Please rate your overall experience
1- 0
2- 0
3- 0
4- 0
5- 2
6- 0
7- 5
8- 8
9- 16
9.5- 1
10- 9
Average: 8.8

Why? (some answers that stood out)

Enjoyed all; make these monthly; too much; too little time
I had seen parts of this presentation before but still really appreciated it
Need more time for discussion
Great content, activities were rushed

We surpassed our goal by .8%, displaying positive feedback on the attendees

overall experience.

Would you attend an event of this nature again?

Yes- 40
No-0
 This shows that future events of Difficult Conversations will be accepted in the future.

Overall, Difficult Conversations proved to be a successful event. This was shown by the little
to no, negative responses to the survey questions. One change we would recommend for future
events would be to lengthen the time of the event. This was the major negative comment
received on the surveys. Although we did not meet our attendance goal of 70, we received great
quality feedback from those who did attend. We assume we did not meet this goal due to the
time of the semester it was scheduled. For future events, we would suggest it to be scheduled
earlier in the semester.