New SCCC President Ed Bonahue provided a welcome to our summer JEDI Institute pilot participants. Dr. Bonahue thanked everyone for their commitment to increasing equity and justice at the college. (photo by Christina Vargas)

We’re not JEDI masters—we’re more like padawans—but despite what Yoda has declared, there is definitely try.

The JEDI Institute pilot program kicked off this summer with nearly 40 people working diligently to harness the energy, The Force, that we felt flowing among us to make our workspaces at SCCC more just, equitable, diverse and inclusive.

We met in several three-hour sessions—on July 14, July 28, and August 4—at the culinary center in Riverhead to share some ideas about how we’re already enacting JEDI principles in various ways, how demographics are changing at the college and in our local communities, how we can be better prepared for “hot moments” in the classroom, and to start developing JEDI projects to try in our fall 2021 work (learn more at fascc.org/jedi-institute).

Becoming equityminded

Guiding our efforts is the book From Equity Talk to Equity Walk, which smartly gives primacy to antiracist efforts in the fight to make colleges more equitable and which asks us to be laser focused on becoming more equityminded rather than deficitminded. Deficitmindedness is on display when we say things like the following:

• Students are not prepared for college-level work. 
• Today's students skated by on "social promotion" in high school and don't realize college is different.
• They don't do the reading! They don't even bother to buy the book!
• Students today do not know how to take notes.
• Students can't think for themselves; they just Google everything.
• Their culture doesn't value education. 
• Students can't write anymore.
• They're so lazy. They just want everything to be easy.
• Students are not interested in learning; they just want to get my class "out of the way" and only care about the grade. 
• Students lack self-regulation skills. Students lack time management skills.

The focus in all of the above is on the real or perceived shortcomings or failures of the students. It's far more rare to hear colleagues wonder why they are failing to reach the students that we have here at SCCC. The JEDI Institute aims to help colleagues shift their mindsets to stop blaming students and decrying the lack of the "ideal" student they have in mind and instead work toward becoming truly equityminded and helping our real, actual students. 

Equitymindedness is defined by McNair, Bensimon, and Malcom-Piqueux in Equity Walk as "the mode of thinking exhibited by practitioners, who are willing to assess their own racialized assumptions, to acknowledge their lack of knowledge in the history of race and racism, to take responsibility for the success of historically underserved and minoritized student groups, and to critically assess racialization in their own practices as educators and/or administrators" (20). 

Five ways to be more JEDI

To advance along your own path to becoming a JEDI master, here are five things you can do this fall or in the spring to make your workspace more just, equitable, diverse and inclusive.

1. Put the SCCC diversity statement on your course outlines—and read it aloud on the first day of class.
   
   Presenting the following diversity statement to students from day one establishes a welcoming tone and invites civility and respect. Reading it aloud during the first synchronous class meeting shows students your level of commitment. Printing and posting it in our offices also can help center our students’ understanding of our dedication to a diverse and welcoming college.
   
   

   SCCC Diversity Statement: In alignment with our institutional mission and strong support of diversity, equity and inclusion, Suffolk County Community College reaffirms its commitment to providing access to higher education and a welcome environment to all students. No matter your age, race, ethnicity, national origin, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, family status, U.S. citizenship status, religion, socio-economic status, political ideology, military-connected status, or intellectual or physical ability—you belong here. Therefore, in this class, we will maintain an atmosphere of mutual respect, civil discourse and cross-cultural communication. The college prohibits discrimination and harassment, and you can read more at: www.sunysuffolk.edu/nondiscrimination.
   
   

2. In addition to your usual class introduction, ask students to also submit a private class introduction.
   
   Many faculty use public class introductions by way of an icebreaker activity at the start of the semester. But pairing this with a private class introduction can provide students with a way to communicate directly with you as the instructor. For on-campus classes, you can use index cards; for online or remote classes, you can use the private journal feature in Blackboard.  
   
   Sample questions are provided on the JEDI website, such as asking for chosen names and pronouns—which you should model for students anyway. Sometimes students share things like family concerns, work obligations or a desire to get tested by the Office for Students with Disabilities.
   
   Think about your questions. What information are you interested in and why? When will you read, review, and use the information provided by students? Above all, it’s important to respect students’ privacy at all times, but a private class introduction can help you better understand why students participate in your class as they do.
   
   
3. Pay attention to the modality that you are using—online, on campus, remote—and customize your techniques and methods appropriate.
   
   When thinking about how to make your classes more JEDI, modality matters! What works in an on-campus class or interaction may or may not be appropriate in a remote or online setting. There have been concerns nationally about how “public” remote and online classes can be; you never know who might be listening in or looking over your students’ shoulders. Be mindful of the modality you're using in any communications with students.
   
   
4. Consider scheduling and requiring office hour appointments to have a personal check in as well as a mid-semester check in with your students.
   
   Faculty make office hours available to students, only to realize that few students avail themselves of those opportunities for additional assistance. A more JEDI approach is to require each student to attend your office hours for at least 15 minutes by a set date early in the semester (whether on campus or by Zoom/Teams). This helps students not only find your office and see that it’s not so intimidating to enter, it enables you to get to know each student on an individual basis.
   
   
5. Consider removing rigid deadline restrictions and frame how and when you will accept late assignments.
   
   As education and parenting expert Alfie Kohn teaches us, when it comes to young adults, we should always “attribute the best possible motives consistent with the facts” rather than leap to assumptions or deficitminded responses.
   
   Despite a trend of making our course syllabi detailed and legalistic in terms of our rules and expectations, it’s more JEDI to incorporate policies that are as equitable and fair as possible for the majority of our students. For example, instead of a hard policy of “no late assignments accepted!” in bold, red, underlined font, consider encouraging students to speak with you if they have concerns about timely submission of assignments.
   
   

Let's make our work as JEDI as we can this year! To participate in any of the fall 2021 events our JEDI team is hosting (see events in "A $35,000 launch to the JEDI Institute"), contact any of our planning board members for more details or watch for upcoming emails about the events.