Over the past year, the Anti-Racism training workshop has been redesigned and renamed the Understanding Racism workshop. The newly revised program, facilitated by Julie Burke of the education department and Jorge Zeballos and Jada Drew of the multicultural education department, will be put to the test May 12-14, when the new format will be used for the first time.

Last summer, a planning committee led by Professor of Economics Bob Williams and Multicultural Education Director Holly Wilson met to discuss the revision process after budget reductions were enacted a year and a half ago. These financial restrictions coupled with concerns voiced by past participants over the lecture-based format of the previous workshops made restructuring the program imperative.

“I think that there needed to be more of an emphasis on the personal experience,” said Jada Drew, workshop facilitator and Africana community coordinator. “There wasn’t a lot of individual work. I think that the piece that was missing was that personal investment, and (that) understanding (of) how each individual plays a role in the system.”

The revisions to the workshop aim to address the concerns over how the training has been conducted in the past.

“The process has been redesigned to create a lot of space for that kind of interaction, and I think also, that this is an opportunity to do something a bit more Guilford-focused,” said Jorge Zeballos, workshop facilitator and Latino community program coordinator and international student advisor.

Williams indicated that while the lecture format has its benefits, the new program design offers more than the former.

“Trying to talk about racism and being able to discuss certain racist structures in a couple of days is not easy,” said Williams. “A lecture format allows for quicker explanation of material, but it doesn’t allow for people to chew on it.”

The planning committee has found a way for the budget restrictions to work in their favor. In the past, different facilitators were brought in to conduct the workshops and the participant experience varied accordingly. Much of the workshop funds were spent bringing outside facilitators to Guilford.

“We felt like we had the expertise at Guilford already to put on these workshops. Rather then spending that money bringing in external consultants, we could spend that money . developing a group of facilitators at Guilford who could do the workshops for us,” said Tom Guthrie, planning committee member and assistant professor of anthropology. “We could tailor (the workshops) more to Guilford’s specific needs. It just seemed like a great opportunity.”

“With a Guilford Focus” seemed to be the catchphrase of everyone involved. The revisions to the curriculum of the workshops cater to the initiatives of Guilford’s strategic plan and the diversity plan.

“We do obviously want people to develop a process for understanding racism and white supremacy in a larger society context, but then we’re going to spend sometime also trying to get a sense of how these issues play out here at Guilford and what is it that we would like to see that isn’t in place now,” said Zeballos. “How the participants see themselves having an impact engaging in the process of transforming the institution.”

Everyone involved in the revision process acknowledged that the Understanding Racism workshop offers participants a different experience than a class on race might. The workshops are intensive, meeting for a total of 20 hours over the course of three days.

“A lot of our classes at Guilford focus on race and racism, but not everyone is going to take those classes,” said Guthrie. “So this is an opportunity for people to have a time to meet and talk about these issues outside of a class context.”

Recruitment efforts are aimed at students, faculty and staff, “allowing for a different kind of diversity than the classroom might allow,” said Williams.

Zeballos emphasized the need for community participation.

“I want everyone to see how important it is for all of us to be engaged in helping the school reach that goal,” said Zeballos. “We may only have time to do a couple of things, and it may seem like a minor effort, but everything contributes, as a collective if we all put a little effort into trying to make this a reality. Then we all have a better chance of making it happen.