Sociology club encourages growth in diversity

The UW Oshkosh Sociology Club has created the Oshkosh Minority Student Experience Project in order to further examine diversity on campus and improve the lives of others.

OMSEP was started last fall shortly after the Sociology Club studied minority retention rates on campus. Minorities have had, on average, lower retention rates and lower satisfactory levels at Oshkosh than others, and this sparked the club's interest to learn more about their experiences and perspectives.

For example, the 2010-2011 UW Oshkosh Accountability Report showed that the second-year retention rate of African Americans in the 2009-2010 academic year was 70.6 percent compared to a 78.2 percent rate for Caucasians.

"The main goal of the project is to determine what minority students on campus are experiencing, both good and bad," April Young, Sociology Club president and OMSEP participant, said.

At first the club focused on studying African Americans, but now they are working on expanding it to include all minorities. OMSEP has become much more than just studying statistics, and the Sociology Club hopes that it will change people's lives for the better.

"It's extremely important that the project empower its participants by giving them a chance to voice their opinion and help them identify why exactly their experiences on campus are or are not good," Young said.

Because students of other ethnicities continue to report more negative feelings than their peers, the club's faculty adviser Paul Van Auken said that definitely needs to be examined further.

"We all need to work together to try to figure out what is going on there and do something about it," Van Auken said. "From a justice perspective, there is clearly inequity taking place, and we need to learn more about how and why so positive steps can be taken to address it. We think our project can make a contribution to addressing these issues."

Participants in the OMSEP research are instructed to take 15 pictures, each fits in a designated category representing a piece of who they are and their campus experiences. Some of these categories include what your first impression of Oshkosh was, what you find to be the worst thing about Oshkosh and a place where you feel comfortable or uncomfortable on campus. All participants remain anonymous unless they specify otherwise.

The pictures are then sent to a researcher who prints them out and sets up an interview with the participant to discuss the meanings behind the pictures. This process is more specifically called PhotoVoice. The Sociology Club will use the pictures and comments gathered to produce gallery exhibits, public presentations and written reports.

The biggest problem the Sociology Club has faced is recruiting project participants.

"For the most part, students and professors have been really excited and positive about this project," Tashia Norton, Sociology Club vice president said. "But some have expressed that they feel targeted because of their race. No one wants to feel singled out, but that is not what we are trying to do."

The Sociology Club has put a lot of training and preparation time into this project by doing mock interviews, taking sample pictures and more recently, participating in community organization training. All of these areas of further study have only improved the project and will help encourage participation, Van Auken said.

"After going through some additional training in community organizing strategies, the students have recently determined that they need to spend more time simply getting to know more students of color on campus and building bridges with groups that represent them, to build trust and rapport, and to learn more about the best ways they can help make an impact," Van Auken said.

The OMSEP was also presented by the Sociology Club at the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Milwaukee this October. They were the only group of undergraduate students who presented a research project.

The club members are encouraging existing participants to become researchers in order to give them more control of the project.

"By giving participants this opportunity, they can choose more what they want to do with the findings," Norton said. "Our ultimate goal is to make things better on this campus, and who better to do that than the people who have shared their stories?"

It is important that students understand the potential benefits of this project, Young said.

"People don't seem to realize how much just the interview alone benefits them by giving them a voice and a chance to express their opinions until they actually start the project," Young said.

Ultimately, the Sociology Club wants to develop this project enough to pass it on to other Oshkosh clubs and even other schools.

"We want to give eventually give all of the power to participants to take it as far as they think it should go, as soon as we've interviewed enough people," Young said.

Building connections and gaining a stronger sense of community on campus are other positive things that the club hopes to get out of the OMSEP, Van Auken said.

"I hope that the sociology students will build lasting bridges with groups like the Black Student Union and work with the participants in the research project to develop some new ideas they could take action about common issues that are identified through the progress, that students of color and their allies can together develop stronger voices," Van Auken said.