Campus Connection

At UW-L, the odds of being comfortable with the campus climate are 88 percent lower for non-white students. That’s just one statistic to come out of one of three recent Campus Climate surveys that indicate race-related concerns on campus, explains Laurie Cooper Stoll, assistant professor of Sociology and Archaeology. [caption id="attachment_39419" align="alignright" width="200"] Laurie Cooper Stoll[/caption] Stoll is director of the new Institute for Social Justice at UW-L that aims to provide resources to work through situations like this as well as support social justice research, partnerships, events and more. The UW-L Speaks: On Race Series Tuesday, March 10, is the first event the Social Justice Institute is taking a lead in organizing since it became a formalized institute with unanimous approval from the Faculty Senate in fall 2014. The three-part dialogue on race was spurred by the results of campus climate surveys. The first session is dedicated to listening — adding stories to the data. The second session is focused on learning how the race-related issues can be addressed. The third session will focus on acting on those plans. Everyone on campus is invited to attend the meetings from 7-9 p.m. in 1400 Centennial Hall. The dates will be:

• Tuesday, March 10 - Listen
• Tuesday, March 31 - Learn
• Tuesday, April 21 - Lead

By the third session, Stoll is hopeful the group will have developed strategies for addressing some of the issues on the survey. “We hope this small step will help us move at least a little closer to addressing these inequalities,” she says.

The Institute for Social Justice is a resource for students, faculty to collaborate

When Stoll came to UW-L three years ago, she saw a lot of people around campus engaged in social justice-related research, but she didn’t notice much collaboration among these people. Helping connect people across campus doing social justice research was the impetus for creating the new Social Justice Institute. When Stoll put out the initial call to gauge interest in such an institute, she received about 100 responses within the first 48 hours. Stoll started work related to founding the institute in May 2013. The UW-L Faculty Senate unanimously approved it in September 2014. Research is at the core of the institute, but it has four main goals:

• Support social justice research on campus.
• Provide mentoring for students engaged in pursuing social justice research or careers.
• Aid with the formation of partnerships with social justice organizations in the La Crosse community.
• Support social-justice related events on campus.

Stoll says the institute allows for the possibility of interdisciplinary collaboration on social justice issues, which leads to a more nuanced understanding. Also, with heavy teaching loads at UW-L, collaboration is key in supporting research. As much as faculty can use the institute’s resources to collaborate, students can use it to find research opportunities they’d like to pursue related to social justice. A website is now live with resources to find research and collaboration opportunities, mentoring, events and more related to social justice. The institute is also planning its first social justice conference next year.