Teach-In, Black Poetry Day at SUNY Plattsburgh Oct. 26 and 27

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October 20, 2016

SUNY Plattsburgh faculty and staff will host a Teach-In and day of dialogue on social justice and diversity Wednesday, Oct. 26 from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. in venues across campus.

Faculty and staff will make presentations and lead discussions on a number of these topics in half-hour sessions in the Cardinal Lounge, Angell College Center, Krinovitz Recital Hall in Hawkins Hall, and in rooms 205 and 206 of Yokum Lecture Hall. Some sessions will be offered at the same time, so students, faculty and staff can move between rooms and sessions of interest and are encouraged to actively participate in discussions and activities. 

President John Ettling said in an email to faculty and staff Oct. 12 that the Teach-In and day of dialogue comes as a call for action on the SUNY Plattsburgh campus, prompted by police shootings across the country.

Organizers have asked faculty to voluntarily cancel classes so that their students can attend. Students are asked to check with their instructors on the status of their classes and whether their instructors were able to accommodate their absence if classes are not cancelled.

At 2:30 p.m., students and faculty are encouraged to meet at Hawkins Pond for a community photo to commemorate the college's support for social justice.

The sessions will be followed at 3 p.m. by “Savage Inequalities: The Struggle Goes On,” a presentation in E. Glenn Giltz Auditorium by Dr. Jonathan Kozol, author of “Death at an Early Age,” “Savage Inequalities,” “Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation,” and “The Shame of the Nation.”

Sessions include:

•“Intersectionality of Identity on a College Campus” by Title IX Coordinator Butterfly Blaise Boire

•“The Racial Wealth Gap” by Dr. Elizabeth Onasch of sociology

•“Understanding the North Country: On Poverty, Race and Prisons,” by history professor, Dr. Gary Kroll

•“Building Communities” by Dr. Chahbaz Azarkadeh of computer science

•“’Who Really Cares? Who is Willin’ to Try?’ The Demise of Integration in Public Education” by Dr. David Iasevoli, teacher education

•“Locker Room Talk” by Dr. James Armstrong, anthropology, and Dr. Susan Mody, gender and women’s studies

•“A Southern Childhood: Remembering Integration in the South,” by Richard Aberle, English

•“Was Anyone Hurt? Once and For All, Black Lives Matter,” by Dr. Paul Johnston, English

In addition to Teach-In Day, American Book Award-winning poet Camille Dungy will be reading from her work in celebration of SUNY Plattsburgh’s annual Black Poetry Day Thursday, Oct. 27 at 7:30 p.m. in Krinovitz Recital Hall. The reading is free and open to the public, but seating is limited.

For more information, contact Teach-In moderators Dr. Wendy Gordon, [email protected], Dr. Tracie Guzzio, [email protected], or Dr. Del Hart, [email protected].