For the remainder of this school year, the DEIB block will look much different than it did in the fall semester. The block will no longer be split up into two halves which means that members of the Poly community will have the entire 65-minute block to attend their affinity or discussion group. This decision comes after a numerous amount of feedback about the discussion groups since the beginning of the fall semester from students, faculty members, and affinity group leaders.
Many affinity group leaders, including Co-leader of the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) Lulu McDonald ‘24, Co-leader of Umoja Jordan James ‘25, and Co-leader of Masala Shriya Nanduru ‘24, were thrilled to hear about this change. According to all three affinity group leaders, with the previous model, they were unable to finish their discussions and get everything done in only the 30 minutes they were given. James said that all of the leaders of Lemonade and Umoja were “extremely concerned” when they heard that they were only getting half of the DEIB period. In addition, he said these leaders created a survey and shared it with Erika Freeman, DEIB Director. The survey showed that there were many Poly students who were “really discontent[ed] with the DEIB discussion groups.” McDonald added that she participated in the student government polls about the DEIB discussion groups and messaged them a few times, asking them to help get rid of it. She was also frustrated that, alongside discussion groups, “assemblies have been taking up a lot of our time.” Both McDonald and Nanduru are a part of the DEIB Task Force, joined by all other affinity group leaders. When they all met in October, both of them expressed that they wanted the entire 65-minute block for their group.
English faculty member and DEIB Co-coordinator Carmelo Larose explained that some discussion groups were more productive than others, due to teachers’ varying experience with leading these difficult and heavy discussions. He said some faculty members “may not be used to holding discussions because they aren’t in the humanities [which tend to have discussion-based classes] or…are from another country for example, or didn’t have DEIB at their schools before.” According to Larose, those faculty members said “it was difficult for them to feel comfortable holding conversations. ”
Nanduru stated that in her discussion group “everything felt very forced,” partly because she didn’t know many of the students. McDonald voiced that the only good discussion she had with her discussion group was after the October 7 attacks in Israel and Gaza. It wasn’t the programming for the day, but the faculty leaders asked if anyone wanted to talk about it. A lot of students didn’t feel comfortable in their discussion groups. Larose stated that “there are varying levels of comfort with having DEIB discussions” for both students and faculty. Director of Campus Library Services and DEIB Co-coordinator Iman Stultz admitted that they “were attempting to try a new system this year and the answer was not necessarily the format that we came up with.”
Stultz also explained that one of the issues with the DEIB format this first semester was the students that remained in the discussion groups once the people who were a part of affinity groups left the classroom. In many rooms, the students left were dismissed, since there were too few of them to have a productive or deep conversation. Sometimes the faculty advisor would also have to leave to go facilitate their affinity group for the second half of the block. Stultz said, “We don’t want discussion groups to be a free period or something that you are just required to do. We don’t want people to feel like they are forced into having meaningful discussions. We want that to happen organically.” Now, the remaining students who aren’t in affinity groups will be put in a discussion group based on their grade. Ninth and tenth grade students will be in groups, and eleventh and twelfth grade students will be in separate groups. Stultz hopes that this will lead to more comfortable and open discussions.
Stultz and Larose met with the rest of the DEIB team to make this change, which included Director of Forensics and Debate Eddie Fitzgerald, and Learning Support faculty member Fannie Santana. They are the ones who develop the content for the discussion groups. After organizing the new format, they all had a meeting with Freeman who, according to Stultz, “helped us address some of the possible issues that might arise with the groupings and we worked it out together.”
Nanduru said that Stultz came by the Masala affinity group a few weeks before they officially implemented the change, asking the leaders their thoughts. Nanduru is especially excited about this change, due to her being a senior and this being her last year at Poly. “I get the rest of my senior year to spend more time with my group.”
The community built in all of these affinity groups often becomes strong and important to those who are a part of it. James stated that, “The affinity groups are safe spaces, not just for the black kids in Umoja, but for all kids of all identities.” Larose is “happy that everyone has been so patient. I think that it is such a positive thing that students are so passionate about DEIB that they wanted to have the full block to work with each other. I am so impressed with the Poly students.”
Both Stultz and Larose mentioned another change: there will now be an element of “community outreach” added to DEIB affinity groups and discussion groups. DEIB will now be more interactive and engaging. According to Larose and Stultz, students will be tasked to make a presentation on what they have been working on. For example, they could include an organization they would like to work with on a service project. Eventually, students might present at assemblies, showcasing their hard work.
“I am happy that everything worked out and am excited to hear feedback from the students,” said Larose.
