CCU STUDENTS AND ALUMNI SPEAK OUT
"I talked like a n*****"
"[When I was] doing one-on-one work with my Acting professor, she commented on my pronunciation of words like 'that' or 'them' as 'dat' or 'dem' by saying I talked like a n*****"
GATHERING TESTIMONY
In an effort to obtain feedback from alumni and current students of the CCU Department of Theatre, two surveys were distributed to alumni and current students asking them to reflect on specific instances of racism they have experienced or witnessed.
There are approximately 300 alumni and 100 current students on social media. 10-15% of those alumni and students are BIPOC. We received 62 responses from alumni and 33 responses from current students. This page details the data collected from those surveys.
In addition to written testimony, about 20 BIPOC students and alumni shared verbal testimony during virtual community meetings with the CCU theatre faculty and about 150 students/alumni.
WHAT STUDENTS ARE CALLING FOR
90.6% OF CURRENT STUDENTS
CALL FOR A MORE DIVERSE STUDENT BODY
89% OF ALUMNI
CALL FOR A MORE INCLUSIVE CURRICULUM
87.5% OF CURRENT STUDENTS
CALL FOR EQUAL OPPORTUNITY AND REPRESENTATION FOR BIPOC STUDENTS
64% OF ALUMNI CALL FOR THE HIRING OF BIPOC FACULTY AND GUEST ARTISTS
*Percentages calculated from responses
of surveyed participants.
CURRENT STUDENT SURVEY
65.6%
EXPERIENCED OR WITNESSED AT LEAST ONE INSTANCE OF RACISM
77.8%
THOSE WHO EXPERIENCED OR WITNESSED RACISM CITED CASTING AND/OR FAVORITISM AS EXAMPLES
59.4%
DO NOT FEEL THE FACULTY LISTENS TO STUDENT FEEDBACK TO IMPLEMENT CHANGE
46.9%
DO NOT FEEL THERE IS A SAFE SPACE TO GO TO EXPRESS CONCERNS
The feedback from current students reflected many of the same concerns from our alumni feedback, proving that the issues in the CCU Department of Theatre are ongoing and affecting students right now. The most pressing issues expressed by current students are casting, favoritism, and microaggressions by faculty.
ALUMNI SURVEY
95.2%
EXPERIENCED OR WITNESSED RACISM AT LEAST ONCE
89%
CALLED FOR A MORE INCLUSIVE CURRICULUM
64%
CALLED FOR THE HIRING OF BIPOC FACULTY AND GUEST ARTISTS
70.5%
SAID FACULTY HAS NOT MAINTAINED CONTACT POST-GRAD
The survey participants recounted racist comments, microaggressions, the lack of production and classroom opportunities for BIPOC students, and larger systemic issues including the department culture, curriculum, and lack of representation.
problem tree
This problem tree, as derived from Paulo Freire's methodology in Pedagogy of the Opressed, is a visual representation of the issues within the department. The roots of the tree depict systemic issues, the branches indicate how those systemic issues manifest, and the leaves are the everyday interpersonal occurances. The creation of this problem tree was based on the concerns students and alumni voiced in the collected surveys.
WORd CLOUDS
These word clouds were created to highlight the language used most frequently in the collected surveys. Prepositional phrases, adverbs, and conjunctions were omitted to focus on active words. These images were included in our virtual community meetings.
