Book Review by Carlton Rounds on:Toxic Masculinity: Curing the Virus: making men smarter, healthier, safer

Toxic Masculinity: Curing the Virus: making men smarter, healthier, safer

Written by Stephen Whitehead

And Reviewed by Carlton Rounds

This book could not be more timely or relevant. When toxic masculinity pours forth from the highest political offices in the land, the urgency to understand the challenges and the opportunities poised at the intersection of power, justice and gender hints at outcomes and predicts the potential future of humankind. I loved this book. It called me out, it reassured me, and it rekindled my curiosity.

The book is accessible and well structured allowing individuals with different levels of gender awareness to follow the observations and narrative. The book explores and defines intersecting zones of masculine identity and behavior making specific, well explained and targeted points. The helpful lists of behaviors and questions could literally be applied as a rough diagnostic tool, or to really get a group going during a facilitated discussion. The author’s approach is neither cajoling nor condescending. His feminist platform is not submerged, and his commitment to the term renews its “spirit” making feminist identity seem more expansive and engaging than what it has become, it feels to me, flattened academic dogma.

It is clear the author would like to see men and women evolve into progressive gender expression, and he calls out both sexes for perpetuating toxicity. In the author’s world, everyone is part of a constellation of behaviors that pollute the integrity of our world. As a progressive masculine man myself, this book helped me recognize issues I need to work on, and due to Stephen’s writing, I have new concepts and language I can drop into discussions I am determined to spark.

I am particularly inspired by the “futurist” scenarios used to show trajectories of change over time. As a historian, this stylistic technique is very compelling. It stretches my perspective and my sociological imagination by requiring continuous growth and evolution not just about gender but about what is possible in human society. My woke style in the year 2019 might be the unenlightened cave of thought by 2050. Finally, Stephen brings not just a lifetime of experience and self reflection to his findings, but an Asian cultural awareness making his work not just a western anchored exploration, but a conversation with a global cadence.

Having met Stephen in person, his warmth and emotional intelligence are much like you would imagine. His role at 70 as gender journeyman is not just fitting, but reassuring. He is helping define what a mature progressive masculinity looks like, not leaving the work and the responsibility to the emerging younger generation. In addition, for those of us who never had the benefit of non toxic Dads or Grandpas, Stephen’s desire for a more deeply connected experience feels personal, validating and healing.

In service,

Carlton Rounds

Reflections of a Caregiver: LGBTQ Seniors

I

t’s been a week now since beginning my work with LGBT seniors. The work is not hard on one level but very difficult on another. After years of independence the indignities of age seem to strike hard and deep. The men I am working with are in their late 80’s having lived through the times when being openly gay was not an option. Some were pressured into marrying women just to be socially and economically viable. Others stayed single and were workaholics hiding their same sex attractions and redirecting that energy into powerful careers. Now, they are being looked after by someone like me. I am trying to absorb the life experience and insight these men can share with me as I care for them. 

One is single the other is still living with his partner. The couple has a twenty year age gap, so as one is entering the last months of his life, the other is still strong and vital. I can see that what once was a Union of minds, passion, sex, and a social gay life has morphed into 2 men who now face the fading dynamics of the relationship. Now one needs 24 hour care to dress, eat, bathe, use the bathroom, and remember what happened the day before. They are now like companions. With advanced age, the gap in years is very significant. How do you prepare to be alone after an intense time of caregiving? Who will take care of the man left behind? In comparison, the single guy wears his isolation with a curmudgeonly vibe with exasperation aimed at the intersectional identity of youth and what he sees as frivolous gay cultural obsessions. This is punctuated by references to what I think is a preoccupation with gay sex for hire. His closeted life was about being sneaky about wanting sex with men, loving men, but being transactional with them. Deeply sexist and polarized in his views, he uses his pronouncements as a mask for his profound sense of loneliness. This is a man with lots of dirty sex secrets. 

I know the type having met them before. They steep in their own male toxicity and only gay men who are similar in psychological makeup like to share space with them. They eschew deep reflection, present with an entitled persona, but don’t trust or understand love, and yet they have giggly crushes that sometimes drip out from cracks in their protective walls. What is clear though is a misogynist world view. Any man, no matter how bland, is held in higher esteem than any bitch woman. Forced into marriage, forced to provide and forced to have children, women are resented for the roles society made these men live or be judged for not living well enough. I get it. How dare the world now allow gender fluidity? What would it mean if in your 80’s you choose face the fact that you can see the freedoms you never had access to, and not feel like you suffered for no reason except for being born too early in the century. Very few people can change at age 25 much less 85. 

So for me, I find the emotional environment tiring but important to experience. Maybe this kind of care is one of the only places inter generational discussions happen and some cosmic issues get worked on in both parties? Through feeling their pain and frustration I learn more about the obligation I have to honor my own emotional and social life. When I am 85, my caregiver might find me and my life symptomatic of the times I lived. Will I want to be told I did not live up to my potential? Will I shun these judgements, too old and tired to want to explain something they will never understand unless they lived it? So with this in mind, I am trying to listen with my heart, not my language sensitive ears. Trying to be in a space where I encourage and validate the unique moments of overlap I discover when buttoning a button or changing a diaper. I know that these random men are not truly random for me. I don’t accept random. 

Each day when I leave, I touch a shoulder or shake a hand and thank them for having spent the day with them. I am absorbing things unconsciously that I know have value, even when I try to be so conscious of the interactions. Managing communication in such a multitude of directions, across historical time, and informed by the dimensions of spirit, while simultaneously cooking soup and finding a lost sock demands a somatic versatility and resilience. This strength training is part of the gift of this work. As I slowly walk into my golden years, it gives me perspective and highlights the choices I still have, and must pay dedicated attention to, so that I continue to grow and change and evolve.

Carlton
December 10th, 2019

Cortona Opera House/Bohemian Club/ Harlan Crow Tuscan Arts Retreat - Spring 1997

Wonderful memory 
of singing with the world famous soprano

Carol Neblett

In spring of 1997, I was asked to join a private group for an arts and culture appreciation trip to Tuscany, Italy. Six of us were chosen to stay at Castello di Gargonza, and to perform for a night of special importance at the Cortona Opera House. As the broadway singer, I was teamed up with an opera singer to do some duets from our favorite musicals. Neither of us had met each other before. I was a bit worried because my broadway/cabaret style was not very disciplined, and I had an off color interpretation of many standard songs. I was worried that singing with an operatic soprano would be absolute misery due to the clash of styles. And my lord, I thought what could be a more tempermental coupling than a tenor and a soprano in Italy, then I met Carol. The first time I heard her sing I was physically stunned. Her voice moved through my body like a spirit of force. In the world, there are few voices of her quality, and gifted to such charisma.

A tall and beautiful woman, buxom and sexy, she was full of good humor, quick wit, and a love of music of all kinds. We snuck away with our awesome pianist and tried to cram for the show later in the week. I found out that I had been assigned to partner with Carol because she was a big personality and it was believed I could "manage" her.  The truth is, she was so much fun, so naughty, and very into making it clear that she was her own person, and that her spirit was free. We got along well, and I felt like I was her courtier. I really liked her energy. When she performed she wore an outstanding blue dress adorned by a jeweled pin she had been given by Prince Charles after a command performance. It suited her. She let me touch the pin, and I could see she loved her life as an opera star, and realized how rare an experience it was.

For that week Carol and I spent a lot of time together making fun of some of the other guests, talking about our love of music, and drinking red wine late into the evening. One night she pressured the restaurant's kitchen into feeding us extra dessert but singing to them in Italian. She told me she would show me how to get tiramisu from a closed kitchen. She stood up in her blue gown, adjusted her ample bust, gave me a look of mischief, and marched through the serving doors, shocking the chef and his staff.  After 2 arias, we had tiramisu and limoncello at our table. 

In the castle where we were staying, there was a small ancient church, and Carol and I would walk by it every evening on our way back from rehearsal, then dinner and wine drinking. I would drop her there and she would go up to her room for the evening, and I would go to mine. It was not hard work, and it was nice to be one of 6 guest performers who were paid handsomely, fed well, treated with adoration and respect, and given first class lodging and travel. 

Carol and I had dressing rooms next to each other at the Cortona Opera House, a cold stone cave of a building in use since the early 1600's. The dressing rooms were damp and chilly, and the late spring in Tuscany was full of blooming flowers and trees. I got through the rehearsal, and tried to adjust to performing in such an odd mausoleum-like space, but as my sinuses and throat swelled, I felt increasingly worried about singing anything. 

LGBTQ Youth and Higher Education Selection Article for IECA - Independent Educational Consultants Association

My Story

As acceptance for gay people gains national legal and cultural recognition, the backlash to this movement has created increased violence and painful rhetoric targeting the gay community, specifically its youth.The 24 hour media cycle exploits these conflicting narratives barraging watchers until they are numbed to the destructive intent of the message. Though the conversations can be shocking, the fact that they are happening so publicly can be interpreted as a positive thing, for it exposes hateful agendas. But I have to wonder, how does a young person in the process of exploring their sexual orientation or gender identity react to this kind of constant mixed messaging? I feel fear, and I wonder if they do, too.

As a youth, I was very sensitive to the opinions of others and my peers. As part of my personality development, I looked to people surrounding me for role models and encouragement. For gay youth, there seemed to be only two options for self preservation; to retreat inside or to rebel with vigor. I chose the vigorous route. Adults interpreted my teenage persona and behavior in ways that usually resulted in suggestions for me to conform (for my own safety), or so that my soul could be saved, and/or so I would not encourage other “different” youth, like me, to question and challenge authority structures. It never occurred to anyone that it might not be me that needed to change, but instead their own behavior and beliefs.

As a sophomore, in a remedial class reserved for youth who confronted the status quo (gay), communities of color, or with learning challenges, I met the educator that changed my life and my trajectory. She created a safe space in her classroom where I could escape the beatings, share openly my feelings, and engage in critical thinking about the world. She recognized something special in me, something worth nurturing and defending. She allowed me to take off the armor, breathe, and be a vulnerable teenager. She also helped me understand how profoundly gifted I was as a young man, an activist, and as an intellectual. To be very direct, she saved my life. She understood that my resistance was actually a reflection of amazing resilience. She became the conduit to opportunity and college.

My Youth Work

I have been a diversity, inclusion and equity focused educator for as long as I can recall. I have spoken truth to power for the sake of many young people, and from their emerging narratives I have learned many lessons. But, my way, my approach, is not the only way, nor is it necessarily the right way. It is a way that has been forged through a life long commitment to self reflection and learning. Most people have an approach that has its strengths, as well, and I suspect many are constantly trying to improve or refine their skills.

If one out of ten people are on the LGBTQ spectrum, current educators are already working with this target population with various levels of success. Like any other population who continues to experience marginalization, discrimination, judgment, or unequal treatment, a best practice for one group is likely to be a general best practice for another. For the sake of this discussion, I am going to focus on the gay community, but I feel that “gay” could be substituted by female, Muslim, black, poor, disabled, foreign, etc.

Good for the Goose

Many educators are distracted by what they can observe/see about a young person and use a visual identity marker as an initial point of reference. For identities that can not be seen, it is necessary to engage other methods.

What process do you have in place to explore apparent or non apparent aspects of identity?

If you are talking to me as a white man and I answer as a gay man, would you be aware enough to shift your focus? What are your own experiences with the diversity of human identity? How might you benefit from revisiting your own biases or opinions informed by your age, gender, class, race, region, religion, upbringing, or experience? Do you have someone to process this exploration with?

Curiosity and Cultural Humility

Categories and labels are traps, as are assumptions. The gay community, young and old, is incredibly diverse and always has been. If your goal is to specifically establish rapport with cultural humility when advising a young person, it is crucial to be curious, and to take the time to learn. Out of respect and as evidence of authenticity, do your homework.  If you feel that you are already very fluent in gay culture you are likely mistaken. The gay community has evolved at a rapid pace, even gay people can hardly keep up with terms, attitudes, and trends.

When was the last time you read a GLBTQ history book, and discussed it with a gay friend or colleague? When did you last visit a gay community center, or gay youth group near you? If you are working with a gay young person, do you know enough to help them contextualize their experience historically? Is your gay concept outdated? Are you using gendered language rather than neutral words.

This kind of approach will not only support your work, it will strengthen your relationships with your community. Find what resonates with you about the gay community and become a real part of the narrative. Find yourself in the history, and when you do, share that connection. Go deep and disclose. If you take that risk, they are more likely to reciprocate.

Asking Permission

For young people who identify openly as GLBTQ, it is possible to ask direct questions, but only with their permission. Many young people are engaged in an inner process of identity development and not keen to ascribe to a fixed point, nor externalize it. They may disclose parts of their identity exploration with different groups, but rarely share everything with just one individual. Imagine that each young person is on a spectrum with many layers and it will take some time to sort out the nuances. If you feel like you are beyond your comfort level, do you have a diverse set of colleagues that you can call upon?

Language and Visual Cues

Many young people will express an emerging gay identity with words or markers that are used to test your tolerance and acceptance of people who are perceived as different, without the mention of sexual orientation. Gay people will also look for visual cues that signify safety.

Is your meeting space filled with gender specific objects and images? Do you have a prominent and visible inclusion message in your materials and your meeting space? Does it list gay and an extensive list of other identities? Gay is only one identity and likely intersects with other identities that may not be culturally accepted or understood.Do you realize that with some youth, the word Queer is now not an insult, and may not refer to sexual orientation, but rather the rejection of unexplored and outdated social constructs? Asking for feedback on language in ways that are not confrontational, but instead clarifying can be helpful.

Once again, don’t assume gender pronouns. Use neutral ones as a sign that you are aware that there are other people in the world other than straight people, and they deserve to be linguistically accommodated. This gender neutral language is a huge cue to gay people that you have some level of awareness and use it to include all people, not just those you think are gay. Are your terms up to date? Have you processed the emotional responses you may have to language that has been updated, revised, reclaimed or re-coded? As me about my family, not my Mom and Dad, because straight kids sometimes have gay parents.

Trust

Appreciate that any young person who feels different inside, or has been made to feel different, is managing some level of alienation, anxiety, and fear. These feelings can make it more challenging to trust another person, especially an adult who is in a power position. For many youth who are exploring their sexual identity, they are already expecting judgement, profiling, and perhaps public exposure. For some, their college financing may hinge on successfully hiding their sexual orientation from you and their parents. If they seem afraid, trust that they are afraid for a legitimate reason.Respect the boundaries they set. You may be totally accepting, but that is about you and your world view, and may not be shared.

Parents

Parents may have suspicions about the sexual orientation of their children and have likely given inconsistent messages over time about how they feel about gay people. Their level of awareness regarding this dynamic and its influence may not be very evolved, or they may feel guilt and respond by overcompensating or over protecting. In my experience, one parent is more likely to be more of the support while the other the more critical. A young person’s sexual orientation, and anything else they share in confidence, is not the property of their parents. It can be a difficult dance balancing the integrity of the relationship with your young person while still meeting the needs of the parents.

Colleges

There are many resources that explore how open and welcoming various universities are to gay people. Its important to realize that schools that have bad reputations with gay issues and safety are not viewed, in general, as socially or academically progressive, thus less desirable. This makes sense. If gay people are not safe that usually reflects a campus atmosphere where other groups are at risk, including women, minorities of color, and international students. This can mean that to keep a high rating, colleges and universities under report abuses, inflate reputations for diversity, and project public images that are very different than the lived reality of their students.

Sad to say, but different regions of the country have very different interpretations of what gay friendly means. There is a difference from being actively tolerated and being empowered and included. Investigating the reality of diversity on campus has to involve an organization's entire faculty, staff, and funders. There are many masks of inclusion worn by colleges and universities that have a shameful lack of diversity hiding at upper levels of decision making.

College Essays

I support the desire for young people to explore their sexual orientation or gender identity through writing. They should never receive the message, no matter how subtle, that disclosure is somehow inappropriate. Rather anchoring the exploration of identity and the process of self awareness in a larger context is key. Colleges are looking for critical thinkers who can engage complex ideas and concepts. In short, being gay is not more instructive than any other minority group, it is how the student interprets their world that gives it power and relevancy.

Another way to address an identity issue in the college application without having to claim any singular identity is to write about a leader in the gay community, their journey, impact, and strengths. You do not need to be gay to find a parallel with a gay narrative. For a young person who is still exploring, it can be very powerful to give them permission to choose another minority group who they admire. This can show maturity and expanded thinking comparing and contrasting different group's challenges and opportunities. Finally, what is crucial is for the student to share what more they want to learn, what questions they hope to explore about themselves and the world, and how these inquiries speak directly to the college's learning community, values and academic strengths.

Breathe

If you do your homework, build your LGBTQ professional allies, increase your fluency with gay culture, and find your unique connection to difference, you will do great. Gay people are resilient, adaptable, and like many other minority groups, responsive to to those who make the effort to authentically connect. Mistakes will happen, misinterpretations will occur, but you and your young person will survive.

BIO: Carlton Rounds

For nearly 30 years I have worked with young people. I have been an educational counselor for youth of color, international students, students with disabilities, advanced learners, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Questioning, HIV +, homeless, sex trafficked, national and international scholars, gang affected, undocumented, coming out of corrections, gifted and talented, wealthy, impoverished, refugee, mentally ill, addicted, and the suburban middle class. From elite prep schools to GED programs for homeless teens in the Bronx, each student has been a universe unto themselves.

Carlton is the current Director of Educational Partnerships with Cross-Cultural Solutions, the leading volunteer service NGO in North America. Formerly he was an Associate Dean and Associate Professor at Manipal International University in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In addition he was the Assistant Director with the Center for International Programs in the State University of New York system where he managed over 45 international programs and served in a statewide initiative using technology to enhance curricular internationalization. In 2011, he was recognized with a national award from Diversity.com for his work with underrepresented students in international education.  

A Simon’s Rock Early College, Reed College, and School for International Training alumnus, Carlton is a human rights activist, a vocal performance artist, and an international educator.  He has worked with the Soros Foundation’s scholarship division traveling to Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.  While serving as the Associate Director for the Institute of International Liberal Education at Bard College (IILE), he managed study abroad programs to Central European University in Budapest, Smolny College in Russia, and The International Human Rights Exchange in South Africa.  

From Shaming to Reclaiming - AARP -Gay & Grey Event

From Shaming to Reclaiming

90 minute facilitated discussion

Aids Survivor Syndrome

Let’sKickASS - PDX

Carlton Rounds - Trainer and Author

AARP Gay and Grey Event, April 2014

Materials needed:

1. Flip chart and easel
2. Magic Markers
3. Tape for hanging sheets of flip chart on the wall
4. Handouts
5. Name Tags

PART ONE  - 10 Minutes

Introductions and Exercises to Focus the Group

Greet the people coming in into the room, ask them to find a seat and await instructions.  We will be seated dispersed within the group. (If we have nametags, ask people to write their name and put them on.) Leader will introduce the team hosts and go over the group agreements for the discussion: Jim Clay will tend to the late arrivals and welcome them to the group, directing them to sit down. Thank them for coming and let them know that their interest and participation is powerful and appreciated and important!   This will be written up on the flip chart.  

Establish a recorder for the group agreements.

(These can be pre-written with space for any extra points.)

1. What is shared in the room during our discussion is confidential
2. People are coming from different places and experiences, and each person’s story is respected and valued.
3. Use I statements when contributing to the discussion. Avoid generalizations.
4. Step up and step back.  – Means step up if you are quiet, step back if you are very verbal.
5. Listen to understand, not to respond.
6. Self-Care: Share what is comfortable for you.
7. Add anymore?

Facilitate: Who is in the room? (This five-word question is important. I like having it spoken verbatim, with a pause before and after, using these five words.)

Stand up in circle: Please tell us your first name, and in one sentence, what drew you to this discussion today?   - (go around whole circle one time)  

Utilize a timekeeper/monitor to help people move along with the sharing.

PART TWO  - 15 min

Next Exercise:  Cross Over

Directions:

Ask the group to stand up and form a line against the wall. Have them face outward in no special order. Explain to them that they are going to be asked questions, and if they identify or interpret the question as relevant to them, they are to leave the line and walk out 10 feet and stand still. Remind them that they are not obligated to answer a question if they are not comfortable.

Reminder: NO talking during the exercise. Silence is required.

1. Crossover if you have lost a person to HIV. (After they move, state this phrase: Notice who is with you, notice who is not.
2. Crossover if you have ever felt that the loss of these people to be overwhelming. (After they move, state this phrase: Notice who is with you, notice who is not.
3. Crossover if you feel if you have ever felt stigmatized or singled out. (After they move, state this phrase: Notice who is with you, notice who is not
4. Crossover if you think HIV negative people can be impacted by HIV in some ways that are similar to how HIV+ people are impacted. (After they move, state this phrase: Notice who is with you, notice who is not.
5. Cross over If you know a Long Term Survivor of HIV. (After they move, state this phrase: Notice who is with you, notice who is not.
6. Crossover if you know of any programs run by or specifically catering to Long Term Survivors. (After they move, state this phrase: Notice who is with you, notice who is not.
7. Crossover if you know or can imagine what AIDS Survivor Syndrome is? (After they move, state this phrase: Notice who is with you, notice who is not.
8. Crossover if you consider yourself a Long Term Survivor. (After they move, state this phrase: Notice who is with you, notice who is not.

HAVE THEM RETURN TO THEIR SEATS

Processing Questions after the group returns to their chairs in the one large circle.

Questions Posed In Sequence

1. How did it feel to crossover?
2. What do you know or imagine about the group that you did not know before?

PART THREE  - 20 Minutes

Next Exercise:

LEAD FACILITATOR will give the instructions on group breakdown:

(Break Into groups depending on size. Either 4, one with each facilitator, or smaller groups depending on the number.  If the group is small, we can still use 4 small groups. If the group is less than 8, then we will decide at the time.) Best not to sit with a bunch of people you already know.

They can bring their chairs to form the groups we choose.

The groups will get a piece of Flipchart Paper. (Will they need to sit near a wall, so paper can be taped to the wall?? It’s a big room.) They will decide on who will play the recorder, the reporter, the facilitator, and the time keeper. LEAD FACILITATOR will go over the roles with the groups. If the group is small, we will just have a recorder and reporter and one of the hosts will facilitate.

In the small groups, we will ask each small group to brainstorm ideas related to definition of AIDS Survivor Syndrome. Each Group will answer one question:

(Facilitators do not contribute but draw out what others are thinking.)

1. What is a Long Term Survivor? Define long–term.
2. What contribute to AIDS Survivor Syndrome?
3. Who is affected by AIDS Survivor Syndrome?
4. What kind of behaviors might be a sign that someone may be experiencing AIDS Survivor Syndrome?

The reporter from each group will present for the group and HE/SHE will be writing the responses on the Flip Chart, so that we can see the collective contribution of knowledge.

FACILITATOR will congratulate the groups and will reveal the established definition that will be written on a poster on the wall. He will compare the findings.

Definition: ASS

AIDS Survivor Syndrome (ASS) describes the collection of signs & symptoms affecting long-term survivors of HIV. The signs & symptoms of ASS include combinations of depression, survivor guilt, lack of future orientation; personality changes; anger; anxiety; emotional numbness; insomnia; social withdrawal & isolation; hopelessness; substance abuse; sexual risk-taking; and/or emotional numbness.

PART FOUR  - 15 Minutes

Facilitator presents the origin of LKA.org, reads its mission statement, and hands out the information flyer with the website. He then talks about LKA-PDX and the movement. He invites the good ideas he has heard to contribute to the group.

PART FIVE  - 30 minutes

Finally, the head trainer facilitates the final closing sharing circle.

1. What will you take away from this discussion?
2. Can you say one word that sums up how you are feeling?
3. Facilitators thank the group.

Let them know we are here after if they want to talk.

Design Your Own University Training - Upward Bound/ School for International Training 2000

Design Your Own University

Experiential Exercise Breakdown

Projected Student Number: 30 (six groups of five)

Abstract: Each group is given a special document that endows them with the power to design their very own university or college.  The letter outlines the task, “Your student group has been selected by a panel of educational experts to design and plan a new university. In order to complete this task, each person will have to participate in individual and group decision-making.  

Each University Design Group of five will meet and decide on a process to pick a name, or a name itself as well as the location of the college and the size.  Each of the five students will also play the part of an expert in a subject.  Each student will be handed a folded piece of paper that will reveal his or her expert status and the information they need to gather from the other experts in their field (from the other groups) to bring back to their University Design Group.  

There are five experts as follows:

1) Admissions

2) Curriculum and Faculty

3) Student Life

4) Financial Aid and Scholarships

5) Reputation/ Claim to Fame

Experts meet for information gathering and strategy and then return to their University Design Group to share their discoveries and to illicit questions from their team.  Then they go back to the expert panel to see if they have any more questions.  Finally they return to their University Design Groups for the last time to design their universities and plan their presentation strategies.  They will present an answer to the question, “Why should a student choose ___________ University or College?”

After each presentation questions are allowed by the audience to be answered by the design team and its experts. (Optional)

ADMISSIONS POLL: After all groups have presented their schools, by a show of hands, have participants indicate their school of choice/

Final Processing Questions

• How did it feel to design your own college?

• Were there good experts in your group?

• What was easiest to agree upon?

• What was a challenge to agree upon?

• Based on the presentations given, what is the most important aspect of a university?

• How well do you know what you want? Is it different now than when we started today?

• Do you know any schools like those described here?

• Is any school likely to have all the things you want?  Most of the things you want?

• How did it feel to have the tables turned, to be able to design the school you want instead of hunting for something you are not sure exists?

• What would you like to know more about?

• What factors (real or imagined) keep schools like these from existing?

Evaluation Facilitated by Students

1. Strengths
2. Criticisms

Workshop leader returns to room to respond to feedback.

ADMISSIONS EXPERT

Questions to Consider When Designing Your University

What kind of student do you want?

What kind of student will you accept?

What is the average high school grade point average (GPA) for this student?

What is the average SAT score?

Will you require an interview?

What extracurricular activities are weighted more heavily in the admissions process/

What is the gender mix?

What is the ethnic/ racial mix?

What is the sexual preference mix?

Does the college admit students in spite of their financial need?

When is your deadline?

When do you notify acceptance?

What is your rejection rate?

What two essay questions do you want applicants to write about?

Will excellent athletes or people with special talents receive preference for admission?

How important is community service in the application process?

Should the application be typed or hand-written?

What do you do with late applications?

How are admissions decisions made? (By committee, by one person, by peers)?

CURRICULUM/ FACULTY

Questions to Consider When Designing Your University

What is the student to teacher ratio?

Why do you believe this ratio to be ideal?

What is the average age of a professor?

What is the gender mix of your faculty?

What is the ethnic/ racial mix of your faculty?

Do you have any famous people teaching at your university? If so, what do they teach?

Are your classes conducted in a formal or informal style?

Do you have study abroad programs? If so, where?

How are students tested?

How do students evaluate professors?

What are the five most important departments or areas of study at the school?

Where are your classes held? (Describe the physical environment)

Can you receive credit for work done outside the classroom? (Community service, internships, work)

Will students receive letter grades, pass/fail, written evaluations or something else?

What would a student have to do to fail out of the university?

How many years would it take to complete a degree?  How many classes each term?

STUDENT LIFE

Questions to Consider When Designing Your University

How powerful is the student government?

Are students required to live on campus?

Give a list of the top ten extracurricular activities at the university in order of priority/ popularity.

What safety regulations or rules would be necessary to ensure peaceful coexistence?

What circumstances would get a student expelled from the university?

How prevalent are drugs and alcohol?

How safe are women and minorities on campus?

Are their fraternities and sororities on campus?  Why or why not?

How many international students do you have on your campus?

What is the most popular student sponsored event each year?

Describe your dining hall.  What is the food like?  

What is your school mascot?

What role does athletics play at your school?

What is the greatest challenge in keeping students occupied?

What do you anticipate would be the three biggest student life problems at your school?

How would you minimize these problems?

FINANCIAL AID/ SCHOLARSHIPS

Questions to Consider When Designing Your University

How much does your school cost per year?

Are their special scholarships? If so, for what and how much?

Who is eligible for scholarships? Are they need-based or merit-based?

How do you decide how many students get scholarships after they qualify?

What do students have to so to maintain their scholarships?

Are there any special circumstances that would influence your college to give or take away money?

Do you have athletic scholarships?

How much does it cost to apply to your school?

What percentage of your students are on scholarship?

Do you have special scholarships for women or minorities?

How would a perspective student find out about these scholarships?

Do you have any way for students to work for the college to help offset the cost?

Can you use your tuition money toward study abroad expenses?

How helpful is the financial aid office in answering students’ questions?

Is the cost of the education worth it?  Is this school a bargain or a risk?

Does you school participate in federal and state financial aid programs?

How much will most students have to pay back in student loans?

REPUTATION/ CLAIM TO FAME

Questions to Consider When Designing Your University

What is your college famous for?

What is your slogan?

Why would a student choose you over another interesting college?

What do your graduates go on to do?

Do you have any famous graduates?  Who are they and what are they famous for?

Please interview a current student at this university for a personal testimonial (to be used for your presentation).

Tell us about the notable history of your college.  Who founded it and on what idea or principle?

What has been your greatest collegiate scandal?  How did you overcome it?

What do other colleges and universities think of your school?

Is your school a responsible community member and contributor?

If your school could contribute one thing that would change the world, what would it be?

If another school started to steal your entire student pool what would you do?

What three things do you do to attract students to your school?

What is the average starting salary of a graduate from your school?

Do you have a career/job placement office?

What percentage of students graduate?

What percentage of students go on to graduate school?

What is on the front cover of your college catalog? What does that say about your school’s priorities?