2013 - 2014 Projects

College of Environmental Design Materials Store

The College of Environmental Design (CED), in partnership with the Educational Opportunity (EOP) program in the Division of Equity & Inclusion, will create a new materials store in Wurster Hall that will benefit students by:

  • investing 40% of the store profit in CED's Fee Waiver Program for Pell Grant and Dream Act recipients;
  • providing high-quality supplies to CED's students at low cost;
  • reducing financial and logistical burdens for students in finding large, faculty-approved, cut-to-size materials; and
  • offering store credit as an option for students qualifying for CED's Fee Waiver Program.

Contacts: Assistant Dean Patty MeadDirector of CED Office of Undergraduate Advising Susan Hagstrom

Rising Above Professional Obstacles: Career Development for Staff of Color

The Council of Ethnic Staff Organizations (CESO), in partnership with Staff Diversity Initiatives (SDI), will create a career development brown bag series. A staff intern will be hired to conduct research on stigma and prejudice, unconscious bias, and stereotype threat mitigation; identify realistic goals to create a "critical mass" of staff of color in middle and senior positions; conduct an online survey of all staff of color to determine career and professional development needs; and plan and implement a brown bag series based on their findings, featuring positive role models on campus and externally.

Contacts:  Director Sid ReelCouncil of Ethnic Staff Organizations (CESO)

Authentic Berkeley: Celebrating Berkeley's Diverse Student Narratives through Digital Storytelling

The Educational Opportunity Program (EOP), in partnership with Apple Inc. and the Berkeley Art Studio, will lead a 2-semester production (video, sound, photo) course for 30 diverse and largely low-income students to create digital narratives of their stories and experiences. These narratives will then be posted to a website for all to share. Students will be chosen by an application process, be provided iPads, and attend classes at the Berkeley Art Studio.

Contact: Interim Director Julian Ledesma, EOP

International Educational Opportunities for Underrepresented Students

Eight Title VI National Resource Centers (NRCs) and the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) will design and implement a 198 level course, "Accessing International Education", for low-income, first-generation, historically underrepresented undergraduat students. The course will include guest speakers from several industries and underrepresented communities to talk about enhanced career prospects with international education. Each student will develop a personal essay or research project to be used in applying to international education programs.

Contact:  Manager Lydia Kiesling, Center for Middle Eastern Studies

'Difference at Play': Gender, Sexuality, and Queerness in Video Games

Sponsored by the Department of Gender and Women's Studies and the Berkeley Center for New Media goals of this project are to open new discussions around six, gender, and video games in an inclusive, innovative, and distinctly "playful" manner, and to encourage participants to think differently about diversity in interactive media with the goal of fighting stereotyping and discrimination. During the fall 2014 semester, using a model developed by CITRIS (Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society), there will be a Queerness and Games Design challenge. This challenge will bring together a diverse group of student designers, developers, and humanists to envision new possibilities for queer prresentation in games. The challenge will include UC Berkeley students as well as those from San Francisco Art Institute, San Jose State University, and invited teenagers from San Francisco's Mission District. Winners of the design challenge will receive an award stipend.

Contacts: Associate Professor Mel Chen, Gender and Women's Studies; Bonnie Ruberg, Ph.D. candidate, Comparative Literature, New Media, and  Gender and Women's Studies

Faculty Luncheon Program

Students participating in the Autism Spectrum Disorder Social Skills group, coordinated by the Disabled Students' Program (DSP), with support from the University Section Club, will meet in a formal lunch setting with faculty members to engage in conversation about ways to approach faculty members for academic questions and support. These meetings will also provide faculty members with the opportunity to understand some of the challenges faced by autistic students in the university setting.

Contact: Coordinator Kevin Shields, Disabled Students' Residential Program (DSRP)