Campus Currents

Wednesday, November 30, 2022 1:30-2:20p
Center for Inclusive Excellence

Join History in the Making for the second discussion about the ways in which modern-day society continues to ignore and undervalue Indigenous lives. At this meeting, we will discuss missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW) in the US. We’ll be talking about why MMIW activism matters and how the US legal system directly affects Indigenous communities.

For additional context about this important topic prior to the meeting, visit the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center.

Friday, Dec. 2, 5 p.m.

Join McAuliffe Center staff outside the McCarthy Center's main entrance to learn about the International Space Station, its current crew, and experiments being conducted onboard.

From approximately 5:15-5:20pm, watch as the ISS passes overhead with a warm cup of hot chocolate!

Continue the fun by observing a waxing gibbous Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, the Pleiades star cluster, and Albireo double star with telescopes set up behind O'Connor Hall.

Schedule

5:00-5:30pm - Outside the McCarthy Center’s Main Entrance
Hot Chocolate & ISS Pass 
5:30-6:30pm - Behind O'Connor Hall
Stargazing with Telescopes

Finals are just around the corner, which means it must be time to Pause for Paws.

Monday, Dec. 5th, and Wednesday, Dec. 7th
McCarthy Center Alumni Room, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Join Framingham State Activities Board, SEALS, and The Health and Wellness Center for our annual Pause for Paws event! Come snuggle some pups, enjoy some treats, and make DIY stress balls!

By Publications Intern Leighah Beausoleil

Echoing among the over 60 interviews conducted with BIPOC scientists in the making of “Young Nerds of Color,” is the shared experience of walking into a room and being the only person of color.

Melinda Lopez described the feeling interviewees shared of being simultaneously “hypervisible” and yet invisible as white colleagues fail to acknowledge the contributions they have made.

This experience is one of many that cast and production team members of the play “Young Nerds of Color” discussed during a panel discussion Nov. 9.

The panel consisted of Des Bennett, a dramaturg and community engagement manager for Central Square Theater; Eboney Hearn, executive director of the Office of Engineering Outreach Programs at MIT and interviewee for the play; Kortney Adams, an actor in the play; and Lopez, playwright.

This challenge of the duality in visibility BIPOC scientists often face highlights the value of being “seen,” which is emphasized toward the end of the play, Bennett said.

They said, “The importance of being seen is to know that you are valued in a space, and I think that is a basic-level human need - to know that you belong and feel belonging.”

Bennett added, “Without that, people suffer.”

Adams said not only is diversity in STEM important for people as human beings, but also from a “mercenary standpoint.”

She added the way to build an effective and efficient “creative scientific team” is to make it diverse, allowing for quality questions and solutions that may not have been possible otherwise.

Adams said, however, simply diversifying a team is not enough. “If you want people to really bring their full selves into the space you need to support that.”

Hearn discussed an experience she had as a part of a state-wide diversity steering committee focused on computing. When meeting, she wanted to share potential solutions to some of the problems the committee faced, but that would have required her to be vulnerable and she did not feel it was a safe space to do so.

After sharing this concern with the group, she said other members thanked her as they felt the same way and the committee brought in a person with a theater background who led them through some community building exercises.

Bennett said, “I think being able to bring humanity, in particular into the sciences, helps us view each other as humans who also have respect, and so taking those basic human steps can be extremely helpful.”

By Leighah Beausoleil, publications intern

The remains of over 1,000 Native American children have been discovered near former Canadian residential schools since May 2021, according to Jon Ribeiro, a history major.

In some cases, these schools aimed at “civilizing” and “assimilating” Native Americans operated for over 100 years, Ribeiro said.

He added these are hundreds of “missing children, unmarked graves, unnamed children, and unclaimed children,” who through this system have been “lost” and “ripped away from their families.”

Danni Marquez, a history major, said, “The indigenous children suffered physical harm and punishment for speaking their own language, forced conversion to Christianity, diet restrictions, rape, forced labor, and the children were also forced to celebrate Catholic holidays, including Columbus Day, which as we know is an extremely controversial holiday for many reasons.”

Ribeiro said, despite all of this violence, forced removal, and genocide, curricula across schools in the United States tend to lack in its representation of this history.

With November being Native American Heritage Month, Ribeiro and Marquez along with history major Abby Versackas hosted a discussion for students, faculty, and staff to discuss and better understand the Native American genocide and the ways these populations continue to be oppressed.

The discussion took place in the Center for Inclusive Excellence (CIE) Nov. 16, with approximately 15 attendees.

At the start of the discussion, Eric Nguyen, director of the CIE, highlighted the University’s Land Acknowledgement Agreement, which recognizes that Framingham resides on Nipmuc, Massachusetts, Pawtucket, and Agawam lands.

Nguyen said community members should not only recognize the genocide and forced removal Indigenous people faced, but also appreciate their “legacy of resilience” with a “rich culture and history.”

Attendees also voiced ways they can take action based on what they learned from the discussion.

Ribeiro said community members can follow Native American creators on social media such as TikTok and Instagram, support the Indigenous Foundation and other organizations and businesses, continue to do research on this history, and amplify voices.

“Make an effort,” he said, adding people should advocate for their schools to teach this history and use the word “genocide” because if these children were not too young to face this treatment, students are not too young to learn about it.

Versackas said, “Indigenous people are not a reference to people of the past. They are a group of people who live today all throughout North America - all throughout the world. … So please continue to do the work and educate yourself and educate others.”

Mix and Bake to Give and Take: Blue Ribbon Winner Peanut Clusters!

Friday, December 9th at 3:30

Register here!

'Tis the season to celebrate the end of the semester. Join us to mix and bake some peanut clusters. This effortless candy is great to pack up and share or nibble on throughout the winter break, but fair warning, it’s hard to eat just one! Come have some fun as we let the secret out of the bag for these simple treats, mix up a batch of delicious and award-winning (blue ribbon at the Pima County Fair) treats, and of course, taste a cluster or two!