HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuman Relations Commission - Minutes - 05/17/196600
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JOINT MEETING
FORT COLLINS COMMISSION AND CSU COMMITTEE
ON HUMAN RELATIONS
The Fort Collins Commission and the CSU Committee on human Relations
held a joint meeting with the public invited on Tuesday evening, May
17, 1966, 7:00 P.M. in Room 214 of the CSU student center. Approxi-
mately thirty-five people were in attendance.
Dr. Maurice Albertson chairmaned the meeting in the absence of Dr.
Glenn Dildine. He first briefly reviewed the nature of the two
previous public joint meetings which were devoted chiefly to Housing
and Employment. The general purpose of these meetings being to pro-
mote harmonious human relations in the Fort COIlinS Community.
The specific purpose of the May 17th meeting is to examine various
facets of the subject "Education and Communication" as they apply to
human relations. The speakers of the evening are Isuperintendent I. K.
Boltz, Dean Burns B. Crookston, Dr. Fred Romero and Mrs. Lena Archuleta
of Denver, Dr. George Febinger, Mrs. Zoe Carrigan, and Edd Gillespie.
The general format of the meeting is that each speaker will present a
five-minute talk on the policy and operation of the group or ;agency he
represents. The speakers will then engage in a panel discussion, which
will be followed by questions from the audience.
Among the topics to be discussed will be: How can the resources of
the community (schools, churches, parent groups, welfare agencies,
volunteers, etc.) be mobilized to help raise education and cultu -I
standards? What can be done to help motivate the economically dis-
advantaged to utilize the community's educational facilities? What
are some of the significant education and communication barriers
affecting interracial and inter -cultural relationships?
The first speaker - Burns B. Crookston, Dean of Students at CSU, said
that the administration and State Board of Agriculture endeavor to
keep discrimination off the University Campus to the point of obtain-
ing a non-discrimination agreement signed by those who want to list
housing with the university. -He realized that it was faculty and
students who played the major role in getting the CSU Haman 1clations
Committee into being. He admitted that the University does not have
an organized program as such for the improvement of Human Relations
and feels that not as much is being done as is necessary.
Dr. George Febinger, instructor in education, was the second speaker.
He said that the university education department has as its major ob-
jective that of training teachers and does not spend any time :in train-
ing for the improvement of human relations --of the 32 hours required
for professional education they take one course that touches on the
subject. The department encourages tutoring in Buckingham, working
in Buckingham, and working in the cultural center organized as part
of the "Head Start" program.
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Mrs. Lena Archuleta, Library Supervisor for the Denver Public Schools
and a former school teacher, mentioned first that opportunities for
education are not equal. The home location plays a great part on
how much integration there is in a society. She said that school
officials bus children all over town trying to keep numbers equal
when they should be busing students to the areas where the schools
are weak, in an effort to improve these schools.
She went on to say that high schools are not graduating a sufficient
number of bi-lingual students. The students study a language, but
they do not study the language as they would use it in every -day life.
Our institutions of higher learning are not equipping the teachers ad-
equately, to handle human relations probler;s; they do not give sufficient
sociology and anthropology. Mrs. Archuleta stated that another break-
down is the insufficient participation in activities by children --
there are certain children in all activities and too many children in
no activities.
Dr. Fred Romero, research consultant for the State Department of'Educ-
ation, once a teacher, began his remarks by pointing out the need for
a thorough understanding of the acculturation process. lie stated that
there is a lack of -understanding on the part of the professional educ-
ators and lay people as to what this concept or process entails.
Dr. Romero went on to say that the Latin American Research and Service
Agency has been conducting studies and making proposals. They have
proposed that a marginal individual be utilized as a transmitting agent
from the dominant group to the poverty-stricken indigenous member; that
we study the family structure of a Spanish-American family in trans-
ition; and that we determine the reasons for lack of consultation with
psychiatrists by Spanish-American families. A proposal being consid-
ered deals with communication --for instance --vans being designed for
the purpose of bringing the general community, including all service
agencies, to the neighborhood so that the indigenous individual can
avail himself of the information needed to maneuver in society.
I. K. Boltz, Superintendent of Poudre R-1 schools, spoke on the various
educational and training programs carried on in our community today.
We have basic education from illiterate through high school, adult
education and languages.
1. High School Completion Program
a.. For adults
b. For teenagers and young people, (an effort to minimize
drop -outs)
I) Work-study program
Z) Work -training program
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2. Head Start program
a. Children and parents alike
b. Spanish-American and iuigio
"Head Start is an excellent program --our citizens have been fighting
it rather than helping to develop it,,, Mr. Boltz said.
Zoe Carrigan, coordinator of extension service of CSU, stated tL-a.t
they used to provide help for the rural !'Ow -income family, and that
it now includes the low-income city family as well. In her line of,
work, the new approach is to help the low-income, minority groups,
uneducated families solve their own problems according to their ideas
and their needs as they themselves see it.
Mrs. Carrigan had two of her helpers ii; the Family -centered Adult
Basic -education group with her. These two helpers said that effective
education and communication with local Spanish-f-merican families r.e-
quires personal contact, witli the workers taking the initiative.
Edd Gillespie, pre -veterinary student from Denver, reported on his
work with the Buckingham Project. He worked the summers of 1964 Und
1965, and the study hall programs during the school years 1964-1965
and 1965-1966. Growth in the program was from S participants to 75.
With the project there were problems but he said he saw them all as
minor problems. There was some damage to property and a sma.li dis-
cipline problem which came early in the program. Ile also said the
children that came at first were quite non -communicative, but as
progressed, they started visiting with the study hall supervisors.
Teachers of these children saw decided improvements in their school
work. The study hall worker tried to know the children at home,
school, and in the community.
General Discussion
Dr. Romero asked this question, "To what extent do the schools in Fort
Collins thrust their people into situations where the children have to
assume leadership roles?" Mr. Boltz answered that some teachers, of
course, handle this better than others.
Another question was "What parental program do we have that will get
the parents out of the Colony into the schools where they can become
a contributing factor in the educational process?" Mrs. Townsend, a
worker with Mrs. Carrigan, stated that as she teaches them in Adult
Basic Education to cook, she also teaches, them to read.
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It was also pointed out that the i.nadcgaacies in the homes are a cause
for the break -down of communication and education. As a society, we
should encourage the development of the native folk arts --embroidery,
painting and crafts.
A most appropriate remark relative to libraries brought out that in
the development of libraries, we siiould not just purchase best-sellers,
but should offer a complete program for eL11 types of readers as well.
A general conclusion was that it takes a person -to -person contact of
genuine sincerity to obtain results. Linda Bevard condaented in detail
on her success with families on a person -to -person basis.
S. R. Schneider
Secretary
Fort Collins Commission
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