University of St. Thomas Third Annual CommUNITY Week celebration will begin Sunday, September 28, 2008
Gospel Music concert, Susan L. Taylor, and Penumbra “Fences” Symposium is all part of CommUNITY Week events at the University of St. Thomas.
CommUNITY Week is an excellent time to reflect on the important roles that art, culture, spirituality and learning have in our lives. It is a time for the University of St. Thomas and Twin Cities communities to share and exchange through formal and informal networks.
In its third year, CommUNITY Week has turned the spotlight on the vital contribution that culture and spirituality make in learning and in life. Music, faith, books, theater and dialogue about uncomfortable issues are a part of daily life and have a lasting impact. They inspire and challenge us and broaden our horizons. We respect the Ramadan and Rosh Hashanah religious traditions as we reflect and celebrate.
The third annual CommUNITY Week celebration will begin Sunday, Sept. 28, with an Ecumenical Gospel Music Celebration fundraiser in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas. As a learning community rich in faith and heritage, it is important that we work toward uniting our community through a greater sense of shared spirituality. The Office of Institutional Diversity continues to support St. Thomas’ strategic priorities of access, excellence and Catholic identity.
One goal of the OID is to improve and enhance campus climate through a number of intentional initiatives. One way to do this is to fortify our humanity in the name of God through gospel music. Music is a universal language that transcends social status, ethnic origin, gender, generation, faiths, culture and background.
The Ecumenical Gospel Music Celebration fundraiser is a diverse program that features gospel music performed by a mixture of Twin Cities musicians and choirs. Funds raised will benefit diversity and access initiatives in the Office of Institutional Diversity.
Award-winning artists performing in this celebration will include: Bruce A. Henry, Debbie Duncan, T. Mychael Rambo and Yolande Bruce. Henry will serve as guest director and Rambo as master of ceremonies.
The Hallel Praise Team Ministry from Holding Forth the Word of Life Ministries International and the Voices of Unity Choir from Pilgrim Baptist Church will join in this jubilant celebration from 3 to 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 28, in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Legendary editor emerita of Essence magazine, Susan L. Taylor, also will headline CommUNITY Week. Taylor has empowered the powerless and provided hope for “all God’s children” through her famous “In the Spirit” columns. She is an accomplished author, editor, humanitarian and national spokeswoman for National Cares Mentoring Movement.
Taylor will join our community for two major events: 1) “All About Love: Living Fearlessly in a Changing World,” 7-9 p.m. Monday, Sept. 29, in Room 304, Murray-Herrick Campus Center (followed by a reception and book signing), and 2) “Diversity Dialogues: Lifting Voices in the Circle,” 11:45 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 30, in Room 304, Murray-Herrick Campus Center. Get details on these events in the CommUNITY Week schedule that follows this column.
I appreciate the forward thinking of co-chairs Michael Glirbas and Cynthia Fraction. In addition, we always are fortunate to have eager students, faculty and staff who contribute their time by serving on the Steering and Volunteer Committee. A special “thank you” to all these willing volunteers who publicly support our diversity initiatives. In addition, thank you Gayle Lamb and Food Service for providing special menus in various dining facilities throughout this week.
I personally invite students, faculty and staff members to attend as many events as possible. I encourage faculty to provide students with co-curricular learning opportunities by considering CommUNITY Week events for extra credit. On a college campus, diversity becomes intellectually, culturally and socially productive and central to the university’s educational mission when it is a source of mutual enrichment to all members of the university community. In this way, education becomes a tool through which the fact of diversity is transformed to exciting and productive actions of diversity, creating a climate and environment so stimulating and attractive that the experience of difference becomes a source of excellence and an instrument of achievement.
A very special “thank you” is extended to all CommUNITY Week sponsors for their generosity and support. Each sponsor is recognized in the schedule of events below. Visit our Web site for additional details.
Here is the schedule of CommUNITY Week events:
Sunday, Sept. 28
- Ecumenical Gospel Music Celebration fundraiser, 3-5:30 p.m. in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas, honorary co-host Anchor Hilyard Lodge. Tickets will be on sale at the St. Thomas Box Office and Expeditions, lower level, Murray-Herrick Campus Center, and online Sept. 17 through Sept. 26. Tickets prices are $25 for general admission and $15 for students (with ID). Discounts are available for general admission groups (10 tickets for $225 and 20 tickets for $450). Tickets may be purchased concert day from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Box Office. VISA, Master Card, Discover and student eXpress cards will be accepted. Call the Box Office at (651) 962-6137 with questions.
Monday, Sept. 29
- “All About Love: Living Fearlessly in a Changing World,” featuring Susan L. Taylor, editor emerita of Essence Magazine, 7-9 p.m. in Room 304, Murray-Herrick Campus Center, co-sponsored by the Undergraduate Student Government and the University Lectures Committee. A reception and book-signing will follow the lecture. This event is free and open to the public, but requires a ticket. Students, faculty, staff and community members may pick up tickets beginning Sept. 24. For information on how to get your free tickets, visit the OID Web site.
Wednesday, Oct. 1
Penumbra Theater “Fences” Symposium, 6-9 p.m. in the McNeely Hall Great Room, Room 100, co-sponsored by STAR. Panelists include: Dr. D. Todd Lawrence, Dr. Buffy Smith and Dr. Lawrence Potter Jr., University of St. Thomas; Dr. Peter Rachleff and Beth Cleary, Macalester College; and Stephanie Lein Walseth, August Wilson Fellow, University of Minnesota.
The Twin Cities Black Film Festival Celebrates its 6th Annual Black Film Festival
On Friday, September 19, 2008 - The Twin Cities Black Film Festival Celebrates as we kick off our 6th Annual Black Film Festival. The Hollywood Fashion Show will be held at THE LOUNGE, located at 411 2nd Avenue North. The After Party will be at the world renowned W Hotel located at 821 Marquette Ave. S. Minneapolis, MN 55402. SPREAD THE WORD… Be in the Place 2 B!
Our 6th Annual Film Festival is here! Book your tickets in advance for some exceptional savings! Use the helpful links below to make this weekend a breeze.
Festival (TCBFF) runs Thursday, Sept. 18 through Saturday, Sept. 20, 2008, premiering with “Love … & Other 4 Letter Words” starring Tangi Miller at 7:30 PM Thursday, September 18, 2008. An opening night reception follows from 10:00 PM to 2:00 AM at The Lounge, 411 Second Avenue North in Minneapolis.
Film screenings will be held on Friday, September 19 from 5:30 to 8:30 PM and Saturday, September 20 from 11:30 AM to 8:00 PM at Augsburg College, Sateren Auditorium, 2211 Riverside Avenue S., Minneapolis. Full Screening Schedule follows. Tickets are on sale at the door $10.00 or online / phone: 612-874-8891. For additional information go to the Web site / or call 763-546-8715.
The Hollywood Fashion Show on Friday, September 19, 2008 at The Lounge starts at 10:00PM and features Minnesota Vikings Adrian Peterson and Darren Sharper among celebrity models, followed by a TCBFF Reception from 11:00 PM to 2:00 PM, preceded by registration and networking 8:00 to 9:30 PM in the W Hotel® at the Foshay Tower, 821 Marquette Avenue. Admission is $15.00 with a festival pass, $25.00 without a pass. Sponsors are W Hotels®, Nike, Remy Martin, Heineken and Coogi.
“Youth in Hollywood” panel discussion is Saturday September 20, 2008 at 2:30 PM with special guest Nate Parker, star of the film “The Great Debaters” (2007), directed by Denzel Washington, and choreographer-actor Darrin Dewitt Henson at Augsburg College, Sateren Auditorium, 2211 Riverside Ave. South, Minneapolis. Phone 612-331-1000, www.augsburg.edu.
Individual movie tickets are $10.00 at the door; 1-day pass, $25.00; 3-day pass $35.00; VIP pass $50.00 includes refreshments and a Swag Bag. Festival parties with passes are free; without passes $10.00. Tickets are also available online at www.tcbff.com or at Malobe Natural Hair Salon, 915 West Lake Street, Minneapolis, (612) 823-8626. The official TCBFF headquarters are in the new W Hotel® in the Foshay Tower, 821 Marquette Avenue, Minneapolis.
3 Day Festival Passes are $30 in Advance or $35 at the Festival.
The 3 Day Pass includes:
- Unlimited Movie Screenings
- Panel Discussions
- Entrance into the Festival Parties
- Hollywood Fashion Show - save $5 on admittance (reg. price $20)
For more information and to purchase tickets, go to www.tcbff.com.
Psychological Screening - The Good the Bad the Ugly, Don’t let the System Dictate for your Children!
Informing Parents of Their Right to Opt Out of Preschool Screening
The state must now inform parents that they have the right to opt out of preschool screening. The current law states that parents may conscientiously object to screening, but public notices to parents are highly misleading. They usually state that Minnesota law requires all preschoolers to be screened before kindergarten. Most parents were not told that their children do not have to participate in the highly subjective mental screening or the nosy personal questions about family life that ask about gun ownership, eating habits and “exposure to violence.”
This is a very important victory that will shield many families from intrusive data collection and many children from false mental illness labeling at an early age that will follow them throughout their years. It will also reduce unnecessary referrals for dangerous psychiatric treatment. Great thanks for this goes especially to Rep. Steve Gottwalt (R-St. Cloud), who sponsored this language as separate legislation, and to Sen. Betsy Wergin (R-Princeton) who worked to get it amended into the Senate bill. Thanks also to the DFL leadership for leaving this common sense parental rights language in the final bill.
Infant Mental Health Screening — Fails
The entire section of legislation to establish a Kindergarten Readiness Advisory Board that included infant mental health was dropped from the final K-12 bill.
This would have affected all children, birth through age 5, in the recommendations of a statewide early childhood system to be designed by this appointed board. (See EdWatch update here.) Part of that system would have included infant mental health as part of a federal grant program that seeks to “screen all children birth to age five early and continuously” for “behavioral health.” “Behavioral health” is used to describe socio-emotional or mental health. It requires screening and treatment which more and more frequently is drugs, even in very young children. Although this Advisory Board, appointed by elected officials, would have been preferable to the barely accountable MELF system which did pass (see Nanny State Expansion, Part I), concerns remained. The Advisory Board was directed to recommend a statewide early childhood system that included infant mental health. In addition, preschool mental screening continues in this state, with extremely vague or non-existent statutory authority and weak or non-existent parental consent or notification. Hopefully, this existing screening will be curbed by the parents’ rights language on screening that was passed and discussed just above (See item #1). Thanks goes to the Governor for threatening a veto and the House Republican Caucus for being willing to uphold a veto of the education bill that starved the funds for yet another bureaucratic intrusion into family life.
TeenScreen — Passes
Funding for mental screening programs like TeenScreen passed in the education spending bill (HF2245). Due to enormous opposition and pressure from you, the public, this program went from “in your face” specific implementation of the very controversial TeenScreen program to the stealth description of “voluntary, opt-in suicide prevention tools” in the Safe Schools Levy. Opt-in does not mean that parents have requested psychiatric screening or that they have been informed of the dangers of the program. [For more information on TeenScreen , click here.]
TeenScreen must be challenged at the individual school district level. Some districts in Minnesota have already been implementing TeenScreen, even before receiving the additional money this levy will provide. However, once parents and school boards are notified of the controversial and unscientific nature of TeenScreen with its high false positive rates and other problems, many boards across the country have refused TeenScreen or parental permission rates have been so low that schools have discontinued the program.
Besides many thanks to you for your calls and emails, great thanks goes to Representatives Mark Olson (R-Big Lake), Tom Emmer (R-Delano), Tony Cornish (R -Good Thunder), Laura Brod (R-New Prague), Paul Kohls (R-Victoria), and Sondra Erickson (R-Princeton) for sponsoring amendments to remove this provision and for speaking out on the House floor and in committees against this bad language. The entire House Republican caucus with the exception of Representatives Jim Abeler (R-Anoka), Carol McFarlane (R-White Bear Lake), Ron Erhardt (R-Edina), Morrie Lanning (R-Moorhead), Denny McNamara (R-Hastings), Neil Peterson (R -Bloomington), and Kathy Tinglestad (R-Andovor) voted to remove this provision. (Rep. Dennis Ozment, R-Rosemount, was absent.). No Democrats supported the amendment.
Discriminatory Mental Screening of Poor Children
a pilot program that will psychiatrically screen the children of low-income families passed in the Health and Human Services bill. Those receiving benefits through the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP) will have their children screened for mental illness. The dangers of this psychiatric screening are the same as the dangers of TeenScreen. This program is also highly discriminatory and stigmatizing for poor and minority children, because it assumes that low-income families are more prone to mental illness.
Minority activists strongly opposed this measure by testifying and lobbying. EdWatch hoped for a veto of this appropriation. Mental screening in this program will lead to more drugging of poor and minority children than is already happening. According to a study by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 90% of children who see a psychiatrist will receive medication. Poor children on government programs like Medicaid are more likely to receive the strongest anti-psychotic drugs compared to children with private insurance.
Rev. Herron, an African-American pastor of Zion Baptist Church in north Minneapolis, representing many members of the community group Parents Speak Out, testified twice against the children of the poor being targeted for mental screening. Rev. Herron stated that the poor and minorities are aggressively drugged with dangerous and addictive psychiatric medications as a result of unreliable and subjective mental screening. He testified that universal mental screening is destructive to their families. (See details here.)
In Rev. Herron’s Senate Health and Human Services Budget Committee testimony, Sen. Berglin, the Committee Chair, Sen. Higgins, the bill’s author, and committee member Sen. Lourey all insisted that he was mistaken — that child mental screening was not in the bill. In reality, screening has always been in the bill, and these Senators seriously wronged this highly-regarded leader of the minority community. Rep. Sondra Erickson (R- Princeton) and Rep. Mark Olson (R-Big Lake) are to be thanked for their attempts to amend this language out of the bill.
Early Intervention to Include Mental Screening
Mental screening and behavioral intervention was included into an otherwise positive program that provides added instructional aid to students struggling with math and reading before referring them for special education. The problem comes with the “behavioral intervention” part of the program. Neither the language of the bill nor the program’s website clarify how students that are not yet identified as special education students are screened for behavior problems, what interventions taken, the scientific validity of these interventions, what the parental consent procedures are for screening or intervening, or how these issues are handled in student records. Both state and federal law require parental consent before special education evaluations occur, and Minnesota law upholds a parent’s right to refuse these evaluations. Struggling students should not be routinely screened and referred for mental illness or untested behavioral intervention, especially under such unclear consent procedures.
Dr. Karen Effrem raised these concerns in both House and Senate testimony. The sponsors, Rep. Tim Faust (D-Mora) and Sen. Kathy Saltzman (D-Woodbury), feigned concern about these objections, but in the end did nothing about them. The Senate added this language to the education bill on the very last night of the session. Sen. Warren Limmer (R - Maple Grove) is to be thanked for attempting to add parental consent requirements as an amendment.The entire Senate Republican caucus voted for that amendment with the exception of Sen. Gen Olson (R-Minnetrista), who inexplicably spoke against it.
All of the Democrats voted against it.
For more information, visit www.edwatch.org.
MTN Celebrates 25!
15 Year Old Jazzmin Brooks Tenth Grader at Blaine High School to be Honored at the Lt. Governor Red Wagon Award Ceremonies and Reception at the Governors Residence
Ms. Jazzmin Brooks
Sometimes our community focuses on the not so good and when an opportunity like this comes, we have to stop, look and listen because this person with the assistance of the Girls In Motion program learned about hard work and what it means to be a leader. May we all follow “her” lead!
Jazzmin is Vice President and Founding member of Girls in Motion Minnesota. Girls in Motion is an all girl’s organization that promotes literacy, self esteem and academic excellence. One of our Motto’s at Girls in Motion is, “We can make the world a better place one girl at a time.” Jazzmin volunteers at Nellie Stone Johnson School, YMCA Beacons After-school Program and other service learning projects with The Walker Art Center.
On Monday, September 15, 2008 at the Lt. Governor Red Wagon Award Ceremonies and Reception at the Governors Residence, located at 1006 Summit Avenue in St. Paul from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p. m., Ms. Jazzmin Brooks will receive The Red Wagon Award for Demonstrating Outstanding Academic Achievement, Civic Engagement and Exemplary Leadership Skills. This award given by the Minnesota Alliance with Youth is a statewide network advocating with and for youth to ensure access to five resources that all young people need in order to be successful: caring adults, safe places, a healthy start, and effective education and opportunities to serve.
The award will be presented by Lt. Governor Carol Molnau, Honorary Chair and Board Member for Minnesota Alliance with Youth.
The letter to Jazzmin from Lt. Governor Molnau reads:
Sincerely, Carol Molnau
Lieutenant Governor & Honorary Chair and Board Member, the Minnesota Alliance With Youth
Jazzmin says, “I love to travel, visit new cities and try new foods”. Jazzmin’s favorite subjects in school are Humane Letters, Music and Science. Her future aspirations include pursuing a dual degree in Urban Anthropology and Chemistry. Brooks goes on to say, “In the future, I hope to attend Stanford University in California and participate in an international exchange program that will all me to study abroad.” The Minnesota Alliance with Youth is a statewide collaborative network of partner organizations, schools and communities advocating with and for youth. Red Wagon Awards, The Minnesota Alliance with Youth recognizes young people who have demonstrated any or all of the following: Increased academic achievement, Civic engagement, service and exemplary leadership.
About Jazzmin Brooks:
My name is Jazzmin Briahna Brooks, I am in the tenth grade and I attend Blaine High School. I am vice president and founding member of a non-profit organization called Girls in Motion Minnesota. Girls in Motion Minnesota was started in the fall of 2006 in Minneapolis. G.I.M. promotes literacy, academic excellence, civic and leadership skills. We create and participate in service learning projects throughout the Minneapolis. I think it is important for young girls to dream that the world can be a better place. Therefore, it is important for young girls to gain new skills and participate in that change. One of our mottos is “Girls can make the world a better place one girl at a time.” My favorite subjects in school are Humane Letters, Spanish and Biology. I enjoy Humane Letters because it is a combination class of English grammar, Literature and Debate. In this class I learned how to develop my voice and affirm my personal beliefs while debating with other classmates. In addition, the classic literature we read and discussed had many comparisons and relevance to current events. My hobbies include reading, writing, and designing clothes. I also play basketball, dance and run track.I want to attend Stanford University and I hope to have a triple major in college. I want to study Urban Anthropology, Theology and Biochemistry. My career interest will give me the opportunity to travel around the world and study different cultures from more than one aspect. I look forward to experiencing other cultures, cuisines and lifestyles; I would consider this a rewarding career.
