CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS

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Breadth of Conference Scope

Areas of Special Emphasis for Concurrent Sessions

Time Formats Available

Presenter Guidelines

Concurrent Session Categories

Guidelines for Proposal Submission

Breadth of Conference Scope

The conference scope is comprehensive and includes such wide ranging areas as:

• Institutional Change: Issues and Strategies Relating to Planning, Implementation, and Assessment of Institutional Change

• Recruiting and Retaining a Culturally Diverse Faculty, Staff, and Student Body: Model Programs and Comprehensive, Workable Strategies

• Enhancing the Quality of Life for Culturally Diverse Students on Predominantly White Campuses: Issues of Involvement, Empowerment, and Self-Efficacy

• Understanding and Valuing Differences: Increasing Awareness, and Tolerance of Racial/Ethnic "Minorities"

• Enhancing Teaching and Learning in Culturally Diverse Classroom Environments: Issues of Pedagogy, Learning Styles, Curriculum Transformation, and Faculty Development

• Enhancing Positive Outcomes of Cultural Diversity on Campus: Community Building, Diversity Training, and Anti-Racism Work

• Managing and Preventing Incidents of Racial and Ethnic Conflict on Campus: Issues of Assessment, Campus Climate, Conflict Resolution, and Coalition Building

• Understanding and Meeting the Unique Needs of Different Racial and Ethnic Groups on Campus: Barriers to Success, Cultural Values, Behavior, Language, and Sensitive Issues

• Creating Valuable Linkages Between the University and the Community: Partnerships That Support Campus Racial and Ethnic Diversity and/or Serve Racial/Ethnic Communities

• Unique Racial and Ethnic Conditions and Experiences: Relating to Institutional Differences in Mission, History, and Situational Factors

Areas of Special Emphasis for Concurrent Sessions

• Sessions That are Truly Advanced and Address the Needs and Interests of Persons Who Have Attended NCORE for Six or More Years

• Sessions By Undergraduate and/or Graduate Students

• Sessions on Healthcare:

  • Teaching “Cultural Competence” in Health Care

  • How to Teach Diversity to Future Health Care Professionals

  • Research on Eliminating Racial & Ethnic Disparities in Health Care

  • Health as it Relates to Social Welfare
    

• Sessions Designed to Facilitate Interaction, Discussion, and On-Site Mentoring of Both Students and Young Professionals

• Sessions With Applied, Hands-on, Skills-Building Approaches/Training

• Issues Related to Policy, Legislative, Legal, Societal-Level, and/or Global Developments That Impact Higher Education

• Strategies for Countering Affirmative Action and Racial/Ethnic Backlash

• Issues Related to the Intersection of Race/Ethnicity, Class, and Gender

• Sessions Designed to Facilitate Interaction and Discussion Around Significant Issues Across and Within Significant Conference Constituencies

• Issues of Heterogeneity Within Different Racial/Ethnic and National Origin Groups, Linguistic Issues and Barriers, and Issues of Generational and Immigration Status

• Issues of Teaching, Learning, Curriculum Transformation, and Faculty Development as Related to Growing Racial/Ethnic Diversity

• University-Community Partnerships

• Research, Assessment, and Evaluation Issues, Models, and Findings

NCORE 2009 Seeks Concurrent Sessions That:

• Discuss efforts: to create inclusive higher education environments, programs, and curriculum; improve campus racial and ethnic relations; and/or expand opportunities for educational access and success by culturally diverse, traditionally underrepresented populations. Efforts to be discussed may be specific or comprehensive in scope and either at the stages of development or fully operational, developed, and advanced.

• Provide important insights, points-of-view, skills, tools, and strategies that stress solutions, implementation, and practical applications.

• Highlight exemplary programs, approaches, and models.

• Facilitate constructive dialogue, interaction, and understanding around significant issues or within/between significant conference constituencies, i.e., students, faculty, affirmative action officers, student life personnel or other occupational classifications, early and/or advanced professionals, different racial/ethnic groups, various geographical regions, and different types of higher education institutions.

Time Formats Available

Concurrent sessions may utilize the following time formats:

• 75 minutes

• 90 minutes

• 2 hours

• 3 hours

Presenters should carefully select the time format requested, thinking realistically about the type of material to be presented, the number of presenters, and the need to allow for questions and discussion.

Sessions typically require the 75 minute or 90 minute format, unless significant interaction and processing of content is required and/or when the number of co-presenters necessitates a longer format.

Presenter Guidelines

Created to Assist Presenters in Developing High Quality Conference Sessions

• Plan your presentation carefully for the time allotted, the number of presenters, and the amount of material to be presented.  Rehearse, if necessary, to ensure that your time management is appropriate to the length and scope of your session.

• Be mindful of your audience.  The conference is attended by senior administrative officers, faculty, professional staff, and student leaders representing virtually all higher education academic and service areas.  Think creatively about effective ways to engage them, to facilitate productive interaction, and to tap the collective experience and knowledge participants bring to the session.  Allocate one-fourth of your session's time to questions, discussion, and productive interaction.

• Cover what the description of your session promises to deliver.  Participants are extremely disappointed when they feel they were not given what the abstract of the session promised.

• Manage your session, so that premature and/or tangential questions do not allow the session to veer from the task at hand.  Exercise sound professional judgment in handling questions/comments from the audience, and adequately assessing the level and needs of the majority of session participants.  Most participants will appreciate your effort to stay on task and deliver what the session abstract led them to believe they would be getting from the session.

  • One effective method for managing your session is to indicate that you will leave time for questions and/or comments at the end of your presentation.  Another is to indicate your willingness to discuss tangential issues further with participants after your session.

• Become familiar enough with your prepared presentation and materials to present without reading for extended periods.  Let your engagement in the topic and your excitement about your work show in your presentation, and you will do a better job of engaging others.

• Use quality visual aids produced by professional support personnel at your institution or by outside production houses to ensure readability by audiences of 100 or more at distances of up to 50 feet.  CAUTION: If you are presenting tables, charts, or other graphics keep them simple and with only a few key numbers relative to your presentation.

• Bring sufficient quantities (at least 50 copies) of session handouts, to ease the burden of note taking by session participants. These handouts should highlight major points, which provide important supplemental data from your presentation, including the visual aids components.  Attendees are extremely appreciative of materials they can take back to their home campuses. 

Important Notice: Providing handouts is the presenter's responsibility. NCORE will not make paper copies of any materials for session presentation.

Concurrent Session Categories

All persons who are submitting proposal(s) for concurrent workshop sessions are required to indicate from among eight possible categories the ONE category that most accurately characterized the predominant thrust of the proposal. The definitions of each category provided below:

THEORETICAL MODELS: Sessions that focus on concepts, principles, ideas, theories, or ways of formulating apparent relationships or underlying principles of certain observed phenomena. Examples might include discussions of the intersection of race and class or the application of personal and political empowerment theories to ethnic consciousness building.

POLICY ISSUES: Sessions that focus on the design, adoption, implementation, and/or content of a set of governing principles, as well as related issues and decision-making processes. Examples might include campus racial harassment policies, affirmative action policies, or faculty retention and promotion policies.

LONG- AND SHORT-RANGE PLANNING: Sessions that treat and emphasize the formulation, content, and implementation of specific, tactical, strategic, or comprehensive plans. Examples might include institutionwide or systemwide diversity plans and/or departmental or program unit plans that include specific objectives, goals, and timelines.

CASE STUDIES/MODEL PROGRAMS: Sessions that describe and analyze the development, substance, and/or response to specific situations, incidents, and programs. Examples might include situations of campus bigotry-motivated violence, freshman orientation programs, faculty mentorship programs, or student recruitment and retention programs.

INTERACTIVE TRAINING: Sessions involving significant interaction between the facilitator(s) and session attendees and designed to result in growth and enhanced awareness through introspection, interaction, and experiential learning. Examples might include games, simulations, or other exercises or combination of exercises that are experiential and interactive in nature.

TRAINING OF TRAINERS: Sessions designed to teach attendees how to become effective trainers in specific content areas or how to set up programs for developing effective trainers in these areas, with an emphasis on both the specific content required for effective training as well as training methods. Examples might include training for academic counselors or peer mentors, or the training of discussion or focus group leaders skilled in facilitating dialogue around diversity issues.

CURRICULAR/PEDAGOGICAL MODELS: Sessions that focus on the development and substance of specific course content in either required or optional courses, as well as in both credit and non-credit formats; or that focus on issues and styles of teaching and learning. Examples might include required multicultural course content, freshman orientation program content, faculty development programs linked to curricular change, techniques for teaching in a multicultural classroom, and sessions focusing on the learning styles of culturally diverse students.

RESEARCH/ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION: Sessions that report on the findings of specific studies or assessments and/or that treat issues relating to research and evaluation methodology. Examples might include studies of student retention and achievement, campus climate studies, research indicating the effects of multicultural course content on student attitudes, and other assessments that measure effects and/or outcomes of specific programs.

Concurrent Session Proposal Submission

Please adhere to each of the following guidelines in order to successfully submit a proposal for consideration.

Submission Deadline: December 15, 2008

Proposal Format

A complete session proposal consists of completed documents that conform to the following Five Part Format:

Part 1: Proposal Cover Sheet
Part 2: Session Abstract
Part 3: Presentation Summary
Part 4: Presenter Resume and/or Biographical Sketch
Part 5: Supporting Documentation

Part 1: Proposal Cover Sheet

Please use the section lettering convention (as demonstrated below and in this Example ») to construct your proposal cover sheet.

A. Title of Presentation

B. Category of Presentation More Details »
Select one category that most accurately characterizes the session's predominant thrust.

C. Levels of Experience
Indicate the level of experience necessary for session.

Note: Because of the disparity in experience and knowledge between first-time and repeating conference attendees, please be explicit in defining the expected level of experience for those who would attend your proposed session.

D. Time Format Requested More Details »
Indicate the level of experience necessary for session.

Select the 75-minute or 90-minute format unless significant interaction and processing of content is required or where the number of co-presenters necessitates a longer format. Choose carefully between the 75- and 90-minute formats to ensure ample time for presenting the type of material to be presented and for questions and discussion to facilitate the exchange of participant expertise and perspectives.

E. Name of the Presenter
List the name of the presenter and their academic credentials (e.g. Ph.D., Ed.D., JD, etc.) exactly as you would like it printed in the conference program.

F. Job Title of Presenter

G. Institution/Organizational Affiliation

H. Complete Mailing Address

I. Office Telephone and Fax Numbers

J. E-Mail Address

K. Home Telephone Number

Repeat Items E Through K for Each Co-Presenter

L. Audio/Visual Requirements

Please consider the audio/visual requirements for your session and only list from the following choices the equipment that is critical for you to conduct a successful session.

Important Notice: NCORE does not provide laptop computers for session presentations. Presenters who use the Powerpoint (LCD) Projector must bring their own computer.

Part 2: Session Abstract

Provide a single-spaced session abstract of 200 words or less that clearly describes your proposed session. If your proposal is selected for presentation, this session abstract will be used in the conference program as your session description.

The session abstract must contain a statement that begins with "This session should particularly benefit..." (please refer to the example session abstract below). This sentence should be completed in such a way as to help conference participants with (1) Different Interests, and (2) Knowledge/Experience Levels to better determine the scope and level of the session.

Important Notice: Presenters are responsible for editing their own session abstract. The session abstract should be a clearly written finished piece that has been thoroughly checked for correct grammar and punctuation. The NCORE editor will be only be responsible for delivering print-ready copy of the conference program to the publisher.

Sample Session Abstract:

Level of Experience: Intermediate Let it RAIN: Retaining American Indians Now (RAIN)—An Innovative Approach to Student Retention •• Case Studies/Model Programs •• This session examines an innovative student developed and implemented American Indian retention program at the University of Oklahoma. Information on the background and rationale for the Retaining American Indians Now (RAIN) program will be provided. Insights and lessons learned from the program's implementation will also be provided. Finally, this session will address current research efforts to measure the effectiveness of RAIN. This session should particularly benefit participants who are interested in the success of American Indian students, practitioners who provide direct services to American Indian students or other minority students, students interested in taking an active role in retention, and those who are concerned with retention issues related to American Indians and other minority populations.

Part 3: Presentation Summary

A Presentation Summary of not more than five type-written double-spaced pages in 12pt font. Use this opportunity to indicate the larger context and purpose of the proposal and to provide additional information, such as rationale, background and/or historical information, linkage with related efforts and events, measures of effects and/or impact, etc.

Part 4: Presenter Resume and/or Biographical Sketch

A brief Resume or Biographical Sketch for Each Presenter. This information should provide evidence that supports the ability of the presenter(s) to conduct the proposed session effectively.

Part 5: Relevant Supporting Documentation

Documentation deemed appropriate, i.e., actual plans, reports, survey instruments, brochures, evaluations, sample curricula, etc. This information should provide further insight into the scope, quality, and effectiveness of the effort(s) to be discussed in the proposed session.

Submitting a Complete Session Proposal to NCORE

Proposal Package Requirements
The package must be sent via mail to the NCORE Proposal Review Committee must contain BOTH of the following:

• Four collated copies of the complete session proposal.

• ONE disk or CD with the electronic version of the complete session proposal.

Mailing Instructions
Mail your proposal package to the NCORE Proposal Review Committee at the following address:

NCORE Proposal Review Committee
The Southwest Center for Human Relations Studies
The University of Oklahoma
3200 Marshall Avenue, Suite 290
Norman, Oklahoma 73072
(405) 325-3694

Confirmation of Reciept of the Proposal Package
A confirmation notice of reciept will be sent to each presenter listed on the proposal coversheet within three to five business days after the proposal package is recieved at the Southwest Center for Human Relations Studies.

Important Dates

Submission Deadline: December 15, 2008
Notification of Proposal Acceptance or Declination: February 4, 2009