Q&A with HRAP Director Dr. Sue
What is your favorite part of being the HRAP director? What does the position look like?
As HRAP director I oversee the academic portion of Smith Hall which includes all of the HRAP curriculum, the faculty, staff, and our HRAP student leaders. Much of what the director does involves academic planning and the programming of HRAP activities. My absolute favorite part of the job is working so closely with talented, dedicated, and just down right impressive undergraduate students. The students leaders, in particular, are truly inspiring. They embody the spirit of intellectual exploration and community and civic engagement. I know it is a cliche, but when I am working with them I really do feel like I am working with our future leaders. And that makes me incredibly optimistic.
What are some changes you’ve implemented in the dorm? What inspired these changes?
I am fortunate to have inherited HRAP from two incredible former directors – Dr. Paul Strom and Dr. Oliver Gerland. HRAP has been an amazing program and my goal, first and foremost, was to maintain all of the great aspects of HRAP that have been developed over the years. That said, CU has changed over the years and has increasingly diversified and it is very important to me that HRAP diversifies with it and even serves as model of inclusivity across campus. Honors programs should not be restricted to those in privileged social positions and should be open and accessible to all. To that end, I have expanded our scholarship program, ensured that our leadership has strong representation from a wide variety of groups, diversified the topics of our curriculum to address various forms of social marginalization, and have hosted activities and events on inclusivity.
Why is diversity and inclusion important to you and the HRAP?
Diversity and inclusion have always been important to me because of my mixed-race background and my family’s commitment to anti-racism. I come from a family of psychologists who have devoted their careers to studying and undermining racism and, long ago, I decided to continue on in that tradition. My scholarship is somewhat different in that it focuses on racism from a global perspective, but we are all working towards the same goal. The notion of inclusivity developed new meaning for me as I became a mother of twins, who are 1/2 Mexican heritage, 1/4 Chinese heritage, and 1/4 European heritage. Our current understandings of identities of any kind oftentimes do not address these complex lived experiences and identities and they need to in order for all identities to be recognized and valued.
Can you tell us about the new HRAP mural?
Yes! This is the highlight of this year’s efforts on inclusivity. Carmen Jura, the HRAP program coordinator, knew that I was thinking about different ways to make HRAP more inclusive in a visual sense and she had a fortuitous conversation with Liz Maher, who is an artist and lives in Smith Hall as the spouse of our faculty in residence, Rob Buchwald. Not only is Liz an artist but she is an art therapist and licensed professional counselor. When Carmen explained what we were trying to do (basically illustrate inclusivity while avoiding tokenized and superficial representations of diversity), Liz had some thoughts and we subsequently met. In our meeting she described a form of art called “Response Art,” which is a tool used by many art therapists to contain and process intense emotions related to their work with clients. The aim is to create a visual metaphor that carries the emotional core of an experience. In my mind, this is exactly what I was looking for – a visual depiction of students’ experiences and the various aspects of their identities. Once we got approval to paint the mural on Smith’s walls, I helped Liz set up interviews and focus groups with the goal of capturing a wide variety of different HRAP students’ experiences. She asked them about many things, including how their identities impact their ability to find themselves “at home” at CU and in Smith. She has concluded the data gathering stage and is working on the design. I have seen some of the initial drawings and can’t wait to see the final product. She will paint over spring break and we will have an unveiling of the mural which is titled “Deeper than Demographics” this semester.
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