Focus Group Information 2020
Background
- In 2014 Multicultural Student Affairs (MSA) underwent a University-structured program review. The review included perspectives from students, staff, and faculty who were a part of the University community at that time, which allowed MSA to make some changes to better serve students. Since then, MSA has experienced a great deal of change, some of which has been in more recent years.
- In 2017, Daviree Velazquez Phillip joined MSA as the director. Soon thereafter, Aaron Golding, assistant director and Native & Indigenous content Expert; Alyscia Raines, assistant director Black & African American content expert; and Linda Luk, administrative assistant operations, facilities and communications - all joined the MSA team. Recently, Matt Abtahi, assistant director LGBTQIA+ content expert joined MSA.
- Along with the pre-existing staff, our graduate assistants and our undergraduate office assistants, MSA has spent a great deal of time learning about and from our past. One of the ways in which we explored our past was through our MSA Archive Project. We have also reviewed data from the University's Campus Climate Survey, the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership, and the Consortium on Financing Higher Education study, to better understand the student experience at Northwestern University. Through this process we are honoring our past (where we have been), learning about the experiences of our current students (the present state) to inform our future (where we are going). Now, as a department, we seek to better understand students' experiences with our programs, staff, facilities, and with each other.
Present
Beginning in January Multicultural Student Affairs will be conducting focus groups with current students. The goal of the focus groups is to better understand the experiences of students served by MSA with the intention of allowing MSA to evolve. Focus groups will be conducted from January through February and will convene students by class years, 1st-year to graduate students by invitation.
While these focus groups are by invitation only, we want to hear from all students who would like to share feedback with MSA.
Next Steps
With the data collected from focus groups, MSA would like to invite alumni to a brainstorming session to begin thinking about the future. The brainstorming session will be held sometime in the spring quarter. We are looking for alumni who are interested in learning about the student experiences of today while drawing from their own experiences. If you are interested in joining us please email msa@northwestern.edu
In late Spring quarter, MSA will begin sharing preliminary findings with our community members and solicit feedback.