Declaring the Movement

A few months ago, someone sent me this incredible article and video Turning a College into a Movement about Michael Sorrell, the President at Paul Quinn College in Dallas. He said that his entire college had one goal that defines everything about them "to end poverty." How powerful is that? How brave is it just to say it? It makes you feel guilty for nibbling around the edges. Well our days of nibbling are over, at least in the corner of the world I lead. But how do you begin? In my mind, step one is declaring the movement and I'd like to share what our version of that looks like at Western.

Words matter and I couldn't just steal president Sorrell's words, although it was tempting. We don't operate in a vacuum and I've mentioned before that we follow in the footsteps of colleges like Paul Quinn and Amarillo College. And we are inspired by leaders like Sara Goldrick-Rab and Donna Beegle as well as inspired by our incredibly resilient students who come to us and trust us to help them chase their dreams. So how to capture that in something simple and memorable that would drive our work. We landed on the following "Every barrier that can be removed should be removed." Every once in a while, you just get it right and this appears to be one of those times. Our staff immediately grabbed onto the idea and discussions (and more importantly actions) began to occur.
We initially required some action, such as adding a basic needs statement to course syllabi, and we conducted our "No Audit."(You can read about our audit here). We created emergency funds with as few barriers as possible. But better than all that, people started taking action on their own. Every Barrier... resonated and changes like the sign pictured here happened.

No longer did you run into a locked door that said in all caps, STAFF ONLY, which felt like GO AWAY to me. Now a friendlier "voice" gave information and tried to help. That was a change made by observant staff, not an order from above. Seeds of a movement perhaps? It might be a small thing, but wash, rinse, repeat and then you start to change a culture.

Starting a movement requires the power of shared language and imagery, at least I think it does. We've begun to use the analogy of "plowing the road" (we are from Wisconsin after all). Many of us had people who plowed the road to make our trip safer. Maybe it was well resourced parents if we were fortunate, or someone else who took an active interest in our success. Perhaps you are a parent who thinks about plowing the road and removing barriers for your own children. All too often, the people we serve traverse roads that aren't plowed or are partially blocked because of the random circumstance they were born into. How is that fair? How much potential is left in tent cities and hungry bellies when we can do something? Every barrier that can be removed, should be removed... Would we do any less for our own children, would our parents have done any less for us? We have an opportunity to level the playing field and I think we have an obligation to do so.

So after years of learning and observation we have a goal - End Poverty (credit to Paul Quinn College). We have a mission - Every Barrier that Can be removed Should be removed. And we have action steps we describe as "plowing the road." Those steps include paying attention to our behaviors and environment to create a sense of belonging, extensive use of Credit for Prior Learning (more to come on that another time), emergency funds to help mitigate the inevitable bumps in the road, and many more to be developed. But before any of that, we are declaring the movement and committing to it. That has to be step one. Stay tuned!