Perhaps the most unexpected thing to come out of the Third World Transition Program this year was a new sign for the Class of 2009 - "You clap your hands in front of you and that's the 0 and then you slide your right arm back to your elbow and that's the 9," said Stefan Smith '09 of the sign he started with his friend Keiko Rose '09.
Besides making new friendships and Facebook.com groups - the "Leanback Optional" group was created around the new '09 sign - students attending the University's annual pre-orientation program focused on one new area this year: imperialism. TWTP's two coordinators, Chloe Dugger '06 and Noel Reyes '06, decided that besides homophobia and the traditional "four -ism's" - racism, classism, sexism and heterosexism - imperialism was "relevant and missing," according to Reyes.
This year, around 160 students registered for TWTP. Discussing "systems of oppression that exist in our society" and understanding how these systems operate on a personal and institutional level is "the real meat" of the program, Reyes said. The other component is helping participants adjust to life at Brown, and this year TWTP included sessions on fellowships and the history of "Third World activism" at Brown.
The new workshop on imperialism was developed and run by Reyes and Dugger, while the other workshops were facilitated by Jamie Washington, who is president of a consulting firm based in Baltimore and has worked at TWTP for several years. Reyes said the new workshop focused on first defining imperialism, and then looking at the history of American imperialism.
"We kind of looked to how imperialism was a useful category in understanding American history and the world even after the age of imperialism," Reyes said.
Smith, who is from Greenville, South Carolina, said that one of the most memorable workshops was on classism, during which participants stood in a circle and a facilitator asked questions. Smith called the level of comfort and the questions that were asked - such as whether anyone had been homeless - "very jaw-dropping."
He also liked the "energizers," including activities such as "peanut butter and jelly" and "peeling the banana" because they "gave us a chance to relax and jump around" after a lot of sitting. Smith said TWTP was "extremely rewarding in that it gave me a chance to get to know my fellow students on a deeper and more personal level without all the barriers that are usually put up."
Another participant, Cassie Owens '09 of Philadelphia, said, "I went to a really diverse high school, so it wasn't really as much about the discussions, it was really about getting to meet people." Owens said that an activity in which students were given paper and crayons and told to draw pictures of people of different races as they perceived them in kindergarten was particularly eye-opening. She said the pictures she drew were offensive to her now.
TWTP, which has been a perennial topic of debate and discussion on campus, was opened to non-minority students two years ago, but administrators did not disclose the change until last year, when one white student attended. This year, Reyes said, "I think there might have been one student who identified as white."
"In actuality, you can't really tell - there are multi-racial people who you wouldn't really know," Reyes added. "We are absolutely thrilled to have anybody who wanted to register - whether you identified as purple. The content is the content, regardless of whoever shows up."
Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services David Greene said that all incoming first-years received notice about TWTP and other programs that were available to them. Then the Third World Center staff and others followed up with students, in particular students of color and encouraged them to come to TWTP, Green said.
Reyes said he was proud and thankful to work with Dugger and the 55 student staff members who put in long hours from picking participants up at the airport to facilitating discussion.
"They're doing this for free," he said. "These are volunteers who care so much about bringing about not just a university, but a society, that is more equitable and more just."
