All WSU Courses

This workshop will highlight WSU’s commitment to ensuring a safe and welcoming living-learning-working environment for every member of the Coug community by introducing participants to the 6 Pillars of Respect. Each pillar represents a behavior or action that will help participants become catalysts in creating an environment that honors differences, where interactions are thoughtful, and the humanity of everyone is seen.

Workshop Learning Objectives:

Participants will:

• Understand how they see themselves, how they see others, and how their filters guide their behavior toward others;
• Learn tools to help them respond to others in an appropriate manner and work through differences together;
• Understand how their interactions with and perceptions of others influence their decisions in the workplace;
• Understand their role in making their workplace/organization better places for ALL to work; and
• Learn skills to have respectful interactions with others.

No materials to download.

We live in a time of great divides where the tensions and dynamics within today’s culture require us to build more bridges and fewer walls.  This experiential, interactive workshop will allow participants to engage in roleplay exercises, breakout sessions, and critical conversations through which they develop tools to enable productive dialogue around difficult topics.  Participants will also gain an understanding of how to apply these learnings as members of the WSU community as we work together towards mutuality and shared interests.

Workshop Learning Objectives:

• Gain an understanding of how coalitions are built
• Develop tools for building coalitions
• Create capacity to work through divisiveness by identifying identify mutual self-interests

No materials to download.

This interactive workshop will examine the role implicit bias plays in different life outcomes (employment, health, well-being, etc.). Implicit bias has come to be recognized as a powerful force that not only shapes individual actions, but institutional policies and practices as well. This session will look at three primary mechanisms that produce bias: priming, associations, and assumptions. This session will also create understanding of actions people can take to counteract negative associations that lead to negative consequences for underrepresented people. This workshop will use discussions and media to increase understanding of how implicit bias manifests, how it perpetuates, and what people can do to interrupt it with a vision for changing both individuals and systems.

Workshop Learning Objectives:

• Understand the concept of implicit bias and begin to identify our individual biases
• Raise awareness and continue building the skills and behaviors necessary to create more inclusive workplaces and communities
• Create a welcoming and inclusive campus culture and climate in order to recruit and retain diverse faculty, staff, and students (WSU Drive to 25 – Metric 11)

No materials to download.

The Role of Actions, Attitudes, and Language in Breaking Down Institutional and Systematic Disability Barriers. This interactive workshop will take a look at the multiple frameworks used to discuss and define disability, provide an overview of the often-overlooked history of disability, disability rights, and the ways in which language has evolved over time. We will then explore disability allyship in multiple forms, starting with the creation of inclusive spaces and attitudes and moving into the ways in which our use of language has the largest impact on the spaces we participate in.

Workshop Learning Objectives:
• Participants will learn how to be become an advocate or ally and how they can use their voice to work with people with disabilities to remove common institutional barriers
• Participants will understand how multiple identities can impact or limit access to essential services and how multiple disability identities can contribute to some of these struggles
• Participants will understand how disability prejudice and bias can lead to discrimination toward the disability community
• Participants will understand how the two prominent models of disability influence how they treat people with disabilities
• Participants will be able to demonstrate person-first language

No materials to download.

While diversity on a team can bring a wider variety of skills and ideas, it can also create challenges that need to be overcome. This workshop will focus on Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory and how these dimensions impact team performance. Tips on leading and managing culturally diverse teams will be offered and lessons will be reinforced through audience participation and group discussion.

Workshop Learning Objectives:

• Learn about Hofstede’s dimensions on cultural theory
• Learn how these dimensions can potentially impact team performance
• Practice in applying the theory through discussion and an activity

No materials to download.

This interactive training is designed to give the participant an introduction to issues faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals. The training is interspersed with short video clips to illustrate specific concepts and also includes several activities that provide the participants with opportunities to work individually and in small groups to discuss new concepts and vocabulary. One activity is about conceptualizing the influences of identity, one activity focuses on vocabulary, one provides an opportunity for role playing, and another activity involves working in small groups to process scenarios.

• Presentation Notes
• PowerPoint Presentation

Definitions, Controversies, and Applications of Intersectionality. The principles of Intersectionality are oriented toward transformation, building coalitions, and working toward social justice. Human lives cannot be explained by taking into account single categories, as people are multi-dimensional and complex. Only when some of the layers of a person’s identity are known, he/she/they can face bias and misunderstanding. This program will work to provide participants with an understanding of intersectionality that will promote a more accurate reflection of the diversity within their spheres of influence, promote greater understanding of how converging identities contribute to inequity, and provide action items to gaining a better understanding of the multiple lived experiences of your fellow Cougs.

Workshop Learning Objectives:

Participants will:

• Develop a foundational understanding of intersectionality;
• Understand why intersectionality should be a fundamental and embedded approach throughout their sphere of influence;
• Understanding and deconstructing the challenges and controversies of intersectionality; and
• Gain various applications to promoting intersectionality principles.

No materials to download.

Undocumented Initiatives’ UndocuAlly Training equips faculty and staff with the knowledge and tools necessary to become an active ally to students from undocumented communities. In this workshop we will discuss the issues facing undocumented communities, the laws and policies affecting undocumented students, and how to work effectively as an ally in higher education institutions.

Workshop Learning Objectives:

• Explain the varying demographic make-up of undocumented communities
• Describe the history, policies, and current issues impacting students who are undocumented and who come from undocumented communities
• Identify the best daily practices to adopt to support students from undocumented communities in navigating the college system
• Identify opportunities for advocacy and solving inequities in their own team and/or department in order to improve support services for students from undocumented communities

No materials to download.