The Define in the Design Thinking process is where the users needs and problems are defined.
Advocate’s are defined: I outlined the role of an Advocate with this post that can be used in email messaging and for posters and flyers around campus.
I used firsthand accounts and quotes from black and brown undergraduate, graduate and law school students as empathy data and to define the wicked problem. stated in the words of students: “UNC is not doing enough to support black and brown students.”
Contents
- 1 (July 2021)
- 2 “Safety is the bare minimum,” Clark said, “I shouldn’t have to be strong. I shouldn’t have to be an advocate. I should be able to be a student.”
- 3 “Seeing white supremacists come to our campus and spew such hatred was disturbing and sickening,” “I felt extremely nauseous and overall, just physically ill watching that.” Said Jarrah Faye
- 4 “We want to be safe,” Faye says. “We want to go to this university and know that somewhere, in some department, we have a safe space.”
- 5 “I don’t feel valued, I don’t feel loved, I don’t feel like people on this campus want me to be here,” she says. “Oftentimes, it (racism) is a reality our university enables.” For Vann, even something as simple as walking to class can feel like crossing enemy territory.
- 6 (June 2020) Why UNC Law is Not a Place for Black Students: portion of a letter written by Black UNC Law Students:
- 7 Although we do as much as we can to uplift one another, there are few outlets to alleviate this stress when there are so few students and professors of color to provide support. Instead, Black students are forced to cross our fingers and hope we get a White professor that “gets it.”
- 8 White students attending UNC Law must recognize the racist injustices happening around them on a daily basis. They must bring the same outrage they feel towards the televised murder of Black and Brown people at the hands of police to the classrooms and hallways of UNC Law. They must use their privilege to advocate where people of color can’t advocate for themselves. They must speak out when a student of color is silenced. They must work hard to ensure that a student of color gets that position, that award, that promotion, that apology, that meeting, that recognition and right to speak up.
(July 2021)
“Safety is the bare minimum,” Clark said, “I shouldn’t have to be strong. I shouldn’t have to be an advocate. I should be able to be a student.”
“Seeing white supremacists come to our campus and spew such hatred was disturbing and sickening,” “I felt extremely nauseous and overall, just physically ill watching that.” Said Jarrah Faye
“We want to be safe,” Faye says. “We want to go to this university and know that somewhere, in some department, we have a safe space.”
“I don’t feel valued, I don’t feel loved, I don’t feel like people on this campus want me to be here,” she says. “Oftentimes, it (racism) is a reality our university enables.” For Vann, even something as simple as walking to class can feel like crossing enemy territory.
(June 2020) Why UNC Law is Not a Place for Black Students: portion of a letter written by Black UNC Law Students:
Although we do as much as we can to uplift one another, there are few outlets to alleviate this stress when there are so few students and professors of color to provide support. Instead, Black students are forced to cross our fingers and hope we get a White professor that “gets it.”
White students attending UNC Law must recognize the racist injustices happening around them on a daily basis. They must bring the same outrage they feel towards the televised murder of Black and Brown people at the hands of police to the classrooms and hallways of UNC Law. They must use their privilege to advocate where people of color can’t advocate for themselves. They must speak out when a student of color is silenced. They must work hard to ensure that a student of color gets that position, that award, that promotion, that apology, that meeting, that recognition and right to speak up.
Black Student Quotes & Writings
My Advocate App-April McKinley