Unity Week Links for Faculty + Staff:

Open Class Submission Form [MORE] - due Feb. 10, 2012

Online Passport Request Form [MORE] - due Feb. 28, 2012

View our Tunnel of Oppression Promo Video [MORE]

Philadelphia University's fourth UNITY Week celebrating community and diversity will be held in the Spring between March 19 - April 4, 2012.

UNITY Week is a collaborative effort by students, faculty, and administrators to coordinate a series of performances, speakers, dialogues, open classes, food, and music. These efforts not only recognize the diversity represented within the University, they affirm the value and vitality that this pluralism brings to our individual and collective experiences.

Faculty support and involvement with UNITY Week is crucial to its success and growth. We will continue with last year's programs: Open Classes and the Passport Program. In addition to getting involved in specific events, you can contribute to Unity Week by incorporating one or both of these into your spring curriculum. We also invite suggestions about other ways faculty can support Unity Week.

Specifically, you can devote an OPEN CLASS SESSION during Unity Week to discussion of the issues of culture, intercultural understanding, and/or diversity that are relevant in courses you are teaching this Spring and open this class to the larger campus community. Open classes will be published in the Unity Week publicity materials (e.g., calendar, brochure, passport program packets, and our website). We ask that you consider this option as you develop your syllabi for Spring and invite you to contact us if you have further questions about the open class program.

You can also participate in the PASSPORT PROGRAM and recommend attendance at and/or participation in events and activities to your students in terms of course relevance and educational content. We will deliver the passports and a passport key to your mailbox in advance of Unity Week. Students will be responsible for getting their passports stamped at the events to prove their attendance. Some faculty may give students credit for simple attendance, while others may require students to write short papers and/or engage in class discussions about their experiences. You should decide how to best use the program, if you choose to participate.

If you have any questions about either of these opportunities to promote social justice, pluralism, and civility, please do not hesitate to contact us! More detailed information will be distributed in January, but we wanted to send you this early notice as you consider and develop your syllabus for spring courses. Below you will find a listing of tentative programs currently being planned, to provide you with a sense of the breadth of educational opportunities available during our Unity Week. Attached, you will also find a list of last year's open classes and their descriptions to provide you with an example of the variety of courses available to students.

Many thanks,
Dr. Stacey Van Dahm, Assistant Professor of Literature and Writing
Dr. Meriel Tulante, Director of Foreign Languages and Assistant Professor of Italian

Co-chairs, Faculty Involvement Committee

Office of Student Development Programs
Community Service  | First Year Experience  | Spiritual Development

The Kanbar Campus Center, Suite 311
phone (215) 951-2634

fax (215) 951-2644

email: studentdevelopment@philau.edu