Spring 2019 Colloquium: A Community Movement for Educational Access

Monday, June 3 2019 12:00pm - 1:00pm

Kenwood Interdisciplinary Research Complex
Room 1140

The UW-Milwaukee Spanish Speaking Outreach Institute: A Community Movement for Educational Access

Toni Terese Johns, PhD Candidate
Urban Studies, UW-Milwaukee

In the late 1960s, Latino and Chicano community leaders developed a movement for educational access at UW-Milwaukee. Through the resources provided by non-profit organizations including Milwaukee’s United Migrant Opportunity Services (UMOS); members of the Committee for the Education of Latin Americans (CELA) and UW-Milwaukee students successfully agitated for the creation of the Spanish Speaking Outreach Institute, which later became the Roberto Hernandez Center at UW-Milwaukee. Grassroots change was possible in part, due to funding and protections provided by the Federal Office of Economic Opportunity directly to non-profit organizations, and maximum feasibility mandates that ensured representation by the people being served.

Historical literature connecting Latino and Hispanic activism in Milwaukee and grassroots organizing at UW-Milwaukee during the late 1960s is limited. Pre-existing literature considers the role social service agencies and unions played in the development of Milwaukee’s Latino and Chicano social movements (Rodriguez, J., 2005), the evolution of Chicano activism in the Midwest (Rodriguez, M., 2014) and the importance of civil rights legislation in Milwaukee’s urban social movements during the late 1960s (Braun, M., 2001). Drawing from secondary literature, archival documents and oral history, this paper adds to the current literature by considering the impact federal civil rights legislation and the accompanying funding had on the strength of community power in Milwaukee and institutional access for Spanish speaking students at UW-Milwaukee.

Spring 2019 Colloquium: The Civil Society War

Monday, April 22 2019 12:00pm - 1:00pm

UWM Lubar School of Business
Room S231
3202 N Maryland Ave.
Milwaukee, WI 53202

The Civil Society War and the Popularization of the Fundraising Efficiency Ratio – William Suhs Cleveland, PhD, Philanthropic Studies, IUPUI
Building on the success of War Chest fundraising efforts during World War II, the organization known today as the United Way sought to dominate American fundraising for social services and health advocacy. Through the 1950s, the United Way solidified its dominance of social service fundraising but met stiff resistance from the leading national health agencies. The United Way coerced the health agencies to join their campaigns using various tactics. Most extreme were fundraising permitting ordinances that included fundraising efficiency ratios and conveniently exempted the United Way, while naming them as the arbiter of disputes arising from the permitting process. Charity rating agencies aligned with the United Way embedded the fundraising efficiency ratio into their evaluations. Executives from seven health agencies met about monthly for twenty-five years with the express purpose of staying out of United Way fundraising campaigns. Health agencies responded with coordinated action, highlighted by lawsuits against permitting ordinances in several jurisdictions. Ultimately, fundraising efficiency ratios in fundraising permits were declared unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds by the US Supreme Court. While the permitting regulations have been changed, many donors reportedly continue to use financial ratios of questionable value when evaluating charities.

Spring 2019 Colloquium: Executive Director Perspectives

Friday, March 29 2019 12:00pm - 1:00pm

UWM Kenwood Interdisciplinary Research Center
Room 1160
1900 E Kenwood Boulevard
Milwaukee, WI 53211

Examining Nonprofit Executive Director – Board Relations in Two Countries as they Relate to Perceptions of Board Effectiveness: Executive Director Perspectives

  • Michael Ford, Assistant Professor of Public Administration, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
  • Douglas Ihrke, Professor and Chair, Department of Public and Nonprofit Administration, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
  • Todd Ebling, Ph.D. Candidate (Anthropology), University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

This study examines the factors that influence Executive Directors’ perceptions of the relations between boards of directors and executives in Wisconsin and Nova Scotia, and the extent to which these relations influence executive director perceptions of board effectiveness. The results of the study are based upon a random sample of these executives representing nonprofit organizations in the State of Wisconsin and the Province of Nova Scotia. Our results indicate that board demographics, board structures, and small group dynamics all have an influence on the perceptions of executives within and across the different populations of actors surveyed and within and across nonprofits in two countries.

Spring 2019 Colloquium: Conflict Resolution

Thursday, February 21 2019 12:00pm - 1:00pm

UWM Lubar School of Business
Room S233
3202 N Maryland Ave.
Milwaukee, WI 53202

Conflict Resolution in the Nonprofit Sector Through a Restorative Justice Lens – Troy Washington, PhD, Urban Education, UW-Milwaukee

The Use of Restorative Justice to Resolve Conflict in Schools. Schools today are increasingly interested in utilizing conflict resolution techniques that can provide both a short-term solution and a long-term resolution that allows students and schools to focus on more prevalent issues such as education, safety, and child development. One technique that has proven useful is restorative justice practices. Restorative justice “is a theory of justice that emphasizes repairing the harm caused or revealed by criminal behavior. It is best accomplished through cooperative processes that include all stakeholders” (Latimer, Dowden, & Muise, 2005).

Restorative justice includes programs and outcomes that include victim offender mediation, conferencing, circles, victim assistance, ex-offender assistance, restitution, and community service characterized by key values of encounter, amends, reintegration, and inclusion. Under restorative justice techniques, the goal is to have the victim come together with the perpetrator, giving the two an opportunity to work toward a solution that is meaningful and satisfactory (Latimer, Dowden, & Muise 2005). Bearing in mind restorative justice is about building bonds rather than just issuing punishments, it serves the goals of education by ensuring that young people are given the chance to grow through their mistakes in some unique ways. Restorative justice also provides an opportunity for the victim to face the offender and place a level of empathy and accountability on the offender. With restorative justice practices offering proven results, more educators have and are adopting the approach of restorative practices with varying degrees of success. With that being said, this presentation is intended to show how implementing restorative justice in the school system can serve as an effective tool in helping to reduce school suspensions, school conflicts, bullying, and misbehavior. Implementing restorative justice will also promote personal accountability, responsibility, and peaceful resolution through the use of mediation, peace circles, family and community involvement and restitution.