Y'all need to pay attention to your own community

A place to discuss topics affecting quizbowlers as a community rather than quizbowl as a game.
marianna
Rikku
Posts: 404
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2011 8:14 pm
Location: Stanford, CA

Re: Y'all need to pay attention to your own community

Post by marianna »

Mahria - I'm horrified and sorry about what you went through on UChicago quizbowl. It was our responsibility as club officers to foster a welcoming and inclusive club atmosphere, and I deeply regret how we failed you in that.

How to respond to an individual in the club who threatened that goal of inclusion was a difficult issue that we grappled with as officers, and although we took a few actions to respond to Luke, we could have done much more. A club officer had a conversation with Halle after the incident mentioned. A club officer and a team authority figure each had stern one-on-one conversations with Luke about his behavior. Some club members who attended practice tried to socially ostracize and isolate him. Officers collectively looked into the general possibility of removing club members for contributing to a non-inclusive environment, but learned we didn't have that option.

I personally was unaware of the depth of the problem, since I rarely attended practices (partly to insulate myself from having to interact with people there), and relied on tournaments, social events, informal conversations with a few people attending practices, and the end-of-year anonymous club climate survey (which surfaced some issues, but not any Luke-specific) to gauge the club atmosphere.

We definitely could have and should have done more. Although we were legally not allowed to remove him from the club, or restrict his participation in club events intended to be open to all club members (eg practice, many tournaments), we could have restricted his attendance at tournaments for which we had selective rosters, particularly D2 ICT. Allowing him to play on that team, and looking at that championship result now fills me with sadness. That championship was not worth and should not have been at the expense of your belonging in the club. I'm deeply sorry for what you went through, and that we failed in our responsibilities as club officers to create a welcoming environment for you.

I want to underscore Mahria's point about how important it is for those in positions of power to proactively anticipate inclusion issues, and to take action and institute policies before issues can even arise. Not only did we not react enough, but we weren't proactive enough. The importance of being proactive is a key takeaway for me that sadly came at the expense of others, and I hope will be a takeaway for people who occupy positions of power in the community. We are grappling with deeply-rooted societal issues that *will* and *do* permeate into our clubs, our quizbowl spaces, and our community. It's naive for anyone to think otherwise.
Marianna Zhang (she/her)
Hunter '14 | Chicago '18 | Stanford '24
PACE
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Emperor Pupienus
Wakka
Posts: 100
Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2014 1:53 pm

Re: Y'all need to pay attention to your own community

Post by Emperor Pupienus »

Mahria, Halle, and others, I apologize for your experiences during the 2017-2018 academic year. It was ultimately my responsibility as club president to ensure an atmosphere welcoming and inclusive for all, and I apologize for my failure.

Mahria’s post brings up an issue that I think may be generally relevant. UChicago, and presumably some other clubs, have effectively bifurcated decision making responsibilities between 1) what I’ll call “club leadership,” namely the logistical, financial, cultural, and environment-setting duties usually carried out by the elected officers of the club, and 2) what I’ll call “team leadership,” which are the duties of planning any studying teammates agree on and determining the team composition when necessary (eg. for the top UChicago teams that almost always played tournaments together), a process frequently dominated by the top player(s) of that four-person team.

At UChicago, the elected officers did not really play a direct role in determining the team composition. The officers helped hold tryouts where necessary but didn’t really take part in discussions on study strategies, how the team would cover the distribution, etc. Individuals, sometimes officers, on the team might provide some guidance and mentorship, but this was not understood as an officer duty. Generally, the top player/player(s) on each 4 person team (A, B, and top D2 team) would take lead on these topics for their own team and work it out collaboratively among teammates. Therefore, the elected officers did not really participate in discussions about study strategies and such for the D2 team or other teams.

Upon further reflection, this was a mistake. Club officers/leadership should take a more active role in each constituent team’s study strategies because team dynamics can become fraught, the best player(s) on the team may not always be the best at objectively determining study strategies, and for the reasons that Mahria mentioned. I’m not sure what would be the best way to implement a greater role for club officers, and it certainly need not be absolute, but I do think that officers should find ways to be looped into these decisions and conversations if they are not already. I am not currently involved with an active college club, but I recommend that UChicago and other clubs that experience this phenomenon consider changing their approach towards governance of issues like study strategies and team makeup.
Jason Z.
Nichols School '14
University of Chicago '18

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