Written by Hallie Mullane
March 26, 2023
Empathy is a critical element to creating inclusive spaces. Before the pandemic, I worked at a University, where I ran a summer program for international high school students to stay on our campus for two weeks and explore college life. At the end of the program, my team did a survey that covered everything - from each class session students took to whether the wifi worked as expected. Our goal was to have a complete picture of the student experience on the program. I then spent about a week working with the numbers - cataloging and analyzing the data. Following this, I would then meet with chaperones from each group over the course of a few weeks to discuss the insights from their data and find ways to continue to improve our program.
Through this analysis, I discovered that one of our groups from Malaysia, a completely Muslim student group, had all ranked the food as terrible. When I met with the chaperone from Malaysia, I asked for her insights about the food. She shared with me that her students kept a very strict halal diet. The institution met the accommodation, the food was halal, but it was very bland. As I am not Muslim, I asked her if she could share more, and she shared that, essentially, every time there were field trips (about half the program), her students’ bag lunch was just a piece of bread with lettuce.
I was mortified to hear this, and assured her that I would look into our dining options. I researched our institution’s dining accommodations and found out that during the summer, our accommodations for eating restrictions were not great. In addition to what she had reported, students who kept Kosher on our program were expected to eat the same frozen meal for two weeks straight. Food allergies or other restrictions were additionally not well served.
I spoke with colleagues at dining services and their perspective boiled down to - legally, they had to provide an accommodation, but the accommodation didn’t have to be “good”, nor were there legal requirements that the food have variety. During the summer, their resources were lighter than during the academic year, so they didn’t have as much variety as the academic year. I asked whether we could get a deduction in our bill for these meals since these accommodations were not being met satisfactorily and if we could use that money to buy meals at other local halal restaurants or kosher restaurants for students requiring religious accommodations, the same for allergies. I was told that since the dining hall was still meeting the legal requirement, that my program would need to still pay the dining hall even if our students weren’t going to be dining on their food.
Thinking that they might be a partner in advocating for our students, I reached out to the religious accommodations office at that University, who told me that their office did not work during the summer and they could not help me.
In the end, our department elected to pay for double meals (we paid for, but didn’t request field trip meals). We also purchased additional foods that all students needing accommodations could eat which were made available in the residences. While this solution solved the problem, I continue to find this to be a bizarre solution. To me, the dining halls should have been more accommodating. Till today, I think about where the law fails and whose responsibility it is to ensure that we are accommodating our students. What does it mean to create a residential experience? What does it mean to host students from around the world? What does it mean to be inclusive for different cultures, backgrounds, and religions?
Empathy is a complicated skill. It is more than listening. While essential to listen critically, empathy is a skill that requires action. Someone who simply listens may have heard about this challenge and thought - I can’t do anything, I don’t work in dining services. Or they may have thought - this is an academic program, the academics were good, that’s what’s critical. Or, worst of all, they may not have thought it was a big deal - these students are just being picky. For me, when working on residential programs, the whole experience contributes to a student’s sense of belonging and wellbeing. To be a strong academic leader, it is necessary to bring empathy for students whose life experiences are different from your own.
As a graduating M.A. student in Educational Leadership, who is about to begin SCU’s Ed.D. in Social Justice Leadership this summer, a critical component of my research requires the use of empathy. Learning to understand points of view that are different from our own is crucial to solving the root cause of problems in education. The action researcher does not come in to solve problems, they come in to listen to stakeholders and support that community’s action. To do this, empathy is a necessary ingredient. As I go forward in my own research, I will be using empathy and I encourage my peers in SCU School of Education and Counseling Psychology to do the same.
Hallie Mullane '23 has taught and advised thousands of students and developed dozens of new partnerships and new programs, with a deep focus on internationalization and global programming. She has supported students in earning hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships for Study Abroad. In her free time, Hallie scours the internet for travel ideas, studies Kanji (Japanese), researches alternative housing, and raises chickens.