Student Alliance @ CIIS

Campus Groups

To update your student group information, email studentalliance 'at' ciis.edu. To introduce a new student group, fill out the Campus Groups Registration Form and bring it to the Student Affairs Office on the fourth floor.

CIIS Community Process Group

The CIIS Community Process Group offers professionally-facilitated, experientially-oriented community forums that bring together students, faculty, and staff who are interested in actively exploring ways to relate with transparency and authenticity in a diverse community context. We strive to make room for various and competing views, tensions, feelings, styles of communication, and modes of inquiry and exploration, while encouraging an awareness of unconscious biases and power relationships. We provide opportunities to engage in personal and communal explorations of what the CIIS commitment to the ideal of diversity really means to us as a community.

Contact: Sonya Brewer, CIIScpg 'at ' gmail.com

Website: http://www.movingoncenter.org/ProfessionalServices.htm#CAROL

CIIStories

This project is intended to gradually develop an anthology of stories by students, staff and faculty in which are related extraordinary experiences they encountered that led to their arrival at CIIS, or which developed since they came here, or both. This project is predicated on the thesis that CIIS is more than just another graduate school. As stories accumulate, a portrait will begin to emerge of our school as not only an innovative leader in such revolutionary concepts of the academic world as integral education and the latest vision of transpersonal theory, but also as an alchemical retort wherein the awakening and transformation of human beings take place.

The CIIStories Group has been formed to monitor and administer the CIIStories Project, so that the Project can be perpetuated over time. The Project has the character of a literary effort, so the Group will function as an editorial board. They are responsible for first, selecting the stories that clearly exhibit the characteristics which evoke amazement and provoke thought; second, proofreading; third, possibly proposing minor editing of the stories to the authors with the aim of highlighting or clarifying the special character of the stories; and finally, archiving and – with the author’s permission – presenting the stories.

Contact: Adrian Auler, aauler 'at ' ciis.edu

Website: https://pathway.ciis.edu/ics/Campus_Life/Campus_Groups/CIIStories/

Integral Dialogue Group

This group explores the teaching of Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, and Dr. Chaudhuri both formally and experientially through meditation.

Contact: Jonah Saifer, jsaifer 'at ' ciis.edu

International Students and Friends

International Students and Friends is created for the expressed purpose of providing peer support for the international student community, through organizing and hosting cultural and social events as well as of raising awareness on campus about the specific needs of international graduate students. The campus group will also take part in creating social and cultural activities that will empower international students and create a support network. The international students group will also facilitate the International Playback Theater Company who will creatively engage in international student stories and will perform at different CIIS, and possibly Bay Area, events.

Contact: Roni Alperin, ronialp 'at ' gmail.com

MULTIPeopLE

Support group for Students, Faculty and Staff who identify Multi-racial

Contact: Susan Leksander, suzq77 'at ' aol.com

People of Color (POC)

The People of Color group is open to faculty, staff and students of color. The group meets every two weeks to discuss issues of diversity at the Institute and to provide ongoing support to the community of color at CIIS. A major goal of the group is to promote cultural diversity and awareness in the CIIS community.

Contact: Shirley Strong, sstrong 'at ' ciis.edu

Queer@CIIS Group

Queer@CIIS is a group of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning and intersex members of the CIIS community, and our allies. Our primary mission is to provide a safe and enthusiastic environment for all students, faculty and staff that supports, affirms, encourages, and empowers us in sharing our lives and goals more fully and openly into the community, thereby enhancing the richness and relevance of the CIIS educational experience.

Our group produces exciting educational and social events to support, promote, and edify all students, as well as those in the community. We believe that inclusivity is a primary ingredient for discourse, and camaraderie. Your ideals, ideas, stories, and support are most welcome and encouraged. Please contact use to get on our private "Queer@CIIS" listserve.

Contact: Lise Dyckman, ldyckman 'at ' ciis.edu

Species Alliance

Species Alliance provides national public education and community outreach to increase awareness of the impending threat to the Earth's life support systems caused by dramatic extinction rates. Having begun as a support group to help student's come to terms with the mass extinction crisis, the group has grown into a multi-faceted media project including the "Call of Life" film, an interactive website, and school lesson plans, all in progress.

Contact: Chera Van Burg, info 'at ' speciesalliance.org

Website: http://www.speciesalliance.org

Student Alliance (SA)

Student Alliance serves as a forum for meetings and discussions among students and disperses funds to promote the good of the community within the Institute. This includes involving students in institute governance and creating community events, as well as giving financial awards to help students defray the expenses incurred by presenting at conferences. All students are invited to attend meetings and be involved with Student Alliance.

Contact: Maitri Gopalakrishna, Communications Coordinator, mgopalakrishna 'at ' ciis.edu

Website: http://www.saciis.org

UNITE!

To advocate for the building of alliances among diverse students. To actively promote and work toward social justice and diversity goals at CIIS.

Contact: Elijah Nella, piquantly 'at ' gmail.com

White People Working Against Racism

The "White People Working Against Racism Group @ CIIS" is open to students, faculty and staff who want to participate in a process towards unlearning racism, examining their experience of white social privilege, confronting histories of silence, shame, and complicity, and moving towards alliance-building with people of color for racial justice, at CIIS and beyond.

Out of respect for people of color, we are meeting as a caucus group of white people. We consider it very important that we don't impose on people of color the role of "teaching us how we are racist" or the need to care-take people who might be at various stages of their own consciousness around racism and oppression.

Contact: Laurel Carangelo, no2racism 'at ' gmail.com