{"id":33537,"date":"2022-05-20T17:20:06","date_gmt":"2022-05-20T22:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/?p=33537"},"modified":"2022-05-24T13:21:44","modified_gmt":"2022-05-24T18:21:44","slug":"the-case-against-titan-crew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/2022\/05\/20\/the-case-against-titan-crew\/","title":{"rendered":"The Case Against Titan Crew"},"content":{"rendered":"

Midday at IMSA is a very busy time for IMSA students. The 1 hour 50 minute reprieve from classes is critical for students to get lunch, catch up on any last-minute assignments due for their afternoon classes, or simply take a nap after a long night. Not only is it essential for students, but also for teachers, as midday is a time to meet with students, understand what they are struggling with, and simply just take a break before their afternoon classes. However, a severe hindrance to one\u2019s midday activities is Titan Crew. <\/span><\/p>\n

Background<\/b><\/p>\n

Questions that many IMSA students share are what exactly <\/span>is <\/span><\/i>Titan Crew and what is its purpose? On July 15, 2020, in an <\/span>update to the IMSA Board of Trustees<\/span><\/a>, IMSA\u2019s Chief Academic Officer and principal, Dr. Comfort Akwaji-Anderson<\/strong>, introduced the launch of Titan Crew for the 2020-2021 school year. <\/span><\/p>\n

Her document states that, \u201cStudents who feel known and cared for by at least one member of faculty tend to perform at their highest level. Launching distance learning creates an additional critical need for this connection. In the short and long term, a Titan Crew group can serve as a critical space for dialogue about identity, empathy, community, and inclusion.\u201d To discern why Titan Crew needs to be implemented, the document outlines major concerns at the school such as data from the diversity climate survey showing that \u2153 of the respondents felt unsafe on campus as a result of their race\/ethnicity, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, religion, ability, skin color and\/or political affiliation, how students from underprivileged backgrounds do not feel as strongly connected to faculty, or how when students heard racist, sexist, and homophobic remarks and an adult was present, nearly 50% of the time, the adult did not intervene. <\/span><\/p>\n

Titan Crew is meant to address such concerns by having each crew meet twice a week, and hoped to accomplish the following goals: <\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Each student should have a faculty member who knows and cares about them. <\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Each student should have a faculty member who knows their plans for the future. <\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Students should make connections across grade levels.  <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    For more background on the foundation of Titan Crew at IMSA and the data collection that sparked the creation of this program, be sure to check out this article from September 2020 by Mike Trombetta asking <\/span>\u201cWhy Titan Crew?\u201d<\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n

    Titan Crew Action Team Report <\/b><\/p>\n

    At the beginning of the 2021-2022 academic year, the Titan Crew Action Team was formed, composed of faculty members such as Dr. Peter Dong, Dr. Adam Kotlarczyk, Dr. Devon Madon, Mr. Matthew McCutcheon, Mr. Tom Meyer, and Ms. Namrata Pandya. The action team was formed to perform research and make recommendations regarding the program. On March 9, 2022, a report was released by the action team regarding Titan Crew, detailing the data from surveys conducted by both the Office of Institutional Research and the Action Team. The executive summary states, \u201cSurveys answered by 439 students and 42 faculty revealed overwhelming majorities of students <\/span>(85%) and faculty (97%) support ending the Titan Crew program.\u201d The report will be attached at the bottom of this article. <\/span><\/p>\n

    Utilizing data from the report and student accounts that I\u2019ve collected, I will be providing evidence demonstrating how Titan Crew fails to accomplish its goals. <\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n