nextGEN Special Committee for CCCC (November 2023)

Committee Members

Genesis Barco-Medina, Co-Chair
Sherita Roundtree, Co-Chair
Sweta Baniya
Estee Beck
Candace Epps-Robertson
James Eubanks
Asao B. Inoue
Ashanka Kumari
Genesis Barco Medina
Nupoor Ranade
Kayla Sparks

Charges:

The nextGEN Special Committee for CCCC is tasked with a 3-year appointment to deliver a slate of recommendations to the CCCC Executive Committee (EC) by the end of October 2020 on which the EC votes. This committee’s goal is to represent the diverse voices of graduate students who participate in CCCC events and in the larger field, amplifying their concerns, ideas, and demands.

Background

nextGEN is an advocacy collective that aims to build a coalition-based community among graduate students and those that actively support graduate students, with the hope to effect trickle-up institutional, disciplinary, and social change. As a collective, it is independent of CCCC and other disciplinary organizations. The committee status is an opportunity for nextGEN to have a voice within CCCC and should not affect the collective’s work that is apart from CCCC.

Charges

1. The nextGEN Committee for CCCC is a three-year appointment.
2. The nextGEN Committee for CCCC will create internal appointment timelines within the three-year committee appointment. For example, some members could serve on the committee for one or two years. The committee can then continuously add new voices from the community to its procedures as well as develop a membership turnover structure that sustains and builds a culture of learned practices and knowledges. Each current chair of CCCC will approve the appointment per Constitution, but should allow nextGen as much autonomy as they request. Autonomy on this point should be the default position.
3. Building from known past committee research as well as using our own networks to conduct contemporary research to develop an updated catalog of issues concerning the graduate students in the field for CCCC to listen to, learn from, and take actions on.
4. Collaborating with CCCC to identify and remove barriers to participation impacting, for example, graduate students who are parents, graduate students with disabilities, graduate students of color, international graduate students.
5. Helping to write and review CCCC position statements on and policies associated with graduate students to ensure updated anti-oppressive, anti-discriminatory practices that create an equitable environment for the participation, acceptance, and empowerment of all graduate students.
6. Building wider networked communication between graduate representatives of various SIGs and CCCC committees, ultimately with the intention to establish a sustainable horizontal mentoring structure within CCCC for experience-sharing and knowledge-building among graduate representatives.
7. Working with the Executive Committee to ensure not only that CCCC leadership positions are available for graduate students, but also that these positions involve (when applicable) equitable collaboration and decision-making practices between people at different professional stages.
8. Partnering with CCCC to build mechanisms for recognizing graduate students at the various stages in their programs and in the various roles they undertake.
9. Helping CCCC collect and amplify the impressive scholarly and community work graduate students are doing in the field and at their own respective institutions.
10. Managing the nomination process of the nextGEN ‘Community Advocate Award’ and bestowing that award at CCCC.
11. Recommending and promoting sustaining principles for nextGEN and CCCC to form a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship without nextGEN losing its critical orientation as a community, a movement in the future through institutionalization.
12. Prepare a proposal to the EC by October 2020 to establish an CCCC nextGEN ‘Community Advocate Award’ and bestowing that award at CCCC.
13. Meet with the current Chair of CCCC by September 2020.