Michael Benitez took off his flat brim hat, sunglasses and bright-red shirt decorated with a skull in the Union Saltair Room and told the audience, “I’m deconstructing myself.”
Benitez, a scholar in hip-hop pedagogy, delivered the keynote address Friday for the “Learning to Lead” conference on improving leadership skills for college-age social justice advocates.
He asked the audience to prepare to deconstruct themselves and reject false cultural assumptions.
“For so long, we have been constructing ourselves without knowing who we are,” he said.
Benitez, who focused on race discrimination, said racialization is dangerous. He said the process by which society teaches young people about race, class and gender needs to be unlearned to pursue and lead others toward justice.
The Office of Leadership Development, the Associated Students of the University of Utah and the Union Programming Council hosted the conference, which included an opening deconstruction address by Benitez, two sessions about developing socially responsible leadership and a closing reconstruction lecture which was also by Benitez.
“After the deconstruction process, it’s very important that you reconstruct,” he said.
In breakout sessions that followed Benitez’s opening address, U student leaders commented on the difficulty of getting other students involved on campus.
Jordan Spain, the current ASUU director of student services, said when she was a freshman she visited the student government office numerous times saying that she wanted to get involved. She said she has learned students first need to demonstrate an interest in getting involved.
“I can only reach so far before someone else reaches back,” said Spain, a senior in health promotion and education.
Benitez said students need to own activism. He cited Angela Davis and Jean-Paul Sartre as influential social justice activists who created new solutions to problems. Benitez said student activists need to act independently of university administration and utilize their collective voice.
During a session of the conference, Associate Dean of Students Lori McDonald and student leaders discussed opportunities for student groups to express their concerns about changes occurring on campus.
“It is up to students to provide student services on campus,” especially in this tough economic climate, McDonald said.
She said administrators are worried about decreasing enrollment because of the financial situation. During past economic downturns, higher education enrollment and finance aid requests normally increase, but U administrators wonder if the financial aid will be there to help those students in the near future.
“This year in the financial aid office there was a 20 percent increase in funding requests, but not a 20 percent increase in disbursement,” she said.