The Wilkins Forum

The centerpiece of the Wilkins Center is the Wilkins Forum, a working group of professionals committed to broadening the discussion and policy options around discrimination and racism. Forum members also provide leadership and guidance to the Wilkins Center. Aminda Wilkins designed the Wilkins Forum as a dynamic memorial to her husband’s ideals. She wanted it to serve as a vehicle for ongoing cross-cultural dialogue on prominent current events as well as seemingly intractable problems related to inequality.

Membership in the Wilkins Forum reflects Mrs. Wilkins’ vision. It is an ethnically diverse group of 100 academics, researchers, business people, and community leaders working in state, national, and international arenas in the public and private sectors. This unique cross-section of experiences and perspectives leads to in-depth exploration of issues and original solutions.

Coming together once or twice a year, members debate a single issue of importance. Often held in conjunction with a Wilkins Center conference on a similar topic, the Wilkins Forum dialogue is the starting point for the larger conference’s discussion. Wilkins Forum members act as keynote speakers, presenters, respondents, and moderators throughout the event. Topics of past discussions include: From the Ivory/Ivy Tower to the Grassroots; Affirmative Action; Race Relations and Civil Rights in the Post Reagan-Bush Era; Remedies to Racial and Ethnic Economic Inequality; and Skills, Test Scores, and Inequality.

Forum members are asked to provide advice and guidance on Wilkins Center research and programs. The most prominent examples have been the World Conferences on Remedies to Racial and Ethnic Economic Inequality in 1996 and 1998. After the 1994 National Conference on Race Relations and Civil Rights in the Post Reagan-Bush Era, members recognized that the best way to study new models of race relations and programs to remedy discrimination may rest outside the United States in other multiracial societies. Their proposal culminated in the world conferences.

While all members are invited to critique and consult, the main responsibility rests with the executive committee which meets with Wilkins Center staff at least once a year.

Wilkins Forum Meetings + Conferences

Dialogue is a key component of the Wilkins Center. A major academic conference usually is held in conjunction with a meeting of the Wilkins Forum, allowing the Wilkins Center to share its work, learn from experts, and consider new avenues of research with colleagues from around the nation and the world.

Race, Poverty, and Housing (1993)
This conference, sponsored by Fannie Mae, was the center's first. It established the model, used in later Wilkins Center conferences, of bringing together academics, researchers, practitioners, professionals, and community members. It engaged community activists, mortgage bankers, realtors, and scholars to discuss, debate, and challenge the procedures and policies that have an impact on home ownership, housing availability, and mortgage lending.

National Conference on Race Relations and Civil Rights in the Post Reagan-Bush Era (1994)
Forum members and conference participants focused on civil rights and racism, employment, affirmative action, and new remedies to inequality. Sociologists, historians, economists, and legal scholars debated how to remedy inequality in the face of increasing opposition to affirmative action programs. Speakers at the conference ranged from Washington Post columnist and author Juan Williams to prominent actors and community activists Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis.

A Conversation on Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity (1995)
The government's role in promoting and enforcing equal opportunity was the focus of this event. State and federal government representatives discussed remedies to inequality in housing, employment, and education. Speakers included former Minnesota Attorney General Hubert H. Humphrey III; Bernard Anderson, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Labor; and Rene Redwood of the Glass Ceiling Commission. The Wilkins Center produced a video based on the proceedings which has been aired on cable-acess stations in cities across the nation.

From the Ivy/Ivory Tower to the Grassroots (1995)
This event focused on understanding and considering ways to overcome the disconnect between the work of researchers and efforts to resolve everyday problems in communities. Issues examined included community building in urban and rural communities, cultural differences in community action, and how to translate policy initiatives into social change. Academics joined with community and business leaders to discuss the gap between policy making and community action, including community building in urban and rural communities, cultural differences in community action, and how to translate policy initiatives into social change. Speakers included film maker Mary Brown and Emmett Carson of the Minneapolis Foundation.

Interdisciplinary Workshop on Skills, Test Scores, and Inequality (1997)
Experts on testing, education policy, psychology, law, and linguistics, as well as administrators, students, and parents gathered to debate testing and educational achievement. Discussion focused on the role, use, and content of standardized testing; the social and psychological determinants of test scores; the influence of testing services; race and gender bias; alternative school options; and the effect of test scores on economic and social outcomes. While experts discussed their research and role in these topic areas, parents, students, and administrators discussed the effect of testing and achievement in the everyday life of schools and students. Speakers included Gary Sudduth of the Minneapolis Urban League, Kenneth Manning of MIT, Claude Steele of Stanford University, Anthony Carnevale of Educational Testing Service, and Susan Williams McElroy of the Heinz School of Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon.