I found and interesting article from The BG News, an online newspaper at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.
Many universities try to show that they find importance in diversity. One way to do this is to promote diversity by organizing programs with diversity as their main focus. At Bowling Green, they have done just that.
The article described two offices on campus that are dedicated to promoting diversity. The first was The Office of Multicultural Affairs. This office is concerned with retention of diverse student populations, multicultural programming, and diversity education (Smith, 2013). The office is also involved in creating a welcoming environment to all students and faculty.
The second office is the Office of Equity and Diversity (OED). This office is responsible for "monitoring compliance with federal and state equal opportunity and non-discrimination laws" (Smith, 2013). Additionally, this office is involved with employment, and investigating any complaints regarding discrimination and harassment (Smith, 2013).
Both offices are involved in many education programs for students and faculty, and they have a web page for students and faculty to visit with questions, concerns, or to report any issues.
Additionally, there is a group of student leaders who belong to a program called Diversity Peer Educators. These student educators help to make other students and faculty aware of diversity issues within their environment.
Diversity is a very important part of our society. We all come from different backgrounds and ethnicities, and it is important to have programs and events to help people connect. While some students may come from big cities with very diverse schools, others may come from small towns, where diversity is limited. It's very important to have awareness of any issues relating to diversity. It can create a positive and welcoming environment to all. These programs can help students and faculty connect to one another, and learn much about each other, and the world in which we live.
Smith, O. (2013, February 3). University doing right things to promote diversity, equality. The BG News.
Retrieved February 4, 2013, from www.bgnews.com
I think it is great that this university has both diversity management for the students, and for their staff. I noticed that this school is in Ohio, and I wonder if perhaps that was part of the reason they wanted to have such a large focus on diversity, and I hope more colleges and universities do the same. I say this because, as you pointed out, often times people are not exposed to others who are different from themselves when they are in areas lacking diversity (especially rural areas).
ReplyDeleteAs great as it is that there is focus on diversity awareness, It is still unfortunate that there must be such programs. I'm still skeptical about the true reasons why some schools implement these programs. The sentence, "This office is concerned with retention of diverse student populations...etc.," makes me wonder if that is the school's primary objective. It is a business after all. I tend to believe that programs started by the student body to promote diversity would to be a bit more genuine.
Deletehttps://www.albright.edu/multicultural/index.html
ReplyDeleteLink to Albrights office of multicultural affairs...
Here is their mission:
Office Mission
The Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) strives to support and empower students of all backgrounds. The office provides educational and inclusive programming, advisement, and other services that promote cultural awareness. Our goal is to work with the campus community to encourage academic, cultural and personal growth. We welcome differences in age, race, ethnicity, disability, gender, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic background and geographic origin. While the office services the entire Albright community with the goal of enhancing multiculturalism on campus, specific focus and attention is placed on the students enrolled at Albright College.
Would be interesting to call and interview them to see how they promote positive diversity on the main campus. I love this blog topic and look forward to learning from it! I wish all of you lived closer to main campus so we could participate more on some of the great things that happen at Albright surrounding this topic.
Look at even us as a cohort. We all have different paths that led us to be together. Different life stages and different motivations. We have a common goal but that is only an intersection. Odds are each of us will end up doing something different. Our strength is in our diversity.
DeleteI think it's great that they are making this an "issue" because it is! The only way to make it better is to educate!
ReplyDeleteMaybe you will run Abright's office of multicultural affairs someday:) Would be such a cool job, creating events and doing things to promote positive interaction with different groups...
ReplyDeleteInteresting info!