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Students dance, sing, in celebration of diversity requirement
Courtesy, Margaret Reimer - Journalist
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COURTESY MCT CAMPUS Man standing with a rainbow flag. BGLAD, one of Boise State's LGBT groups, participated in the diversity festival.
In celebration of Boise State’s diversity requirement, students of all races and cultures gathered on the patio of the SUB to dance, sing and listen to music as part of The Diversity Festival Thursday.
The festival was started by students who were seeking ways to inspire interaction of cultures and appreciation for the diversity on campus. With a campus that is 80.7 percent Caucasian, this festival is a way for minorities on campus to celebrate their rich cultures while also educating the general student body.
Various performers and speakers participated throughout the event. Francisco Salinas, director of Student Diversity and Inclusion, shared a story of a student whose family discouraged her from pursuing higher education because she was a woman. Salinas was able to help this student in her fight for a higher education.
He also told a personal story of his father, who had come from a family of 21 and had overcome many obstacles to get through high school and into college. His father had the courage to leave home to pursue high school and with the help of an English teacher who opened their home to him was able to make it to college. This resulted in Salinas attending college and later teaching subjects including Chicano studies.
The festival also had a large selection of entertainers. The closing group Quetzalcoatl entered amidst a cloud of incense and tribal pounding of drums. The Aztec dance group is made of alumni and area teens. The group wore feather headdresses and metallic costumes and danced traditional Aztec tribal dances in order to get in touch with their roots and educate others on the rich culture of Mexico.
Many of the students attending did not know this was part of their heritage, Ro Parker, Cultural Center director said.
Belly dancing troupe Desert Dream balanced swords on their heads while sensually swiveling their hips. Children were asked to come on stage and dance in celebration.
Parker said the festival had been very successful. “Inclusion is so important,” Parker said. “We need social justice education.”
The diversity requirement is a three-credit requirement from an array of diversity-designated courses that serve as a starting point for ongoing exploration of differences. The courses are set up to explore gender, sexual orientation, class, race, nationality and ability.
The festival was sponsored by The Cultural Center in conjunction with LGBT club, The Women’s Center, Idaho Women’s Network, The Secular Student Alliance and International Study Abroad. Booths were set up around the stage to provide information to under-represented students such as Boise State’s gay, lesbian, non-religious and feminist students.
How diverse are your friends?
- Not diverse at all (75%, 3 Votes)
- Very diverse (25%, 1 Votes)
- Somewhat diverse (0%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 4
We need social justice education?
Social justice is anti American an leads to state control, mind control, control of ideas, mass tyranny, mass murder, mass plunder, loss of rights, loss of privacy in worship and family life.
Source: every socialist/communist dictatorship in recent history
PS
The only people who wear Che t-shirts in Cuba are tourists and little kids that are forced to.
On Myspace:
Ro Alvarado is Una Revolucion -"Religion must die, so that humanity can live"~Religulous http://www.myspace.com/roshambo187.