2008 Woodie Awards
Students lead Multicultural Conference; discuss Guilford diversity issues
Amanda Pressley
Issue date: 4/4/08 Section: Features
As the rain poured outside, students trickled into Bryan Jr. Auditorium on the morning of March 29 for the college's first annual Multicultural Conference. Entitled "Guilford Through the Looking Glass," the conference took a closer look at issues of diversity, specifically those on Guilford's campus.
"Rather than inviting others from other schools and looking at diversity issues in all of U.S. society, we wanted to focus on how multicultural issues impact life at Guilford," said Jorge Zeballos, Latino community program coordinator and international student advisor.
The specificity to Guilford is due, in part, to the large amount of student involvement in organizing the conference.
"Last year I was approached by a group of students interested in organizing a conference engaging in the internal conversation with the Guilford community on multicultural issues," Zeballos said.
"We really wanted this to be student-driven," said sophomore Elena Conley, one of the student organizers. "We've gone to anti-racism trainings, but everything is led by adults. We wanted something from the students."
Multicultural issues are highlighted as Guilford intensifies its work on the Strategic Long Range Plan (SLRP). Priority 3.2 of SLRP is titled Diversity and Anti-racism.
"There are so many multicultural issues on campus," Conley said. "You can see a racial division, a class division, an athlete division, a liberal division on campus."
According to the Diversity Plan document, "Connecting Communities and Embracing Diversity," transformation of Guilford begins with creating awareness. "We have responsibility, not only to challenge ourselves but to challenge our institutions," Zeballos said.
Step one of the Diversity Plan includes "conduct(ing) campus wide forums." A forum was held on March 19 and the multicultural conference served as another information session and included a panel discussion about the Anti-Racism team.
The day-long conference featured two sessions with three workshop options. Each of the six workshops focused on a topic relevant to Guilford.
"Rather than inviting others from other schools and looking at diversity issues in all of U.S. society, we wanted to focus on how multicultural issues impact life at Guilford," said Jorge Zeballos, Latino community program coordinator and international student advisor.
The specificity to Guilford is due, in part, to the large amount of student involvement in organizing the conference.
"Last year I was approached by a group of students interested in organizing a conference engaging in the internal conversation with the Guilford community on multicultural issues," Zeballos said.
"We really wanted this to be student-driven," said sophomore Elena Conley, one of the student organizers. "We've gone to anti-racism trainings, but everything is led by adults. We wanted something from the students."
Multicultural issues are highlighted as Guilford intensifies its work on the Strategic Long Range Plan (SLRP). Priority 3.2 of SLRP is titled Diversity and Anti-racism.
"There are so many multicultural issues on campus," Conley said. "You can see a racial division, a class division, an athlete division, a liberal division on campus."
According to the Diversity Plan document, "Connecting Communities and Embracing Diversity," transformation of Guilford begins with creating awareness. "We have responsibility, not only to challenge ourselves but to challenge our institutions," Zeballos said.
Step one of the Diversity Plan includes "conduct(ing) campus wide forums." A forum was held on March 19 and the multicultural conference served as another information session and included a panel discussion about the Anti-Racism team.
The day-long conference featured two sessions with three workshop options. Each of the six workshops focused on a topic relevant to Guilford.
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