At Saturday’s second-annual Diversity Conference, opening speaker Judith Katz began the day of dialogue with a simple communication tactic. She had the nearly 40 people in the room introduce themselves to as many other people as possible.
“Our belief is that we can’t create a community if we don’t say hello,” said Katz, executive vice president of New York-based Kaleel Jamison Consulting Group. She said she uses the same icebreaker with Fortune 500 companies.
The morning introductions started a day of workshops and speakers, all part of the Diversity Conference, which was titled “Real Understanding: How Far Have We Come?”
About 100 people attended the seven-hour conference at Norris University Center. This was about half the number of people who registered and a decrease from last year’s conference, which drew 240 people.
“I would have expected a larger turnout, but because of the weather and the football game, there were so many factors,” said Alan Fu, co-chair of the conference planning committee. “It was just a scheduling conflict.”
In her opening remarks, Katz encouraged audience members to recognize the parts of their identities that can be used to make a positive difference. She had each person identify whether race, religion, sexual orientation and other factors were “one up” or “one down.” For example, a Caucasian woman might be one up because of her race, but one down because of her gender.
“Each of us may find ourselves in a one-up or one-down position based on our identity,” Katz said. “You cannot be a change agent by being one down.”
As Katz sent the attendees off to their first session of workshops, she encouraged them to visualize an ideal world.
“When we talk about diversity, about inclusion, what does that actually look like in an advanced state?” she said. “We’ve been able to create inventions that have surpassed our wildest thinking, but when it comes to this issue, we say it’s human nature — things are the way they are. That is conceptual limitation.”
‘DIVERSITY IN THE MEDIA’
At a discussion aimed at improving the media’s coverage of minorities, student leaders of campus cultural groups shared their grievances with representatives from The Daily, the Northwestern Chronicle and Northwestern News Network.
Student group leaders criticized the campus media for misquoting sources, sometimes sensationalizing stories and placing too great an emphasis on negative events.
“Often times they answer the questions who, what, when and where but miss the question why,” For Members Only corresponding secretary Jennifer Carpenter told about 25 people in the audience.
Medill Prof. Ava Greenwell, who also served on the panel, explained that conflict often makes an event more newsworthy, but she urged the student journalists to write positive and negative stories about groups and events.
“The bottom line is that people are people. If you treat people with respect, they are going to be willing to work with you,” Greenwell said.
Chronicle Editor in Chief Michael Hoes said people — sources and members of the media — should focus more on personal identities than on group identities.
“We have a problem with the presumption that there’s an inherent value in ethnic diversity, gender diversity and sexual diversity,” said Hoes, a Medill junior.
‘DIVERSITY IN GREEK LIFE’
At a forum on diversity in the Greek system, participants agreed that non-cultural sororities and fraternities are doing a better job of reaching out to the campus’ cultural chapters, but the two groups still do not understand each other.
Qamara Edwards, the only black member of Alpha Delta Phi, said her sorority is diverse and inclusive but that her position has made her more conscious of her race.
“I definitely do feel like I’m alone because I’m the only black person, but I don’t think it’s going to be that way for long,” said Edwards, a Speech junior.
Joy Matias, the founder of NU’s Latina sorority, Sigma Lambda Gamma, said she attended Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Association events before organizing the sorority but felt out of place.
“I lived up North, and I went to frat parties,” she said. “Honestly, I totally felt like I didn’t belong there.”
‘UNSOLICITED RELIGIOUS CONVERSION EFFORTS’
While there is nothing wrong with holding religious beliefs, imposing those convictions on others is wrong, said speaker Tracy Treger of the Anti-defamation League.
Evangelistic religions like Christianity have a long history of trying to convert other groups. And although evangelists’ efforts may be more subtle today, they are still too intolerant of other religions, Treger said.
“It’s arrogant,” she said. “I am thrilled for you if you think your views are fabulous and divinely inspired, but it’s arrogant and disrespectful to say some groups are OK, but some groups are not OK.”
‘DIVERSITY IN RELIGION’
In the “Diversity in Religion” workshop, six panelists representing religious groups on campus shared their views on how they could build better relationships with each other.
“We are children of God and we have an obligation to love each other, be charitable to each other, regardless of religious beliefs,” said Weinberg junior Omayr Niazi, a representative of Latter-day Saints Students Association. “Every religion has been persecuted because people are scared of what they don’t understand.”
The panelists agreed that different religious groups do share a unifying factor — belief in God.
But conflict arises when groups do not see how much they have in comMonday, Niazi said.
‘ASIAN-AMERICAN HATE CRIMES’
In a session about Asian-American hate crimes, speaker David Chih said people have to understand themselves before they can understand history.
“People need to become more active in their own personal development of identity,” said Chih, assistant dean of students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “You need to affiliate with other people who have had experiences like yours and participate in organizations and attend workshops.”
‘INEQUALITY IN SCHOOLS’
In this workshop, sociology Prof. Marika Lindholm said schools are reinforcing inequality instead of stopping it. She pointed to the fact that, unlike in other industrialized nations, U.S. schools are funded by individual rather than nationwide districts.
“The kinds of schools kids are going to be attending are very much based on what kind of neighborhood they live in,” Lindholm said.
She also said that students’ expectations contribute to inequality. Because men and whites are expected to do better than women and minorities, those with lower expectations might be inclined to do worse.
‘COMMITMENT IS OUR DRIVE’
After a full day of panel discussions and dialogues, keynote speaker Jamie Washington told attendees to keep working toward understanding and appreciating others.
“It’s important we’re grounded in why we do it and that we’re not caught up in, ‘There weren’t 2,000 people here,'” said Washington, assistant vice president of student affairs at the University of Maryland at Baltimore County. “It’s about what we believe at the core.”
Washington also advised audience members not to be discouraged as they fight for equality.
“In this work, there’s going to be days when you don’t feel like it,” he said. “But we have to move beyond feelings to commitment. The commitment is our drive.”
Despite the lower-than-expected attendance, organizers said they considered the conference a success. The smaller numbers in workshops made it easier for attendees to have more dialogue, Fu said.
Turnout was high at kick-off events held the week before the conference. About 90 people attended the Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit choir performance Thursday night at Norris. The ethnic food night at the Multicultural Center on Friday drew about 300 people.
Hadley Leach, a conference planning committee member, said she was encouraged by the positive feedback she received.
“I think it went great,” said Leach, a Weinberg junior. “I’m ready to start planning next year’s.”
The Daily’s Marisa
Maldonado, Ana Mantica, Sara Melillo, Ericka Mellon and Sasha Talcott contributed to this report.
