There are few events where one can see southeast Indian dancing, kimonos and a modeling troupe all on one stage. Friday’s Diversity Week Talent/Fashion Show will be such a place. The show will be one of the final events of the University’s first annual Diversity Week.
“We have EKTAA, which means ‘unity’ in Hindi,” Hema Patel, a sophomore in potical science and student government diversity commission vice president, said. “It’s a south Asian organization here on campus. They will be represented in the fashion show. We have the Japan club showing off their kimonos.”
Among those in the talent show are the black finesse modeling troupe, a Pakistani student association dancing group, Lambda Beta Psi Incorporated fraternity and a member Native American Student Association will perform an elaborate dance, according to Patel.
Patel said the goal is to establish a new tradition on campus.
“I feel like diversity should be a tradition here at N.C. State,” Patel said. “If we have RecFest as tradition here, or Agriculture Awareness week, why not Diversity Week as well?”
According to Patel, the idea for a diversity week originated with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.
“At the end of last year…Dr. Robinson approached Kelly Hook to have a diversity week on our campus,” Patel said. “Kelly Hook had a lot on her plate already, so she went to the [diversity] commission.”
After the concept arrived at the door of Student Government, Jermey Cooper, the chair of Student Government’s diversity committee took a leadership role, according to Patel.
Patel said Diversity Week is not in response to one specific event, but rather a “culmination of things.”
“There have been a lot of instances here on campus where some groups have been negatively targeted,” Patel said, “That shouldn’t happen here, especially since we’re college students. We should be more inclusive. That is when we feel strongly about this. We didn’t want Diversity Week to just go away…. we went ahead with the programs, and we wanted them to happen this year.”
The creators of Diversity Week said they aimed to publicize the variety of ethnic and cultural clubs that exist on campus and to raise awareness about the programs they offer.
“We just want to combine all the groups together because there has never been a unity of N.C. State campus,” Patel said. “That is all our main goal is. No one really knew that we have a Japan club, a Chinese undergrad student association, Caribbean student association.”
Diversity Week consists of several events from Monday through Saturday, ranging from movies to seminars on a wide range of topics, from oppression to the lack of water in other countries. According to Patel, these events counted towards FYC forum credit.
“We talked with an FYC director and we asked her, to get the word out, if we could make it a forum event,” Patel said. “They need diversity points as well, so if [FYC students] came out to events, they would get points.”
Despite the publicity across campus and via Facebook, attendance has been low to some events, according to Alexis Gajadhar, a sophomore in animal science and student government diversity committee secretary.
“We had about 220 people confirmed on Facebook, but we had an event yesterday [Tuesday] and no one showed up,” Gajahar said. “We’re learning from this.”
Despite the disappointments of low turnout to some events, University officials are still pleased with the efforts of the students involved.
“It’s a student lead initiative,” said Jo-Ann Robinson, assistant vice provost for student diversity. “We’re very excited to see their desire to create an inclusive and diversity campus community.”
Joanne Woodard, vice provost for equal opportunity & equity, praised the students for their efforts.
“Many individuals have worked together to make Diversity Week happen, and we are looking forward to the program expanding,” Woodard said.
