Several students gathered Monday night at Free Expression Tunnel to celebrate Diversity Education Week at N.C. State. Students from across campus painted the walls of the tunnel with statements such as “I heart diversity,” “Gay Christian is great” and “I may not have love, but I do love who I am.”
The event, which was sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Center at NCSU, commemorated Bishop Gene Robinson’s speech, God Believes in Love: Straight Talk About Marriage. Robinson is the first openly gay Episcopal bishop.
Guadalupe Arce, a senior in agricultural extension education, said she attended the event because she was part of the diversity commission in student government.
“We really support any kind of culture,” Arce said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a ROTC culture or an ethnicity culture, and obviously, we do support the GLBT community. We’re big allies of the GLBT community.”
Arce was painting “I heart diversity” in rainbow-colored block letters. She planned to add a Student Government symbol to her design.
Michaela O’Connor, a sophomore in international studies, said she was also at the event to support the diversity commission.
“We’re trying to get more involved this year so that we can build up and get a bigger standing here at N.C. State to show that we’re more accepting,” O’Connor said. “We’re promoting diversity and acceptance from everybody.”
Although the GLBT Center hosted a similar event last year, O’Connor and Arce were both attending the event for the first time.
“The diversity commission was still trying to get its legs under itself [last year] because we were disbanded a couple years ago,” O’Connor said.
O’Connor said the diversity commission was formally recreated this year.
Arce said she thinks the GLBT Center is doing a great job promoting the events during Diversity Education Week and partnering with other departments within the University, such as the Union Activities Board.
“I think they’re doing an amazing job at making sure it’s a broad spectrum of diversity so it’s not only advertising the stuff that’s at the GLBT community but any community that might feel diverse,” Arce said.