One year ago, a hate crime divided the MU community. The same thing happened one year before that.

Student leaders responded with One Mizzou.

The One Mizzou student-led diversity initiative officially launched in April last year after a [racially charged graffiti incident outside of Hatch Hall](https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2011/2/12/mupd-begins-investigation-racially-charged-graffit/).

The mission statement on [One Mizzou’s newly re-launched website](http://one.missouri.edu) states the initiative is built around a desire to create a “more inclusive campus community” by advocating diversity education, programming and exchange of dialogue facilitated by student organizations and campus resources.

The committee’s main focus of the fall semester was developing the new website to help MU students connect to diversity programs on campus. The hallmark of the site is a calendar showcasing a variety of diversity events, serving as a one-stop shop for students looking to get involved.

On the surface, this could sound similar to already existing efforts like the Chancellor’s Diversity Initiative, launched in 2005, which has a similar mission statement and a calendar of diversity events on its website. But One Mizzou Task Force members, who are student leaders from a variety of diversity organizations on campus, said several key differences exist between the two.

The Chancellor’s Diversity Initiative focuses on providing resources to people, whereas One Mizzou is about making a statement and educating students, Missouri Students Association President Xavier Billingsley said.

“When I say ‘One Mizzou,’ it means something,” Billingsley said.

Billingsley said both organizations are highly valuable to the campus.

The One Mizzou Task Force has also worked hard to emphasize the “student-led” aspect of One Mizzou to students, with everything from having students sign posters in the residence halls to presenting One Mizzou’s goals to FIG proseminar classes.

“It’s not coming from the chancellor, and it’s not one specific group of students who feel like they need to uplift their specific community or their specific backgrounds,” Legion of Black Collegians President Whitney Williams said. “It’s a group of students from all different cultures, all different backgrounds and a lot of different organizations who see a need for this change.”

####Creating an inclusive campus climate

One of the first observable actions of the One Mizzou initiative after its launch was the appearance of posters around campus and in residence halls for students to sign in support of the campaign.

Residence Halls Association President Chris Rucker said the committee wanted students to take a pledge in support of the One Mizzou mission.

Many halls saw significant student participation with their posters, Rucker said. The posters returned to residence halls in the fall for the start of the new school year.

“It was great to see people physically taking this pledge,” Rucker said.

Graduate Professional Council President Kristofferson Culmer said One Mizzou has become more of an outlook than an organization. The effort, as such, has adjusted its initial goals of programming to more long-term goals of creating an inclusive campus atmosphere.

One Mizzou does not have plans for original programming in the near future. Billingsley’s campaign plans for a One Mizzou week were too large for a one-semester turn-around, but it is something the committee might implement in the fall.

Instead, One Mizzou’s focus is on highlighting already existing diversity resources to students, an effort that has not gone unnoticed by many campus diversity organizations.

“It’s a very honorable goal they have, to make diversity part of the culture,” Women’s Center adviser Suzy Day said.

Day — who also advises the Feminist Student Union, an organization under the Four Front umbrella — said the One Mizzou committee, particularly staff adviser Kelsey Hammond, is always careful to include programming about women’s issues in its publicity.

She said she is glad One Mizzou has become a student-run initiative that works with full-time centers and hopes to remain a part of what One Mizzou does.

“Students want to hear from other students, but we want to make sure we are here, too, to give them the resources they need,” Day said.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer Resource Center coordinator Struby Struble said One Mizzou has been highly supportive of LGBTQ issues, highlighting events like a photo of LGBTQ students and allies on National Coming Out Day in October, which saw a record number of participants at MU this year.

“By taking their positive impact on campus and supporting some of our larger public events, we’ve seen a positive outcome,” Struble said.

One of the largest struggles members of the LGBTQ community face is overcoming stereotypes, Struble said, and the best way to do that is by changing the environment on campus.

“We’d still be OK if One Mizzou wasn’t here, but it’s definitely been a help that they’ve shown that we’re a part of the diversity world on campus,” Struble said.

The theme for this year’s Greek Week was [inspired by One Mizzou](https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2012/3/6/one-mission-one-community-one-greek-week-greek-wee/), and the steering committee is working with Hammond to incorporate a diversity point system and award into the week. This includes highlighting diversity events throughout April included in Black Love Week, Asian American Awareness Month and Campus Pride Month, among others.

One Mizzou is in talks with Summer Welcome about incorporating a diversity training event into the orientation and getting the name of One Mizzou out to incoming freshmen.

“It’s not necessarily important for student to come into school saying, ‘Oh, that’s One Mizzou, that’s the diversity task force,’” Williams said. “It should be more like, ‘I am a part of One Mizzou, so I’m going to go above and beyond to be an outstanding student.’”

####More than One Mizzou?

The phrase has become something of a buzzword around MU.

But not all students realize there are three separate One Mizzou initiatives.

One of the earliest major events associated with One Mizzou was the sale of T-shirts to raise money for relief efforts after the devastating tornado in Joplin last spring. As of October, those T-shirts had raised more than $280,000 for disaster relief from almost 26,000 T-shirts sold.

The event was not run by the student diversity initiative but by the athletics department as part of its newly revamped marketing campaign. “One Mizzou” replaced its previous theme, “Unleashed.” The new slogan was officially chosen in March, having been considered among others for several months, and was set to be released at the end of May until the May 22 tornado in Joplin led to a change of plans, unveiling the campaign early.

Athletics department Marketing Director Emily Janssen said the department thought the campaign embodied the support and unity needed after the disaster and decided to use it to lead a fundraising effort.

Janssen said athletics was made aware of the student-led initiative before it was unveiled and the two campaigns sprung up independently but simultaneously.

The One Mizzou logo and phrase from the T-shirt has since been used on a variety of advertisements and apparel throughout the athletics department.

The student-led diversity initiative’s logos are different and can be found on posters located in residence halls, dining halls and the student unions.

Chancellor Brady Deaton, who previously called the formation of One Mizzou [his “proudest moment” as chancellor](https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2011/4/8/one-mizzou-diversity-campaign-unveiled/), named MU’s strategic plan for the future “One Mizzou: 2020 Vision for Excellence.”

The athletics campaign was never intended to overshadow or discredit the student-led initiative, MU athletics department student services worker Brad Ekwerekwu said. Perhaps a testament to the quality of the phrase, the two identical slogans arose at the same time.

The department is happy to share its resources with other university entities, such as student groups, Janssen said, and the two “One Mizzous” have held meetings to discuss pooling their resources.

Ekwerekwu said the two campaigns are not so different and athletics is willing to share resources with the student-led One Mizzou and participate in educational events as long as the campaign can find a way to brand itself.

“If you were to say what One Mizzou is from a campus standpoint, could you put that into a Tweet?” Ekwerekwu said. “Could you put that into a text message?”

So far, the two have collaborated in the creation of banners for Black History Month.

The One Mizzou Task Force is also looking into creating a new video about diversity using the athletic department’s production equipment.

“(The athletics department was) very enthusiastic about working with students and making sure that whatever comes out of this is in the students’ best interest,” Culmer said.

Williams said she thinks many students now realize the One Mizzou campaigns are different.

“I think we all have the same ultimate goal, which is to build unity among students regardless of race, color, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, etc.,” Williams said. “We feel it is important that athletics take on a diversity aspect and academics take on a diversity aspect, interweaving diversity into the fabric of the university.”

Students who were at the One Mizzou launch in April might understand the different One Mizzous on campus now, Culmer said, but those who were unaware how it started could easily be confused as to who is doing what.

“That’s why we’re trying to bring everything back together,” Culmer said. “We want to make sure there is a consistent message behind the program.”

####A collaborative effort

One concern of the One Mizzou Task Force is the impression that One Mizzou is simply a committee of MSA.

“I think a lot of people think the MSA president leads One Mizzou,” Billingsley said. “We just provide a small budget for it and are on the team, just like everyone else.”

Under Woods’ administration, MSA allotted $5,000 for One Mizzou. So far, little has been spent and the budget might be adjusted, but task force members are confident that if necessary they could obtain the necessary funding from their respective organizations to facilitate programming.

This misconception caused problems in the earliest One Mizzou meetings after the graffiti incident, when representatives from some minority student organizations felt that MSA was essentially running the show.

“Most diversity organization leaders feel that the structure of the task force is not representative of the minority population,” former LBC President Lisa White said in a letter to the One Mizzou committee last spring. “Although minority organization student representatives are invited to these meetings, students feel as though the driving force is MSA.”

Members of LBC, upset with the way One Mizzou was being handled, expressed concerns that the initiative was being rushed and not enough input from students was being considered.

“MSA was doing things, which was great, but they were also coming to these One Mizzou meetings every week and telling us what they had done instead of letting these other organizations be a part of the work that was going on,” Williams said.

LBC representatives stepped down from the committee until a meeting with MSA during the summer led to more open communication between the organizations represented in the One Mizzou Task Force.

Williams said it was clear to her that Woods wanted more input from other organizations like LBC and Four Front in its meetings, and LBC rejoined the committee in the fall. These early meetings included a wide array of members from diversity organizations on campus but were organized by MSA, which proved problematic when everyone wanted their opinion to be heard.

Student leaders decided to reorganize the committee with fewer representatives who could then relate information back to their respective organizations, a transition the task force members have found to be much more practical.

####Student leaders join forces

As the committee has met with the goal of strengthening the unity of the campus in general, one unintended consequence of their meetings has been finding unity between the committee members themselves.

Rucker said meeting weekly with leaders of other campus organizations, both formally and informally, as a part of the One Mizzou committee has strengthened relationships between the diversity organizations represented on the One Mizzou committee.

“We’re all pretty comfortable with each other,” Rucker said.

This was not the intention of the committee — it was more to strengthen relationships between the members of campus diversity organizations and the student body — but it has led to an unprecedented level of open communication between these organizations’ respective leaders.

“There have been times in the past where RHA and MSA did not talk,” Rucker said. “A lot of times when organizations come out with something, I wonder if they really believe it or follow it. For us to be one of the first byproducts of One Mizzou is really good to show.”

Woods said this close relationship between the organizations’ leaders extends to other organizations like LBC and the Graduate Professional Council and allows for the different entities to quickly address problems and collaborate on solutions.

“Having the presidents of many of the major student governments on campus in one room every week has done so much for our relationships,” Woods said.

Many of its current members will graduate in the spring, but the new leaders of their respective organizations will take their places on the committee, and it looks as though the weekly meetings won’t be ending anytime soon.