January 31, 2017

By Vernita Bediako

Citizenship@Mizzou hosted a diversity training session Monday evening at the Missouri Theatre to help the university move toward accomplishing the diversity goals it set after campus protests in the fall of 2015.

The main goal of the program is to get students to recognize that the faculty, student and staff population is extremely diverse and includes people with different identities who come from different places.

The event started off with Stephanie Shonekan, director of the black studies department and associate professor of ethnomusicology, explaining what the night would be. Then, Shonekan asked the student band Talking Drum to sing the song “Blowin’ in the Wind” by Bob Dylan.

“I think it’s about how [people] are always looking for answers, but the answers are blowing in the wind, and we need to become wind chasers,” said senior Aaric Doyle-Wright, a vocalist in Talking Drum.

Shonekan then discussed MU’s first core value: responsibility. She presented the idea of the ‘salad bowl vs. the melting pot’ metaphor to the audience. The salad bowl represents a mixing of individuals who retain some of their unique qualities, while the melting pot suggest a society in which everyone becomes the same.

English and Women’s Studies professor Elisa Glick explained the three core concepts of respect, which are welcoming difference, practicing respect and understanding we are all different but we are also all the same.

The next panelist was English professor Andrew Hoberek, who discussed excellence and how it pertains to higher education. Hoberek mainly focused on the topic of education and pointed out that the excellence statement located on the MU website relates to education as a whole.

“We recognize and accept the sacrifices, risks and responsibilities involved in pursuing excellence, and so we celebrate each other’s successes,” the statement said. “We commit ourselves to this process in an ethical and moral manner.”

When Hoberek asked the audience about the value of college education, one student said that at college he can challenge himself in ways of thinking.

Religious Studies professor Nathan Hofer was the final presenter of the evening, and he focused on the MU core value of discovery. He explained that the idea of being accepting is about being well-informed. He urged the audience to discover what their peers think and why they think certain things.

He began his presentation by asking, “Does religion cause violence or violent behavior in believers?”

The audience was silent at first, but eventually came to the consensus that it is more about the person’s interpretation of the religion than the religion itself.

The evening concluded with Talking Drum performing one final song while students gathered around and discussed some of the topics with the professors and each other.

“I enjoyed the experience,” junior Brian Goines II said. “You get to see how people act and react. I’m hoping that after this I can now be that catalyst to stimulate conversations much like this one and just be helpful on this campus.”

_Edited by Madi McVan | mmcvan@themaneater.com_