Archives
Student Multicultural Affairs gets new name, expands services
By KEVIN FRYLING
Reporter Contributor
Promoting the appreciation and celebration of cultural differences is the goal of the Intercultural and Diversity Center, the new embodiment of Student Multicultural Affairs.
The center, located in 240 Student Union, North Campus, offers an expanded series of academic and social programs designed to encourage diversity understanding in students through increased awareness of, and contact between, various cultures, according to Vicki Sapp, director of the Intercultural and Diversity Center.
"UB has a very diverse institution, but if we don't engage in conversations with the people that are here, what use is it?" asks Sapp.
The center addresses this issue, she says, by providing a casual environment in which students can study and meet with others of different racial, religious and ethnic backgrounds and sexual orientation. It also makes good use of an underutilized area of the Student Union, she adds.
"It's a place where students can come inside and feel comfortable and learn about other cultures," she says, stressing that the center welcomes everyone—not just students of color.
The former Student Multicultural Affairs program has grown each year, notes Sapp, who came to UB three years ago from Cortland State College, where she served as coordinator for multicultural affairs and sought to help students expand the lessons learned in the classroom about diversity into their daily lives. She says the Intercultural and Diversity Center is a goal she has worked toward while at UB.
"We needed a place to centralize information, to bridge gaps and bring things together," she says. For instance, the center provides space for Diversity Advocates, a three-credit internship program in which students conduct workshops on such topics as race and marriage, gay and lesbian acceptance, and understanding deaf culture. Before the development of the center, Sapp says students were forced to "run all over campus" to put on these workshops.
Students receive about a month of classroom training before taking on a workshop, Sapp explains, noting that most students are "very passionate" about their workshops because the topics they choose often affect their own lives. During the 2004-05 academic year there were 55 student-run workshops, and in Fall 2005 at least 60 more were organized. The fact that the workshops are peer-on-peer also contributes to their effectiveness, she says. Diversity advocates from UB have traveled to other SUNY institutions, including Cortland and Brockport State College, to conduct workshops, she says.
The center has expanded its staff—Dawn Whited, former coordinator of commuter and off-campus services, now serves as program coordinator—as well as broadened the former Student Multicultural Affairs Advisory Board to include 10 members, an approximately 50 percent increase in student involvement. Renamed the Intercultural and Diversity Council, this forum includes the leaders of a wide range of campus clubs who meet and coordinate with one another, as well as university officials. This provides a "student outlet and voice," says Sapp, enabling officials to "really find out what the students want."
Sapp cites several new programs and services that are being developed, including the Cultural Artifacts Campaign.
"We feel that UB has a lot of rich history," Sapp says, pointing out the large number of students and faculty who study and travel abroad, as well as those who come to UB from other countries.
The Cultural Artifacts Campaign encourages individuals to donate or loan cultural artifacts collected in other countries for display at the center. Several artifacts from China already have been donated by faculty members, she says, and some items of Polish heritage also are on loan. The displays contribute to the center's "Travel the World in a Day" slogan, since visitors not only meet with those from other cultures when visiting the center, but they can view objects from other cultures as well.
An Intercultural and Diversity Library also is being organized at the center to provide a variety of resource materials, such as books, DVDs, magazines and training materials. Sapp encourages facility and staff to contribute materials to the library.
In addition, the center features a diversity understanding wall, Sapp says. Visitors may take the Diversity Challenge Pledge by signing the wall as a physical symbol of their commitment to diversity understanding at UB. Change is not an overnight process, notes Sapp, who stresses there is no pressure to sign, but hopes that as people use the center and take part in workshops, they will want to do so.
Sapp says her goal as director of the Intercultural and Diversity Center is to provide students with the tools to navigate UB and beyond.
"You don't have to give up your world view, but to accept that there are others," she says. "I just want students to understand that there are others."