What Does Diversity Mean To You?

I beleive that Western is a diverse community when it comes to diversity of thought and lifestyles. However, it is not very diverse when we are talking about race or religion. As an active member of the ESC, it has been a bit suprising to find out that Western is not as diverse as the recruiters try to make you think. But that is not always a bad thing. I think it makes us who work in the ESC want to work harder to see many races more accurately represented in this community. I definately think Western is an accepting community, and is one of the most diverse in thought. To me diversity can be represented in many different ways, and it depends on who you are talking with. But a main factor for me is race. As race has everything to do with my everyday life, and that of many  others.

 True the campus is not diverse at all. I moved here from a highschool in NC that was probably 80% African American and it is very different here. Racial diversity is kind of a joke pushed by the people who's job description seems to make them create feelgood lame posters and handouts that talk about diversity and getting involved, but it just makes us look less diverse by having to emphasize the small amount of racial diversity that we actually have.

i think that western attempts to be racially diverse, but look, its in the upper northwest of the country. there are just a lot of white people here and applying here. thats not the school's fault. I think that the school has a beautiful mechanism built to enhance racial diversity and make racial minoriy groups feel welcome  when they are students here. I believe that the reputation that western wants to foster more racial diversity is really great, even if right now we aren't seeing a ton of acutal racial diversity. They're trying!!

i also would like to comment about the religous diversity at western. in my experience, i think that the majority of students at western don't hold a faith in the supernatural. most students' thoughts are "there is no God" or "I don't know if there is a God." It's sad really. But, there are several campus faith organizations on campus. I feel that the atmosphere at western allows them the freedom to express their beleifs without fear of censorship or punishment in the public areas at school. But i do feel that the classroom atmosphere is very anti-God. I've heard professor after professor mock  people who have a belief in God, comment on the stupidity of faith, jest at the idea of intelligent design for a theory of first cause, and keep silent about the scientific findings on how people of faith function and live their lives (for example, while studying alturism and love in my social psychology course, the professor would not speak on the fact that poeple of faith give more to charities than any other group or individual, that couples who pray together are strongly correlated to having significantly lower divorce rates, etc.) And lastly, I feel that the educators at western rarely provide a constistent or truthful portrayal of Christianity (I'm not certain about other religons, but perhaps others as well). They distort the tenets of the faith and focus only on pieces of history that reflect a poor view of Christians. They ignore the wonderful humanitarian works that are carried out by Christian orgs. I often feel like they have an agenda to disencourage people from belief in any God, instead of being neutral on the subject, like they should be- and presenting correct and unbiased facts, like they should be. 

Well, now correct me if I am wrong, but I believe Diversity was an old wooden ship that was used during the Civil War era.

i havent put much thought into this but coming from seattle i usually use race as the main diversity...thing..or whatever but yeah, theres like no black kids up here

seel, i highly doubt we would be needing about an old wooden ship

This is highly accurate to me, although I guess I would be surprised if the Network was concerned about a large, old wooden ship. I duno

I have also had many professors act this way. Not everyone at Western does not believe in God and such comments in class make some of the students uncomfortable.

      Let me attempt to open and expand this topic a bit further.
Often times when "Diversity" is discussed or written about, a particular face is given to one particular area of diversity. For example, when race diversity is depicted in an article, often a photo of an African American or some person "other" than white is typically shown.
 Or when gender diversity is discussed, the token lesbian or gay person is portrayed. 
Although it is understandable that one would not exemplify the straight, white, christian male as a symbol of diversity and  therefore attach an idea or picture of someone "other" than that, it is interesting to consider how to discuss diversity in a broader sense.  
 
Essentially, how do we move away from stereotypical ways in which diversity is explored, or is that even possible?
How do we incorporate more diversity into our concepts of diversity?

For example, I recently realized that many people consider body type and weight as an element of diversity. The argument questions why our society is taught that thin is beautiful and to be overweight at all is not only unattractive but unhealthy, even though other cultures and some scientific research disputes such notions? 

What do you think???????
 

 This just goes to show. If you really care about whether or not there are different races mingling, you still have the viewpoint they they are inherently seperated and must be forced together for the sake of diversity. Who cares. I went to a 90% black school, now i go here. Either way i dont give a crap. There are more important things on our plates now.

IE our fascist monarchic government

feeding ourselves

and making a contribution to humanity.

Damn you. I was hella gonna use that line when I saw the word diversity. Well played my friend...

Is diversity about the equality of outcomes or the equality of opportunity?

For example.

Asian-Americans have higher-than-average representation in college. (Some people say "over-represented".)

Is it fair to implement new admission regulations based on perceived attributes of Asian-American students in order to promote a "fairer" racial balance? (Net result: More whites, more blacks, more latinos, less Asians.)

Source: recently implmented by the UC system

Diversity = People with different minds willing to learn about one another.