lessons, The Journal of the Center for Teaching & Learning Excellence at the University of Utah, Volume Three, Number 2, Spring/Summer 2002

Voices

page 12 lessons, Spring/Summer 2002 Voices "As a part of general education, the diversity requirement is just another way to ensure that students receive a well-rounded education at the U. It's just as important as having exposure to life sciences, history, social sciences, and literature. It is a part of our world that should be explored by all students." Liz Romeril, Graduate Student, Fine Arts "We've got a lot of subtle discrimination that goes on that we've got to address...We need to start making some concrete plans with our little resources in removing the barriers in all our classrooms." Edith Mitko, Director of Student Servcies and Minority Affairs, Office of the Commissioner, Utah System of Higher Education "Racism still exists. We still have a lot of work to do to achieve equity education." Tim Washburn, Executive Director of Admissions and Records, University of Washington "It is not an easy road ahead of us for those of us who care about building diversity at higher educational institutions." Professor Bob Flores, College of Law "One cannot learn diversity through the classroom, but it is a good way to show people that others do exist." Paul Story, Senior "It seems to me that unless we teach that racial, gender, religious, and national differences are central to a range of academic subjects, we risk turning them into problems, and make those groups who are minorities objects of study, the people who have the problem of being different, rather than dynamic actors and producers in social relationships ." Instructor Crystal Parikh, Ethnic Studies "Faculty are the ones who can make or break the diversity issue at the University. Leadership pays a lot of lip service, but it's the faculty that makes the difference." Jesse Soriano, School of Medicine "Tolerance is setting the bar too low. Acceptance is what we need to be shooting for." Anita Madrid, Former Director of the Berkley Pledge, University of California "I think that the greater the diversity within a population or student body, the greater the chance of producing new ideas, change, evolution; which is what a university is all about, not merely the proliferation of ideas, but the creation of them. Without diversity of people, the same ideas simply get rehashed." Trista Emmer, alumna "Diversity is very important, especially at a university. True learning requires the dispelling of prejudice and that cannot truly be dispelled until a person has had personal acquaintance and experience with real people." John Whicker, Senior "Diversity. It's not about how we fix the student, but how we fix the institution to help students succeed." Professor Bryan Brayboy, Education, Culture and Society "[Regarding a one-course diversity requirement] It reminds me of that saying about teaching a pig to talk, ‘It's a waste of time and it annoys the pig.'" Reyes Aguilar, Collge of Law