| OCR Text |
Show page 14 lessons, Spring/Summer 2002 BreAnna M. Valdez Clinton, Utah Junior, Political Science Have you experienced prejudice from other staff, faculty or students? Does it happen often? How do you handle it? I have experienced prejudice from staff, faculty and students. It happens a lot more than it should. I handle it by trying to set the record straight and let them know I do not appreciate it. What do you like most about the U? The least? I really like the Chicano/a community here at the university. The thing I like the least is the low number of Chicano/a faculty. What do you think could be done to improve the atmosphere for a diverse university community? Reach out to the community and try to get people involved. Let people know we want diversity on campus, and tell them we approve of diversity. Janez Jeraj Slovenia Doctoral Student, Electrical and Computer Engineering Did diversity influence your decision to attend the U? No. I had very little knowledge about the diversity at the University of Utah and diversity in Utah in general. Diversity was not an important aspect in my decision. Have you experienced prejudice from other staff, faculty or students? Does it happen often? How do you handle it? I have never experienced prejudice from other staff, faculty or students. Before coming to Utah, I was a little worried that this might be the case. Fortunately, this is not the case and my experience is that the situation is even better than in European Union countries and universities. Do you think there's an advantage to a lack of diversity? Absolutely not. Living, studying, working and socializing with people of different backgrounds can only enrich us. Thus, it can give us the basis to understand why different people think and act differently, that there can be different but equally good lifestyles, and that the quality of life can be defined very differently. What do you think could be done to improve the atmosphere for a diverse university community? Increase the number of out-of-state students, especially undergraduate students in humanities. The University has a lot of wonderful facilities, great nearby skiing and other outdoor activities. By further improving the quality of the study, it can be a very attractive choice for potential students. However, I believe that there is still a lot to be done in the area of social life for students that do not belong to the predominant culture of this state. It happens too often that these students have a hard time finding peers. Even though the students of the predominant culture are very nice, too many other students too often find it hard to make friends. |
