How to Promote Diversity in Colleges?

It was during college science congress and I was one of the attendees. In fact an organizer of the event. I was welcoming attendees at the gate when I reached out to hug a certain lady. She suddenly jumped and screamed sending shivers down my spine. One of her colleagues told me that it was a taboo in their community for a woman to hug any man in public except their husband. I introduced this issue during the congress and we had a heated debate. We were able to come up with ways of promoting diversity in colleges. These include:

Going beyond your comfort zone

Be free to share different aspects of your culture with teachers and fellow students from different communities. Learn other people’s culture as well. Knowing cultural limits of colleagues from different walks of life will ensure peaceful coexistence in our colleges. Like the famous saying, “one man’s meat is another man’s poison”, what is right in your community could be wrong in another community.

Attending college events

You normally learn different things during such events. Whether it is individual or inter-colleges events, a lot of issues are usually discussed. Ensure that your perspective is considered when decisions are being made. In my case, if I was not in the event I would not have known about the culture of that community. Interact freely with different students from different walks of life. Learn about their cultures, likes and dislikes.

Asking questions

Explore and learn more about yourself and others. Listen to your inner self. Know about other students’ perspective to your culture. Discuss different cultures with your colleagues as well as with teachers. Ensure that you are informed of issues in your college. For teachers, know your students concerns and fears. Know their perspectives towards different aspects of life.

Treating everybody as an individual

Know people by listening to their point of view not by collective judgement. Phrases like “this or that community/religion is like this or that” should be discouraged in our colleges. Assumptions based on race, economic status, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation etc should have no space in our colleges. We have had students being discriminated because of their sexual orientation leading to stigma and conflicts among students.

Celebrating differences

As students and teachers, trying other people’s cultures and borrowing into other people’s perspectives towards different issues will promote peaceful interactions. Set a date to celebrate different cultures in colleges. Have a day to discuss and debate about different issues in life. Let everybody have their say. Empower minorities in terms of leadership positions and giving them opportunity to air their views.

Be aware

You should ensure that you know the key issues in your college. You should know changes in the college. Know the circumstances which concern you. Know about other people. Liaise with teachers and student leaders to know any prevailing conditions in the college.

Promoting diversity in colleges will ensure peaceful coexistence even in our societies. Teachers should ensure that there is no learning material that discriminates any student in any way. What other ways of promoting diversity in colleges do you know?

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