CSUEB hosts inaugural Diversity Day celebration

• May 21, 2010 5:00pm

Poster displays highlighting how Planning Enrollment Management and Student Affairs and the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology department weave a commitment to diversity into their units captured top honors at the inaugural Diversity Day celebration held May 21 at Cal State East Bay.

“We’re really doing the right thing in terms of sponsoring this (event), and I know we can do so much more,” said Dianne Rush-Woods, chair for the Academic Senate, during opening comments.

“My challenge to everyone here is to keep pushing,” Rush-Woods said. “Embrace diversity. Let’s look for stimulus money and research grants. Let’s incorporate diversity and social justice in everything we do.”

Groundwork for Diversity Day and the Diversity Plan created by the Faculty Diversity and Equity Committee began in 2005, explained President Mo Qayoumi during his welcoming remarks.

“Diversity Day represents an opportunity to celebrate our achievements so far,” he said. “I’m now asking the cabinet to look at how to incorporate the Diversity Plan into the (university’s) Strategic Plan.”

Among CSUEB’s accomplishments in celebrating multiculturalism at the university was the creation of the Diversity Center, a space for presenting speakers, films and programs on subjects ranging from fatherhood to the rights of indigenous peoples.

“With our ‘student first’ philosophy on campus, it was only appropriate to have students, like Desiree Johnson, help drive today’s event,” said Stan Hebert, AVP for Student Affairs, PEMSA.  A video presentation, produced and filmed by Johnson, featured the voices of students and staff sharing their experiences and observations about diversity at Cal State East Bay debuted at the event.

“To me diversity means cultures, different personalities, different opinions, different mindsets,” said one student in the film. “Everybody has a different mindset. With that, you can build everything. I believe that’s how America was built.”

“Let’s always remember that our strength is in our diversity,” Qayoumi said.

MB/KL