The First Year Resource Center held a kick-off event for its new cultural affairs committee Sunday, designed to help new students grow more acclimated to college life.
The effort expands the FYRC's goal to provide mentors and resources for first-year students by offering a greater focus on the University's diversity.
The committee, which held a dessert party in Tuttle Coffee House for the kick-off event, will work with culture-based Contracted Independent Organizations to try to foster greater participation in such groups.
"One goal is to help the cultural CIOs in their works of reaching the diverse student population at the University," Assistant Dean of Students Pablo Davis said. "The other goal is to see how the CIOs can help the FYRC to serve first years better."
Members of the new committee held a summit with leaders of a few cultural CIOs last weekend to talk about future collaboration.
"We discussed with them what is missing with respect to multiculturalism at the University," said Christine Blackshaw, a graduate student who serves as a coordinator for the new committee.
Blackshaw said a primary goal of the committee is to increase membership and to increase the diversity of membership within cultural CIOs.
Additionally, the FYRC hired new volunteer employees to help with the effort.
"We hired on new mentors who are just in charge of multicultural programming," she said.
For Sunday night's event, the committee coordinated production and advertisement efforts with Hereford Residential College. Hereford has "a lot of first years and a lot of international students," she said, explaining why the residential college co-sponsored the event.
She added that she anticipated working with Hereford in the future to develop more multicultural events.
Originally, the FYRC formed as a collaboration of various groups on Grounds, including the Women's Center, the Office of the Dean of Students, the Office of African-American Affairs and the Institute of Substance Abuse. The Women's Center now serves as the sole manager.
"Last year the Women's Center decided we needed to go in this new direction," Blackshaw said, referring to the formation of the new committee.
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