The First-Year Council held Marching for Diversity, a forum that featured Prof. Corey Walker addressing diversity and student action at the University, last night.
"I hope they begin to question the very idea of diversity and what it means and to begin to critically reflect on the discourse of diversity here at the University," Walker said.
The idea for the forum was suggested by First-Year Council members Meghan Avary and Christian West at one of the initial Council meetings this year.
The University "is already a diverse school," West said. "But a lot of people that come here don't come from diverse [high] schools. We felt it was appropriate to inform them about how to deal with the diversity here."
The forum was planned by Council's Committee for Diversity Awareness, which will offer another program during the spring semester as well, Avary said.
The First-Year Council is very interested in education and awareness of diversity issues for the first-year class, an interest which has been fueled by the University's "We will not tolerate intolerance" campaign, Council Graduate Advisor Carol Crank said.
The forum was a step in making changes at the University, but students must also do more to educate themselves and arm themselves with knowledge, Walker said to the audience of about 45 students.
"The University has provided a critical space for students to engage this," Walker said. "And now it's up to the students to engage this more forcefully and critically than before."
The forum originally was scheduled to be followed by a march to the Lawn to encourage student action, but the march was cancelled because of the cold weather, Avary said.
All of those involved with the planning of the forum said they were happy with the turnout.
"I feel like it's a perpetual struggle to get people to show up, but that's for all organizations," First-Year Council President David Newsome said. "Forty-five is an excellent number."
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