The Student Council Diversity Initiatives Committee partnered with numerous student diversity organizations this week in order to host Grounds for Change, a weeklong series of events celebrating diversity and addressing related issues on Grounds.
The Black Student Alliance, Global Student Council, United for Undergraduate Socioeconomic Diversity, Indian Student Association, Paul Robeson Players and Flux co-sponsored these events with Student Council.
Third-year College student Sophia Naide, who works on the Diversity Initiatives Committee of Student Council, said the council came up with the idea for Grounds for Change and reached out to the other organizations to help make it happen.
“The idea was to draw upon the strengths of the many multicultural organizations on Grounds, so that all of these organizations could collaborate towards one unified week of programming,” Naide said in an email statement.
Naide said Student Council chose a wide variety of organizations to represent the broad spectrum of issues and topics that fall under the category of diversity.
“Our goal is to push students to critically reflect upon diversity in their own lives and engage with diversity as an aspect of our U.Va. community,” she said.
The Global Student Council, an organization dedicated to bringing together cultural groups at the University and creating a welcoming environment for foreign students, is hosting three events.
The first, part of an art exhibition Monday, was called the Standards of Beauty Art Show. The GSC worked with professors from the McIntire Department of Art to showcase beauty from different perspectives and cultures.
The second event, a language panel, took place Tuesday night in the Newcomb Gallery. Tracy Zhang, a third-year College student and GSC president, said the GSC collaborated with language houses and University language departments to find native speakers for the panel.
“This is a chance for students to learn about five different languages,” she said.
Finally, the GSC will hold a dance workshop featuring types of dance with different cultural backgrounds, including the Fuego Dance Team, which performs dance related to Latino culture.
Third-year College student Emily Dennan, the coordinating chair of UFUSED, said the goal of Grounds for Change aligns with that of UFUSED, allowing for easy collaboration.
“The goal is to create space for diversity and inclusion within the more dominant space of the university, and UFUSED fits into that really well,” Dennan said.
The group will host a movie screening Friday of “Girl Rising,” a 2013 film about the value of education in helping girls of all backgrounds overcome various obstacles.
Dennan said she believes a large event like this could be a valuable way to promote change on Grounds.
“I think that the Grounds for Change initiative is a really important one, and I think that it carries a lot of weight coming from Student Council,” Dennan said.
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