Minority Affairs and Diversity Outreach
Andrew Lu
a.lu@unc.edu
Julian Bach
jbach@email.unc.edu
Platform Progress
Develop a diversity education team comprised of university offices and student organizations
to host programs together covering diversity topics.
The co-chairs are currently the student representatives on the Diversity Education Team (DET)
which is composed of various campus administrators including Dr. Cookie Newsome, Dr. Terri
Phoenix, and Dr. Donna Bickford and others. The co-chairs have attended a total of two
meetings so far (the meetings are monthly), and they have established some strong
relationships and a very positive support network. The co-chairs hope to utilize DET’s resources
and connections as they have expressed great interest in working with us and the committee.
Promote the “Orange Band Project” focused on creating dialogue on campus between all
students.
The members of the committee are all very excited about this project. The committee has
various ideas as to the direction of this project, and the co-chairs have set a timeline for this
project to be completed in November after Thanksgiving. The committee will focus on this
event after Fall Break. The Orange Band Project is based on the OrangeBand (Jonathan or EA:
this is actually one word) Initiative at James Madison University and this event will be a way to
promote a respectful exchange between individuals.
Work with the Inter-Faith Council and student organizations to celebrate a variety of
traditional customs on religious holidays that will bring together students of all faiths.
There have been talks with Inter-Faith Council and Minority Affairs and Diversity Outreach
(MADO) committee member Steve Ortiz and other members of the Interfaith Alliance about
how to accomplish this platform point. Julian has been contacting the Inter-Faith Council and
has been making note of committee members who could serve as project leaders. Steve and
Julian have a working relationship with a diverse group of campus religious leaders and they
plan to gather those persons soon in hopes of putting together a project that would address
current issues and debates regarding religion and diversity.
Host Mix-It-Up Day with the Carolina Dining Services.
The Mix It Up Dinner occurred Thursday, Oct. 15th this year. The emphasis on this year’s Mix It
Up Dinner was on diversity and self-segregation on UNC’s campus. The event was well-received
by the co-sponsors, participants, and the facilitators. The participants enjoyed the bead
activity, through which they were able to visually see how diverse they were. Following the
bead activity, participants discussed the significance of diversity’s role on a college campus,
whether self-segregation is considered positive or negative, and what atmosphere is
appropriate for UNC. The general consensus from participants was that this event was
appropriate; and that the facilitators contributed to the discussion.
The committee will, as an effort to expand the Mix It Up initiative, host another event similar to
the one that occurred on Oct. 15th in Lenoir Dining Hall in the spring. This will both attract
students who don’t usually eat at Rams Head for dinner to attend the event, as well as follow
up on discussion that occurred at the October Mix It Up. Some improvements to Mix It Up Part
2 will be:
 Better logistical control of facilitators:
o As opposed to a blanket list of facilitators, Mix It Up Part 2 will have a set
number of facilitators so to emphasize on the quality of facilitation.
o More time and energy is necessary for facilitator training as opposed to, for
example, advertising for the event, or planning with CDS.
o More emphasis for each facilitator.
 Better management of event activities:
o More creative set up of the dining hall
o Better organization of supplies
The co-chairs sincerely hope to use the information learned during the October Mix It Up event
to create a better, and therefore more productive, second Mix It Up event.
Host the Diversity Forum focusing on the UNC Diversity Plan.
The annual Diversity Forum will occur at the end of the spring semester, when students will
have a better understanding of the Diversity Plan and its impact on campus. This forum will
discuss the year’s progress on the report. As the Diversity Plan is set to be completed in 2010,
the timing assigned to host the Diversity Forum is critical for the formation of the next steps the
University should take.
Create a Diversity Celebration Day. This celebration will include a mural of pictures depicting
the varying array of Carolina students present on campus, and highlighting the ways in which
they are all tied to Carolina.
There have been talks with MADO committee member and Arts Advocacy Committee co-chair
Brandon Blackmon about the conception and execution of this event. The co-chairs believe to
incorporate more than racial diversity for this event: there should be focus on educational
diversity, socioeconomic diversity, and general diversity of the student body. This event will
occur in March of the spring semester.
Promote a week-long event called “Join a different group for the day” and end the week with
a showcase of the week’s activities
This special project falls under MADO because is emphasizes on the diversity of viewpoints in
aspects with regard to student life. However, not a lot of emphasis has been placed on this
special project. The co-chairs will solicit help from committee members to finalize the details of
this project. The co-chairs’ vision for this event is for collaboration between the different
executive branch committees, as well as connection between student organizations. Then, at
the end of the week, there will be a meeting between all the people who participated and
showcase what they learned during the week.
The Co-Chair Perspective
Andrew Lu
In writing this co-chair perspective, I have done a lot of self-reflection, as well as reflection of
the progress of and the work done by the MADO committee. As the “voice of continuity” in the
committee, I believe strongly in continuing the traditions and events that have always worked,
and that have always been attractive to the students on campus. Of course, specific triggers of
immense importance are always relevant to the work that this committee and, specifically, the
co-chairs do, but I believe that we also need to uphold the charge that has been given to the
committee through Jasmin Jones’ platform. All of Jasmin’s platform points with regard to
diversity are important and relevant because they all attempt to create a safe environment for
students, faculty, and administrators to voice their opinions about a still very volatile topic.
On one hand, I do not believe that the committee should simply sit and wait for potential issues
of contention to arise and essentially be reactive to them. Instead, the committee should be
proactive when dealing with these issues. Yes, covering current events and controversial issues
may lead to an influx of participation of our committee, but by addressing these issues we do
not address the underlying reason as to why they are occurring. Events such as Mix It Up or the
Orange Band Project allow students to have a meaningful, civil conversation on potentially
contentious topics before they escalate to more than conversation.
On the other hand, we also have to be flexible, and the events we organize also have to be
malleable. We cannot predict with accuracy what kind of issues will arise tomorrow, and
therefore we have to be prepared to discuss them through civil discourse. I believe that
starting off with a strong foundation and topping it with innovative ideas will create a far better
experience for the committee, its members, and the participants in the kinds of events and
activities we place emphasis on.
All in all, I believe that the committee has begun on a strong start. The Mix It Up event was
successful in the fact that discussion about diversity and issues of self-segregation on campus,
and our work with the Diversity Education Team provides us with a solid support group of
administrators for help with future events and endeavors. The committee members are excited
to work on all of the remaining projects, and I believe that these projects will be significant in
raising the level of acknowledgement of diversity on campus. Let’s end this year even stronger
than how we began it.
Julian Bach
I’m really happy to be a part of Student Government – I was not sure what to expect and had
no idea what our committee meetings or our planning would really look like – only after our
first event (Mix It Up) am I really understanding what our committee is capable of and what it
needs.
Some keys points:
We need to find ways to engage more committee members more often – we have so many of
them and it’s up to us to make sure they have an active role in what we as a group decide to do;
So far we have not done this very well in my opinion.
We also have been, I believe, ignoring important campus news that pertains to what our
committee is about. For example, we have spent the last month planning for Mix It Up, with a
few trips here and there to forums on immigration. I think we need to pay careful attention to
the relevancy of the events and projects we put together, for it detracts, I believe from our
mission when we are hosting an event that does not touch on any currents news or
controversial issues that students are talking or concerned about.
Another comment I have originates in my personal curiosity toward campus groups like SDS and
others who have been written off by many campus leaders and publications (DTH specifically)
as ignorant radicals whose views and actions are injurious to the university and its mission as a
whole. I want to say that although SDS and its compatriots’ actions are not a part of how I
believe we should approach politics and government, I do believe that they have some very
important ideas regarding social change as well as the livelihood and voices of minority groups
both on campus and off. Their enthusiasm for social justice and a more equal share for all
people is something we should respect and not denigrate, even if their actions are not
completely in line with the current popular mode of thought on how to accomplish such things
– The Freedom Riders and many other Civil Rights activists right here in NC were written off and
ostracized 50 years ago because of their “raucous” and destructive behavior – behavior which is
now seen as a major piece to why people of color have the rights and dignities that they do. An
issue like immigration and cultural superiority needs special attention, especially in a region of
the US which has a history of racial violence and less-than-equal shares of rights for minority
opinions and lifestyles. I hope that we can, as a committee, as a cabinet and as a campus, work
toward addressing these issues in ways that do not merely maintain the current ideology about
what is and what is not correct and what we should and should not believe - I hope to see a
more diverse, more unified, and most importantly a more CRITICAL campus that challenges the
injustices and inequalities in the world today rather than merely taking sides and justifying such
problems and defining them as immutable pieces of life.
I think this is going to take some concerted efforts on our part to be truly critical of our current
administrative structure and even more so of us and our entrenched opinions about how things
should work. I think that in order to truly serve the UNC student body we need to make a point
of putting ourselves out there and not be afraid of scrutiny or criticism – our actions and ideas
should not merely continue what prior administrations thought important but should work at
getting to the root of the issues more relevant to life at UNC today: how important is a
homecoming parade when we have students abusing drugs and alcohol every weekend and
budget cuts that affects every part of student life from our dining halls to the quality of
teaching? I think we have a lot of work to do, and I hope that we can begin as a cabinet to
attack such problems in a more cohesive and problem-centered way. Right now, it seems, each
committee and special project is concentrating on vastly different projects and problems,
(almost a mirror image of how graduate-level work is structured) while the same overarching
problems persist on our campus and in our society as a whole. Let’s do something worthwhile
this year so that we can truly hold our heads high when our time is up.