ISS Office, Multicultural Service merge
The Multicultural Student Services and the International Students and Scholars have recently decided to combine their programming, orientation, retention activities and will now have jointly-sponsored activities.
There are many similarities and common advantages between the multicultural and international student groups, and in order to maximize the opportunities for both populations, Everardo Martinez-Inzunza, director of Multicultural Student Services, said he and Negar Davis, director of International Students and Scholars, have decided to combine certain aspects of their services.
“There are many common benefits and many of these students face the same challenges,” Martinez-Inzunza said. “We will become a stronger educational service by combining.
Since the two groups will benefit so much by joining forces, Davis said she fully supports this decision which was made in mid-December when she first arrived at Utah State University and began discussions with Martinez-Inzunza.
The two groups will still remain separate entities, but Davis said this will allow the multicultural and international students to come together in joint activities and calendar events, grow closer, find their roots and connect them together for life.
“It seemed that it was a natural link,” Davis said. “We saw the need and urgency for the students. We can join forces and really see the benefits. It was the right thing to do.”
Martinez-Inzunza said the combination of programming and activity services will not only benefit the multicultural and international students, but will also help to educate other students on the USU campus.
“By combining and maximizing exposure of cross-culture, multicultural leadership, communication and heritage to the traditional culture, we then become a very valuable educational resource for the university,” Martinez-Inzunza said. “Actually, the group that usually benefits the most from diversity is the majority, not the minority.”
The multicultural and international students combined represent 10 percent of the USU population, and Martinez-Inzunza said he hopes the strength brought by this combination will increase awareness and visibility, as well as spark recognition in the 86 percent of white students.
“You can get the full breadth of education only when you combine many heritages and backgrounds,” Martinez-Inzunza said.
In another effort to enhance diversity student services, the Associated Students of USU voted to create a new position, known as the campus diversity vice president.
Steve Palmer, ASUSU president, said he has been working on this bill with Martinez-Inzunza for this past year and it was written two months ago. He said after speaking with other Utah universities, he found USU was the only school without a diversity position on student government.
If asked to assign ASUSU a grade on its effort to aid multicultural and international students in the last five years, Palmer said he would give a D- but he hopes this position will bring diversity groups together, enhance their programming and activities and increase awareness on campus.
“We’ve contributed before, but we’ve never really helped enough,” Palmer said.
The position of campus diversity vice president was created “to enhance diversity programming activities,” he said.
Palmer said there has been some confusion with the creation of the new position, with many students thinking only multicultural and international students will be served, but the position will equally focus on the five main areas of gender issues, multicultural students, international students, religious minorities and people with disabilities.
“There has been absolutely no partnership before,” Palmer said. “I really feel we need to blend the lines somehow.”