International and Diversity Week begins Nov. 14
USU has hosted honorary events for international and multicultural students for 57 years, while the U.S. Board of Education didn’t mandate recognition of diverse cultures a priority until the 1990s, according to the president of the International Student Council.
While USU students can expect several traditional International and Diversity Week events, council President Christian Orr said he hopes students can realize, once again, that each year approximately 1,500 international and multicultural students make up part of the Logan campus’s total student body.
However, Orr said it’s important that domestic students attend diversity events as well.
“If we don’t have these students attending these events we are struggling with our effect,” Orr said. “We aren’t accomplishing what we intended to do.”
Campus Diversity and international student organizations will team up this year because programming events run most smoothly this way, Orr said, and it gives more students the opportunity to cross paths.
The week begins Monday, Nov. 14 and ends Saturday, Nov. 19. Perhaps, the most well-known event, Orr said, is the Mr. and Miss International Pageant, which displays a variety of USU students’ talents and costumes who were born in countries around the world.
S.E. Needham’s Jewelers donates a tiara each year to honor Miss International, and last year’s winner will place the crown of real jewels on the new winner’s head.
Aminata Meite, Miss International 2010, said she felt judges looked for contestants who weren’t in the pageant simply to win, but were eager to share their culture with the audience. The judges also look for contestants who are articulate and enjoying themselves, she added.
“All week it’s different cultures coming together, but they aren’t showing us everything,” said Meite, a sophomore majoring in public relations. “Like the cookout — you can’t experience the whole culture by trying the food. In the international pageant they get to know your background. Even the way you answer a question can relate to where you came from.”
The pageant and other events throughout the week are especially beneficial to international students, so they can feel a sense of community, she said, which can sometimes be difficult to find.
“I just want to embrace differences,” said Brooke Evans, ASUSU Diversity vice president. “Everyone has really great things about them and their background that they have to offer. It’s not just multicultural diversity.”
The focus of this year’s International/Diversity Week is helping students understand they are a diverse part of society, Evans said. Every individual has different heritages, sexual preferences, family dynamics and interests, which makes USU the institution it is, she said.
“We are more diverse than we think,” Evans said, “This is a structured way for students to share their culture, and hopefully they can spark connections that way.”
For the first time, Evans will head an art project known as “Tall Painting.” Students will take a cup of paint and slowly add their color to a piece of plywood constructed by USU student Jake Taylor. Dozens of colors create the final piece, which may find its home in the new art building cafe, Evans said.
“It’s one tiny thing on campus that makes you feel a little bit at home,” Evans said. “It doesn’t matter what color your paint is, you are contributing to the university.”
Korean Drummers will stage their presence during the International Fashion Show where traditional dress from almost every continent may be seen. A few times throughout the week students can view documentaries addressing international issues, including Africa’s blood diamonds, drug trafficking in Colombia and dolphin hunting in Japan.
“ISC is doing the same thing ASUSU does,” Orr said. “We are trying to improve student life for the entire student body and maybe that’s a perspective the student body and Student Services don’t see.”
Orr requested an international student representative be placed on the ASUSU Executive Council last year. Instead, he said, the council approved the formation of culture committee, which is now composed of five people.
“I think it’s so profound and innovative to see that this school in Logan, Utah, has been promoting culture in such a dynamic way for half a century,” Orr said. “That inspires me so much. It’s part of our heritage.”
– catherine.meidell@aggiemail.usu.edu