COLUMN: A letter from ASUSU President
Fellow Students,
I hope you were all able to enjoy your Thanksgiving break last week.
With Fall Semester coming to a close, I wanted to provide an account of what I promised to do last spring when I ran for president, as well as to lend some commentary on events within our student body so far this year.
The fliers my campaign committee and I distributed last year contained the following platform, and accompanied is an account of the progress so far:
Generating more scholarship opportunities – A development officer will be working for ASUSU and Student Services come January under the direction of University Advancement Vice President Ross Petersen. The development officer will work with donors to raise money for extra scholarships as well as raise money for the funding of various student groups.
Expand the work study program – On the 15th of this month, I gave a presentation and plea to the Higher Education Taskforce of the state Legislature in regards to formalizing ongoing funding to the Utah Centennial Opportunity Program for Education fund (a large source of funds for the work study program). This will ensure a continuance to the expansion of the program and has the support of the commissioner of higher education, and it will also generate further needs-based scholarship opportunities for not just Aggies, but all students throughout Utah. In addition to this, I am leading an initiative amongst the student body presidents of Utah to evaluate what other legislative measures can be taken this next legislative session to redirect further monies to the students of higher education in Utah in a way that will not detriment other funding needs of the state.
New international student scholarship – This will be an assignment given to the development officer, and if they are unable to achieve this by the end of the year, it will be created by using funds within my control.
Improve academic advising – Although there is a new advising program being set up, this is still in the works.
Help foster USU to be a more inclusive campus – This is the campaign goal I would like to spend the most time discussing.
What do I mean when I say I want to foster USU to be a more inclusive campus? I simply mean I want our student body to reflect an environment where students from all walks of life feel even more at home at USU. This means enjoying Aggie life and having the ability to share the USU stage, even if they do not fall into the predominant demographic.
With a predominate culture at Utah State, it is often challenging to foster high degrees of diversity and inclusiveness on our campus. In my opinion, there are two sides of the coin in this unique situation. One side of the coin represents students who come from a different culture to a campus such as Utah State. Given the culture and history here, these students would benefit from researching our unique environment and history. In doing so, they will gain a better understanding of what to expect. Even though there is a predominant Mormon culture, the other side of the coin is that every student who comes to this state university – regardless of nationality, age, religion and other demographic factors – has the right to be a part of the Aggie family. This means equally sharing the stage with any LDS Aggie from Cache Valley.
Having stated the above, the following questions arise. First, how does one foster inclusiveness on a campus like ours? Also, how does one influence every student to embrace diversity when everyone is free to do as they wish and many already have strong convictions? Moreover, how does one measure if the campus is becoming more inclusive? To put it simply, I do not know all the answers to these questions. However, I do wish to address the benefits gained from embracing any diversity we have on campus.
Today’s world is small. In many ever-increasing ways, the world is continuing to go global. When we are finished with our university careers, the global arena will, more often than not, permeate our environment. How then, does this relate to diversity and inclusiveness in our student body? The answer is simple – understanding and being able to work harmoniously with those who are different from us will, in many ways, be just as valuable in the work force as our degrees. This doesn’t mean we have to accept and be like those who are different than us. However, coming to respect those differences will provide us with a valuable education that we cannot receive in any classroom. Quite often we fail to view diversity in such a pragmatic way; still, being able to do so is the reality of being able to succeed in the world of today.
Oftentimes, it is difficult for us to embrace diversity because we are apprehensive when it comes to respecting and including a person who does not share our same beliefs or values. It is unfortunate that as soon as an individual with a different belief, culture or value is noticed, people face the challenge of including them. All too often, it is the sad reality that this happens to those who spend a pivotal time in Logan during their college years. In my opinion, the civilized approach to take in this situation is to respect and include a person – even when we strongly disagree with them. Not only is this behavior of common courtesy, but it fosters self-betterment. Through the exposure of a different belief system or culture, we should all gain a better understanding of ourselves and others.
In regards to respecting and embracing diversity, I believe the best teaching moment we have from this semester occurred when we had a guest protester on our campus. Much was said and written about Eli, the Christian preacher who delivered his message to us at the beginning of the semester. Various concerns reached my ears about Eli’s presence and whether or not he was allowed to be here on campus. In short, he was. Overall, I was very disappointed to learn of an incident when rocks were thrown at him. Now, I cannot determine if those who cast the stones were of another faith or no faith all. That doesn’t matter. My encouragement to all is to show class by treating all visitors on our campus with courtesy and respect.
Apart from general respect and courtesy, visitors like Eli give us a glimpse into the outside world, which contains different types of people and beliefs. In fact, this measure of diversity exists at all levels of government and business. All types of people will be in our future professions. All types of people will be crossing our paths in life. If an employer or a boss sees we have the ability to understand, respect and work productively with different types of people, it may be the determining factor in being hired or promoted. During the application process, this ability may even override a low GPA. By and large, embracing the lessons gained through an understanding of diversity is crucial for success in today’s world. In effect, isn’t that the very reason we came to university in the first place – to expand our knowledge?
Unfortunately, there are some who only come to the university because it is the traditional, available or social thing to do. Nevertheless, universities exist primarily as a place to expand our knowledge. After the Christian church, the university is the oldest continuous institution in Western civilization. Since their beginning, universities were specifically designed to expand man’s ever-increasing knowledge and understanding. They are institutions where we go to better ourselves though education. On this topic, Oscar Wilde once said, “Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.” I interpret this to mean that, perhaps, the greatest lessons we will learn during our time at USU won’t be in the classroom, but through the experiences we have amongst the student body. Learning comes from being exposed to new ideas and foreig
n concepts. This is why we must embrace any diversity we have on campus. Even if we don’t agree with the concepts being presented to us, knowing of their existence can often serve to enlarge our understanding and help us grow. Growth and maturity does not come from age alone, but through experience coupled with the application of lessons learned throughout life.
My vision for our student body is to prepare students for their adult lives by fostering an environment of growth, learning, and maturity. As we continue sharing the stage with each other, I hope we all gain a greater respect for the many cultures that exist at USU. My vision also includes enhancing the level of maturity amongst our student body. This will create a society of students who show class and respect to all those who visit. Regardless of whether we agree or disagree with the ideas of our visitors (even when they are challenging us in sporting events), let us be the type of people who make all types of people feel welcomed. In the very least, we should all expect class and maturity from the students of this Carnegie 1 research institution.
Although there are some formal arrangements in the works to help smaller groups on campus share the stage at USU through ASUSU, I hope the vision I am trying to provide in this message will also be remembered and applied.
With most of my campaign goals completed, I look forward to Spring Semester. During this time, I will have more freedom to undertake additional projects that are now in their beginning phases. A couple of these are aimed at bridging the gap that often exists between ASUSU and the student body. With this year being the 100th anniversary of ASUSU, I feel there is no better time to take on such a goal. So keep an eye out for some new and exciting endeavors to come next semester.
Lastly, I wish you all the best of luck during the remainder of this semester. I hope you all enjoy a well-deserved Christmas break and, once again, I thank you for all the work you put into making this campus the great and ever-improving environment that it is.
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Peter A. McChesney