COLUMN: Diversity Week — It’s who we are
The College of Engineering has some exciting things going on right now. First we have a new dean, H. Scott Hinton, who has done an amazing job taking over the reins (and some might say the reign) from the former dean, Bruce Bishop. Also we have a new building being nestled between the Engineering Laboratory and Engineering Classroom buildings, and Merrill Hall. If you haven’t seen it, you should definitely drop by and check out its four stories of grandeur. This new building will have state-of-the-art classrooms with data ports and power outlets built into the seating so that blah blah blah.
Are you still reading?
If you’re reading this article you fall into one of two groups: 1) You’re one of my friends, or 2) you’re an avid reader of The Statesman, and you already know everything I wrote in the first paragraph. So let’s talk about something else, something cool, something . . . diverse.
As you know this week is Diversity Week. I remember when a wise woman once told me that there would be a Diversity Week, she said, “There will be a Diversity Week.”
Then she told me about the significance.
“It will be significant.”
The woman to whom I refer is, of course, Tiffany Leo, our inaugural vice president for Diversity. Ms. Leo epitomizes diversity, specifically in that she is a woman studying engineering. According to a graph published in The Statesman last week, that means she is one of the elite ten percent of students in the College of Engineering who are female.
Diversity is one of the things that make The United States of America a great and powerful nation. The people who settled here and set up a government that empowered every citizen to be free, established a foundation for diversity. Programs that exist today that strive for diversity do not (to my knowledge) exist in any other nation. Could you imagine an NAAWP in Nigeria, the NOW in China, or M.E.Ch.A. in Japan? The United States has these programs because of its rich diversity, and I say “rich” because it is a resource that can be, and has been tapped.
Think of what life would be like without all the diversity found in music, fashion, food, and even language that has been introduced by different cultures throughout the years.
Everybody knows no two people are exactly the same, and therefore, even people who share the same cultural background can be diverse. I am a Caucasian male with ancestors from England and Switzerland, and I bet you could find thousands of others in Cache valley that could say the same thing. Yet, tell me how many “Jacklins” you find in the Bridgerland phone book? Furthermore, I am from San Diego, and probably say “Dude” a little too often. Therefore, I make up a part of what Diversity Week is all about.
My wife spent a year and a half in the Philippines (you can guess why) where her diversity was actually a novelty. At 5 feet 10 inches she stood head and shoulders above most of the Philippine men, and her stunning blond hair and gem-like green eyes made her stick out like a candle in the dark. She was even startled by her own image in the mirror at times when she forgot just how different she was.
Diversity week is a time for us to not forget just how different we are. If you think about the building blocks of life, our DNA, then it is obvious that we are not all carbon copies of the first Homo sapiens. We are all unique and special, and we all have diversity built right into our genes. Diversity, it really is in you.
John Jacklin is the College of Engineering senator. He is a senior majoring in mechanical and aerospace engineering. Comments can be sent to him at jbj@cc.usu.edu.