This week, Holmes Cultural Diversity Center is hosting Unity Week in an effort to bring the differing cultures of Mississippi State University together. The event started Saturday and will continue through Friday.
Maria White, assistant dean and director of the center, said the week was designed to celebrate diversity and community.
“[Unity Week] provides a concentrated opportunity to share differing perspectives and cultures,” she said.
White said the week will consist of entertainment, speakers, dialogues and food. Open classes will be held by professors regarding diversity.
“Professors will choose a diversity/multicultural topic of their choice to be discussed and allow their class period to be open to the entire campus population.
White said there will be an event today at noon in the Dawg House in the Colvard Student Union. It will have a large selection of teas from various parts of the globe in order to encourage discussion among students about the varying cultures present on our campus.
Paul Wallace, senior chemical engineering major, said the it will be interesting to study the similarities and differences in different cultures as they make tea.
“It’s good to see how different cultures make the same thing. It enables us to look at the culture as a whole, comparing both cultures,” Wallace said.
Terpsichore, MSU’s Dance Company, will be giving a performance in honor of a more diverse culture tonight at 7 p.m.
To finish the week off, there will be a “Day of Silence” to encourage the silencing of anti-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) harassment and general name-calling. This will help bring attention to the damage that words can cause to everyone, particularly those seen as different, as their peers through negative comments at them.
Freshman kinesiology major Jessica Ely said she will be participating in the Day of Silence because she wants to “make people wonder why [she] is being silent.” She said she wants to bring attention to this issue.
“A lot of people don’t understand that when you say something to someone, you don’t understand how it hurts them,” she said.
Also to sum things up on Friday, there will be a “Human Race Machine Discussion” with a focus on the similarities in the world’s many cultures. The main focus of this discussion will be the biological similarities between differing races throughout the world.”
White said the week confirms that education includes learning about the contributions of different cultures and the oppression of some cultures as a means to see the interdependence and relationship different groups.
“It celebrates the diversity represented by our campus community,” she said.
White said these efforts will be helpful to show the importance of diversity.
“These efforts will not only recognize the diversity represented within the university but will affirm the value and vitality that this pluralism brings to our individual and collective experience,” White said.
White said the Holmes Cultural Diversity Center strives to enhance the college experience of culturally diverse students.