Residential Services is sponsoring the first diversity poster competition on campus to encourage students to visually express how they perceive diversity and what it means to them.
Ashanti Williams, the hall director for Brachman, Martin Moore, and Wiggins halls, said the competition is designed to get students to visualize and think about diversity on a broader spectrum.
“We hear the word diversity all the time and we see programs that try to promote it but we sometimes don’t really know how it affects us,” Williams said. “Here is your opportunity to reflect what it means to you.”
Williams said the posters will be judged by a panel of faculty and staff based on creativity, expression of ideas, originality, visual and message appeal.
Williams said the winning poster will be displayed all over campus to serve as a visual representation of TCU’s commitment to diversity.
Tara De Fonseka, a junior economics major, said the university has good intentions when it comes to diversity, but that it needs to focus on bringing the entire campus closer together.
“If they want to promote diversity, they should find other ways to do it,” De Fonseka said. “TCU does a good job of having a mixture of people on campus, but it seems like the majority of people stick with their own group.”
Camille Haddad, a sophomore nursing major, said she also notices that students tend to steer clear from those who are different from them.
| Diversity Poster Competition Deadline: 5 p.m. March 6 |
| For guidelines on the competition, visit www.rlh.tcu.edu or contact Ashanti Williams at [email protected] |
“When I walk into Market Square, there is always some form of segregation,” Haddad said. “The black students have their own section, Asians sitting together, etc.”
Williams said she hopes the poster competition will help students think about diversity beyond just a racial standpoint.
“(Diversity) is about so much more than just race; it’s also about gender, religion, and sexual identity,” Williams said. “Hopefully, this competition will encourage students to think outside of the diversity box.”
Don Mills, vice chancellor for student affairs, said achieving diversity is a process, but it is something that students should be eager to see.
“Students should want rapid change,” Mills said. “You’ve got four years. So if you see something that ought to be better, then you want that to happen while you’re still here.”