One critique commonly received by Cal Poly is the lack of student diversity. To address this issue, many cultural clubs host events to bring the community together to celebrate the diversity that is present on campus.
Cal Poly’s Asian cultural fraternity Omega Xi Delta is partnering with its sister sorority Chi Delta Theta to host the 22nd annual Lantern Festival this Saturday. The event, which is free and open to the public, is intended to celebrate Asian American culture and diversity.
“The cultural community here is a little different just because we are so small here,” Omega Xi Delta member Patrick Cheung said. “We are like the minority of the minority; it’s really small compared to, like, UCLA.”
Cheung highlighted the supportive atmosphere at events like the Lantern Festival.
“Whenever there’s a cultural event, everyone comes out,” he said. “Even for an Asian American cultural awareness event, every club — like Latinos, African Americans — everyone comes out to support each other. It just goes to show that our cultural community here is really tight-knit. We are small, but we’re loud and proud. It’s a little hard for one ethnic group to stand on its own here. So we bring everyone together.”
The Lantern Festival will be held this Saturday at 4 p.m. in the Julian A. McPhee University Union (UU). The event will include live performances, cultural food booths and lantern decor.