Ryan ChartrandDiversity is more than just race
Dictionary.com states that diversity is “the state or fact of being diverse; difference; unlikeness.” By saying Cal Poly is not a diverse campus because we are 64.7 percent white is an over generalization.
Diversity is more than just skin color. It is different religions, backrounds, economic status, beliefs, political parties, tastes, views and even where you grew up. There is more to diversity than just having a balance of ethnicities. Ethnicity is just one part of a multi-faceted thing called diversity. If all of the ethnicities were balanced, but everyone coming to Cal Poly had the same views on all of the issues facing our world, we wouldn’t be a very diverse campus would we?
Coming to college is not only to be surrounded by different ethnicities, it is to broaden your views of the world and become educated. This happens by seeing different peoples’ beliefs and opinions, not only seeing different skin color.
Having a diverse campus challenges your beliefs and thought processes and allows you to change them, or form new beliefs. Iron sharpens iron, and I want people with diverse beliefs and opinions surrounding me on campus, not just racial diversity. The best way to do that is to bring the in the best and the brightest from all over and put us all in one place so we can see many of the different beliefs and ideas, not changing enrollment to get the race numbers “better.”
Brenton Haven
Mechanical engineering senior
Diversity story needed different headline
I am glad you wrote an article about the lack of racial diversity upon Cal Poly’s campus. I was very disappointed, however, when I saw the name of your piece.
The fact is that the majority of Cal Poly’s campus is Caucasian, however, calling Cal Poly a “white campus” only furthers the segregation from which this campus suffers. Cal Poly is not a “white campus,” and hopefully it stays that way. I hope that next time you wish to write an article about the diversity of a campus, the editors will be more careful with their words so as to not sound so biased.
Susie Condon
Kinesiology sophomore
Conservative columnist doesn’t get it
I’d like to know how a noose next to a Confederate flag “contributes to the “marketplace of ideas” or has potential to help develop a “positive” discussion, as Ian Nachreiner claims. Such a display is far more vile than the taunts that have been directed at him, which he would no doubt dismiss as unproductive of positive discussion.
Ian, a noose is a symbol of death, and in the context of the Confederate flag, of arbitrary death dealt to hundreds of African-American innocents. What is the “differing point of view” being expressed by such a display, Ian?
I wish you had been a little more specific about that. With your column, you are living up to the stereotype of the conservative who just doesn’t get it. I can only hope that your fellow conservatives have learned more from this incident than you have.
Johanna Rubba
English associate professor