Members of the Associated Students of Madison Student Council voted in freshman Steven Olikara as the new Diversity Committee Chair by a vote of 15-1-6 Wednesday.
His goals are concrete; they're realistic ... I've never been so impressed by an underclassman at this university,"" Jeffrey Wright, chair of ASM's constitutional committee said.
Recently, Olikara met with previous members of the diversity forum, including the chair, and members of other student organizations. He spoke with Damon Williams, vice provost for diversity and climate, about the importance of student-faculty communication.
Olikara and his opponent, Kimberly Cho, presented their visions for the committee by discussing the state of diversity on campus and answered questions from ASM members.
""[Diversity on campus] turns into a cycle. People that come from diverse backgrounds want to be around people who come from diverse backgrounds,"" Cho said about UW-Madison's limited diversity.
Olikara said he wanted to alter the role of the committee from ""just another multicultural organization"" to a governmental entity, which would work to coordinate existing multicultural organizations. He said he will reach out to other student organizations and try to recruit ambassadors from each to work together on diversity.
According to Olikara, one of his main goals is to reassess admissions procedures and scholarship programs at the university. He encouraged a more holistic approach to admissions in which the university looks for diverse ideas in essays and interviews.
From his experience with multicultural organizations on campus, Olikara became concerned with the limited participation of non-minority students.
""We need to increase the diversity of ideas, not just race,"" he said. ""We all have those moments where we meet someone who totally blows us away and challenges the stereotypes that we had, and that's the kind of exchanges we should be having all the time.""
Jeffrey Wright, chair of the constitutional committee, announced changes to the ASM constitution, which includes attaching qualifications to candidates running for president and vice president. The change would require students to be on campus for two semesters before becoming president or vice president.
The constitutional committee will hold another student listening session Thursday from 6-7:30 p.m. TITU.
