UW-Madison campus leaders reframed and broadened the image of diversity on campus through speech and performance Monday as part of the Multicultural Student Coalition's Hip Hop as a Movement Week.
MCSC Financial Specialist Jamie Yancovitz and Associated Students of Madison Diversity Chair Steven Olikara planned the event, bringing in over 50 community members. The forum, ""In the Wake: Plan 2008,"" focused on the effects of UW-Madison's earlier 10-year diversity plan, called Plan 2008, and how to move forward with diversity on campus.
""The title has a dual meaning,"" Yancovitz said. ""A wake is a trail left by a vessel after it passes. It's also about waking up.""
Damon Williams, vice provost for diversity and climate, said the rigid structure of Plan 2008 discouraged people from creating new diversity efforts that may not have fallen under the plan's specific goals.
""We've operated under the plan for so long that folks feel like they have no ability to work outside of it,"" Williams said. ""It's about authenticity. It's about the person in the back of the room looking like they got no swag, and they get up on the stage and it's like, ‘Oh my god, I didn't know they were bringing it like that.'""
Looking ahead, Williams said future initiatives should set more open-ended goals.
""[Diversity is] something that's always moving forward,"" Williams said. ""When you look at diversity as an end you're just counting heads. If you look at it as a means you're talking about something much more deep and entrenched.""
Olikara said the university should look beyond race and economic status as determiners of diversity and instead look at students holistically to encourage diversity of perspectives and backgrounds.
""There's this language that we use on campus that effectively separates students, that establishes these identities that we want everyone to fall into. But the reality today is that people fall into multiple identities,"" Olikara said.
He said the university could attract more diverse students by bringing out the diversity of ideas already existing on campus, which he said is often lost behind the numbers.
""There are a lot of students who decide not to attend UW-Madison because of these poor perceptions of the university,"" Olikara said. ""We can change our message on campus first. That word gets out to high school students.""
Williams said the university will include students in further analyzing Plan 2008 in the next school year.
""We will be laser-like focused when students get back in the fall to have conversations about why things failed and what we're going to do moving forward,"" Williams said.
