Dr. Gordon Nakagawa, Director of Diversity Integration at Hamlin University, gave a talk entitled “Location, Location, Location” on October 11, in the Crow’s Nest. This lecture was meant to discuss the potential LSSU has to continue the expansion of our diversity. Currently, 13% of the student body at LSSU is of color, a figure that falls well below the National average of 30%, and even below the state average of 20%.  In a country where minority enrollment is rising dramatically, Dr. Nakagawa believes that there are numerous ways that LSSU can make its student body more ethnically diverse.  Citing the fact that along with students of different ethnic backgrounds, diversity encompasses faith, orientation, disability, age, and intellectual pluralism, he believes that LSSU has a “remarkable opportunity” to improve its diversity, which he noted was already impressive, especially given the University’s location.

Dr. Nakagawa expressed how pleasantly surprised he was by the fact that 9% of the LSSU student body is Native American. LSSU has the highest percentage of any American University he knows of other than tribal colleges, and used this fact to introduce his idea that the diversity efforts of a campus should be based more in regional demographics than any supposed universal standards. “The uncritical supposition about how campuses are supposed to look ensures desperation,” he claimed.  He strongly believes that diversity efforts should be focused on the location culture of the region, and that if campuses reframe the way that they view diversity, diversity itself can be better embraced and distinguished. “You want to draw and enhance on the populations you have available to you,” he said, adding that if the proper steps are taken, diversity efforts can enrich the learning opportunities for all students, and ultimately be beneficial to the university as a whole.   

Several strategies were introduced that were meant to steer LSSU in the right direction in terms of expanding diversity.  Dr. Nakagawa suggested that leadership must begin at the top, and that the chief academic officer on any campus plays a pivotal role in diversity and should be able to provide answers to pertinent questions, such as how students from ethnically diverse groups will advance in principal and practice based on constants that are faced locally.  An academic officer might, for example, look at trends in career paths for ethnically diverse students and heighten the awareness of programs that the University offers for these career paths.  Nakagawa also suggested that campuses should look at their own mission, objectives and code of ethics as starting points to strategize how diversity can be enriched according to questions that are specific to the region. “We need to create a pathway to distinction that will allow us to use our potential to step beyond and become leaders both fiscally and ethically,” he concluded, expressing the utmost optimism that he had for the future of diversity at LSSU. 

Be first to comment this article

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.

Powered by AkoComment Tweaked Special Edition v.1.4.6
AkoComment © Copyright 2004 by Arthur Konze - www.mamboportal.com
All right reserved