Taking Action

By: Bethany Logan, TCU Office of Communications

"I see conferences like this as a way to get the message to people who don’t understand," said TCU sophomore Maya Pouncy. "It is sad to hear people say demeaning things, and not know they did anything wrong. I want to help them broaden their views."

This is just one of many goals voiced at the Third Annual Conference on Inclusiveness at TCU’s Dee J. Kelly Alumni and Visitors Center Tuesday, Oct. 23. Students leaders, faculty and staff from five area universities all convened to discuss diversity issues and work on action plans to overcome them. The universities that participated include the University of Texas at Arlington, Texas Wesleyan University, Texas Women’s University, University of North Texas and Southern Methodist University.

The format of the conference has changed from previous years because it now focuses more on getting students involved in solving the issues on their respective campuses according to Cornell Thomas, TCU’s special assistant to the chancellor for diversity and community and conference organizer.

"We want them to understand they have the power to make a difference," said Thomas. "This gives them an opportunity to join and talk about problems in a way that there is potential to resolve them."

Keynote speaker Steve Birdine, a diversity educator and president of Affirmations in Action, began the day by pumping up students and motivating them to make a difference. Following the speech students broke off into small work groups to identify issues that plague their campuses.

Because the range of problems discussed was so broad, the session revealed other issues that many students hadn’t thought of before.

"The issue of economic differences was brought up," said SMU student Candace Owens, "I forget sometimes that money is an issue when it comes to private school diversity."

The day continued with more small group discussions and workshops focusing on different areas of diversity that are present on most university campuses. Birdine closed the conference with a question and answer session to help students bring their plans together.

As the conference continues to evolve and change, the organizers hope that word-of-mouth will get more students interested in the annual event in the future. Students that attended this year will be asked to return and become facilitators.

"We want them to not only attend a one-day conference and forget about it," said Thomas, "but to continue to meet throughout the year to work on implementing their plans. We want to see them to take ownership of the process."