2008 Woodie Awards
Students, faculty honored for promoting diversity
Elizabeth Marsh
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The Kathy W. Humphrey Award for Diversity was created a few years ago by the International Student Federation.
The award honors three students and three faculty or staff members each year.
It was presented on Nov. 20 during the closing ceremonies of Diversity Awareness Month, and the winners were reunited on Feb. 14 for a recognition luncheon to discuss the state of diversity on campus.
Senior Tom Gill, Student Government Association financial vice president; senior Jen Prudencio, president of the Filipino Student Alliance; and sophomore Evan Krauss who is involved in the Black Student Alliance and Hispanic-American Leadership Organization.
Faculty and staff winners include Cheryl L. Kaufman, office manager of Student Life and the Center for Leadership and Community Service; Chuck Terry, Ph.D., of the criminal justice department; and Margaret Mary Wilson, M.B.B.S., of the Department of Internal Medicine.
"It is very weird for me to receive the award. I nominated others. I wanted people to be aware of it and embrace diversity," Krauss said.
The description of the award states, "The recipient of this award has demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to think differently...this individual serves ...this individual leads...this individual is a scholar...this person is a citizen of the world."
At lunch early this week, those in attendance described diversity as all-encompassing; it refers to race, gender, economic status and religion.
The question then becomes: When addressing diversity on campus, does the focus remain on race relations or extend into all categories? No answer was decided upon at that time.
A consensus was reached, however, over the need to improve diversity at Saint Louis University.
When speaking specifically about the freshmen, Bess said that she has led many University 101 classes.
"What I found from being with them from last semester, a number of them have already come in with a lot of experiences of diversity...we still have a lot of work to do, obviously, but I think that we are on the right track," Bess said.
Kaufman added, "On campus, I think that it is kind of not so good, but. . . I see it has improved quite a bit in the Cross Cultural Center."
On the other hand, "Nonexistent!" was the only response given by Terry when asked about diversity on campus.
Humphrey then narrowed the question to what was being done in the classroom to address this issue.
"I don't feel like I get a whole lot of diversity in my business classes because the subject matter is so specific. The way you're really exposed to it is in group projects. . . but it's still a very classroom-oriented experience," said senior Adam Meister, SGA president.
Gill believes that diversity has to be more than an academic understanding.
"It's the hands on experience, that's where it starts," he said.
So how does the SLU community begin to foster the need for diversity richness that this dialogue evoked?
"A lot of the attention that is given to diversity at Saint Louis University, and at a lot of universities, is window dressing. It's structured, it's a format, it's ridiculous," Wilson said.
She spoke of the need to address the problem in a manner that is true of everyday life. She rejected the idea of simulating unrealistic situations and promoted open communication about real issues.
Humphrey and Meister suggested diversity workshops for SGA and other chartered student organizations.
Krauss presented a proposal for a monthly newsletter to foster a deeper understanding of the cultures, ethnicities, religions and socio-economic statuses that exist on campus, with the hope of illustrating the fact that "our similarities are far greater than our differences."
"I don't think that people mean to hurt. I think it's about awareness," Wilson said. "How does awareness spread?"
Krauss answered, "If you reach one, you'll reach another and another."