UW-Madison held its 10th Annual Diversity Forum Thursday at Memorial Union with a variety for presenters and discussions in an effort to bring attention to the need of more diversity, openness and inclusion on campus.
The forum, titled ""Seeding Inclusive Excellence: A Call to Action,"" focused on educating the campus community on UW-Madison's plan to ensure a more culturally diverse campus.
According to Damon Williams, the vice provost for diversity and climate, UW-Madison's new plan, called inclusive excellence, aims to recognize that a more diverse campus will improve the university as a whole.
""Inclusive excellence is simply acknowledging that being more diverse and inclusive makes us a more excellent university,"" he said. ""We cannot be an excellent university unless we are diverse and inclusive.""
According to a statement, the plan for inclusive excellence stems from the completion of Plan 2008, which was UW System's plan to increase the number of high school students of color who get accepted into the UW System and to ensure an improved learning environment for racial and ethnic minorities.
Williams said one of the central themes of Thursday's event was to discuss ways to get a head start on reaching UW-Madison's diversity goals.
Several speakers, including Williams, who gave the opening and closing remarks, emphasized throughout the day the importance of greater diversity on campus.
""One of our goals for this session is to be aggressive in moving forward, because the more we create a learning context inside and outside the classroom that connects these ideas of diversity, the more powerful and capable our graduates will be, and at the end of the day that is what is important,"" he said.
Williams also said he encourages all UW-Madison students to prepare for, and become accustomed to, the realities of a more diverse climate.
""The most important thing is that students respond to this—they should ask how we are being diverse and inclusive in our student organizations, in our residence halls,"" he said. ""We say we're different, more accepting, so let's show it.""
The event concluded with a roundtable discussion at attendees shared how they felt these concepts apply at UW-Madison.
