The Associated Students of Madison Diversity Committee decided Thursday it will implement another Diversity Week in Spring 2014.
The inaugural Diversity Week held during Spring 2013 was the first ever, and many diversity committee members said they want to continue having a diversity week because it is needed on campus and also provides a great opportunity to work with other student organizations.
Diversity Committee member Tori Atkinson said she took on the project of organizing and implementing Diversity Week as an ASM intern last year.
“The main goal, I think, of Diversity Week is kind of to raise campus diversity awareness and to show people that there are a lot of diversity resources on campus, especially just through all these groups on campus,” Atkinson said.
She said Diversity Week “went fine” considering it was the first time ever happening, but she said there are “definitely ways to improve on it.”
Atkinson said planning for Diversity Week must begin sooner, and the committee needs to market the events better. She also said the last Diversity Week was not scheduled at the most ideal time for attendance because it was cold and right around exam time for most students.
According to Mia Akers, former Diversity Committee Chair, the structure of the days was also difficult because she said each day was a different theme and consisted of a workshop and a big event at night. Akers said the concept was “really cool” because there were both educational opportunities and performances but said it was “hard to market to both of those things.”
Akers also suggested the committee change the structure of the days and said she knows of organizations that hold just one specifically targeted event at night, which she said could work better.
Committee members decided they would like to focus on events for two or three days, rather than have several events each day as they did for the past Diversity Week. They said fewer events would allow for a more flexible schedule, and they could collaborate on themes in events.
The committee plans to hold Diversity Week for the week of February 3-7 and would like to hold an event the same night ASM holds its spring kick-off.
