With a strong foundation after a turnout of nearly 150 students at the first annual Diversity Day last February, members of the Associated Students of Madison Diversity Committee planned out this year’s event Tuesday.
With influence from various multi-cultural student organizations, the Feb. 24 Diversity Day will involve workshops, discussions and performances to spread diversity awareness throughout campus.
“They [student organizations] will all be coming to this event to talk about diversity and show students different performances to salvage diversity,” Diversity Committee Chair Dolly Wang said.
This year’s event workshops will feature multicultural dances and calligraphy classes, along with possible lectures on diversity.
Although Wang worked with Interim Vice Provost of Diversity and Climate Patrick Sims in the past, Diversity Day is not related to the Diversity Framework, a campus-wide initiative introduced this fall.
Wang said she did not formally invite Sims and his colleagues and that each assumed Diversity Day would be separate from the Diversity Framework.
However, Wang is a member of the Administration and Accountability group within the Diversity Framework and works with Sims.
“Last semester it was more about the power dynamics, who should implement the whole Diversity Plan,” Wang said. “Right now we’re in the stage of coming up with really concrete plans to implement certain recommendations and to target specific initiatives so that we can finalize the report.”
Recently Wang met with members of a UW-Madison residence hall diversity squad after rumors surrounding the cut of these programs started circling.
“Diversity squads do a lot of diversity programs and events,” Wang said. “They facilitate a lot of conversations surrounding diversity topics in dorms between minority and domestic students.”
Wang said she hopes to see this type of conversation during Diversity Day and hopes to attract more students to the event at Union South.
