THE DIVERSITY PAPERS

LEADERSHIP 1016 MARCH 1, 2013

THE A-TEAM Project Team: HHHI Sam Hall, Michelle Hettmann, John Irwin, Winston Howard

Sam Hall, Michelle Hettmann, John Irwin, Winston Howard

March 24, 2013

DEFINED BY HOKIES Virginia Tech defines diversity as individual differences (e.g., personality, learning styles, and life experiences) and group/social differences (e.g., race/ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, country of origin, and ability as well as cultural, political, religious, or other affiliations) that can be engaged in the service of learning and working together. WHY DIVERSITY? We think that diversity is a topic worth talking about. Many times, diversity is discussed in regards to race or ethnicity on a scale of numbers. For example, Virginia Tech is compiled of 0.2% American Indian or Alaska Native students, 7.5% Asian students, 3.9% Black or African-American students, 4.1% Hispanic students of any race, 69.9 % White students, 3.1% students with two or more races, 2.9% not reported and 8.5% Nonresident alien (data gathered from the Virginia Tech Diversity and Inclusion website) Diversity is important because it promotes a healthy living environment, expands viewpoints and makes you more aware of your surroundings. We are all humans and we all have differences. Although the wo rd different can have a negative connotation at times, finding differences can lead to finding similarities and further exploring and discovering common ground between individuals and communities. Being aware of diversity allows for a more cohesive community. A goal of Virginia Tech is to create and sustain an organizational environment that acknowledges and celebrates diversity and employs inclusive practices throughout daily operations. When we embrace diversity, rather than ignore it, it allows us to be more accepting of others and allows us to be more successful in our environment, socially and academically. We feel that diversity is a good thing. More awareness leads to more appreciativeness and we all feel like diversity deserves a little more appreciation in this community here in Blacksburg! GOALS To facilitate conversation in order to learn what people think about diversity To expand our own definitions of diversity To encourage others to determine what diversity means to them To research how diversity can be different through various lenses For Virginia Tech students to seek out and appreciate the unique characteristics of their peers For Virginia Tech students to explore diversity in the context of their own social circles To discover stereotypical walls that are present in our student community To identify areas for improvement in these stereotypical trouble areas To give others opportunities to share their stories and experiences To engage in meaningful interactions with our peers in our own social circles and beyond

The Diversity Papers

PURPOSE STATEMENT To obtain a wide variety of opinions and knowledge about similarities and differences in the Virginia Tech student body, beyond the surface level, in order to compile a consensus of how diversity looks in our context and find common ground among the array of individuals.

HOW?
Creating a collection of Virginia Tech students views and experiences with diversity will require extensive research and most importantly, talking to others. Dialogue is crucial in order to find out how others think and how they feel about diversity. Our group will research in the form of survey and an activity, created specifically for the purpose of gaining insight into others beliefs about diversity. This activity will state our purpose and goals, along with an explanation of our intentions for the final book. The activity will pose three questions and will then allow for the creativity of the participants to determine where they will go with the project. We will allow for any types of entries. These may include drawings, sentences, essays, poems, diagrams or more. The only limit is that it must be able to be expressed on paper. The survey will be used to collect data from a wider variety of students. The combination of activity data and survey data will be compiled to create the final product. The main three questions used for this project will be: o o o What is diversity? How does diversity play a role in your life? Do you consider Virginia Tech a diverse community?

DEFINING AND EVALUATING SUCCESS As a group, we will be evaluating ourselves through a lens of whether our book was successful or not in the end. Our success will not be defined through statistics or specific definitions or outlooks on diversity. Rather, success will be defined based upon the opportunities this project allows for and the conversations and reflections that come as a result. Our book will be successful if in the process, we stepped out of our comfort zone and out of our own social circles of each individual group member. We want to give others the chance to expand their views. We are not trying to change anyones thoughts or promote conformity towards one particular definition. We simply want people to think; to think about race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc. and how those relate to diversity in their lives and in their social groups. The ultimate definition of success for our project team would be that if in the end, we can say that we embodied our goals for the book as building blocks for conducting the project. We hope to expand our own views and explore our own definitions of diversity in our lives in order to relay this information to others and to further the diversity of this campus.

The Diversity Papers

TIMELINE
Proposal Work together to create a plan in the form of a proposal to relay our ideas and goals to our grading audience as well as form concrete ideas of our hopes for the project as a group Create survey and project description page which will be the main form of gathering information from the student population Distribute survey and project description page through social media, especially Facebook, and to our peers; include as many people as possible in this process. The wider the variety and selection of data we have, the better. Set up booth on campus to gain views and data from a random sample of Virginia Tech students outside of our social circles Deadline for receiving all the survey data and results back from peers. Allows room for collection of extra data, if needed. Create poster and submit to Jake for poster contest on April 17 March 1

Survey and Project Description Distributing Material

March 3

March 4

Booth on campus

Week of March 25

Finish Data Gathering

April 1

Deadline to create poster (tentative) Poster Showcase (tentative) Content Finalized

April 10

Book Compiled

Showcase Event Distribution Group and Individual Reflections

Have as many group members present as possible to showcase poster Sort through research and determine content and format for final book. Deadline to finalize content and layout. Determine means for publishing and distributing book. Leaves room for possible complications or delays. Revealing the book to our peers. Location TBD. Distribute published book to anyone who wants it Reflect upon the experience as a group and individually according to the syllabus.

April 17 April 19

April 26

May 1 May 3 May 3

The Diversity Papers