Coming from a very diverse town, I made it a point to come to a college that was as diverse as my high school experience was so that I could feel comfortable with the people who surround me. I wanted to be around people that looked like me, talked like me and shared the same values I have. The University of Hartford offers more than that. Being a part of a multicultural organization, I can see that they strive to make the organization as inclusive as possible. Diversity to me is the coming together of multiple races, ethnicities, genders and sexual orientations, from all backgrounds and walks of life. In my opinion, a perfect world would be one with everyone accepting each other and their backgrounds. But the one we live in is not an ideal world, and we all have different views.

I asked students who participate in multicultural organizations, what their definition of diversity is, and why it is important to them. For Kelly Chen-Ruan, a junior pre-med/health science major, “diversity is the aspect of multicultural representation within certain communities whether it be socially encouraged or politically warranted.”Diversity clearly has different meanings to everyone, especially those who participate in different multicultural clubs and organizations. Jonathan Cao, a junior accounting major, quoted that, “being able to accept and embrace each other regardless of who we are and what we look like,” is what diversity is all about.

The second question I asked was if they thought the University of Hartford was diverse. Asia Arce, a senior journalism major, said, “when you look at organizations on campus, they tend to have people who look alike within them. However, there are organizations on campus that are more diverse than others, and overall, I do not think Hartford is that diverse.”Personally, I agree with Asia. Institutions can go wrong when it comes to inclusion, and although this university tries to include everyone from all backgrounds, sometimes we do not meet that goal. When you look admission wise, we are a culturally inclusive campus, but if you really sit yourself down anywhere on campus, you can see that people hangout with the same type of people as them.

One thing we can work on to be inclusive is reminding people that regardless of their backgrounds, we are all here for a similar reason. Jonathan Cao also mentioned the Diversity Speaks event held on September 24th. “The event was advertised as ‘diverse’ individuals to discuss the importance of diversity and inclusion. However, it was disappointing to see no individuals from a Hispanic/Latin background or someone of Asian descent on said panel. I felt as if this would have been a great opportunity to showcase what true diversity is and I believe the University fell flat.” Having panels like this helps the University of Hartford community become more connected through our backgrounds and differences.

All in all, there are always that universities can improve and build diversity and inclusion within their community. Being a part of clubs and organizations and surrounding yourself with people who share different beliefs is so important in order to gain a different perspective on the world from others.

PHOTO CREDIT: SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG