Organizations and individuals across campus have issued statements condemning the James Meredith statue incident. Fifteen fraternity presidents joined in agreement to strive for engagement and inclusion of all people regardless of race, ethnicity, background, disability or orientation. While statements make an important step, it is equally important to understand why cross-cultural engagement and inclusion will enhance the quality of our education and envision ways we may convert our words into actions.
By creating an environment that is comfortable for all, we build a better Ole Miss. Through cross-cultural engagement and inclusivity, we challenge our worldviews and improve our opinions. We create the free flow and exchange of ideas. This is how we reach our full potential — by engaging with all people on this campus and learning from them, and, in return, allowing them to learn something from you.
After graduation it is essential we learn to communicate with people from other cultures if we expect to compete in the global job market. Yet many of us make little to no effort to get to know people who look and think differently. Without challenging our minds through outside thoughts, we allow our education to go stale and we allow ourselves to fall behind the competition.
Roughly 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies have formalized diversity efforts in place. World-class brands like General Electric, Boeing, Walgreens and Bank of America know that creating inclusive environments can improve the bottom line. Inclusivity is not just for large corporations; all businesses, big and small, are competing globally today. As for brands that strive to become global competitors, like Ole Miss, creating an inclusive environment is a necessity.
Overt inclusionary tactics will make our student body more competitive in the job market, more educated in forming opinions and maximize our “Ole Miss connections” to a global scale.
As a member of a fraternity and a representative for the Associated Student Body, I acknowledge the organizations I am involved with have room to grow on this issue, as many organizations can acknowledge the same.
At Ole Miss, while we inherit a separated system, the barriers we face should not prevent bridges from being built between organizations. While recurring insensitive episodes seem to widen the gaps, they highlight the need for unlikely groups to cooperate and accomplish common goals together — as the ASB, Black Student Union and One Mississippi have done.
While the February 2014 symbolic noosing, the October 2013 “The Laramie Project” incident and the November 2012 election night disturbance attracted an abundance of mainstream attention, there is clearly not enough attention paid to the more ordinary stories of racial slurs yelled from passing trucks or perceived discrimination during Greek recruitment. We must foster a culture that discourages — in a proactive and meaningful manner — these behaviors and these slights.
I might argue that none of our organizations celebrate these actions. Intolerance is not a cardinal principle. This behavior is not encouraged, but neither is it sufficiently discouraged. Such actions transpire from what my friend and Daily Mississippian opinion editor Tim Abram calls, “a lack of knowledge and perspective.” These behaviors represent a total lapse of judgment, resulting in the suffering of other persons. This pain, which affects us all, could be prevented with a community that actively encourages knowledge and perspective.
So how do we build a community that lives out the university creed, opens our internal doors and becomes more inclusive of all cultures? You may have considered this question, and I would like to share my list of ideas. You may choose to add them to your own ideas. While it is easy to blame others, there are changes we all can strive for, and, if implemented, they may lead to a more welcoming environment and safety for all people on our campus.
Personal changes: 1) Become acquainted with people on campus who look and/or think differently than I; 2) Seek an understanding of perspectives other than my own; 3) Introduce friends from different social circles; 4) Engage in casual productive conversations about inclusivity; 5) Take the opportunity to start study groups with classmates; 6) Participate in educational ceremonies regarding inclusion; 7) Actively discourage insensitive behavior at the scene when it happens; 8) Take meals with each other in the Union Café, the Greek houses and other places on and off campus; 9) Speak to people you know when you see them on campus.
Suggestions for organizations and officers: 1) Adopt a nondiscrimination clause in the organizational bylaws or constitution; 2) Instate a new officer position that focuses solely on cross-cultural engagement and inclusion; 3) Raise philanthropic donations and partner with nonprofit organizations and groups that advocate and/or study equal rights; 4) Encourage joint sponsorships of social and philanthropic events with other organizations; 5) Invite other students to campus-wide social functions; 6) Seek university assistance and schedule diversity and sensitivity training sessions; 7) Explore additional opportunities to engage with multicultural organizations across campus; 8) Hold self-led internal discussions about inclusion; 9) Create a culture that denounces intolerant words and actions; 10) Actively seek diversity of members throughout the Greek recruitment process; and 11) Actively encourage nonaffiliated sophomores and upperclassmen to participate in Greek recruitment.
Many of these are simple and easy actions; some take more effort. Some points are more specific, but many are universally adoptable for all people and organizations.
So why sell ourselves short? Why allow students from other universities to pass us by, to beat us out for the job because we cannot identify with an employer, client, coworker or associate from another culture? Why allow Ole Miss to hold itself back from the All-American institution it strives to become? The answers are both individual and systematic.
By the leadership of our student body, Ole Miss has the potential to live up to the standard of the university creed and embrace the All-American experience it entails. We have the opportunity to do so by actively including other cultures and providing a more worldly experience for all students. All it takes is the effort to make it happen, so let’s start right now, together.
William Fowler is the chapter president of Phi Delta Theta Mississippi Alpha and the outgoing director of diversity and multicultural affairs for the Associated Student Body. His words printed here represent his personal views.
