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DIVERSITY WEEK

The Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) hosts Diversity Week this week on the USFSP campus to help bring awareness during recent collegiate conflicts of racism.

March 9 through 13 marks the official dates of the Diversity Week events, which include: cultural dress display, diversity day party, international film festival, real talk featuring women in the workplace, world market and Holi festival of colors.

According to Kimberly Sanchez, the executive director of Multicultural Affairs Council (MAC), the purpose of Diversity Week is to bring understanding to students on the problem of inequality and celebrate diversity.

“Racism is something that is still going on right now, and like any other situation, the best way to make it dissipate is to communicate, educate others and to support each other,” Beenly Khoum, the community outreach chair for the MAC, said.

Recent reports have shown the rise in conflict of racial and ethnical discrimination in universities, such as the University of Washington, the University of Maryland and the University of Oklahoma fraternity incidents of racism.

“If we share the same university, then we should share about our cultures and raise awareness in an academia setting,” Khoum said.

The representatives of the OMA and MAC expressed the importance of the timing of this year’s Diversity Week.

According to MAC, OMA and USFSP Student Affairs, the theme of Diversity Week is, “the beauty of the world lies in the diversity of its people.”

Diversity Week takes place annually during the spring semester. Erica Campbell, coordinator for the OMA, and Adler Marchand, Multicultural Affairs graduate assistant, confirmed that the OMA will host Diversity Week again next year.