BARUCH DEBATES DIVERSITY WORKSHOP 9/14/09
We already know that Baruch is a diverse school. But what exactly does that mean? This workshop tried to address that question. And it succeeded and failed to do so at the same time. Professor Vaughn, while sharing his experiences, history, and recommendations, really was not able to answer that question as it pertains to Baruch (quite honestly, just having the panel speak would have sufficed). The panel, comprised of 3 professors and 2 students who shared their views, did do an excellent job of relating diversity to Baruch. They actually made the issue relevant to the students, and put it into a perspective that helped us relate. Holdyn Brand actually brought up an interesting point: if Baruch is a truly diverse school, then interaction of all of the different students must take place outside of the classroom. If we just separate ourselves once we’re no longer forced to be together, then THERE IS NO DIVERSITY! I was also appalled at the story professor gaunt recalled of the Chinese student asking her to stay in the class even though she didn’t speak good English. Why should she drop a class that she paid for? The last and final thought of the lecture was that diversity is also on an individual level. I agree with that in its entirety. Before we look at class, race, gender, etc, we must realize that no 2 individuals are alike. Even in a “homogeneous group”, there are countless differences that we cannot distinguish using any other criteria of diversity. I feel that even though this point was touched upon, it was not amply discussed. Overall, I feel that while this lecture did touch upon diversity, it did not do so in a way that made me stop and think about it afterwards. I do wish that if they do this again in the future, there is more input from BARUCH community members (the panel only getting 30 minutes to speak while affording about an hour to an outside guest speaker was not the best way to approach this), and that the seminar only pertain to BARUCH.