Central and Eastern Kentucky
(2009-09-24)
RICHMOND
(WEKU) -
Results are in from a survey gauging attitudes regarding d1iversity at Eastern Kentucky University. Like many issues facing higher education, improving the many aspects of diversity takes time and a willingness to change.
It's a rare college campus in America that doesn't reflect different races, nationalities and ethnic backgrounds and sexual orientation. Eastern Kentucky University is no exception.
"I see different people, but I've never felt unequal or nothing like that so I think EKU is pretty diverse here."
Ashma Shrashtra of Nepal is one of many international students at EKU who attended the university's annual diversity breakfast. But it's not just a question of numbers. The larger question the EKU Campus Climate Survey attempted to answer was whether Eastern is a place that respects and honors diversity.
University Diversity Committee co-chair Teresa Belluscio says most students gave Eastern's efforts a thumbs-up.
"Students responded that they felt welcomed, that they felt we were responding positively to issues of diversity," Belluscio said.
Belluscio says well over 80% of the survey's nearly 4,000 respondents agree or strongly agree that Eastern's campus is supportive of diversity.
At the same time, many faculty and staff indicated they would like to see more campus discussions on diversity. Many students say they want a more cooperative, open-minded campus. Some students, according to Belluscio, show a clear need for diversity awareness and education.
"A certain percentage of them, even though it is low, have participated in or have been witness to discrimination and harassment and a certain percentage of those students responded that they do know what to do. They know how to respond and have responded to negate negative comments, but at the same time some of them don't know what to do."
In many ways, student responses to survey questions mirror those of faculty and staff. But in other areas there seems to be a disconnect.
For example, a much greater percentage of faculty and staff than students feel Eastern is friendly, cooperative, respectful and accepting of different races or gender. Sandra Moore in Eastern's Diversity Office thinks that may be because the students who responded are more diverse than the faculty and staff who answered the survey. Moore agrees with the student perceptions.
"The students have it right. They're the ones who go in and out of classroom on a daily basis. They're the ones that enter into more of a diverse zone campus and know what's taking place," Moore said.
EKU President Doug Whitlock knows there is more to do. Whitlock recalls the days of federal education mandates which he says amounted to forced diversity. He's glad those days are over.
"The real motivation for diversity should be because we want to, and certainly there is a right thing to do element to that, but more fundamentally I think the motivation for diversity and celebrating diversity is because it's the smart thing to do educationally and culturally," Whitlock said.
So all in all, the survey indicates the effort to create a healthy climate of diversity at Eastern Kentucky University is paying off, but continues to be a work in progress.
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