Students confront diversity issues at Collegetown
BY RANDY FITZGERALD
Senior Writer, University Communications
Late last year Richmond students started receiving somewhat cryptic e-mails offering them a chance to discuss and learn more about diversity issues.
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Reena Brar, '07, performed a solo dance representing India at Collegetown. |
“The message was, ‘If you’re interested in attending a workshop to talk about race, gender, sexual orientation, class, cultures and religion with a group of other UR students, here’s how to apply,’” recalls Katey Reighard, a sophomore from Altoona, Pa.
Reighard accepted the offer and spent four days in January near Williamsburg with 39 other Richmond students at a retreat called Collegetown.
Officially the College Leadership Institute, Collegetown is a cultural-diversity and prejudice-reduction program for college students across the United States. Portions of the program, developed by the National Conference for Community and Justice, are kept secret to maintain an element of surprise for participants, but students are encouraged to share what they learn from the experience.
Collegetown “is a very safe environment for honesty and openness. There’s been a lot of discussion, some role-playing, and different kinds of exercises and exchanges,” Reighard said during a break at “culture and belief night,” which was held on the last day of the retreat.
That closing exercise was open to visitors and charged with emotion. Divided into groups representing their diverse backgrounds, students took turns illuminating their group’s customs, traditions and—most dramatically—the stereotypes they would like to dispel.
A Russian student reenacted actual responses she had received when others learned of her heritage: “Is your family in the Russian mafia? Are you a communist? Do you like vodka? Are there bears just walking around everywhere in Russia?”
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Jessica Loman, '07, tells Godfrey Plata, '06, about Indonesian life. |
Some of the onstage exchanges were amusing; others were sad. Some students performed in tears. Junior Class President Reena Brar, a member of the India group, got a standing ovation for dancing to a song from Devdas, a famous Bollywood movie.
Other performers represented African-American, Asian, Appalachian, Latino, Jewish, Indonesian, Korean, Guatemalan, Dutch, Irish, Chinese, Native American and Vietnamese cultures. All participants were invited to think deeply about prejudice and discrimination.
Colin Bragg, a junior from Skaneateles, N.Y., says that the best part of Collegetown was the opportunity for students “from a campus that is often indifferent” to express their feelings.
“I think Richmond students are uninformed on social issues,” he says. They “don’t take the time to know, don’t want to know. It makes life easier that way. It’s primarily a Caucasian campus, and the white population doesn’t want to deal with diversity issues. It’s good to come here and see and feel the emotion.”
Collegetown is “a chance to come together and find ways we can change things at Richmond,” Reighard adds. “I have seen the hurt here that I and others have experienced on campus, and I have felt the joy of getting to know a lot of people I would never have known otherwise.”
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