Diversity in Action

By Peter A. Vogel, CulturePrep Founder

A reality-check and poignant reminder about fortifying campus community came my way after leaving the customary debriefing session with a university client’s senior staff following the completion of a tense, month-long Campus Cross-Cultural Climate Assessment.

Still reeling with final data from the cross-cultural climate survey, historical attrition rates for students of color, and hauntingly clear memories of the face of a faculty member who shared her story of being an object of hate and intimidation – I departed the President’s Conference Room, and walked into a cold, snowy day.

I was soon warmly greeted by a group of students and faculty, who by outward appearance, represented a “mini United Nations” carrying grocery bags filled with box lunches.  Turns out they came together through their involvement in a campus service project to feed the homeless.

People, Diversity, Community – In Action.  Or as author, lecturer, and retreat leader Richard Rohr shares, “We don’t think ourselves into a new way of living, we live ourselves into a new way of thinking.”