The Diversity Committee was formed out of a need to engage the Counseling Psychology Department in active dialogue on diversity issues.  It has been many things over the years including being a space for students to examine their own views, biases, and assumptions with support from peers, a resource within the department to spearhead activities with the purpose of illuminating multiculturalism and eliciting explicit conversation surrounding these issues within the campus community, and as a component integral in training internationally competent professionals steeped in the knowledge of social justice issues through study abroad efforts.  The Diversity Committee is a group of people engaged in critical conversations about multicultural issues within ourselves, within the group, and in the community around us.  Our mission is to equip individuals for educating, mentoring, serving, and actively engaging in opportunities that challenge stereotyped beliefs, reduce ignorance, and create an atmosphere of openness, curiosity, inspiration, responsibility and concern for others. 

We have lived out this purpose in several ways this year.  Because the committee understands that diversity’s scope is broad and inclusive of many situations, we participated as volunteers in an event called “Memphis Empty Bowls” which was an effort to support the Memphis Food Bank and other organizations that provide food to the 1 in every 5 Memphians who go hungry every day.  The event earned $18,000 and the Diversity Committee received recognition for their participation!  This will be something the committee will participate in annually.  Also, the Diversity Committee partnered with a Learning Community on campus and gave presentations about diversity topics to incoming Freshman students, including an inspiring presentation about diversity and disability. Utilizing both a lecture format and experiential exercises, students were allowed to dialogue about people-first language and how to move past perceived obstacles to a better understanding of people with mental, emotional, and physical disabilities. In addition to this, the committee held a campus-wide screening of a documentary called Half the Sky:  Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.  This documentary was inspired by the book by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn that tells the stories of inspiring and courageous individuals taking a stand against oppression. The linked problems of sex trafficking and forced prostitution, gender-based violence, and maternal mortality — which needlessly claims one woman every 90 seconds — present to us the single most vital opportunity of our time: the opportunity to make a change. All over the world women are seizing this opportunity:  the Diversity Committee was no different.  This semester, the committee will join with the Panhellenic Council to view this documentary and the Council has pledged to donate $1000.00 to this effort to help end the oppression of women and girls across the globe.  The Committee will also continue to look for new situations and activities to engage in to model for others and encourage others to commit to a social justice perspective that will benefit our campus and our community.

Perspective members could either email Kandi Owens (acowens@memphis.edu) for information or look for the Diversity Committee monthly emails that come out over the CEPR listserv.