Celebrating Augustana means embracing, accepting diversity

By Nathan Elg

Mirror Staff Writer
December 7, 2007

A student posed a question to President Rob Oliver at his State of the College Address last year asking how he plans to increase diversity at Augustana.

He told the student that diversity increases by the work of Augustana students. I disagree with his response, as do our international students.

Diversity on campus first increases by improving faculty employment efforts and allocating more Augustana finance toward promoting diversity.

But we will write about the poor effort by the administration and faculty to increase Augustana diversity in a future issue. Right now, let’s talk about us, the students.

Oliver is partially correct in his response to the student’s question. Students can’t directly increase diversity, but they can promote diversity. And this promotion, in turn, will only pressure administrators and faculty to make an increase in diversity their top priority. But first, students need to make diversity their top priority.

It is clear that the administration and faculty have not done their part to increase diversity. But neither have we. We are doing almost nothing to promote the small jewel of diversity we do have at Augustana.

Although diversity extends beyond international students, students have to start somewhere. And most of the 20 international students who attend Augustana right now do not feel welcome on our campus.

“Augustana is not ready for diversity,” senior and Indian international student Shruti Bansal said. “And I’ve sometimes felt sorry for coming to Augustana.”

Huy Nguyen, a freshman international student from Vietnam who came to America in pursuit of a better pharmacy education, is discouraged by some Augustana students.

“I have experienced not very friendly people,” Nguyen said. “It’s really hard to make friends with many Americans here, and I don’t know why.”
Nguyen is aware that he must take some initiative to develop friendships, but he has experienced a cultural disinterest among many Augustana students.

“[International students] want to know more about American culture,” Nguyen said. “If students show us more of it and talk to us more, we can make friends easier because we know the custom.”

But Nguyen has been told by veteran international students at Augustana that he will not get along with many Augustana students because he has such a different lifestyle than Americans.

Hitomi Toyoshima, a senior economics and government major who came to Augustana from Tokyo almost four years ago, has seen many international students come and go. She has noticed many Augustana students who hold back in certain discussions, such as one class discussion she had on atomic bombs.

“I feel more uncomfortable when people hold back than when people don’t discuss it at all,” Toyoshima said. “We all have opinions.”
Bansal thinks that many international students are also upset with assumptions made about their cultures.

“I actually didn’t ride elephants in India, and there aren’t all these ninjas in Japan,” Bansal said. “I understand and enjoy their curiosity, but some others take it offensively.”

When asked how Augustana students can better their experience at Augustana, all of them, surprisingly, had the same suggestions. First, Augustana students should be more inclined to interact with international students.

“It’s really true that some students here are scared of international students,” Toyoshima said. “Some people don’t feel comfortable with certain cultures.”

This uncomfortable notion motivates their next suggestion: creating more events that foster conversation between international students and Americans.

“We don’t really have opportunities to share our experiences on campus,” Bansal said. “There are all of these UBG events, but no real student motivations to involve international students.”

We are failing diversity. And if we are not promoting and appreciating the small diversity we do have at Augustana, this community will only worsen if diversity does increase.

And so Augustana students must begin carrying out these requests from international students. Ask an international student to study or eat dinner with you. Tell UBG to make diversity a priority. Start an international club to allow people to share their own cultures and hear from others.
Then Augustana students, including international students, can truly “Celebrate Augustana.”