The Board of Regents said that diversity is race. Eddie Davis, former Texas A&M interim president, said diversity is socioeconomic climate. The International Students Association, which sponsors and organizes Ibuffet, finds diversity in a menu.
For the organizers of Think Globally Act Locally, or TGAL, diversity is all this and more.
“Diversity is about culture, about people, about how people interact, learn and communicate with one another – not just ‘tolerating’ race,” said Hayley McCamey, a senior marketing major.
TGAL is a student-planned event aimed to provide students with the opportunity to become active in the global community on a local level. This event includes celebrating A&M’s cultural diversity and introducing students to cultural expressions.
The TGAL event will take place from noon to 11 p.m., Friday in Rudder Plaza.
Internationally involved student organizations will be available to educate students for a cause, inform them about the organization, raise money for philanthropies and increase awareness of the growing global community.
Free food will be available throughout the day. The event will showcase work from students and other local artists. Beginning at 6:30 p.m., there will be live performances by the Wesley Hanna Band, The Blaggards, Fade to Black and more.
MSC Town Hall, the Association for Social Entrepreneurship, the Academy for Future International Leaders and Art of Living are among organizations that will participate. Although TGAL has no institutional support, it is underwritten by MSC Town Hall.
Such an extensive event wasn’t easy to plan, said Andrew Pittz, a key organizer and junior sociology major. He said the idea was conceived nearly a year and half ago.
“The initial efforts were something of a disappointment and included only one artist. We ended up flying in one artist to perform a lunch box concert and I paid for the artist’s ticket out of my own pocket,” Pittz said.
But the goal, Pittz said, was to increase awareness and build momentum for this year.
Taylor Hawkins, a junior international studies major and member of AFIL, said he expects it to be fairly popular.
“Students are always burnt out this time of year, especially with student-government elections around the corner,” Hawkins said. “People tend to wince when you ask if you can make an announcement at their meetings. I think the day of the event, however, people will really show up in large numbers.”
Important to TGAL organizers is the effort to promote diversity.
“For too long, we have had a policy of tolerating diversity. It is now necessary that we usher in a new policy of celebrating diversity,” Pittz said.
“Many think of diversity in a racial context but it’s bigger than that,” McCamey said.
“Sometimes it feels that we are being told that simply adding more people of different races into our organizations and into our academic departments is the key to diversity. This kind of thinking does little to teach us and possibly leads to some of the ‘tolerance’ issues that we see in our world today,” said McCamey, who is a MSC Town Hall executive.
“By interacting with individuals from a variety of backgrounds, we are able to broaden the ways in which we approach our life and discover ourselves,” Hawkins said. “Thus our lives are enriched through sharing life and being in community with those who are different from us.”
The sentiment that TGAL is trying to convey is that rather than race, background or a mere difference in demographics, the most powerful form of diversity is diversity of thought, like McCamey said when asked about her motivation: “To share beauty and culture with others. My reasoning sounds so elementary, but no one said it had to be complicated. Like the Beatles sang, ‘all you need is love.’?”
More information can be found at http://tgal.tamu.googlepages.com/.