DSU’s Diversity Committee

Dakota State University is a campus filled with thousands of people from different cities, different states, and different countries. With that in mind, there has to be a way to make sure that everyone is accommodated accordingly.

Dr. Stacy Berry is part of a group of faculty and students on campus that were elected to be on the Diversity committee. She, along with Dr. Patrick Videau, was elected by the College of Arts and Sciences to represent the college and the students within.

The committee members meet every third Wednesday, and their first meeting was Sept 13, which was a general meeting to assess the situation at DSU and for Mark Edwards, Head Coordinator for Diversity and Inclusion, to meet everyone and discuss what issues would be important to the campus.

“The main goal of the Diversity Committee is to address issues of diversity and inclusion on campus, so to think about what problems exist, how we can address those problems, what we can do to increase concepts about inclusion, and talk about what diversity means.” Currently, the committee is trying to focus on the student perspective, what issues of diversity, if any, students see on campus, and try to figure out what goals the committee should have.

“My main goal as a faculty member is to hear what students need and then reflect that in the committee. In general, we want to create programs and activities that might expose students to different diversity initiatives and think about what diversity means, not only on campus, but also individually as students.”

Sources Used: “Ethnic Diversity at Dakota State University.” https://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/dakota-state-university/student-life/diversity/