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SCSU is diverse
I opened the newspaper at Perkins this morning and I read yet another article, headlined in bold, slamming SCSU. Since I was on my way to work, I skimmed the article, and since it was the restaurant's paper, I did not take the article with me, but during my commute to the cities, I mulled over what I had read, and felt compelled to let someone know my feelings.
The article was either in the St. Paul Pioneer Press or the Minneapolis Star (Tribune). It doesn't matter, I am sure its counterpart appears just as slanderous in the other paper. The article informed the world that SCSU is not compliant with the current equal opportunity/ethnic diversity expectations of our society.
I beg to differ.
I subscribe to the University Chronicle, and every issue has reference to cross-cultural events and educational programs. I read the St. Cloud Times and visit Central Minnesota weekly. I see SCSU as a leader in cultural education for the community.
There was a comment that SCSU is insensitive to minority discrimination complaints. Something about how SCSU is the only school where a university president does not sit in on the hearings. And the problem is? If a school's purpose is to prepare its students for the employment world, what better place is there for them to learn that their whining complaints will not be heard by upper management. I have been in middle management for 20 years, and I know of no situation where a CEO or company president sat in on any discrimination hearings. Upper management's responsibility is to monitor and guide the company. Effective leaders keep informed and they lead, but they do not get involved in day-to-day proceedings.
I grew up in Central Minnesota, I have lived in several diverse communities, and I have travelled occasionally. It appears to me that, good or bad, Central Minnesota is NOT the melting pot of cultural diversity, but crime records indicate that the people of the area settle their differences in relative peace when cultures do collide.
I believe a school like SCSU should get more credit than large urban area schools for the cultural education programs it provides. Where does a candle of cultural education shine brighter? On the floodlit stage of a university located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, within a mile of the worst slum and blight in the nation and a busy INS office? Or does it shine brighter in the car of a Midwestern farm family on the way home from a Sunday afternoon food festival, too full from their first experience of Fatayer Bel Lahm to sit down to their usual supper of sauerkraut and sausage?
Colleen Kastanek
North Branch, Minn.
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