Garden City, Kansas: Diversity Day Dropped for Lack of Participation
10/15/2010
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The ongoing demographic transformation of our nation, which we as a nation never agreed to, leaves no region untouched. Garden City, located way out in western Kansas, is now majority Hispanic. This year though, Garden City Community College had to cancel its planned "Diversity Day". According to Shajia Ahmad of the Garden City Telegram:
Garden City Community College had to cancel an annual program directed to educate and empower area high school students due to a lack of participation this year, college officials said. GCCC was scheduled Tuesday to host Diversity Day, an all-day program for both its college students and juniors and seniors from up to 20 western Kansas high schools. The program planned to feature keynote speakers and other programs to immerse high school students in campus life.
So why was it canceled?
Organizers decided to cancel the program last week because only a handful of high schools out of 19 had committed to attending, according to Steve Quakenbush, director of information services and publications at GCCC.
Here's a little background:
Diversity Day was to take the place of Hispanic Student Day, a program that had been running for 23 years at the college campus. Quakenbush said college administrators decided to transform the program this year to broaden its focus, and are not sure the name change had any effect on commitments from schools.
In previous years, Hispanic Student Day has allowed visitors and prospective students to explore academic and technical education opportunities, financial aid for college, services for success, various career fields and other topics. Organizers had planned keynote speeches, breakout sessions and a Burmese and Somali fashion show for Tuesday's programs.
Burmese and Somali fashion show? Yes, Kansas is getting more diverse. But even though Diversity Day is canceled, don't worry, the Diversity Workshop is still on:
Quakenbush said the college decided to continue with a Diversity Day workshop Thursday night for potential college students and their parents, a program sparsely attended in previous years.
There's also a Diversity Day at Dodge City.
Mark Campos, an ESL coordinator with USD 466 in Scott County, said tight budgets were in part to blame for his students' lack of participation this year. Campos, who has been coordinating field trips for about 20 to 30 of his district's high school students each year for the past few years, said they do plan to take part in a similar all-day diversity program sponsored by Dodge City Community College next year. Though the program is farther, students have attended it in the past and prefer it over Garden City's, the ESL coordinator added. [Diversity Day Dropped Due to Lack of Participation, Shajia Ahmad, Oct. 13th, 2010]
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