Column: One Mizzou lacks a voice

By Sheela Lal

Published Sept. 2, 2011

One thing remains unanswered from last semester — what the hell is One Mizzou?



As a (ugh) leader in a minority organization, One Mizzou intrigued me. Was this a sincere effort by the administration and campus to acknowledge that we study at a pluralistic campus? Was this an opportunity to start a dialogue between cultural groups? Or was this more lip service paid to the 17 percent of students who consider themselves black, Asian, Hispanic, American Indian/Alaskan or multiple race/ethnicity?

According to one.missouri.edu, it is “an initiative designed to create a culture of respect and responsibility among members of the Mizzou campus community.” In layman’s terms, I understand that as, “We had two hate crimes and need a strong media campaign to push a vague cultural acceptance program to make it appear we care.”



It worked to some extent. The general student body knows One Mizzou exists, but let’s be honest, most don’t know what it does.

If they don’t know what it does, can we assume the campaign ineffective?



Interestingly enough, after the One Mizzou unveiling, Faculty Council voted down the diversity course requirement, which had been on the table since 2005. After reading The Maneater articles about the debate and reasoning to fail the motion, I have a clearer picture why. Sadly, just hearing that fact perpetuates the notion that MU just doesn’t want to take action on diversity.



Earlier in the summer, Chief Diversity Officer Roger Worthington left the university to “focus on his national positions in diversity-related organizations.” I understand that his position was to start “talking” about diversity, but there is only so much talking to be done before you’ve run out of conversation. The question is: what are we going to do to move the One Mizzou conversation into action?

If the students and administration want to move past the talking stage, I have a few humble opinions on how to start integrating, rather than forcing, diversity into Mizzou’s culture.

The university needs to brand One Mizzou.



There needs to be a concrete understanding of what the campaign means. In my opinion, I think it should evoke “respect of pluralism.” As it stands, I see One Mizzou stemming from white feminist ideology — the campaign is sterile and almost patronizing in how it treats the communities it tries to empower; it glosses over our differences implying we are all the same, so don’t fight, kids.



How do we brand it?



One Mizzou needs to have a new definition with precise language. What exactly does it want to accomplish? This is a question students and the One Mizzou committee should ruminate over if they really want to see any improvement in how students treat each other.

How can One Mizzou be applied?



The calendar at stufftodo.missouri.edu is hopeless; the bureaucracy to get an event up renders it a useless resource, exacerbating the lack of information. One Mizzou could be an aggregate tool for all cultural events, as an add-on to the events calendar at calendar.missouri.edu.

All events. This means AIESEC or HALO or The Rock or French film screenings put on by the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures.

These are all little ideas, and I am NOT saying these steps have to be taken. I am saying that at a flagship state school, in 2011, we still have mistrust and misinformation within and between racial, ethnic, religious and sexual communities. This clearly leads to problems on campus, and if we have a tool handed to us by the administration, why don’t we try to use it?