There is a saying that goes "If Mohammed can't go to the mountain, let the mountain come to Mohammed." On some levels that saying applies to Herzing and Edgewood Colleges. While these colleges do have some diversity, they are not satisfied with the level of diversity at their institutions. In order to foster a more diverse environment at Herzing, Dr. Charles Taylor, Herzing College's dean created the Diversity Institute on Wheels in 2006. On January 15, Edgewood College joined them on the road to bring their ivory tower institutions closer to the communities they wish to serve.
The Diversity Institute is a classroom on wheels as the participants stop at centers in some of Madison's challenged neighborhoods and talk to residents and community leaders about their needs and dreams. This year's bus tour started out at the Herzing College campus and made stops in South Madison before taking a tour of Allied Drive and ending the day at the Boys & Girls Club for a panel discussion facilitated by Stan Woodard, a keynote speech on civil rights by Stephen Braunginn and cultural presentations from Art Qualified and poetess Fabu Carter Mogaka.
"Many of my staff has never had much exposure to the inner-city of even Madison," said Don Madelung, president of Herzing College's Madison campus. "Subsequently, seeing the Boys & Girls Club and seeing the pride of the Black and Hispanic communities in terms of what they are doing there just brought a whole enlightenment to my staff. It let them know there is a whole other city out there that we are not aware of. We need to know more about their culture. We need to know about their needs, wants, desires, and dreams. We need to know what we can do here to meet some of those needs."
While a one-day trip cannot be expected to achieve diversity overnight, Madelung did see some impact from last year's Diversity Institute. "I think we developed an awareness of differences in circumstances and an appreciation for those differences," Madelung said. "We realized that if we are going to become more diversified, we have to appreciate other cultures in a different way and provide services that they may need that we normally don't think a student would need. We started a marketing group from our admissions group that got together with a number of the members of the panels and got some input from them on how we can market and work with the AHANA groups in Madison and become more aware of how we can recruit them to at least take a look at Herzing College and what we offer."
The mountain is beginning to move. |
