CMU hosts three-day diversity workshop at Tribe’s Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort

A statewide conference today through Friday, titled “Weaving Threads of Colors into Higher Education,” will encourage diversity in higher education.

“It’s dedicated to addressing academic success with minorities,” said Ulana Klymyshyn, Multicultural Education Center director.

The three-day event at the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort, 6800 Soaring Eagle Blvd., provides diversity training through many sessions and workshops.

Klymyshyn said there are 23 sessions on topics including American-Indian issues, diversity in school curricula and statistics of minorities in college.

One of the main issues is the GEAR UP! Project.

“It’s a program that encourages middle and high school minority students to attend college,” Klymyshyn said.

The schedule also includes an opening session and keynote address by William B. Harvey, vice president and director of the Office of Minorities in Higher Education at the American Council on Education.

Harvey focuses his research on the cultural and social factors that affect unrepresented populations, with particular emphasis on college and university settings, according to Equity in the Classroom Conference XII Web site.

Harvey also has served on committees focusing on higher education, such as the governmental relations committee of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education and the governmental relations committee of the Association of Deans of Colleges of Education at Land Grant Universities.

Stanford University Psychology Professor Claude Steele will give the closing keynote address titled, “Stereotyped Vulnerability: The Effect of Stereotyping on Academic Success.”

Steele’s career in psychology has centered in the processes of how people cope with self-image threats and how group stereotypes can influence intellectual performance and academic identities, according to the Web site.

Steele’s address will discuss the effects of stereotyping and how much of an impact it can make on students.

Klymyshyn encourages students and faculty members to attend the conference.

“It’s a chance to meet people around the state, see how others are doing in diversity, and learn from the individual sessions,” she said.

Klymyshyn said 260 people made reservations to attend the conference.

For more information, go to the Equity in the Classroom Conference XII Web site at http://www.cel.cmich.edu/equity or call Klymyshyn at 774-7318.