Fahnestock says stressing diversity can be problematic

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The role of a leader is to find the balance between unity and diversity,
a speaker said Thursday during the Campus Forum on Diversity.

Mo Fahnestock, a long time advocate for people with disabilities, was the keynote speaker and also led workshops Thursday.

He said stressing diversity can lead to too much uniqueness among members
of a community, “so we run over to the other side – unity.”

Once people become overly unified, he said, they will tend to go back
to individuality and diversity, and a circular path begins between the two.

“Within leadership we have to have the responsibility to do both,” Fahnestock said.

Leaders need to find the balance for their groups, Fahnestock said, and
there is a need for student groups to address diversity and leadership issues
on campus.

Fahnestock said one challenge to looking at the real issues is the constant rotation of members of the CMU community

Maureen Eke, associate vice president for Institutional Diversity and
International Education, said the purpose of the forum is to begin a conversation
about diversity and leadership and she is excited by the attendance at the
workshops and lunch.

“It shows that we’re interested in looking at this seriously, not just the administrators, but students too,” Eke said.

Eke said the events will continue today with more workshops and a panel
discussion and lunch in the Bovee University Center. The forum activities
are free for CMU students and staff and $15 for the general public.

During his presentation, Fahnestock said it is fair to ask what a 43-year-old
white male who has a doctorate could know about diversity.

“As I look back and reflect on my life’s journey, what I have to learn is from the struggles I haven’t had,” he said.

Fahnestock said he recognizes that he hasn’t had to deal with race, gender
and sexual preference issues. What he does know comes from his personal experiences,
including working with a disabled child at a YMCA camp.

He said after this experience he became “deeply engaged in advocacy work
for people with disabilities,” including getting students integrated into
regular classrooms at school.

Fahnestock also has seen discrimination based on sexual preference when
a gay relative was diagnosed with AIDS. Fahnestock said his relative was
fired directly after he was diagnosed and his relative searched to find an
accepting community.

“(My wife and I) went through a whole set of learning about people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered,” he said.

Fahnestock also has learned about diversity through adopting a daughter
from Korea. He said he had no idea about the role skin color plays in society
because he never had to live with it before.

“I had no clue that we have to look at this,” he said. “I’m only beginning to learn.”

Diversity often is defined narrowly but needs to be broadened, Fahnestock
said, and people need to build relationships with people to expand their
views.

“You have to have the courage to share your story,” he said. “This morning,
working with the administrators, the level of participation and desire in
working in the areas of leadership and diversity were very high.”

Detroit senior Kimberly Hohensee said she thought what Fahnestock had to say was positive.

“It was good because if you don’t concentrate on unity and diversity at
the same time you will be going around in a circle,” she said.

Hohensee said she is very interested in diversity issues on campus and thinks they need to be promoted more.

“I want CMU to get more into diversity,” she said.

In the real world, she said, everyone will experience times when they are the minority.