Diversity at CMU doesn't cover everything
Most people would agree that Central Michigan University has worked hard at making diversity a priority. However, the university overlooks age in its diversity campaign.
The age issue has been on my mind since I took a tour here last summer. The student giving the tour, at first, did not acknowledge me. I overheard her superiors say she had two students going with here today. However, when we gathered outside Warriner Hall to start the tour, the guide assumed only one was going. She opened with an icebreaker and immediately looked toward the student who was the obvious high school grad.
The conversation led back to the guide, who immediately said to the young man, “I guess you are my only student today.” I immediately said, “I am a new student here also.” To her surprise, she quickly asked me a question, I answered and the tour began. I laughed to myself and overlooked the situation, because I know the students at CMU are much younger. Everywhere I went, however, this ignorance worsened. When I went to check on campus housing, I left furious. Someone could have been in a world of crap if I had pushed an age discrimination issue.
I never felt the need to address this diversity issue until now. I realized other undergrads are out there going through this feeling of separation from the CMU community.
In my evening class this past Thursday, I gave a presentation about my life and how I got to CMU. Afterward, a classmate asked me how I felt being a nontraditional student at CMU.
My answer was brutally honest.
“It hurts, I am lonely, I often feel turned away from employment on campus, activities, clubs and organizations because I am older.” I used to think it was only my perception. Then another nontraditional student also responded in the same way. Her words and my words were telling the same story.
That is when other students began to participate in the discussion. Questions were raised about this institution and diversity. If diversity is so important, why do older students feel like outcasts? Does diversity cover age? What does diversity mean at CMU?
Is it only about race here? These were the topics we began to discuss.
I am asking CMU — how do you address an issue such as age, and older learners? How does CMU see the nontraditional student? This topic will not go away.
The student landscape is changing in America, including CMU’s campus. I left a college where I was active in three organizations, I gave tours of the campus and I tutored and mentored students. I felt part of something. I had the same opportunities as any other student.
It is my second semester at CMU and the only thing I feel today is the same thing I did my first semester. Uneasy feelings, wishing I belonged.
