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Unity Day events slated for Friday
9:56 a.m., April 19, 2006--UD is sponsoring a campus-wide Unity Day from 2-8 p.m., Friday, April 21, on the North Green. UD President David P. Roselle, in an April 4 e-mail, explained to members of the UD community that “the purpose of this event is to help unite our community as a place that is welcoming to all persons.” All UD students, faculty and staff are invited to attend the event, which will feature a Unity March, student performances, discussion groups and keynote speaker Lee Mun Wah, a nationally acclaimed Chinese-American community therapist, documentary filmmaker, educator, performing poet, Asian folk teller and author.Unity Day events include:
The idea for Unity Day was conceived in meetings between University administrators and six African-American students, after a series of bias-related incidents occurred on the UD campus during the fall semester, Cynthia Cummings, associate vice president of Campus Life, said. “Delaware Undergraduate Student Congress (DUSC) representatives and a student group that advised the Provost's office on diversity-related issues also were considering holding a similar event,” Cummings said. “All of these individuals agreed that it was time to bring the entire campus together to acknowledge our commonalities, celebrate our differences and take a stand against hatred based on race, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation.”
Unity Day is intended to be a time of celebration of every member of the University community, with festive, educational and reflective moments and performances that will focus on themes of unity and peace, she said. The “Interactive Explorations” segment will give participants an opportunity to reflect on their own experiences and to find common ground with others, Cummings said. “We hope that the day's events will facilitate an atmosphere on campus where we will all begin to come out of our separate groups and interact with different types of people regularly and not just on special occasions,” Cummings said. The day will culminate with an after-the-event party intended to be the biggest campus party of the year. Article by Jerry Rhodes
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