What can members of a diverse community do to prevent and respond to a hate crime? Students and staff members from a variety of countries and backgrounds gathered at the Memorial Union on Friday to discuss this question at the Multicultural Leadership Summit.

The evening featured a showing of “Journey to a Hate-Free Millennium,” a documentary that chronicles the hate crimes involving Matthew Shepard, James Byrd and the Columbine shooting.

Laura Bestler-Wilcox, ISU alumna and facilitator of the training portion of the summit titled “Stop the Hate” that took place on Saturday, pointed out that although the film was made a decade ago, hate crimes are still a problem. Many college campuses across the country encounter hate crimes frequently. Bestler-Wilcox said that the “Stop the Hate” program aimed to prepare the attendants of the summit for such a crime.

“What would happen if it happened in Iowa State? How are we going to be supportive of the victim? How can we be supportive of the community that the victim may be a part of?” Bestler-Wilcox said. “What we’re going to be doing is taking a look at some of those ideas and talking about those issues.”

Several student and staff leaders, referred to as cluster facilitators, guided several small groups of people through activities and discussions that were designed to help the attendants get to know each other better and become more comfortable with the topics that were discussed throughout the summit.

One of the facilitators, Stella Okeke, graduate student in education leadership and policy studies, volunteered for her position so she could help others understand the impact of hate crimes.

“Hate crimes are still going on today. Though we have come a long way since the civil rights movement and the Chicano movements, we still have a long way to go. There are still groups that are targeted out there,” Okeke said. “We want to get the discussion rolling about what students can do here at Iowa State to make some changes happen.”

Okeke decided to volunteer as a facilitator when she learned about a friend’s positive experience at a previous summit. She said she wanted to give others “a chance to see where we’ve come from in history, where we’re at right now and where we’re trying to head.”

Some attendants at the summit didn’t have very much experience dealing with diversity issues. Okeke pointed out that they may want to have some education about the issue if they want to get along in a diverse community like Iowa State.

“Especially with any of the first-year students, I hope that this plants a seed in them to gain leadership position on campus and still have the idea of change in their minds, immersing them in a culture where people can come together in a safe environment for an open discussion,” Okeke said.

Karyn Mayott, sophomore in chemical engineering, was one first-year student at the event.

“I came from a completely nonmulticultural background, so I thought it would be good to learn about these ideas and see what kinds of things are being talked about,” Mayott said.

She has a hope that the summit will inspire others to begin open-minded discussions about hate and hate crimes, and to take steps to prevent these crimes from happening.

“It’s not something that we really address on our campus,” Mayott said. “I think that if people are out there talking about it, there would be less paranoia and we could open our eyes to what the issues really are.”