Events such as Wednesday’s “Got Ignorance?” campaign are just a start in creating a diverse community at Iowa State.

Leonard Perry, director of Minority Student Affairs, gave a list of 10 questions he said must be answered to find out if people are trying hard enough to be diverse as a community.

“Promoting diversity will lead to tension — I didn’t say may lead to tension, but will lead to tension. Are you willing to help, to guide the community through this tension? If not, then [you’ve] Got Ignorance,” he said.

Iowa State’s second “Got Ignorance?” campaign began with activist metal band Rage Against the Machine blasting from speakers and a wide variety of presentations, ranging from skits featuring men in wrestling singlets and the importance of voting to serious discussions on campus diversity led by ISU President Gregory Geoffroy.

The crowd grew throughout the noon hour from less than 50 to more than 250, while students gave testimonials, ISU officials spoke their minds and Jamaican hip-hop group Starchild gave a short performance.

The theme of the campaign was “Exercise Your Right,” and one goal of the program was to reach out to students and encourage them to vote. There were voter registration booths and volunteers working the crowd encouraging them to vote.

Meisha Colbert, graduate student in interdisciplinary graduate studies, was one of the volunteers trying to get attendees to vote.

“Voter registration is really important for our cause simply because voting is an opportunity for us to speak our minds about issues that matter to us,” she said.

Penny Rice, coordinator of the Margaret Sloss Women’s Center, said the campaign Wednesday was the most amazing thing she had seen on campus in the six years she has been with the university.

She emphasized one of the main points of the afternoon by starting a chant among the attendees.

“If we are not part of the solution …” Rice said.

“… then we are part of the problem,” the crowd responded.

Despite the varying presentations of ideas covered during the two-hour program, the message was almost always the same.

“We have a responsibility not only to support inclusion, but to participate,” said Carla Espinoza, assistant vice president for human resource services and director of equal opportunity.

“It’s important to be knowledgeable, but equally important to be active.”

Todd Herriott, program coordinator for disability resources in the Dean of Students Office, spoke about ignorance issues related to disabled people on campus. Visibility is an important part of changing the public’s perception of disabled people, he said.

“I’ve really encouraged persons with disabilities on this campus to get out and be visible,” Herriott said.

“I think that if more students with visible disabilities got out and challenged the assumptions that they are afraid people have of them, we would get further in regards to education.”

The “Got Ignorance?” campaign is special, Herriott said, because there are so many different groups participating or sponsoring the event.

There were more than 30 on-campus sponsors of this year’s campaign, including the Black Student Alliance, the ISU Business Council and the ISU Marching Cyclones Drill Team.