Iowa State likes to brag about the diversity of its students. The administration likes to talk about how we come from X different countries and Y different states. When I would hear or read about our “diversity,” I would chuckle to myself.

According to the university’s enrollment statistics for the fall semester of 2001, almost 18,000 of the over 23,000 undergraduates were Iowans and close to 22,000 are white. To most people, that doesn’t sound like diversity at all.

One cannot help but live a sheltered life in the great metropolis that is Dubuque, Iowa. For a large majority of the 1990s, Dubuque County was, by percentage, the whitest county in the entire United States. In my high school freshman class, there were close to 300 students and only one African-American girl, who dropped out halfway through our first year.

Unfortunately, the lack of minorities was also a result of the racist culture of the city in the early ’90s. I distinctly remember a “20/20” special on our great city following a string of cross burnings in the yards of minority-owned houses, and I remember the tension in the city as the Ku Klux Klan staged a rally downtown. This presumably knocked Dubuque down a few notches on the list of towns where minorities wanted to relocate and lead a happy life.

In addition to the lack of racial diversity, religious diversity was also almost nonexistent. Catholic churches dominate most neighborhoods, regardless of where you are in the city. To label Dubuque as a white, Catholic city would not be unfair by any means.

Thus, in comparison to where I grew up, Iowa State is a model of diversity. It seems to be a laughable statement, but it sadly is true, at least to me.

At least at Iowa State I have had friends, roommates, acquaintances and professors who haven’t come from the same mold as me. That limited experience so far has opened my mind to new ways of thinking and reasoning, helped crush some of the stereotypes I formerly held, and introduced me to some really great food I never ate growing up in Iowa. This is an advantage that cannot be underestimated.

Diversity is more than just where you came from and what race you are. It is not really something that can be tracked or tabulated. Where a person came from and their race cannot provide a complete picture of how much diversity actually abounds at a given university, a certain city or a particular region.

Diversity is more about what individuals can contribute to an experience than it is about their skin color or how long of a trip it is home. Diversity can be stories of how a classmate traveled to Australia, or what he learned when he studied the Mayan ruins extensively or how his parents punished him growing up.

Diversity can be expressed in the different knowledge each of us has.

I have large amounts of knowledge on subjects such as self-mutilation, the making of a donut and how to maximize your Social Security payment.

One friend of mine could tell you everything you want to know about eating disorders, while another is well-versed in bodybuilding and living in Guam.

Diversity is a collection of people with different life stories, new perspectives and fresh ideas. In some senses, we most certainly are not as diverse as bigger schools on the coasts, like UCLA, but in this respect we have a plethora of diversity all around us. It resides in the stories that would love to be told, knowledge that would love to be shared and experiences that would love to be relived.

Nevertheless, all the diversity in the world is worthless unless you open yourself up to it.

Dustin Kass is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Dubuque.