While conversations on diversity continues throughout the nation and across college campuses, Alpha Tau Omega fraternity members had their very own conversation on diversity. 

Torrell Foree, coordinator for Multicultural Student Affairs, spoke to the fraternity about diversity at their chapter home Monday.

“To have these kinds of conversations, you really need a full semester,” said Foree. 

Topics Foree discussed with the fraternity included race, diversity, social justice, religion and first generation students.

Foree told the members that with one session they wouldn’t experience a huge impact and become knowledgeable on the subject of diversity.

“It doesn’t happen like that with one encounter,” Foree said. “This is a lifelong thing.”

Foree asked the fraternity to reflect on three questions about community. The questions were:

• What does community mean to me?
• What communities do I belong to?
• How do I engage in my communities?

Foree said he wanted to start off talking about the word community because it is something that is viewed as a thing that exist outside of a person.

“When I think of community I think of something spiritual, I think of something that is living,” Foree said.

Foree said that when a person is in a community, the individuals are always contributing to that community whether the person approves or not.

“The things that you say influences the vibe in that community,” Foree said. “The things that you ignore, you allow certain things to keep on going and that impacts a community.”

Foree had four choices of topics he wanted to address during the workshop: identities, power, privilege and oppression.

Foree had his attendees partner up and had those in attendance share descriptors they would use to identify themselves individually.

From talking about their religious backgrounds, social classes and personality traits, those in attendance mainly used personality traits to define themselves.

Foree said that he believed there were two reasons why people form their identities the way that they are. Foree said the first part is for achievement and the second part is how people are treated by others.

Foree said that one thing he always carries as his identity is his ethnicity. All of his life, he knew that he was African-American and even moving out to Iowa from southern California, he knew he was African-American.

“I always have to be on guard because I may say something that may be misconstrued as something else,” Foree said. “So my racial identity is a big part of how I identify myself.”

When it came to discussing first generation students, students that are first in their families to attend college, Foree suggested to be sensitive to those with that experience.

Foree talked about how he and his sister were first generation students and didn’t have many resources but his wife, whose mother attended college, had more resources available to her that made that possible. 

To close the workshop, Foree talked about diversity and how it has different meanings.

Foree said that diversity isn’t something to achieve, but something to become a state of being.

“Everyday you have to work at it,” Foree said. “You have to practice every single day with intentionality.”

For freshman Wade Stover, he said that he is glad to be a part of a fraternity that has diversity-based workshops.

Stover said by having these meetings they can bring the Greek community together.

“It’s breaking the stereotypes of what people think of the Greek communities are like,” Stover said. “Having meetings and becoming aware helps these things.”

For Chris Diaguila, this is an opportunity to express his love of diversity and becoming more inclusive.

“You may say things and don’t know how it affect people. I know it happens, people may things that we may take offense to. It goes both ways,” Diaguila said.

As Diaguila plans to become the next chapter president, he hopes to see incorporate more diversity-based events for this fraternity.

Diaguila hoped that in the future that his fraternity could do similar events with other Greek chapters in the traditional and multicultural chapters.

“I’m really excited to start getting the ball rolling with those kind of things.”