Side S.A.L.A.D., please
Organization focuses on diversity in students’ lives
College is like a salad bar; there is so much variety, yet students try to keep their own identity on campus.
A group called S.A.L.A.D is coming to NDSU for the 2007 President’s Student Leadership Conference to help students understand the diversity in life and how to become leaders.
S.A.L.A.D. stands for Seeking Alliance through Leadership And Diversity and it is brought to NDSU through the Memorial Union and Campusspeak.com.
The conference is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Feb. 24 in the Memorial Union.
According to campusspeak.com, this program invites leaders from varying student organizations to search for common ground, initiate relationships and work together for the benefit of the campus community. “
The leadership conference is an opportunity for student leaders or people interested in leadership to attend a one-day conference,” said Vicki Miller, administration assistant and coordinator of the President’s Student Leadership Conference. “The conference looks at leadership and student organizations and how we can make them a stronger community and looking at diverse populations.”
Miller said the group would lead the students through a variety of workshops to identify diversity and stereotypes and work through them.
According to campusspeak.com the students first have to identify what stereotypes they hold and get them out in the open.
This includes understanding problems between groups of people and why some may feel ‘less valued’ than other organizations.
After looking at the types of diversity and stereotypes, the students look at ‘the big picture’ and see what can be done to improve their lives.
Each activity has a purpose and has something the participants can learn from, including lunch. “
The meal they requested is called a salad bar activity,” Miller said. “It talks about how it exposes groups to disparity and how to deal with it.”
The S.A.L.A.D. group helps the participants to develop an action plan after looking at all types of values, diversity and stereotypes.
The participants are then asked to try to implement this program in their own lives and organizations.
The goal and hopeful outcome is to teach students how to be leaders of diverse groups and having the ability to be tolerant with all types of people and lifestyles, Miller said. “
If we can get them to take one step forward in embracing diversity and understand that it isn’t just about age or gender but that it is a lot of different things,” Miller said. “We hope they learn tolerance.”
Miller said she found the group S.A.L.A.D. through campusspeak.com and wanted to bring the leadership and diversity training to NDSU.
As of right now, only 120 students are allowed to participate due to facilities and guidelines for the S.A.L.A.D group.
Miller said she is hoping this event is well received so that more of the training session can be held. Miller hopes students can register online for the conference by Wednesday.
For more information on the President’s Student Leadership Conference visit www.ndsu.edu/memorialunion.
For any other questions, students can contact Vicki Miller at Victoria.Miller@ndsu.edu or at 701-231-9447.