Tag: IPFW

Inflammatory Statement Found on Diversity Wall Not Considered Crime

Written by: Kashay Bowens, Charlotte Stefanski, Jeran Lantz-Robbins

After the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs found a racial epitaph written on the diversity wall, the IPFW Police were able to identify the individual who wrote the statement. According to IPFW Chief of Police Julie Yunker, the action was not a direct violation of the law.

Ken Christmon, the associate vice chancellor for the department, said his staff discovered the inflammatory statement on Nov. 18, and he immediately contacted the university police.

“We did a very aggressive thing and put out a statement out to let people know that we’re not

going to tolerate this,” Christmon said.  “There is no threat, there is no intent, it does not rise to the level of mass alerts, but it did have a hate tone to it.”

During their investigation, Yunker said her officers took statements from those in the department’s office and reviewed surveillance footage. They were able to identify the individual who wrote the statement and brought him in for questioning.

The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act limits access to a student’s education records, including campus police reports, so the student has not yet been named.

After the investigation, Christmon said the student was not trying to insight fear, but wrote it as a sarcastic statement.

The diversity wall in the department allows students to write their opinions in response to questions and topics proposed by the department in erasable marker.

“The diversity is a free speech wall, we came up with the program because we felt like students wanted to get their voices heard,” said Christmon. “Our original thought was to leave it up there and create dialog at first, because it’s on a free speech wall, but the police department advised us that is was better to take it down.”

“We further affirm that we will not allow a statement of hate to go unchallenged. We will not forget that the words were posted,” Carl Drummond, the vice chancellor of academic affairs, said on behalf of Chancellor Carwein in an email sent out to students. “We remain committed to our cherished values of inclusion and intellectual integrity and to challenging hatred and ignorance with clearer thinking and strong ideas for an inclusive and respectful way of life.”

According to Yunker, what the student did cannot be prosecuted, because it did not fall under the category of a criminal violation.

She said if the student would have used spray paint to write the message instead of the erasable markers provided at the diversity wall, then it would have been a criminal violation. However, since there was no permanent damage, it cannot be considered vandalism or criminal mischief.

Yunker also said the statement could not be considered a hate crime for two reasons, and said, “Hate crimes are actual crimes that exist and have this attribute of some kind of hate against a group. With no permanent damage and no crime, there is no hate crime.”

Indiana is also one of five states to not recognize hate crimes as criminal violations, which Yunker said was another “eye-opener” for people on campus.

With nothing able to be done in a criminal arena, Yunker said the university can take action against the person for having violated the student code of conduct. However, Dean of Students Eric Norman chose not to comment on if he was continuing an investigation.

By News , , , Leave a Comment

Is Sacrificing Sleep Actually Worth the Good Grade?

Finals week is here and IPFW students are cramming to get their last minute study sessions in while finishing up assignments. Some even report forgoing sleep in order work through the night surviving on caffeinated drinks and pure stamina.

Daytime sleepiness, sleep deprivation and irregular sleep are highly common among college student. 50 percent report daytime sleepiness and 70 percent attain insufficient sleep.

Hershner and Chervin conducted a study on sleeplessness among college students and found that most people require seven to eight hours of sleep in order to function properly. It has been found that many bodily systems can be harmed by sleepless nights.

According to former nursing student, Caitlyn Mishler, a number of the body’s functions are negatively affected by inadequate sleep such as lack of appetite, slow immune system, erratic mood swings and neurocognitive consequences.

“It [sleep deprivation] can cause about anything under the sun,” said Mishler. “When you sleep, it’s a time for your body to repair itself and heal from stress of the day, you don’t realize it but actually walking around and being awake is quite a huge thing for your body and if you don’t give your body time to repair itself it will turn on you.”

During sleep, the body produces cytokines which are cellular hormones that help fight infections. People suffering from lack of sleep may be more vulnerable to everyday infections like the common cold and flu.

According to Hershner and Chervin there is a link between insufficient sleep and weight- gain. Due to lack of sleep, levels of the hormone leptin which tells the brain enough food has been consumed, are lower while levels of ghrelin, which stimulates appetite, are higher.

Alia Hoyt, who researched how dangerous sleep deprivation could be, stated that other effects of sleep deprivation involve a lower ability to retain memory, lack of better judgment and problem-solving. During sleep, learning and memory pathways become encoded in the brain, and sufficient sleep is necessary for those pathways to work properly.

“I see this [sleep deprivation] in more college aged students,” Mishler said. “They cram and rely on energy drinks and coffee to sustain them.”

With insufficient sleep, the thinking process slows, it is harder to focus and pay attention.

“I am sleep deprived right now,” Sara Williamson, a senior at IPFW said. “I didn’t really see it as a big deal, everyone goes through this at some point in their college career it wasn’t until I started going through memory loss and time jumps that I started to get scared.”

According to Hoyt, those who suffer from sleep deprivation have an easy solution: unstressed rest. Giving the brain and body time to repair itself in the REM stage of sleep is the best possible solution.

“Unstressed rest is the best cure for sleep deprivation, no sleeping aids or amount of caffeine can compare to a natural nights rest.” Mishler said.

By News , , , Leave a Comment

IPFW Faculty and Students Support Syrian Refugees

IPFW faculty and students organized two events to support Syrian refugees on Dec. 2, including a rally and a panel. The rally served as a peaceful event in response to Indiana closing its borders to refugees, according to Farah Combs and Nancy Virtue, who organized the event.

The rally allowed students, faculty and community members of Fort Wayne to express their support for the Syrian refugees in an outdoor, open-mic setting.

“I wanted to show Fort Wayne, Indiana and the United States in general that people on college campuses are paying attention to these events and they do support refugees,” Elana Merritt, a junior who helped organize the rally, said.

“Our goals were to speak out in support of the Syrian refugees, and to make some sort of public statement in solidarity and support,” Virtue, who is also a French professor at the university, said. “It was a really great opportunity to introduce a competing voice, and to let people know perception is not uniformly against the refugees.”

Three days after the attacks on Paris, Gov. Mike Pence joined at least 15 other governors around the country and said he would close Indiana’s borders to Syrian refugees until “proper security measures are in place.”

As of Nov. 19, 31 governors said the refugees are not welcome in their state, according to CNN.

During the two-hour period, attendees wrote postcards to Pence and signed a petition to allow Syrian refugees into Indiana. According to Combs, the university’s Arabic professor, 100 preaddressed postcards were filled out and sent to the governor.

Qmr Aldik, a Syrian student who came to the United States in 2011, said, “All I want to tell him is that he might be in this position one day, and it’s not their fault to be fleeing their home.”

Montha Thach, a junior at IPFW, was also present at the event. She said she was supportive of the refugees because her own parents were once refugees.

“I just feel like Syrian refugees are not here to threaten us. They’re just here because they want a chance to live just like we do,” Thach said. “As humans, we should all support each other in times of need, so I feel like Mike Pence should open up his heart instead of shutting them out.”

Steven Carr, the director of the university’s Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, said that he saw similarities in the Syrian refugee crisis and when the United States turned down more than 900 Jewish refugees as they were trying to flee persecution from Nazi Germany in 1939.

“Given that we know what the history is now, do we really want to make those same kind of mistakes?” Carr said during the rally. “Do we want to be so cold hearted and so lacking of compassion that we are willing again, despite the historical record, to turn away people who are fleeing persecution?”

However, not all students at the university support the idea of refugees entering the United States. Alexis Taylor, a freshman majoring in business at the university, agreed with Pence’s stance, and said the United States should help the many homeless Americans in the country first.

“I think we would need intense filtering of the refugees to ensure that none of them are potential members of ISIS,” Taylor said. “Plus, we need to help our people first before we can open up to all of these other countries.”

According to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the vetting process a refugee must go through is a 13- step process including screening from the National Counterterrorism Center, the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center, DHS, the Department of Defense and other agencies.

Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement that the refugees have the “highest level of security screening of any category of traveler to the United States.”

The panel held later that night at the university aimed to engage the panelists and audience in a conversation about the Syrian refugee crisis, according to Assem Nasr, who moderated the event.

Nasr, assistant professor in the Department of Communication, posed questions to a group of panelists including activists Sam Jarjour, Caleb Jehl and Amar Masri and university professors Ann Livschiz and Jaime Toole.

Jarjour, Jehl and Masri had recently taken a trip to Europe to film a documentary on the Syrian refugee crisis.

During the panel, Jehl said, “By this point they’ve generally taken a boat out across five miles of sea in a little dingy without a pilot. If they’re lucky enough to survive that, they’ve gotten to Greece and they’re taking another boat to somewhere else to walk their way through Europe.”

“The boats were safer than the land they were escaping, that was a common story we heard,” Jarjour, who is a board chair of the Indiana Center for Middle East Peace, said. “We heard people talking about languishing in camps for four years with no hope and no security.”

According to the UN Refugee Agency, about 2 million registered refugees live in Turkey, more than a million live in Lebanon and over a half million live in Jordan.

Jarjour, Jehl and Masri also said the Syrians they met came from many different backgrounds, with most of them being educated. Some of the people they met included doctors, lawyers and pharmacists, who Jarjour said would be an “asset to our community.”

“They happen to be from all walks of life,” Masri said during the panel. “We met factory workers, we met farmers, we met a tractor driver. They just left there for the sake of safety and for a better life.”

“There’s a rich history of Syrian immigration to Fort Wayne that’s 100 years old, and people don’t even realize this,” Jarjour said. “The notion that we can exclude one nationality when they need us most because of that nationality is antithetical to American values, in my opinion.”

Nasr currently works with a group to resettle Syrian refugees in Fort Wayne, and said it’s a matter of when they are resettled, not if.

“We all miss that we’re human at the end of the day,” Nasr said. “Our biggest goal at this point in time is to talk to people and to bring an awareness of we are having people come into the city. We’re going to need to have all of the help that you can give. If you don’t have enough time, money, or resources, at least be generous enough to be welcoming and hospitable.”

By News , , , One Comment

Riverbank Erosion and Transmission Corridor Project Delay Rivergreenway Trail Completion

Written by: Rachel Abraham, Kristine Lindal, Alexandria Rairigh

Fort Wayne, Ind.–A 1.2 mile stretch of the Rivergreenway neighboring IPFW cannot be completed until the city addresses riverbank erosion and Indiana Michigan Power finishes their transmission project

Riverbank erosion is an issue for the remaining trail between St Joe Center Road and East California Road, according to the most recent Rivergreenway project status report.

Dawn Ritchie, greenways manager for the city, said there are 400 linear feet of riverbank erosion on the 1.2 mile stretch of uncompleted trail. According to the report, the city must find a solution to the erosion before the trail can be completed.

“There’s nothing that has been done to shore up the riverbank or stop the erosion,” Ritchie said. “We’re talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix this, and nobody has the money to do that, unfortunately.”

Robert Gillespie, university biology professor and an associate of the center, studies the degradation of aquatic communities. He participated in a sub-committee with city utilities that assessed a plan for possible impacts on areas of riverfront development.

Riverbank erosion is one such area, according to Gillespie. He said riverbank erosion will increase suspended solids, organic and inorganic materials that are suspended in water. This can be a problem for almost any aquatic organism because suspended solids get stuck in their gills and can cause suffocation, according to Gillespie. Gillespie said there are many places where erosion is a problem in the Fort Wayne area.

Indiana Michigan Power is currently working on a section of their Powering Up Northeast Indiana transmission project in the same area, according to Tracy Warner, principal communications consultant at the power company. The project is geared towards upgrading and enhancing the system and reliability, Warner said, because some of the equipment dates back to the 1940s.

The trail cannot be completed until the power company finalizes that part of the project, according to Ritchie.

The power company plans to begin construction on their transmission project next year. The project will take two years to complete. Warner said the company does not expect any issues from the erosion.

According to Warner, the power company strives to be a good neighbor to the greenway and the university and will continue to discuss the issue as the project progresses. “We’re looking forward to building this section,” he said.

Bruce Kingsbury, director of the university’s Environmental Resources Center, was involved in a committee for the vision of the riverfront downtown. According to Kingsbury, “Part of that vision includes the concept of environmental stewardship.”

By News , , , , , Leave a Comment

IPFW Improves Campus Community Initiatives with Community Student Portal

IPFW now has a completely web-based software hosted by Symplicity called Community that allows students to manage all aspects of their groups, clubs and organizations. The Office of Student Life and Leadership implemented the software system in August as a way to give students the ability to easily manage their co-curricular activities.

The Office of Student Life and Leadership worked with Symplicity to implement Community in an attempt to streamline the paper-based process that was used in the past for managing student groups.

“The filing system we used before we had Community was a pen and paper process,” Kasey Price, assistant vice chancellor for student life and leadership, said.

According to Price, this pen and paper process was inconvenient for both staff and self-registering students. Before Community was implemented, students interested in starting a campus organization had to print off the application online, fill it out and return that application to the Office of Student Life and Leadership. The office then stored each student organization application in a paper file. If the student wanted to make changes to that application they had to come back into the office and pull their file to make those changes.

“Community now allows us to digitize those records so that the students can easily manage groups, rosters and activities from within the system,” Price said.

Community also gives students within an organization the ability to find out about events on campus, keep track of event attendance and communicate with other members within the organization.

“Community is really beneficial to the members of the Active Minds group because it helps us plan out our events and lets us grow our member base a lot more than recruiting in person,” Manal Saeed, president of active minds, said in an email. “It also lets our current members know what we’re planning in advance, so they can plan to be there.”

Transitioning to Community also makes it easier for students to generate and manage their co-curricular transcripts. A co-curricular transcript is a university document that complements a student’s official academic transcript. Community offers a co-curricular transcript tool that allows students to document all of their student organization participation, membership, study-abroad experiences, honors, awards, scholarships and any other campus-based services students are involved in and have achieved throughout their time at IPFW.

In addition to being able to easily manage a student organization and co-curricular transcript, Community also offers a feature to help the campus move forward in some of the other campus community initiatives by sending out the student newsletter known as “True Blue.” According to Alex Wulpi, communications assistant in the office of the chancellor, the chancellor’s office decided to use Community as a platform to send out the student newsletter because it offers message tracking capabilities.

“The message tracking capability lets us know the percentage of the recipients who opened the newsletter,” Wulpi said. “This comes in handy because this information helps guide our decisions about what content to include and whether to adjust the design or layout to increase reader satisfaction.”

Community also adds more well-crafted content to the True Blue newsletter as opposed to sending it out by email through the student LISTSERV. “We didn’t like sending the newsletter out through the student LISTSERV because it was just a wall of text and links.” Wulpi said. “Community allows us to add basic HTML markup and pictures to make it more interesting and aesthetically pleasing.”

All students can login to Community by visiting www.ipfw.edu/my-community and use their current IPFW student username and password to access their personal profiles. Once students are logged on, they can create an event request, co-curricular transcript and find out about other student organizational events happening on campus.

By News , , , Leave a Comment

New Program for Future Professional Women Planned at IPFW

Some women believe that dressing for an interview or for work every day in a professional environment involves skirts and high heels but one Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne graduate student is proposing a program to help change that stigma.

Abigail Schnelker, a graduate assistant in the IPFW Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, is proposing a program that will help prepare women to present themselves in a manner consistent with a professional setting.

“TV gives a very convoluted idea of what women are expected to wear to work and how they are expected to conduct themselves. Sex sells on TV but it comes off as unprofessional in the work place,” Schnelker said.

The program would incorporate human resource professionals to help give female students an idea of how to dress in the business world after obtaining their degree from IPFW.

Schnelker said she also plans to reach out to local hairdressers and cosmetics experts to attend the event. These representatives would then have a chance to give attendees tips and pointers on how to do their makeup and hair in a professional manner.

Chelsea Beyers, an IPFW graduate, is a human resource specialist and said she thinks this type of program is a great idea for women looking to work in a business-type environment.

“Appearance can make or break an interview for someone, knowing what to do and what not to do is very important and this type workshop could help do that for these women,” Beyers said.

Beyers also said she agreed that stereotypes set forth in the media can come off as unprofessional.

“High heels are not needed in an interview when dress pants along with a nice blouse or blazer will do the job,” she said.

Sloane Odle is a senior at IPFW and says this type of program would be something that could potentially be very helpful.

“I have never really had a true interview in a business-like environment so I am really not sure what interviewing or working in a business environment every day is like,” Odle said.

On top of how to appear professional, Schnelker said she also plans to reach out to local businesses that sell second hand professional clothing.

“Most college students do not have very deep pockets, if the university could work with some of these businesses to get discounted rates for students it could be a big help for a lot of women,” Schnelker said.

The program proposal will be submitted to Ken Christmon, the associate vice chancellor of diversity and multicultural affairs, by the end of the current semester. If the program is approved Schnelker said she plans to hold the event in March in conjunction with Women’s History Month before seniors graduate in May.

By News , Leave a Comment

Student Organizations Find Outside Funding Beneficial When Requesting Funds from Student Government

Written by: Rachel Abraham, Alexandria Rairigh, Jeran Lantz-Robbins, Charlotte Stefanski, Emily Yager

African Student Association received $55 more than requested from the IPFW Student Senate, but according to James Hoppes, the legislative committee chair, the senate encourages organizations to get outside funding.

Eseosa Igbinijesu, African student association treasurer, and Emmanuel Okendu, African student association vice president, requested $245 to fund “A Taste of Africa,” an event which will showcase foods from Nigeria, Kenya, Angola, and the Republic of Congo.

During the senate meeting, Bradley Crowe, the ways and means chair, asked if the amount was enough to fund an event expecting 50 to 100 attendees.

Student senator Logan Torres moved to amend the bill to $300, which student senator Kate Keil said she found frustrating. “We’re not there to amend things to give more money to people that haven’t requested more,” Keil said.

But Keil said she revised her position on the amended bill because it helped the association.

The senate passed the bill and amendment to increase the amount to $300, unanimously.

Student senator Andrew Kreager said while it’s not common for the senate to give organizations more money than they request, he does agree with the senate’s decision.

“If we think something needs to be more funded so that it is a successful event, we should do that,” Kreager said. “That is our part as senators representing the student body to make sure that things are successful.”

Igbinijesu said their organization would not have been able to hold the event without receiving funds from the senate.

“We’re really new so we tried to collect membership fees, but it would not have covered this at all,” she said.

According to Hoppes, student organizations are encouraged to seek funding from outside sources other than just student government.

“We don’t have enough money to fund everybody,” Hoppes said.

Hoppes said the senate would like to fully fund students, but they also want to spread the money out.

Mitchell Olney, president of the rugby club, said he received funding from businesses before going in front of the student senate. He said this helped the rugby club’s case.

“They liked that we were self-sufficient and that we could generate our own funds,” Olney said, “and that we weren’t just coming to them and asking for charity.”

Anthropology club treasurer, Mike Plasterer, said his organization had already raised $150 through donations when he presented to the senate. “I think that definitely gave us brownie points from them,” Plasterer said.

According to Kelsie Gillig, president of the anthropology club, the process of requesting funds from the senate was fairly straightforward.

“Everyone has the same process to go through,” Plasterer said. “Everyone has the same opportunity to get the funds.”

“If there’s a group of students who wants to have a pogo stick competition on campus, it’s not my job to judge whether or not I would do pogo-sticking,” Crowe said. “It’s something they want to do. Therefore, we should be able to help them in that endeavor.”

Kreager said he hopes “A Taste of Africa” gets 100 attendees and the organization is able to engage students in what they are eating and gain an insight into African culture.

“A Taste of Africa” will be held Dec. 2 at noon in the Walb International Ballroom.

By News , , , , , , , Leave a Comment

IPFW Career Services Offers Job Interview Preparation Tips

Photo Credit: Kathleen Le

After graduating college, the newest challenge to take on is getting interviews and obtaining a job. Students at IPFW have sources on campus that are more personal than surfing the web. Career Services provides a number of outlets and services that are accessible to both students and alumni.

Once an interview has been set up with a company the first thing that should be done is research of company, according to Kayla Klimasko, a career counselor at IPFW Career Services.

“One of the big things that I think students especially need to work on is the research that they need to do on the company before going to the interview,” Klimasko said. “A lot of companies are going to ask you specific questions about why you want to work for that company or why you are interested in that specific position.”

By researching the company, you can find out what the company is looking for and if you would be a good fit, as well as if you would like to work there. It is important to look into the company’s values, expectations and the qualifications and duties that are required, Klimasko said. This way you will be able to be sure that your answers are relevant to the position, Klimasko said.

In addition to researching the company, you should also come up with some questions of your own to ask your interviewer. Klimasko recommends trying to tailor your questions to the company and position by using the research you have done on the company.

Another suggestion Kilmasko has is to do a practice interview with someone, which is a service that IPFW Career Services provides. Mock interviews are a good way to prepare and calm your nerves before an interview since it is in a nonjudgmental environment, Klimasko said.

“We are able to tailor the questions to a specific major or a specific position if we know ahead of time what it is that you are going to interview for.” Klimasko said.

Another reason for doing a mock interview is to monitor body language and personality. It is beneficial to have another person to tell you if you are fidgeting too much, slouching or answering the questions in a manner that doesn’t come across as genuine because of nervousness, Klimasko said.

“I think a big thing to remember is your personality is something that they are judging,” Klimasko said. “I think a lot of people get wrapped up in making sure they’re answering the questions properly, but they’re not always authentic in that answer.”

The last thing to consider before going to an interview is what you should bring with you to the interview and what to wear.

“In the career services basically I just did like a mock type of interview,” Brett Gauger, an IPFW student, said. “I dressed up, and I brought my résumé and a cover letter for the job interview that I took.”

“They do everything, just like it would be like [in] a regular interview,” Gauger said.

Career Services can check over résumés, Gauger said. They also give advice for how to dress for your interview.

Kilmasko said, “There’s a saying you may have heard of, dress for the job you want, not the job you have and its kind of cliché, but it is true. It is better to be over prepared in any situation than underprepared.”

By News , , , Leave a Comment

ISPGA to Host Food Drive on Campus

The Public Relations Committee for IPSGA Student Senate is kicking off their first food drive this year with the “Winter Giving Tree.”

The “Winter Giving Tree” will be held Nov. 30 through Dec. 23 at IPFW. All students are encouraged to donate canned items and non-perishable goods.

A goal of the food drive is to obtain around 200-300 pounds of food to donate to Community Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Indiana.

“Since it’s the first year we are doing it, I really didn’t want to set the bar too high to see how things went, but hopefully in years to come we’ll continue to grow,” said Jessica Shoaff, Public Relations Committee Chair for IPSGA Student Senate.

When planning the food drive, the committee did not have a place in mind of where they wanted the donated items to go. IPFW has been affiliated with Community Harvest Food Bank in the past and getting in touch with the food bank was easy for Shoaff and the committee.

Community Harvest Food Bank recently was affiliated with “U Can Crush Hunger” food drive that had five colleges in northeast Indiana, IPFW, Saint Francis, Indiana Tech, Ivy Tech Community College Northeast and Huntington University in competition with one another to raise 100,000 pounds of food. IPSGA’s food drive will be held only on the campus of IPFW.

Another one of the goals of the food drive is to show off a side of the IPSGA that they are not known for.

“I know we are pretty business-like and rather than funding the clubs and organizations, I thought we’d show a different side of student senate,” said Shoaff.

In her first year as chair, Shoaff gave the committee a list of ideas to consider but the “Winter Giving Tree” was not on the list. After brainstorming during committee meetings they decided on a food drive.

The unique name of the “Winter Giving Tree” gave the committee an idea on how to advertise the food drive.

“I just got the funding from senate for the two-foot tall (Christmas) trees that will be placed around campus,” Shoaff said.

Along with the trees will be posters put up around campus that describe the food drive and where to donate.

The main tree of the food drive will be located outside the IPSGA office, Walb 225, to put the donated items.

Students who donate to the giving tree can swipe their student ID in the IPSGA office to be entered to win a free IPFW fleece. The number of fleece jackets that will be given away has not yet been determined according to Shoaff and the committee.

If the drive is successful, ISPGA plans to make this an annual food drive.

By News , , Leave a Comment

IPFW Hosts 2015 Diversity Showcase

Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne hosted its annual Diversity Showcase on Wednesday Nov. 4 in the universities’ Walb Union International Ballroom.

The event, which has been hosted by the university for over a decade, is meant to showcase the unique cultures and identities that can be found on the Fort Wayne campus.

“A lot of people think they know what diversity is, but this type of event gives a chance for students and the community to come out and see what this university really has to offer, there is something for everyone,” said the Kenneth Christmon, who is the associate vice chancellor for diversity and multicultural affairs at IPFW.

Christmon said that this year’s event was the largest of its kind with over 50 vendors that included departments from within the university as well as various student organizations.

Some of the vendors from the university included departments such as the College of Health and Human Services, the IPFW athletic department and the Office of Military Student Services.

Some of the student organizations involved with the event included the Black Collegian Caucus and Hispanos Unidos.

Gladys Calderon, a student at IPFW and a member of Hispanos Unidos, said the Diversity Showcase and other similar events do a great job to raise awareness for not only the organization she is involved with, but all of the other campus organizations as well.

“We do a lot on campus and even more within the community and just getting the word out really helps us out” said Calderon. Calderon said that on top of taking trips to Spanish speaking countries such as Peru, the group also volunteers within the local community.

One of the volunteer services Hispanos Unidos provides is interpreting for non-English speakers at local health clinics. Calderon says members of the group also help interpret during parent-teacher conferences for Fort Wayne Community Schools each year.

“It may not always seem like much but for a lot of families, it is,” said Calderon. “We are glad we can make an impact and this event helps make it possible to make more of an impact.”

Free food was also made available to students and community members that took part in the event. Visitors used a form that required them to visit multiple stations before they could take advantage of the food court. Food was catered by Los Portales, Panda Express, Zianos and Fort Wayne Coney Island.

Este Stoffel, a senior on the IPFW volleyball team, volunteered to serve food for the event. “I think the event is working the way it is supposed to,” said Stoffel. “I have seen a lot of new faces coming through the line and that’s what this event is meant to do, raise awareness.”

School officials said they plan to continue the event for many years to come.

By News , , Leave a Comment