Organizers expect Unity Week participation increase

Student participation in Unity Week has increased tenfold in the last four years, despite being around for decades.

Unity Week’s participation has risen by 5,200 students since 2011. There were 525 participants in 2011, said Barry Hawkins, assistant director of student life. Students are counted by swiping their IDs at the different events.

“[Unity Week] has been around for a long time, but there hasn’t been a lot of participation,” Hawkins said. “I’m proud of that. You’ll catch me bragging about it. I want it to grow even more this year.”

Hawkins predicts the participation will increase by 1,200 students this year.

He said encouraging participation has not been easy, and at times has seemed discouraging.

“I really want more engagement,” Hawkins said. “We [the office of student life] sometimes get frustrated because we always see the same people coming to events. I try to be realistic and think of the region we live in, rural Indiana. Because of these obstacles, we have to provide the exposure.”

This year’s theme for Unity Week is Culture Shock. The purpose of Culture Shock is to change student perceptions on diversity, including race, religion and economic background.

The week begins with Martin Luther King, Jr. Day marches and events, which aim to bring the community together.

All except one of the 11 Unity Week events are repeated from last year.

The new addition to Unity Week is called “Check Yourself,” and it will take place Jan. 22 in the L.A. Pittenger Student Center.

Check Yourself will be a time to ask students about their feelings toward diversity on campus and then follow up with an activity similar to SoulPancake’s Ball Pit Video, Hawkins said.

The Unity Connections Conference is the up-and-coming star of Unity Week, which has brought some of the increase in Unity Week participation, Hawkins said.

The UCC, formerly known as the Unity Week Diversity Symposium, is in its third year. The name of the conference was changed to be more student-friendly, said Nicki Rowlett, graduate assistant in the Office of Student Life and event coordinator for the conference.

“The word symposium seems kind of academic and classroom oriented," Rowlett said. "Even though symposium and conference mean the same thing, the name was changed to conference because it conveys more of what we’re trying to accomplish, which is a comfortable atmosphere to talk about hot topics."

Attendance at the UCC has climbed considerably in the past three years, from 150 to 230 attendees, Rowlett said. There are 215 people registered so far.

The conference will be available on LiveStream on UCC’s website.

The material will be available for professors to use in class, which will lead to greater opportunities to spread the message, Rowlett said.

“Everyone has their own perception about the world from based from their race, age, sexuality, religion, nationality,” Rowlett said. “Sometimes it’s hard to recognize where injustices are coming from, because in some perceptions, those problems don’t exist. That’s the wall we’re trying to break down.”

Unity Week is from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25.

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