CSULB
Multicultural Festival highlights diversity
By
Mellani Lubuag
Online Forty-Niner
Assistant News Editor
Students had the opportunity to visit with more than 20 cultural, religious
and social organization booths last Thursday as a part of the Second Annual
Multicultural Festival. The event, sponsored by Associated Students Inc., was
meant to give students and organizations an opportunity to meet and learn,
event organizers said.
The festival had a passport theme. Each time students visited a booth they
received a signature or stamp on their passports. Once a student visited each
organization and their passports were fully marked, they could redeem their
pass for a free lunch.
The event, which had previously been planned to take place in the Central Quad,
was moved to the University Student Ballroom for weather concerns, organizers
said. However, this did not seem to dampen the spirits of the nearly two dozen
student organizations, which included Beach Hillel, Kappa Psi Epsilon, the
Muslim Student Association and Project Choice.
“
There are a lot of minorities on campus and this is an event that shows everyone
the different groups,” said Sen.-at-Large Brian Campos, chairman of the
Multicultural Council. “We basically invited everybody.”
Campos said he hoped the festival would allow students to learn about the different
options and organizations on campus.
“
You don’t have to be part of a particular group to join it,” Campos
said. “We have people in the Pilipino American Coalition
that aren’t Filipino. It’s just all about learning.”
Rachel Bookstein, advisor of Beach Hillel, a Jewish student club, had similar
sentiments, saying the festival allowed for recognition and learning among
CSULB’s small Jewish community, as well as its non-Jewish students.
“
We hope that Jewish students who don’t know about us will stop by,” Bookstein
said. “They can ask someone who is more knowledgeable without it being
negative — it’s just a good resource for everyone on campus.”
She also said that Beach Hillel was there to help the “Jew-curious,” or
people who have questions about Judaism.
“
The event is important because it exposes students to something new, something
different,” said Naomi Cruz, chairwoman of Chicano/Latino Studies Student
Association.
Sen.-elect Chris Chavez, College of Liberal Arts, said he attended the event
to show his support for multiculturalism.
“
I think an event like this is important because it gives everybody an opportunity
to be educated on various things, whether it be activism, different cultures
or something as simple as student organizations,” Chavez said. “The
more we learn about each other, the more we can work with each other and understand
how we think so there’s less conflict.”
|
