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July 10, 2007

Diversity

Display suggestions report submitted

Spaniolo will review the plan to represent students now that the Hall of Flags is gone.

Story by: A.J. Eaton

The Shorthorn staff

The Committee on Diversity and International Understanding recommends a globe, banners and a computerized display in its final report to President James Spaniolo.

The report, which was sent to Spaniolo on July 1 and released to The Shorthorn on July 3, calls for the construction of a large fountain with a globe outside the planned engineering building.

It also suggests a computerized display to be shown in Nedderman Hall and hanging large university blue-and-white banners with the names of the countries students are from.

The committee turned in its preliminary report Jan. 24 but revised its findings and suggestions after receiving more community feedback.

The committee held forums in the past and urged the university community to respond. The Nov. 7 and Nov. 29 forums were well-attended, while the Nov. 8 forum drew one student.

The original proposal included ideas gathered from open forums, including keeping birds in the rafters of Nedderman Hall and hanging a large world map across the ceiling.

While “birds in the rafters” was left on the cutting room floor, other students ideas like the computerized display did make it through.

Committee co-chair Frank Lamas, Student Affairs vice president, was involved in the committee from its beginning and said the completion of the report is not an end to the process.

“From my estimation, the work is only just begun,” he said. “The real work is when you roll up your sleeves and implement what you’ve put into the report.”

Lamas said the report, structured with a first and second tier of ideas, the first being the most prominent, was finished through a lot of campus input.

“Sometimes people write reports with 100 things to do, but it gets so costly and timely, nothing gets done,” he said. “In this committee, we really wanted to suggest things we thought the students would want and things that could be done.”

The committee was formed in response to the Hall of Flags controversy in which some students were at odds with the administration and the International Student Organization as to which flags should be flown at the university.

Ultimately, Spaniolo decided to remove all 123 flags representing university students’ homelands from Nedderman Hall.

On April 2, the U.S., Texas and university flags were returned.

Mathematics graduate student Florin Badiu was part of the committee and said he is satisfied with the final report but is waiting to see what happens next.

“I worked with the committee over a couple of semesters and talked to a lot of people,” he said. “The support we got was great, and it was hard putting all of the ideas together, but it turned out good in the end.”