The diversity at CSUSB is one of the things that drew me to the university. I like the inclusivity. I like the diversity. I like that we’re open minded – that we accept people for who they are, where they are, and we just help to educate them and I just love that about CSUSB.

The diversity at CSUSB is greater than that of any place in the Inland Empire – bar none. There are so many different people with so many different perspectives – degrees from all different fields, life experiences, countries they come from, languages they speak, viewpoints (political and otherwise) that we couldn’t do anything but be worldly and intellectual in everything we do. And it’s the reason that we are such a solid university.

I really appreciate the diversity at CSUSB mainly because of the diversity in our student population. So, we have students who have experiences that are very different from my own experiences, and that really has made me feel that I’m growing with my students.

Let me first define what diversity is: Diversity is a representation of an entity. With that in mind, I would like to draw on Cal State San Bernardino’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Strategy Plan, goal number two, and that goal is to create a compassion of belonging. So, with that in mind, understanding that we here at Cal State San Bernardino serve students of different ethnic and social backgrounds, and different genders, I appreciate Cal State San Bernardino’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategy Plan, goal number two, because it aims to implement training requirements of all management, faculty and staff, and search committee members.

I think we do a really good job here in the art department of our faculty, both part-time and full-time, representing lots of different ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, like the gamut. Art departments, I think, are notorious for attracting students that might not be easily slotted into lots of different particular categories, and, you know, our faculty is kind of the same. So, I think that makes them feel better and feel less alone in the world and feel like there’s a chance for them to succeed in the world.

Students benefit from having diverse faculty in the classroom in multiple ways. I would consider the first one as the “general diversity” and this is when they have so many perspectives coming from faculty who are diverse in their backgrounds, in terms of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, race, et cetera. So, that’s one aspect because of the multiple experiences they get in a classroom setting, but I think there is a different type of diversity. This is what I call more “meaningful diversity,” and that type of diversity is when students have faculty who have similar life experiences as their own life experiences. For example, the majority of our students are Latinx, and when our students are also the first-generation in their family to go to school, it’s very crucial that they see successful examples from their own backgrounds, for example, a Latina teaching them in a classroom.

With diverse faculty, you see different initiatives. So, you will see an advocacy of assigning diverse textbooks, assigning diverse authors and scholars, assigning theories that pertain to gender identities, religious identities, racial identities, class – these are all the different critiques and conversations that diverse faculty bring to the table, which can only enhance our students’ educational experience here.

The diversity of the campus was really, really appealing to me. I had taught at other schools, and there was just something special about Cal State San Bernardino that I thought I could really make a mark and have an impact on people’s lives in ways that I didn't think would happen quite so profoundly in other institutions.

There’s a big focus of Native initiatives to really help the campus grow and make sure that Native voices and histories, Native students, as well as student experiences are part of the campus fabric here at Cal State San Bernardino, and I really saw myself contributing to those initiatives.

Diversity to me means a lot; it means that my values will be appreciated. It also means that I need to collaborate with other people from different social and ethnic backgrounds. It also means that my opinions and my suggestions to issues or ideas will be valued. And with that in mind, that really affected my choice to come to Cal State San Bernardino, because here on campus, we celebrate diversity. And since that is the case, I want to be celebrated.

The diversity of Cal State San Bernardino really affected my choice to come here. First, I’m an alum of the university. And one of the things I really appreciated about the campus when I was a student was the diverse experience, the diverse ideas, the diversity in total, that really expanded my worldview and really changed and shaped who I am. And, you know, Cal State San Bernardino has continued to become even more diverse over time. And that to me was really attractive. I wanted to be in a place where we had just a real melting pot of ideas and people and backgrounds and experiences, because that’s where the richness of experience comes from, and we learn from each other. And we really improve each other’s lives by being a part of that collision of ideas and experience and learning together.

Diversity plays a very big role in the student education, and the main reason for that is because we’re a diverse world. We’re a diverse country. And I think when we go out in to our fields, whatever field you’re into, you’re going to be working with people that come from different cultures, different places, and I think it’s important to be able to understand and appreciate everybody’s differences, and maybe understand where we have some similarities as well.

I think that diversity expands student education because it provides students with learning approaches that would not have been available to them in settings or classroom settings where there is no diversity. For example, faculty. If we talk about international faculty, like myself, we bring a lot of international experiences from across the globe. And the students wouldn’t have had access to those experiences without being in the classroom because many of our students don’t have the chance to travel around the world or be in contact with different cultures, listen to different languages, and learn about the histories and experiences of other people in different parts of the world.

I think one of the real values of a diverse university experience is it exposes you to new ways of thinking, new ideas. It pushes you to think deeper about how you view the world, and how you want to make a contribution to the world and who you’re going to make that contribution with.