We have a diversity plan?

Each year, we have a snow statue competition on campus as part of our winter festival. On the campus website and and press releases, they highlight the fraternity statues - including descriptions of the statues and addresses of the statue location. Somewhere around the seventh paragraph, they list the winners from the other three divisions listing only the group name.

It has always bothered me that the fraternity statues receive so much more in publicity and accolades than the other groups (women's groups, student organizations, and residence halls). I also learned last year that the dollar prizes are also different.

I tried to talk to our director of marketing and communications last year when I ran into her at church about why we treat the groups so differently, and she pretty much told me that visitors travel to campus to see the top fraternity statues and that is why we highlight them in our press release. It left me with the impression that they come for the best, and the rest of the groups who spend a month building statues out of snow are window dressing.

It reminds me of when I was in college and women's basketball was just starting to gain equal press. They were not publicized as well because they didn't bring in equal gate fees.

It is true, the top three are pretty impressive - but the rest of the campus statues are imaginative, creative and talented.

So, this time I emailed a note to our special assistant to the university president for diversity issues. It addressed my frustration that there are four categories in the competition but only one is rewarded with university accolades - including the headline of the release mentioning on the fraternity category winner.

I'm not sure the outcome yet.

As we walked around campus this weekend, DH and I talked about this. Yesterday afternoon, he wrote an email to the director of marketing and comm and the writer of the press release. The writer responded to him pretty much identifying that people come to see the impressive fraternity status and that next year they plan to add the addresses of the sorority winners.

If they did, they would realize that naming the winner of the fraternity in the festival activities and then linking to a chart with all the points for all organizations that participated doesn't reward all who one. In fact, when I clicked on the chart, I discovered that the winner in the sorority competition earned four more points than the declared "overall winner."

They really don't get the point.

Everyone looks at the big things we can do to increase diversity on campus. They don't realize that something as simple as equalizing the reward and publicity to women and non-greek organizations on campus gives people the feeling that their efforts are valued.

In fact, there is no motivation for the other groups to produce better statues if they are better rewarded.

Will this make a difference, probably not. But I feel better saying it.