Daniel Bayer
  Staff Writer

The Diversity Peer Engagement Committee is planning several events this spring to promote diversity, understanding and tolerance on the UNC-Greensboro campus, according to Shara Cotton, a facilitator for the committee.

“The purpose of the committee is to increase diversity awareness through different programming on campus,” said Cotton, a graduate assistant with the Office of Intercultural Engagement who works with students to help them develop their own programs on diversity.

The committee has been active since last October.

One event the committee is working on is a trip to a local movie theater to see “Race,” a new film about Olympic runner Jesse Owens.

Owens, an African-American, won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, and his victories are generally considered to be an embarrassment to the white supremacist philosophy of host, Nazi Germany.

Another event will be the “Tunnel of Oppression” beginning on March 30.

Held for the second year in a row, the event is a week and a day of programming centering on issues such as sexual assault, mental health, religion, race and gender. According to Cotton, an estimated 300 to 400 students attended last year’s “Tunnel of Oppression.”

There are also plans for an April event tackling the issue of cultural appropriation.

Cotton said that UNCG is further along in dealing with diversity issues than other colleges and universities.

“We already tend to be very inclusive,” Cotton said. “It’s not as much of a struggle to get students interested here.”

The committee’s work has been going on against the backdrop of a presidential election campaign that has seen leading Republican candidate Donald Trump claim Hispanic immigrants are criminals and suggesting that Muslims should be barred from the U.S., but Cotton said that the committee has not addressed his nativist remarks directly.

“It’s a hot topic among students,” Cotton said. “They talk about it on their own, and organizations on campus that feel impacted have spoken out about it.”

Other events that the committee has been involved with in the past include last year’s “Very Spartan Holiday Festival,” in which student organizations set up tables and talked about other winter holidays beside Christmas.

A surge of interest in the committee’s work occurred after a student organization held a “Our culture is not your costume” event on cultural appropriation last Halloween, highlighting how costumes of Native Americans and other minorities reduce complex cultures to simplified, cartoonish stereotypes.

“I was excited to see the Halloween event,” Cotton said. “It got students interested in programming their own events.”

For those interested in finding out more about the committee and its work, there will be an information session on Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. in room 062 of the Elliott University Center. Cotton can also be contacted via email at sdcotto3@uncg.edu, or students can contact the Office of Intercultural Engagement at (336) 334-5090.