Debra Harris Nixon, associate professor in the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences’ marriage and family therapy program, is the coordinating facilitator of the college’s monthly Diversity Dialogues. She’s also a leadership team member of the One NSU Inclusion and Diversity Council, a diverse group of NSU constituents organized to promote and support inclusive excellence at NSU.
Fifty years ago, on Aug. 28, more than 250,000 Americans converged on Washington, D.C. and marched a little over a mile to the Lincoln Memorial in protest of a range of inequalities suffered by black Americans. The theme of the march was “jobs and freedom,” making it clear that the protest was not only about employment opportunities but also about civil rights.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his now famous “I Have a Dream” speech and talked about our country living out “the true meaning of its creed that all men are created equal.” In the speech, King was clear that the march was not just for Black people, but all Americans. The beauty of the march was the diversity of Americans assembled on the mall: black, white, female, male, young, old, Jewish, Catholic, Protestant and more. They held hands and sung about the day when this kind of march would not be necessary.
The finale was King’s speech, which is safe to say has helped to etch Aug. 28 in our minds and hearts forever. I have heard the speech many times, and what comes through each time for me is an invitation for unity, a call for equality — in short, a call for inclusion.
Inclusive excellence is one of the challenges of our beloved “One NSU” mantra. NSU is decidedly a place of many kinds of people, much like those King addressed 50 years ago. Like the group assembled on the mall that day, NSU represents a host of differences, yet we’re all Sharks — as they were a diverse group of Americans. Our country and our school has become an even more diverse, more global community with the increase in the number of people of color. According to the 2004 U.S. census, by 2050, people of color will be the country’s numerical majority.
Presently, students of color make up approximately 68 percent of NSU’s student body. The march to The Lincoln Memorial can be for NSU a model for galvanizing and engaging a diverse group of people and demonstrating what “one nation,” hence, One NSU, looks like. King not only acknowledged diversity; he evoked how unity within diversity would embody our country’s deepest belief: freedom.
Freedom, the foundation of our great nation, invites inclusion. Inclusion, then, is the recognition that diversity is an asset, not a liability or threat. A 2005 comprehensive report entitled “Toward a Model of Inclusive Excellence and Change in Postsecondary Institutions” — by Damon A. Williams, Joseph B. Berger and Shederick A. McClendon — suggests that students who are exposed to diverse learning environments are better prepared to work in a global society than those that are limited to homogeneous learning communities.
In an effort to capitalize on our diverse learning environment, NSU’s Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences invites the NSU community to join our grassroots movement, Do Something Different (DSD). One NSU Inclusion and Diversity Council is strategizing to take DSD to the next level.
DSD is important in commemorating the 1963 march for jobs and freedom because it is NSU’s mission to create lasting change. Our movement is about creating an inclusive community, with each of us making personal efforts to be inclusive. For DSD, inclusion means knowing that each of us brings something special to our learning community; everyone must be proactive and welcoming toward fellow Sharks.
Consider each day that you enter a classroom, the Don Taft University Center, the library or an athletic field as an opportunity to create a community of Sharks dedicated to the King’s dream, or, more specifically, President George Hanbury II’s One NSU mission.
The ideal of One NSU has further inspired the Inclusion and Diversity Council (ID Council), which is composed of a diverse group of NSU faculty, students, alumni, administrators and staff members. The group, much like those who organized the March on Washington, believes in One NSU and has been working diligently to help the mantra materialize by adding personal intention to its meaning. In other words, the group is devising practical ways of inviting a new inclusive consciousness so that our campus may truly be One NSU, not just “talking the talk.”
Aug. 28, 1963, was more than a glorious, awe-inspiring day of rousing speeches. It signaled a historical moment that helped to spur the passage of civil rights legislature. That day demonstrated what deliberation and intentionality can produce. At NSU, DSD and the ID Council are movements that are committed to the One NSU idea, but we all know that dreams don’t automatically come true. In order for dreams to be realized, they need the support of a determined, diverse group of devotees. We have such a group here at NSU. Please join our country on Aug. 28 in the recognition of the most successful freedom campaign in our nation’s history; then commit to helping to make One NSU an example of Inclusive Excellence for future generations of Sharks.
