Rain didn’t keep the Residence Hall Association from putting on the Diversival Oct. 12, a festival celebrating diversity at AU.
Students visited various tables set out on the Quad that afternoon and participated in activities set up by student organizations including Women’s Initiative, Caribbean Circle, Citizens for Global Solutions at AU and more.
Unfortunately, some of the events scheduled for that day had to be canceled because of the rain, such as the Hawaii Club’s hula and Tahitian dances.
“They had a lot of great tables, even though not a lot of clubs made it out today,” said Sabreen El-shrafi, a junior at the School of International Services. El-shrafi’s professional Foreign Service sorority, Delta Phi Epsilon, was present at the Diversival.
But the rain did not deter the club from bringing back its popular arts and crafts project, in which they let students who correctly guessed three trivia questions about Hawaiian culture decorate a coconut bra.
AU Students for Liberty offered a short quiz to help students find out where their political beliefs lie on the political spectrum.
The Student Organization for African Studies challenged students with geography quizzes.
“We were supposed to have cultural and ethnic performances going on,” RHA Vice President of Programming Paige Leong said of the events cancelled because of the rain. “So right now, we’re working off an iPod, which is unfortunate, but it’s for the safety of the performers.”
The Diversival was stocked with an entirely vegetarian menu made up of different flavors of empanadas, various types of hummus and pita chips, vegetable platters and cannolis.
Students said there was much to take away from the activities presented by the student groups.
El-shrafi considered the event a good opportunity for clubs and organizations, as well as for the rest of the campus, to promote diversity.
“It’s a great way to really show what we do,” El-shrafi said. “We are the foreign service sorority, so our sisters uphold diversity as one of our values.”
RHA also held Diversival last semester.
This year’s Diversival was advertised by the RHA through Facebook as a festival to celebrate diversity, social justice, culture and expression.
The event is a space for the AU community to appreciate the differences in the student body, Leong said.
“We’re trying to represent all types of students on campus,” she said.
Leong, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Science, organized the festival aspect of the event.
“I wanted it to be interactive, not just passing out flyers, Leong said. “Then it would just be another student involvement fair.”
The RHA instead reached out to clubs and recruited them with the help of the Student Government’s Ethnic and Cultural Coalition.
Leong contacted over 90 diversity-based student organizations and was able to get about 20 of the groups to participate in the Diversival.
Georgia Ottoni, a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences and a representative of the Disability Rights Coalition, said he considers the Diversival a clear example of why AU stands out next to other universities.
“Especially at AU, I think we appreciate and embrace diversity,” Ottoni said.
The RHA will help individual diversity groups organize events throughout the year, Leong said. The organization is also planning another Diversival for next semester but has not yet determined a date for the event.
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