In the Oct. 30 issue, The Chanticleer wrote an article titled “Professor brings Bhai Tika to Coastal,” covering the garland making event held on campus that taught attendees about a Nepali celebration.
At The Chanticleer, we believe it is important to bring cultural events and celebrations like Bhai Tika to campus. Including such events allows students and faculty to learn more about different backgrounds.
As a predominantly white institution, it is important for us to recognize the diversity we do have within our own community. Often, diverse voices and traditions go unnoticed, so when special events like Bhai Tika happen, we want to make sure to highlight them.
We believe there is beauty in diversity; beauty our campus culture should embrace as learning opportunities. More so than allowing it, we encourage students, faculty and staff to participate when appropriate as well. The first step to normalizing diversity on campus is refusing to avoid what may not be our norm. Doing so prevents cultural isolation and strengthens our growth as a community.
We especially appreciated learning about the background of the Gomphrena flowers and found learning about them to be quite interesting. It’s fun to learn how something as simple as a flower we see around campus can hold such significance to other people. Although the Bhai Tika event this year was small, we hope the number of cultural activities on campus will continue to grow.