By Edith Mariscal/ reporter

The Diversity Awareness Expo introduced SE Campus students to different cultures and their history. 

“It helped us get a better understanding and respect of other cultures,” SE student Travis Collins said.

Diversity committee chairman Frankie Ward said the event has taken place for the past 15 years to create an environment of unity among different cultures.

SE faculty members Monica Sosa, Bradley Borougerdi and Greg Kosc talked to students about the importance of coming together and understanding one another.

“We are very, very diverse, and the fact that we make that work is beautiful and important,” Kosc said.

Students learned about the importance of being correctly educated, not only academically but also culturally.

“People become convinced of their own intelligence. People get defensive about being wrong and admitting that they were wrong,” Kosc said. “One of the hardest things in life is to admit that one is wrong, and so we tend to justify. That’s a human thing. We all must learn to be tolerant of each other.”

The panel discussed political correctness and the way sometimes it is taken to extreme, but they said people have to better understand one another based on their different backgrounds.

“Language is more of a reflection of attitudes in society more so than a production of attitudes in society,” Borougerdi said. “We learn the difference between these two as we get involved in these issues of political correct speech. We get this sense that if we censor what people say, somehow it will change their attitudes, and that’s a problem because the mind is not going to change just because we tell them they can’t say a word. They can still think it in their mind and then it becomes even more of an issue because it doesn’t change the institutional aspect of it.”

The panel also discussed the importance of respect when living in such a diverse society today.

“The event helped strengthen and shape views that we already had,” SE student Antonio Huynh said.

The event had 10 diverse SE clubs participating such as the International Student Organization, the African Culture Club and the Organization of Latin American Students.

A Taste Around the World offered diverse food such as Italian, European, Latin American and African.