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Join us on Sundays for worship services featuring
Holy Communion. We have traditional services on
Sunday mornings and Marty Haugen services on
Sunday evenings.
Sundays 8:15 am, 10:45 am and 6:30 pm
Student/Young Adult Bible Study, Sundays, 7:30 pm
Central Lutheran Church
Corner of 18rh &. Porter • M5.0395
www.welcometocentral.org
All arc welcome.
TARARIN
THAI CWSINE
• Vegetarian Selections • Dine Jn or Carry Out •
• Lunch Speciab • 100 menu diems •
• mother 's homemade recipes •
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• fl short walk from campus •
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MON.-FRI. 1l-3PM LUNCH, 5 10PM DINNER • SAT.-SUN. 12-10PM
4 Cultural Forum
Presents:
Friday Night Flicks
PLC 180 7:30/10PM S150
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coin c* o „ /ft o n n
October 22
Your friendly neighborhood Spiderman meets
the mad scientist named Dr. Octopus.
Coming Up:
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October 29
Danielle Hickey | Photo editor
Maracas and cow bells along with other insturments were used to entertain the crowd at the Weaving New Beginings event in the EMU
Ballroom on Thursday night.
Event weaves together
students, faculty of color
Tenth annual Weaving New Beginnings also
showcases University's advances in diversity
BYCANELAWOOD
NEWS REPORTER
University students, staff and fac
ulty congregated outside the EMU
Ballroom eagerly awaiting the 6:15
p.m. opening of the event.
The room radiated with a ma
roon hue accented with color-coor
dinated tablecloths, chairs and
curtains. Prior to the opening
speech by University President
Dave Frohnmayer, guests were
treated to a wide variety of appe
tizers, including chicken wings,
fruit, veggies, mini-quiches and
meatballs. People ate and circulat
ed through the crowd of mingling
faculty, staff and students. Chatter
and violinists created background
noise, followed by a slow-tempo
Hawaiian theme dance that excit
ed a cheering crowd.
Thursday night’s 10th annual
Weaving New Beginnings celebra
tion was an effort to welcome facul
ty, staff and students of color and
their allies to the University. This
year’s theme was “Cultivating
Strong Roots to Grow Strong Com
munities.” The event featured
speeches, "ice-breaker" activities
where people met each other, a live
salsa band and appetizers.
Frohnmayer began the event with
a short opening speech.
“It’s always a real joy to greet this
group; I’m glad this can be a friendly
place to get to know people better,”
Frohnmayer said. He went on to de
fine diversity as “identity within com
munity” and said that diversity is
never really done.
“We need to remind ourselves
that until 50 years ago it was legal to
say that people of different colors
had to go to different schools,” he
said.
Frohnmayer’s speech was followed
by keynote speaker Johnny Lake, a
graduate teaching fellow in the De
partment of Educational Leadership.
“How seriously do we take the
opportunity to make a strong com
munity?” Lake asked. “We have the
opportunity to build a very strong
and diverse community, but it will
only happen if we do it.”
In an attempt to better diversify
the University campus, the Univer
sity hired Dr. Gregory Vincent as the
vice provost of Institutional Equity
and Diversity.
“This is an absolutely wonderful
and encouraging event,” Vincent
said.
Since beginning work in Decem
ber, Vincent said he’s seen an in
crease in diversity on campus.
“Student groups are stronger, and
out of 180 students, 40 of the first
year law students are of color and
three faculty of color have been
hired in the Honors College,” Vin
cent said. “That means that
progress is being made.
“I did this work in a similar role
at Louisiana State University, and as
a result of our effort we became the
biggest producer of African Ameri
can Ph.D.s in chemistry and Eng
lish,” Vincent added.
ASUO Multicultural Advocate
Maria Cortez said preparing for the
event has been very time consuming.
“We’ve been planning for three
months, and a lot of different people
from different organizations have giv
en to the event,” Cortez said. “We
tried to get as many people as possi
ble involved with the planning
process. ”
A number of organizations, in
cluding the ASUO Multicultural
Center, ASUO Women’s Center and
the Center on Diversity and Com
munity were involved with putting
on the event, along with a few
dozen other sponsors.
“The goal is for incoming students,
especially of color, to learn about the
resources available on campus,”
Cortez said. “It gives people a chance
to get to know each other. ”
canelawood@dailyemerald. com
Ramadan: Followers draw closer to God
Continued from page 1A
controlling you.
“It becomes a gathering, like
Christmas to us,” Al-Rafeea added.
“It’s a month to get closer to God; if
you fast the whole month all of your
sins are erased.”
Ozgur Pala, a University graduate
student in applied linguistics from
TUrkey and co-director of the Mus
lim Student Association, said Ra
madan means sharing and solidari
ty, remembering the old and the
poor. It is a war on the negative as
pects of a person’s life, he said.
There was a wide range of people
in attendance at Sunday’s event. Gi
anotti pointed out that Muslims
from all regions and traditions were
in attendance, illustrated by some
who wore scarfs on their heads
while others did not.
“What we see here is a microcosm
of the great Muslim world that is
around us, and that’s exciting/” Gian
otti said.
Pala said that he has had a great
experience while in the United States,
but that many Americans have a dis
torted view of Muslims and the Is
lamic religion.
“They want to characterize all
Muslims as Osama bin Laden — that
we’re uncivilized and motivated to
destroy,” Pala said.
Pala went on to explain that TUrkey
was once the center of Christianity
and the Ottoman rule for six cen
turies.
“If Islam was really intolerant
against other beliefs from during
those six hundred years, then they
would have destroyed churches and
killed Christians,” Pala said. He
added that to this day everything is
preserved in Istanbul.
Gianotti said the Muslim Student
Association is just beginning to get
organized, and this was the first
event for the group.
He encouraged people to contact
the organization at 346-3798 for more
information on the group and up
coming events.
canelawood@dailyemerald.com