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The Office of the Provost and the East Campus Environment Team are hosting a workshop series to promote campuswide appreciation of diversity and respect for all individuals, while also protecting free speech.

Provost Charles Backus wanted to start the program series "to make East a better place to be.

"We try to be more proactive and pre-emptive if we can," Backus said. "These are societal issues. We should be the ones to put these delicate topics on the table."

The Campus Environment Team was created to provide resources for people to go to outside their organization or workplace to discuss cultural and social issues.

Joel Hutchinson, director of student counseling, will be the host speaker for two of the workshops.

"A number of suggestions grew out of that, but it also raised issues on how to make people aware of [East] climate issues," Hutchinson added. "[Backus] saw that this was something the CET could tackle."

Backus and Hutchinson said there was no specific incident that led to the creation of the CET, but Hutchinson said the original CET on main campus was formed because of a very specific incident that took place against four black students on fraternity row in 1989.

Fernando Torres, a student from Ecuador and an aeronautical management technology senior, said his experience at East has been mostly a good one.

"I came here three years ago from Ecuador, and the professors and students have been very friendly here," Torres said.

He added that he had been stereotyped as being Hispanic and said "there was some prejudice with that stereotype."

Torres, who was the president of the International Student Organization at East last year, also said that after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the cultural climate on campus changed.

"Americans assumed that if you're not American, you're not one of us," he said. "After a while, people knew who I was, and it wasn't a problem."

Johnathan Tardieu, current president of the ISO at East and a junior in the aeronautical management technology program, said "East campus is pretty quiet ... students have treated me well, and the professors are great."

The CET was created in the fall of 2002. It is an unbiased source set up for people needing to report and look at cultural and social issues specifically on East campus.

There is no standing budget for the workshops; rather, the CET must submit requests to the office of the provost for funding as needed.

Hutchinson said he did not know if the workshops would continue next year.

Reach the reporter at erika.camardella@asu.edu.


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