Tempe has paved the way in accepting cultural diversity and will have several more opportunities to do so, panelists said in discussion Wednesday.
City Councilman Dennis Cahill, Vice Mayor Barbara Carter and ASU Assistant Vice President Louis Olivas were each given 10 minutes to speak about cultural diversity, as it relates to Tempe, in front of approximately 70 students and community members in the Memorial Union.
Nemi Jain, a professor in the Hugh Downs School of Communication, organized the discussion.
Jain said he hoped this would be the first of several workshops to promote diversity awareness on campus.
"Cultural diversity is here, so people had better get used to living with it," he said.
Cahill described the changes he has witnessed in Tempe over the past 52 years.
When he first moved to the city, ethnic diversity was almost non-existent, he said.
Tempe has since been a leader in promoting diversity and acceptance around the state, Cahill added.
For example, Tempe was the first city to designate a day honoring labor organizer Caesar Chavez, Cahill said.
Despite previous opposition from several legislators, Arizona followed suit and approved a statewide holiday.
"When Tempe did it, we broke the back of the resistance at the Legislature to having a Caesar Chavez day," Cahill said.
Vice Mayor Carter emphasized Tempe's attempts to become an equal opportunity employer.
"It's a goal of our city to have our labor force mirror the diversity of our city," Carter said.
The city still has work to do to achieve this goal, she added.
In most ethnic groups, male employees outnumber female employees. Also, Caucasian and Hispanic women are outnumbered more than two to one by their male counterparts in city jobs, Carter said.
But the city is trying to change this trend.
Tempe adopted new personnel standards in July 2003 to try to promote a more diverse city workforce, Carter said.
ASU Assistant Vice President Olivas' speech focused on the inevitable increase of minority groups across the nation.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of minorities in the United States increased from 24.4 percent in 1990 to 30.9 percent in 2000, Olivas said.
The bureau has projected that no minority ethnic groups will exist by 2050, he added.
"I guess we're going to go on to saying, 'I remember your kind, you used to be called the majority,' " Olivas said.
The southwestern United States in particular will see its ethnic make-up change dramatically in the next few decades, Olivas said.
"Someday this area will be predominately, as it once was, Hispanic," he said.
As these changes occur, people will have to determine the best ways to embrace diversity, Olivas added.
Kari Engstrom, a communications junior, said she went to the panel discussion as part of a class requirement and was interested in hearing about Tempe's leadership in diversity.
"It's a positive movement toward the future," Engstrom said.
Communication senior Dashawn McCain said he would have liked to hear more about Tempe's plan to integrate diversity into the city, but said he thought the discussion was "informative and innovative.
"We should try to integrate culture and diversity into the campus and city more often."
Reach the reporter at amanda.keim@asu.edu.
