By Matthew Hill
Mountain State University is hosting a pair of events this month to both highlight the ethnic and cultural patchwork of its student population and educate the Beckley community about the benefits of such a locally international asset as diversity.
On Feb. 18, from 10 a.m. until 2 or 2:30 p.m., the school welcomes its students and the public to MSU’s sixth annual Multicultural Fair, said Dwight Heaster, MSU’s director of international student services.
Six days later, MSU will sponsor its first-ever Multicultural Symposium. The theme of the Feb. 24 symposium is “The Many Faces of Beckley.” Doors open at MSU’s John W. Eye Conference Center at 6 p.m., with speakers taking the stage at 6:30. A reception will follow at 8 p.m.
Panelists for the symposium include Bishop Fred T. Simms of Heart of God Ministries, Dr. Hassan Jafary, Hoda Bizri, Sweta Shrestha and Yannick Bitchek. The Family Worship Center, the Beckley Human Rights Commission and Temple Beth El will also be represented, among others.
Heaster envisions a question-and-answer setting of open dialogue. “There will be students from India, Nepal and Cameroon. It will be interactive. I want them to be able to tell us about their heritage,” he said.
“It will be an open dialogue that gives them (the local public) the opportunity to understand a bit more about the people they see in the community. We’re bringing a lot of international students to West Virginia. This may be the only exposure a lot of West Virginians have to other cultures.”
Heaster pointed to the similarities that actually do exist between Appalachian culture and that of, say, Pakistan and Nepal.
“Pakistan and Nepal are very age-conscious. They really respect their elders. Elders hold a tremendous amount of respect. They go to them for wisdom and information. It’s very much like West Virginia. In Pakistan, families live close to one another or on the same property,” he noted.
Part of the impetus behind the symposium, Heaster recalled, was what he described as misconceptions during the presidential campaign last year about Barack Obama’s religion. “There were misconceptions that he was Muslim. People felt like they had a difficult time accepting him. We went through and started with that basic concept.”
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According to statistics shared by Heaster and gleaned from the Internet, MSU and Beckley are both profoundly appropriate settings for such events.
“International students make up about 20 percent of the on-campus population. We have over 40 countries represented,” Heaster explained.
“We have everything from the United Kingdom to Ireland to Africa. It’s really interesting to look at all the different people that are here. The percentage has increased in the last year. We also went from 30 countries (represented) in the 2005-06 school year and added 10 more.”
As for Beckley, Wikipedia reported that the city’s population is less than 74 percent white and almost 23 percent black, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. The Raleigh County seat is also composed of Asians by 1.89 percent, and Hispanics and Latinos make up 0.74 percent of the city’s population.
In contrast to 2007 figures for the United States as a whole, Beckley’s white population is nearly 6 percent lower, and its black population is nearly double the national percentage, according to the online encyclopedia.
“Beckley is a diverse city. There are Indian and Islamic groups and business leaders. China, Japan and Korea are represented here. We have Mexicans. We have it all,” Heaster said.
If diversity doesn’t matter much to you from a social standpoint, Heaster asked, how about from an economic perspective? “Almost every job that you see here in West Virginia is touched globally in some form,” he declared.
“A lot of coal is shipped overseas. Lumber is shipped overseas. Wal-Mart and Phillips Machinery are global. If we don’t understand them (people of other countries), it makes it more difficult for people to be able to sell their product to that country if they don’t understand that country.”
The symposium’s reception will be catered by MSU’s National Institute of Culinary Arts. Even breaking bread together, Heaster said, can serve as a significant breach of cultural barriers.
“Food always helps to break the ice. Get people in a room, and maybe we can learn something new.”
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For more information on the fair or the symposium, call Heaster at 304-929-1551 or e-mail him at dhester@mountainstate.edu.
— E-mail: mhill@register-herald.com
