The Towerlight, March 10, 2003

tl20030310-000 "The TowEr Baltimore's #1 College Paper - Published Twice-Weekly - www.thetowerlight.com Monday, 3/10/03 Center to teach computer skills 5 Conference helps empower women 5 Russian-themed bar opens in Fells 13 Pair brings down house in new flick 14 Departments Opinion 2 News 5 Nation 8 Arts 13 Entertainment Briefs 14 In a Theater Near You 14 Sports 20 Athlete of the Week 17 In This Corner 20 Classifieds 16 Group talks race, societal roles National speaker trys to answer theme of conference: 'What is Multiculturalism?' Margaret Wu The Towerlight In efforts to promote discussion of multiculturalism among stu-dents, faculty and staff, TU's Multicultural Institute sponsored it's ninth annual conference Thursday. Speakers and groups confronted the various views of culture by examining the event's theme, ""What is Multiculturalism?"" According to conference commit-tee co-chair Evelyn Avery, multicul-turalism is the study of relation-ships among different groups in society. ""[Multiculturalism is] really taken for granted,"" she said. ""People don't really attempt to define it and understand it, although there are many scholars working in this field."" Dr. Gerald Early, director of the International Writers Center at Washington University in St. Louis, was the keynote speaker for the event. He spoke about the debate in the academic community of multicul-turalism's relevance and purpose in American society. Dr. Early said multiculturalism is a term that came into wider usage during the 1980s as scholars real-ized the need for a new area of study focused on the shifting para-digm of American society. ""In America, it is the belief that American culture is made up of var-ious cultures,"" he said. ""The goal is to [have] respect for cultures and [learn] about them, not suppress them."" He reminded the audience that categorizations of people are arbi-trary. For example, a poor white blue-collar worker avidly listening to jazz and a poor black person subscrib-ing to the New Yorker do not easily fit into the societal stereotypes of different groups. However, Early urged the older See DIVERSITY, page 6 Cover band plays inaugural Paws show Steve Lafferty The Towerlight Bryen O'Boyle, lead singer of Pennsylvania rock band ML Greengenes, sang classic covers from bands such as the New Radicals, R.E.M and Red Hot Chili Peppers during Paws' first live concert Wednesday. Today High 37 Low 19 Tuesday High 47 Low 33 Wednesday High 45 Low 26 Thursday High 40 Low 28 Friday High 48 Low 29 "