Is One Sub-Population Education Diversity?

So I was doing my daily morning news surfing for interesting articles and whatnot and came across an article about the search for the University of Kentucky's Provost. It intrigued me because it triggered some thoughts I had a year or two ago. What is the purpose of diversity for just diversity's sake?

In many of my classes, diversity, inclusion and multicultural issues and programs have been discussed, suggested and studied. However, theory and practice seem to be a connection that is not made all the time.

I remember as an undergraduate student leader and in the first few years of my professional career that the diversity office on our campus was not all that active with diversity issues. Primarily it focused on race, and in particular one minority group. Now, the programs they engaged the students in were fantastic, however, I remember thinking that why are we not exposing the students to other sub-population groups as well?

I understand that it is important to educate students on their historical culture and to share that knowledge with the campus community, however, is there a potential diservice when that is the only programming that is really engaging and made as a priority? I think that there is a potential wall that is built. While a program is educating everyone on a specific sub-population, should there not be a balance on educating the university community on other sub-populations?

As I've been going through my classes, there is always a need for balance. A balance of gentle prodding and a strict hand, a balance of support yet encouraging students to figure things our themselves, a balance of academic and holistic approaches. Should there not be a balance on diversity and cultural education as well?

My ethnicity is Asian, specifically Korean-American, and I was always looking for programming about the heritage and culture. However I never saw any programs form the diversity office. I was a little put off by that, and have always been a little wary of diversity offices that only focus on one or two sub-populations and does not balance them with a wide range of other educational programming concerning other sub-populations.

Just some old random thoughts that recently arose with some news articles that have been written lately.