New Multicultural Housing Community to Raise Diversity Awareness at Virginia Tech
BLACKSBURG, VA., October 23, 2006—A new residential learning program with an important message will soon complement Virginia Tech’s 11 theme housing communities. MOSAIC, which stands for the Multicultural Opportunity Social Awareness Interest Community, is an intercultural living environment that embraces all types of diversity and will be offered to students beginning with the 2007-2008 academic year.
The community encourages students to engage in dialogue about social justice and diversity in a shared academic and residential environment. It also provides tools that enable students to move beyond tolerance to understand and empathize with people of different backgrounds.
Students will take a three-credit course in which they can learn from each other about the individual effects of racism, ageism, homophobia, religious intolerance, and other forms of discriminatory behavior. Members of the MOSAIC community will also participate in bi-weekly residence hall programs, community-building efforts, service learning projects, faculty mentoring programs, and activities pertaining to diversity and social justice.
“It is our hope that MOSAIC will create a civil and just community for Virginia Tech students, contribute to a sense of belonging for underrepresented groups and send a message to our external constituencies that multicultural and diversity issues are important to the Virginia Tech community,” said Zenobia Hikes, vice president for Student Affairs.
MOSAIC was developed at the recommendation of the Commission on Equal Opportunity and Diversity to address questions about the namesake of Lee Hall in 2004 and as a result of student requests for a diversity-focused housing community. The university’s recent effort to emphasize the importance of diversity at Virginia Tech also led to the development of the Virginia Tech Principles of Community, a statement affirming the university's commitment to a diverse and inclusive community, which will be an important component of MOSAIC’s educational mission.
“MOSAIC is yet another vehicle for the university to demonstrate its commitment to educating the whole person,” said Benjamin Dixon, vice president for Multicultural Affairs. “This program will demonstrate Virginia Tech’s intention to operationalize its Principles of Community in real time, with real resources and with real results, producing cross-culturally competent leaders and supporters of equity and inclusion in the workplace, in our institutions and in our communities.”
“I can’t think of a better way to promote the Virginia Tech Principles of Community,” said Edward Spencer, associate vice president for Student Affairs and associate professor of higher education administration. “This program allows students to live and study them every day.”
While other institutions have multicultural living environments, including Virginia Tech’s WORLD community, none has a community so broad in its multicultural and diversity focus. MOSAIC’s unique elements include its size (with space for about 200 students), the combination of first-year students and upperclassmen and the required academic course.
Ray Plaza, project specialist for diversity initiatives in the Office of Multicultural Affairs, played a key role in the research, development, and approval of the new theme housing community and will serve as coordinator for the project until a permanent coordinator is selected within the next two years. The name and acronym of MOSAIC were developed by Samara Kuhn of Richmond, Va., a senior interdisciplinary studies major in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. Kuhn is a theme housing office assistant for Residence Life at Virginia Tech.
This project is the result of cooperation between the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Office of Student Programs with support from the Offices of the President and the Provost. Other university departments contributing to MOSAIC include the Virginia Tech Service Learning Center, Center for Academic Excellence and Enrichment, Multicultural Programs and Services, Office for Equal Opportunity, Center for Interdisciplinary Studies and Pathways for Learning.
MOSAIC will house a diverse group of first-year and returning students to encourage collaboration and a broad range of perspectives. The community is open to all on-campus residents and will be located on the first eight floors of Slusher Tower.
Contact Ray Plaza at (540) 231-7289 with questions about MOSAIC. For more information about the theme housing programs offered at Virginia Tech and instructions for application, visit www.studentprograms.vt.edu/themehousing.
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