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I support the idea behind Badger Connect, but I am strongly against it as a mandatory requirement. The idea behind the program is simple. It is to provide an opportunity for students of different races to socialize together in a positive environment. I think it could be a great tool in breaking down racial stereotypes and encouraging people to expand their comfort zone and diversify their immediate group of friends. I also agree that it should be offered for an ethnic studies credit- though I do not believe it should replace the ethnic studies requirement altogether (perhaps it should be offered as a one credit seminar). If it were not, it would only appear as a voluntary club or student organization, and therefore would only be utilized by people already open to the idea, and missing the target audience completely. I do believe that with credit as an incentive, especially for such a low intensity class, there would be a lot of students eager to take it, and it would serve its purpose beautifully. I am however under the impression that it would be mandatory, and that I do not believe is fair to students. I do not believe it is right to force students to socialize with each other, and under this premise I do not believe those who would not otherwise partake would benefit from it and I believe may even detract from the group. BadgerConnect is a great idea, and the class credit is a wonderful incentive. However, I believe in order to achieve its purpose while also remaining fair to all students, I cannot support its being mandatory.
I believe that The University of Wisconsin-Madison does not need this BadgerConnect service. There are already many other programs that put on student events (such as concerts, game nights, etc.) that essentially connect all students who choose to participate. I also believe that the purpose of this student service can be achieved by the students themselves by branching out and making new friendships on their own. From my previous knowledge, I have seen many services promoting multicultural awareness and I think that this service is not necessary. As a first year student living in the dorms, I witness students interacting on a day-to-day basis. These students make up multiple different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Therefore, I feel that even without students engaging in these multicultural services, they are still interacting and getting to know people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds in the dorms without even realizing it. From my personal experience, I have met and befriended many people on my floor that are racially and ethnically different than myself. Therefore, I believe that the BadgerConnect service is a good idea; however, I think that the University already provides enough programs concerning multicultural awareness and that it would not be necessary.
Although I agree with the idea of finding a way to connect black and white students on the UW-campus and creating a comfortable multicultural environment, I do not think BadgerConnect is the way to do it. I feel as though organizations such as this can sometimes seem forced and unnatural, resulting in a even greater rift between different races. I think the best way promote friendship and multicultural awareness is to create an environment where it happens naturally. As a student living in university housing right now, I have noticed very little diversity on my floor and in my building as a whole. Finding a way to arrange students dorms in a way that integrates different races and cultures is one suggestion I have as a way to try to achieve the goal BadgerConnect is striving for. In my experience the university dorms already creates tight-knit communities and friendships that do various events and activities together. These friendships develop naturally throughout the year and are therefore real and lasting. Creating an organization specifically focusing on inter-racial friendship and understanding might feel forced and create isolated relationships.
While BadgerConnect can implement many positive outcomes in the interaction between students of different ethnic backgrounds, it also can prove to be a negative program as well. While society has come a long way in the fight against racial discrimination, a lot can still be done to improve it. In having such a service, it puts too much emphasis on students to interact. The interaction amongst students must be done in a free manner. In other words, students should not have to be pressured into interacting with others. If UW- Madison has the goal to increase the connectivity between students of varied races, to the point where people do not really think about it, they should not focus on race at all. In addition, in having such a service, the attendance of students would not necessarily be a high nor does it guarantee diversity. Unless the events were mandatory, many students would prefer to do other things and hang out with the friends they have made in classes. It is almost nearly impossible to create an event that aims at increasing racial interaction, without forcing it. In all, despite the intended beneficial goal of the program, it is not worth pursuing because it does not guarantee racial interaction.
I feel that the BadgerConnect program would be a very beneficial program to students and the University as a whole. First, I feel that it is always a good idea to promote diversity. On such a diverse campus like UW-Madison, bringing together many groups of people would be great. Not only will this help bring together different racial backgrounds, it also sounds like a lot of fun. People will be able to enjoy themselves through get togethers with each other which everyone enjoys. You could also promote BadgerConnect with free food or something like of that nature at the first meeting to get people to attend. Lastly, my researcher mentioned that BadgerConnect could potentially fulfill a requirement for graduation. This is a great idea, and I feel like many people would be very interested in BadgerConnect if it were able to fulfill a requirement because it sounds like a very fun program. Overall, BadgerConnect is a great idea and I feel that it should be implemented as soon as possible.
I feel like BadgerConnect will be a great resource for the students at UW-Madison. Diversity is still a very large issue facing the education system, particularly at the university level. As a member of a sports team, I interact with many other students of different races on a daily basis. However, outside of my time around the facilities whether that be meetings, practice, or in the academic center, I rarely have interacts with students of other races. Students who doesnt participate in athletics are at a severe disadvantage when it comes to integrating and spending time with other students who are of a different race. College is a time that we should be learning about others, and learning even more about ourselves. BadgerConnect would help make UW-Madison a more friendly and accepting campus. I feel like BadgerConnect would also help the students of UW-Madison spend time learning about someone who is different, while having a great time. BadgerConnect is a great idea that will help bring the UW-Madison family closer together.
BadgerConnect is a program that will help students understand one another better. It will help a students understand where each person comes from and how they react to certain things and how to be aware of the other people around them. First off, BadgerConnect will allow students to gain a better understanding of the people around them. On campus, there is a diverse amount of students from all over the place whether they are Asian, African American, Caucasian,Native American, and etc. and it is important to know that there are these kind of people that help make up the campus. In addition to recognizing these people on campus the program will help us as students to learn to be non judgmental towards each other because of the different cultural backgrounds that we come from. This program will also create a safe environment for everyone too. For example, someone with and Asian cultural background may choose to do a certain task differently from a Caucasian student and the program will allow for students to interact to gain a better outlook on someone elses life. There are many differences within each person, but the one thing that makes us similar is the fact that we are all students within the UW-Madison community and it is imperative that we know who each other are. Secondly, it is also important to be aware of the people around us. We want to be knowledgeable about how our university is different from others. It is essential that we stay connected within our university to help one another out, no matter what and this can happen by knowing that there are people of different cultural backgrounds that know of things that you potentially dont and they could help you. Awareness is always the first step to making a change and knowing the people around you just helps you gain such a better understanding. Overall, BadgerConnect is a great program idea to help students connect with one another on a different level, which is the cultural level. It will help students gain awareness and be able to create new friendships with people they would never have thought to of.
It seems like a good idea and concept with numerous positives. However, I think that there could also be some negatives with this program. I think that something like this could put students at risk for discrimination. For example, if someone was forced to participate in this who did not want to or was, for example, a white student who was againstracial towards black students, it may not be a good situation for either the white or black students. If this was a voluntary program I still think that there could be issues. I think that there could be students who are racial towards one race and may join for the sole purpose to express these racial remarks and opinions that they have. In both of these situations, students are at risk for being put into, what could be, very uncomfortable environments. I think that the discrimination could go either way in terms of white students versus black students. I also think that, if there was a sporting event as one of the activities, it could open up the floor for racial stereotypes. If there was a chance to pick teams for a sporting event, I think that the black students would be picked first over the white students. I also think that the black students would be expected to outperform white students and to exceed at all of the events. If a black student did not do this I think that he or she could be ridiculed for that. I think there could be these types of stereotypes in a lot of the events planned. Another example could be music and concerts. I think that people have built up stereotypes of people based on the types of music they listen to. For example, if a black student listened to rap music, someone may call him or her ghetto. On the flip side of that, if a white student listened to the same type of music, a black student may call he or she a poser. I think that there could be some serious negatives to doing something like BadgerConnect.
I believe that having a student service called BadgerConnect would be a great opportunity to have on campus. Throughout my freshman and half of my sophomore year, I realized it is a lot harder than I thought it would be to make friendships with people of other racial and ethnic backgrounds. I am white and I have barely any black friends. I met one on my floor last year who I am actually living with next year but other than that, I can say I dont have any other close relationships with black people. It is hard to connect or even meet people of other different races because we have already formed our friend groups I believe. By adding a group where it forces us to interact with people of other backgrounds, I believe this would definitely create a great opportunity for other students to meet and learn more about different ethnic backgrounds. Having social events like concerts, basketball, football, or baseball games, going to the mall, and other events like that would make the experience even more enjoyable and a fun way to interact with others. I also think it would be a good idea to get the athletic teams here on campus involved by having football players go to a basketball game and even the football and basketball players going to a Brewers game in Milwaukee or a concert. Opening up the opportunities for different events would definitely appeal to the students on this campus and make them want to participate in this service. Overall, I believe it would be an amazing new student service to add to campus in order to expose people to different racial and ethnic groups and to create friendships that could last a lifetime.
BadgerConnect sounds like a good idea from the outside looking in. There would be some problems with this idea though. First and most importantly, funding. To have BadgerConnect it sounds as if it will be fairly expensive. The reasons it sounds expensive is because there will be many events such as concerts, game nights, etc. Those events will not be cheap. The only way it would be worth doing would be if enough people would come to these events so BadgerConnect could make their money back. If they can't, then there will be losses for every event that is held causing a setback in finances for the University. I personally don't believe that enough people would be willing to attend these events for it to be worth setting up BadgerConnect. Many people already have their interests and groups of friends and most likely wouldnt be interested in attending the events. Some people definitely would but for the most part, I dont think enough people would attend to be able to make up for the cost of putting on the event. The second reason that BadgerConnect would not be a good idea is based on the University of Wisconsin-Madison itself. This university is full of opportunities to get involved in clubs, intramural sports, and many more on campus activities. Through these clubs and events, people of all races and ethnic backgrounds are brought together and meet one another. Everywhere one looks, students of all races are talking to each other. For these reasons, BadgerConnect would be a bad idea because the intermingling of students of all races already occurs through clubs and many other on campus activities and it would be too expensive to make worth while. BadgerConnect sounds like a good idea but in reality, it is not necessary.
Against badgers connect: - I think that there are a lot of other bonding organizations that already implemented this kind of idea - Idea is not novel - Level of participation might not be high because there are a lot of whole bunch of other activities such as dorm activities, AISASM. - Will be better if these activities are integrated by other organizations. - what kind of cultural awareness are we talking about? - Might exacerbate the condition also, or cause hatred between those 2 racial groups. - People can use this kind of program to abuse other races. - Also no self-motivation between the participants, if they're participated for the sake of points or other purposes.
I think BadgerConnect would be a great opportunity for students to get to know the life and cultures of their peers here on this campus. My roommate is of the Mexican culture, and although that is not black vs. white interaction, I feel that having lived with someone who has such a different upbringing and social status than I has improved my judgment about people. I am not a person to get in someone else's face to get to know them but I feel if there are opportunities, such as the ones BadgerConnect is hoping to organize, people will be more likely to be excited to learn about each other. If someone really doesn't want to know about the opposite (black vs. white), then that is their choice and don't have to fulfill the goals of Badger Connect. If UW Madison would give students an opportunity like this, we would be able to become a more closely-connected student body and the UW would have pride in knowing they are the cause of this. UW is a very diverse school with lots of different backgrounds and history making up this beautiful campus and an opportunity like the BadgerConnect events would improve the student relationships even more. Going outside of your way to have people connect and build a relationship is what adulthood is all about and being the mature students we are on this campus, it is important to get people out there and experience new things. People who don't think blacks and whites need to interact might change their opinion if they see others interacting positively at an event such as one Badger Connect would host and realize they could have the same kind of relationships if they partake in something such as this. Personally, I think it would be a great time to get to know someone who I might not have went up to when passing them on the street. Being a badger comes with a sense of pride that no one can explain and growing together and building a community is something that comes along with going here. We are not just a student body but a family. No matter what kind of badger you are, you are accepted and it is important everyone knows it. Bringing together black and white students is an opportunity to learn about others and also ourselves as individuals. Being someone's friend or getting to know someone isn't about the color of skin they have and events such as the BadgerConnect ones would remind us that everyone is unique, regardless of the color of our skin. Learning about others and their background is fun and interesting and a great way to explore the world just by getting to know someone. Having a safe and judge-free zone to promote interactions would be a great first step in having different students interact with one another. We are a student body meaning we are all one, and don't discriminate based on the color of each others skin or what our background is made of.
In my opinion, I consider that student service will bring lots of benefits. Students can participant in some activities, making friends diverse racial and ethnic students. It offers good stage to enlarge our friend circle. Also, through the communication, we can know many different traditional culture, enriching our knowledge and broadening our horizon. In addition, this service can help to eliminate prejudice and misunderstanding towards particularly Black people.
The UW does a great job of organizing groups that bring the universities student body closer together. I believe that BadgerConnect does not fit in well with these other organizations. Personally I think that this group is actually borderline racist. I am all for the integration of different ethnic groups but to specifically say that you want whites and blacks to come together puts a somewhat bad taste in my mouth. Just listening to the description on the group made me feel a bit uncomfortable and I think this feeling would transfer over to the events that would be hosted by BadgerConnect. I feel that at events the individuals of different races would almost feel like they were being forced to play together. I believe that the UW already does a great job of offering organizations that integrate cultural diversity but to have a group that is souly for that purpose is not appropriate and does not reflect well on Madison as a whole.
I don't think that Badger Connect is necessary because people going to these events will most likely go with their group of friends anyway and probably not do much interaction with other peer groups, unless they are forced to be split up. With the chance of that happening, students probably wont like being forced to not be with their friends, and they most likely wont return to other Badger Connect activities, since people usually don't like being outside of their comfort zone. From my perspective, I don't think people at UW-Madison are against being friends with people from other backgrounds or ethnicities. All in all, people who are willing to go to these activities, most likely, already have friends with other ethnicities. The people who are against being social with different ethnicities wont be the ones who end up going to the activities anyway, so I don't really see a need for the Badger Connect at all.
I believe that BadgerConnect would be a great opportunity for students to be able to meet new people and have fun. Although there are some events such as socials and game nights within dorms, many of the times students don't pay attention to such events. I think that having another organization program that provided fun things to do such as concerts or game nights would be a great idea because it would allow students to have multiple options as to what they wanted to spend their evening doing. Multicultural awareness is very important and learning about different racial and ethnic backgrounds is a great way to become more knowledgeable about differences between cultures and beliefs. A programs such as this would bring students together and allow for conversations to begin that otherwise would not happen. I believe that many students, especially in school such as UW-Madison, where there is a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds, don't make friendship decisions based on the race or cultural background of an individual. I agree that when people have groups of friends, they tend to stick together and not branch out very much, but that's why a program such as this would be helpful to create new friendships. Students would most likely go to such events with the friend groups that they already have, but they would still meet new people and have lots of fun. I strongly advocate for BadgerConnect because not only would it be bringing students of different races and ethnicities together, but it would be doing so in a way where people don't feel intimidated or pressured to get to know absolutely everyone (some icebreakers and games become very awkward when everyone has to talk to everyone). Students would be able to go to such evens with some of their own friends and mingle with other people there to create new relationships and have a good time. This program would be a great addition to our UW-Madison campus.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is considering implementing the program BadgerConnect, to bring together black and white students, among others, that will promote multicultural awareness. This program will hopefully create an environment that is ideal for students of different races to come together and make new connections with others, while having fun. This program will be very beneficial for the university because many students feel estranged from others of different races, because their social groups do not often interact on a day-to-day basis. With BadgerConnect, students could earn their ethnic studies credits, while being able to interact with others of a different race. This would create a more diverse atmosphere for students, allowing them to make friends across all races. If the university were to implement BadgerConnect, it would be great motivation for students to get outside their comfort zone and make new friends, even learn about a different culture. This program would also be a nice alternative from the usual classroom setting for earning ethnic studies credits; making it more of an application of ethnic studies, rather than just reading about it. Overall, BadgerConnect is a great idea, one that the university should highly consider. It would make this already diverse campus even more diverse and would greatly promote multicultural awareness.
I think that BadgerConnect could be a good option for the students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It would create environments for students to branch out with others, giving students that might not otherwise be social, a place to go and meet others. I believe that many people would get involved in a program like this and that it has the potential to become very popular, based off the events that they host. Given that this university is in Wisconsin, which isn't a very diverse state, I think it would be good if there was a group like this working to create more diversity amongst students. I'm unsure about how the process of trying to get different ethnicities to come to BadgerConnect events would look like, but if there is a good way created for doing this, I think this could be a very beneficial and community oriented group for this university. Overall, I think that BadgerConnect has a lot of promise and would be a good thing for this school.
Making new friends is usually one of the biggest issues that concerns most incoming students. Moving away from home and studying at a very high academic level, leaves little time to make new social connections. Because of the difficulties these issues bring, I believe BadgerConnect is a great way to met new friends while enrolled in college. Through BadgerConnect you, as a student, will get the opportunity to meet new friends in the same situation as you. By attending fun events as concerts and game-nights you will, at the same time as you are having a blast, meet new friends. Through BadgerConnect you are also more likely to meet new friends from different parts of the world. As a incoming freshmen you are likely to make friends with people of similar background, but joining BadgerConnect is a great way to broaden your vies and meet friends from many different parts of the world.
UW-Madison is already very diverse, creating connections between races in everyday activities like class, intramural sports, and student organizations. It is not necessary for the university to create another student service to provide interaction between its students. One reason is that it is likely possible that many students will not participate in the organized events. From my own experience with resident life events, only a small number of students participate in the events scheduled by House Fellows and Resident Life Coordinators. Also, creating events like this may create unwanted attention towards the different racial groups that may potentially create more segregation, an opposite effect of the groups focus. Nowadays there are so many seminars, presentations and organizations aimed at multicultural awareness that students to not need another one thrown in the mix. Many students already get the point of interconnectedness with each other and are making their own personal decision to bridge the gap or not between the different races. Therefore, BadgerConnect will not be an effective student group.
I think that making such a big deal out trying to integrate black and white students will make it even more awkward when you do get all the participants together. While having all these activities planned out is a great thing, there is no need to put a stressed effort on blacks and whites. People will be immersed together in school and if they choose to they can be friends. I do not think that there is a huge racial problem on campus so I don't think this is necessary. I also think that just because you are putting blacks and whites together they should receive an ethics credit. I think that puts a very weird meaning to the whole program and takes away from other ethics classes Madison offers.
UW Madison has always stressed the importance of bringing together students from different backgrounds to enrich the Badger community. I personally believe BadgerConnect is a great way to do this because it allows students from all ethnicities (specifically black and white students) to bond together and feel a sense of belonging, no matter what race he or she is. Along with connecting students from different ethnicities, hosting events such as game nights and concerts brings together students with similar interests and also allows students to form friendships and relationships. As a freshman, I believe this is important because not only is it an integration of other ethnicities but by meeting people in a fun environment such as a game night or a concert it allows new students to become more comfortable with the college environment. BadgerConnect also can help break the ethnicity barriers and stereotypes that (although we don't want to admit) many of us have formed. Every student admitted to the University was put here because of their academic success and achievement in high school, and I think BadgerConnect is a great way to recognize that every student, no matter what ethnicity, deserves the same credit. I think we need to realize that no matter what ethnicity, we are all connected to one community; the University of Wisconsin Madison. BadgerConnect is a great way for all students to come together and enjoy each others company at events that are stress free in fun. In the end, BadgerConnect recognizes that each one of us is unique in our own way and by bringing different ethnicities together it allows us connect with others in ways we might otherwise wouldn't.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison needs to create a service called BadgerConnect to integrate students of different diversities and backgrounds. Most students that attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison attended larger high schools where multiple cultures and ethnic backgrounds were present. However, students from smaller schools or towns often miss out on diversity experiences due to a lack of different ethnic backgrounds. By promoting BadgerConnect, students will be encouraged to participate in activities which will bring together students of different ethnic backgrounds and find common interests between the two cultures. Also, by creating this program, students will be able to reduce the boundaries that often occur with ethnic diversity. Students will often spend most of their time around people of the same ethnic background, often out of fear of being rejected or not fitting in. By creating this program, a safe zone will be established that encourages students to communicate safely with students of different ethnic backgrounds and nationalities. Often times students see a person of a different background and immediately judge them based on past experiences with people of the same background. By creating BadgerConnect, students will be given a chance to communicate with people of different racial or ethnic backgrounds and realize that not all people of that culture are the same. For these reasons, the University of Wisconsin-Madison should create a program called BadgerConnect to allow a chance for students of different racial and ethnic backgrounds to intermix and realize that not all people are the same.
Being a freshman new to the UW-Madison campus and all the resources that it has to offer to competitive, hard-working students, the idea of integrating BadgerConnect is a positive addition to an area that might not receive as much publicity as needed on our campus. I am also an intern working in the Press Office for the Associated Students of Madison and I am in contact with many members who support diversity awareness by promoting programs, such as Diversity Week coming up this April. Even though I am a white student, I have found it very noticeable that the Madison campus is somewhat lacking in diversity, specifically in the area that BadgerConnect is trying to encourage, that being the relationships between white and black students. Although there are already current efforts to raise multicultural awareness by many student organizations and groups already here in Madison, BadgerConnect is another positive program that offers another social group that can help to develop these ethnic relationships to grow and become more common. As well as advocating for this program to be created, I also encourage that this program be put into place for it to become a larger influence in my next few years on campus. Knowing that this student service has many students and groups in favor is just another reason to make sure that we can start to make a larger impact in the areas of stopping racial prejudice and making campus a safer, more accepting environment.
I agree with the idea that students of different races should connect together and form friendship, but I don't think BadgerConnect is the best way to promote it. In my opinion, the intimacy among people, no matter same races or different races, is a personal issue. Everyone should develop all kinds of relations by themselves naturally. Establishing such a service is like bring the racial issue up deliberately. It will remind people all the time that, White and Black are somewhat different so we should diminish the discrimination, so the idea of Black and White is being reinforced all the time. Also, I don't know if the black students will feel comfortable about being specially treated. It seems it is good for them, but it is at risk of causing harms. Thus, it is a good direction if people want to promote friend ship among different races, but in some more natural way.
BadgerConnect is another attempt by the university to bring different types of students, from different walks of life together. By making it about racial and ethnic backgrounds, the University has marketed it towards a particular angle, while still being open to the larger campus community. Because the school is so large, it is often difficult to meet people outside of your major classes or the dorm floor from your freshman year. BadgerConnect is just like any other student org on campus which aims to bring the campus together to network a more broad array of students. Because it is an initiative put on by the university, the budget will likely be higher than other student orgs, because the higher governing bodies have a higher will for it to succeed. The university then will have the wherewithal to put on a wide array of events, which are appealing to the students, as well as giving the the additional incentive of the ethnic studies requirement. This program has the potential to develop into just another way for students to get involved and interact with one another, and perhaps one day it will be more innate to integrate students of many races and ethnicities. For now, it is good for the university to highlight the goals of this initiative--which is to bring many different types of groups together and embrace the uniqueness of going to such a large university in this day and age.
BadgerConnect seems to have no negative potential impacts or results. As a fairly diverse campus, I believe that it would be beneficial to all to be aware and informed of all types of ethnic backgrounds. In order to understand each other better, we must learn and spend time with each other. This should not depend on our ethnic background. Sometimes we are put in situations where we must cooperate with others in order to succeed. If we have animosity towards a person of a different ethnic background and refuse to cooperate or do not put in much effort to cooperate, we will have a difficult time accomplishing these goals. What better way to meet, understand, and build relationships with people than in a social, possibly free, event where we can have fun and open up to others, no matter their ethnicity. In order to improve our campus and form a stronger badger community, building connections among diverse student populations is a necessity.
As a student of ethnic background, I feel that the diversity on this campus is incredible. Coming from a small town of mostly a population of white, I highly appreciated the diverse backgrounds of other students I met here. I think implementing a program that focuses on race can actually have the opposite effect that the UW may be going for. When you come to this university you have the opportunity to meet and associate yourself with a variety of people. We are constantly put into situations where we are we have to work and meet students of different backgrounds. I think promoting a program that focuses just on racial issues and how to bring people together wouldn't be extremely popular. The campus has a variety of multi cultural student organizations, international student organizations,and many cultural events. I think encouraging people to attend events and participate in these kinds of student organization would be more beneficial that creating a new group that focuses on black and white racial issues. Since UW wants to incorporate this into the ethnic studies environment, I think it would be more appropriate to have going to a inter cultural fair or some sort of cultural event as a requirement or an option. Overall I believe it would be worth the time to improve the cultural organizations we have on campus already by giving them funding to create events, and help promote more multicultural awareness than creating another group that basically has the same goal in mind.
BadgerConnect sounds like a very beneficial program to be added to the University and while I support the program I have some strong questions regarding it as well. It seems that there is a large stress on primarily Black and White students. While it is true there is a gap between these groups at the University why is it that the BadgerConnect program is primarily focusing on these two groups when there seems to be a gap between so many other ethnic and racial groups here at the University. It seem that in BadgerConnect statement they are remaining blind to the true problems within the University. I do support BadgerConnect but on this first introduction believe that it needs further fine tuning. How will the University test or determine different racial and ethnic backgrounds? And how will the events that the University hold that are supposedly multicultural aware be anything different than the current events the University already hosts? It is true that the University needs something that will integrate the student population more and make the University more diverse overall and BadgerConnect is a great start however, I think there are some greater questions that still need to be answered as well.
While BadgerConnect connect sounds useful and could benefit to the students, there are also some aspects that aren't thought about while reading the description. There are a few key concepts that I feel should be brought up in order to make a clear decision. First of all, just because students of different races are brought together doesn't mean that they will interact with each other. Say the students are participating in a game that requires team, it could very easily turn into a Black versus White game. In this case, the two races would be competing against each other and not truly be connecting and reaching the goal of BadgerConnect. This could also create problems, if one race wins and the losing team are sore losers. If it were a concert, there may be music played that could be offensive towards one race. This could cause issues between races and the head coordinators could be accused of being racist. This would not bring the different races together and cause more issues that may not have been there in the beginning. Overall, I feel BadgerConnect should not be created. It could very well create more problems between races than it would to bring them together. It could end up being a clash of cultural differences. So no, BadgerConnect should not be created.
In my mind, there is no reason to be against BadgerConnect, save a few reasons: either the opposed has no interest in befriending those of races dissimilar to their own (which is another problem unto itself), they feel they have enough friends of other races as is (but is this truly a quantifiable number or a quota that needs to be reached?), or they think little of attending events they deem unworthy of their time (lack of school spirit). None of these excuses seem valid, understandable, or good enough in my mind. BadgerConnect would be a fantastic way of meeting other students. I grew up in an ethnically diverse area and have had friends from other races ever since I can remember, especially black and Asian friends (I am white). I have friends here in Wisconsin who are from predominantly white towns and who grew up with maybe one or two black kids in their grade. It is not their fault, but it would certainly be their fault if they chose to not branch out and experience making friends with kids of all sorts of backgrounds. With BadgerConnect, students will not only form new friendships but also learn about each others heritages. Judging others before you get to know them- have we not all been taught to avoid this since childhood? Beyond the goals of promoting multicultural awareness and establishing new friendships, BadgerConnect would simply be a fun time in which students can listen to live music or participate in game nights with their peers. There is little doubt that BadgerConnect would augment cohesion among the student body, but with a little help, it would better everyone's time here at UW-Madison, too.
Though I am not belong to the white or the black, as an Asian born in China, I feel it is great to have a chance to share your ethical background with others. Living in the same dorm, there will be many problems came from students living style and some particular traditions. It is nice idea to communicate with each others and get familiar with some cultural differences in the beginning of the semester.
A program such as Badger Connect would be something very beneficial to UW-Madison. With this program, many students should feel more welcomed and comforted in knowing that they will have a place to go where they will always find friends along with gaining knowledge on other racial and ethnic backgrounds. This program could also allow for a smoother transition in to college if sessions or meetings are geared towards the transition for freshmen. While the opposing side could argue that this would cost more money for the university and that our school has enough interracial friendships and communication, introducing people of different backgrounds to each other and gaining the knowledge of different ethnic groups could help with a deeper understanding of the traditions and ideas that different social groups have. Addressing the issue of the cost of the program is something that would have to be put into the budget. We are able to build new residence and dinning halls all over campus and this program could be put into the funding with in the halls, but be made open to anyone who would want to join. The program could be added into the requirements for certain courses, saying that this is part of the discussion, you must attend at least two of these events and reflect on the different groups (ethnic and racial) that were in attendance. Classes such as certain anthropology or ethnic studies courses would be a great place to integrate Badger Connect. Badger connect would increase the cultural awareness of our campus, along with allow for various students to branch outside of their normal social groups and make new friendships. Along with this program being beneficial for the students, it would also make the Madison community, although already accepting of other cultures, more accepting and welcoming to those who are not just like the majority.
I think that, although the idea of connecting diverse students through campus activities is a positive idea, the specific focus of BadgerConnect to connect Black and White students is a potentially awkward method. Bringing people together over common interests and awesome activities is a great way for a campus to build a sense of community. On most college campuses there is a sense of community that is divided along racial lines. Programs designed to create multicultural relationships are great, but having a direction towards which ethnicities they wish to bring together can make a program uncomfortable. I think that both for black students and white students participating in the program would feel forced, like they are incapable of bridging the cultural gap alone. I also think that putting an emphasis and black and white relationships will make students of other ethnicities feel as though they are not included in the mission of BadgerConnect. Why should a Latino attend a session hangout designed to bring blacks and whites together? Because of this principle I think that BadgerConnect would, instead of bringing about new relationships, create an even larger cultural gap among different ethnicities on campus.
I think that BadgerConnect would have positive effects on any college campus, but especially on one that is as culturally diverse as UW Madison is. It would extend a great opportunity for people of different cultures and racial backgrounds to get together and learn about each other. This would promote acceptance and tolerance of different cultures on campus, as well as be an excellent learning opportunity and great way to make friends that you may not otherwise meet. People naturally tend to try to stick with meeting people that are similar to them because it is easier, but Badger Connect could help break people out of their comfort zones and make many new friends. Another advantage to this program is that it would offer activities for those that do not wish to go out and drink and party on weekends because Madison does rightfully have a heavy party reputation, and some people may have difficulty finding other fun things to participate in. However, I do not think it should particularly focus on only two racial backgrounds (blacks and whites) because Madison has so many other different cultures besides those two that should be equally represented and would add much to the program. I also think that Madison already offers a lot of cultural awareness workshops but more can never hurt.
BadgerConnect appears to be a great idea to create a network among student in different racial status. However, this will not be as effective as it could be. Forcing students to interact with each other would establish awkward relationships among students. A friendship cannot be generated artificially. People can make true friends only by helping each other in a difficult situation. The University of Wisconsin-Madison is famous for being one of the great party schools. At a party, it is more likely that White students will encounter Black students and vice versa. It seems illogical to host a type of events that already exists. Even if there are events, such as concerts and game nights, most of students would go to a party instead of those events. Concerts and game nights only work for students in high school and grade school. In college, there are more exciting events out there. It would be waste of money to host those events that a few students would attend. BadgerConnect, itself, has a great motivation. Nevertheless, the approach is wrong. BadgerConnect should consist of meaningful events such as service trips. When people work together to achieve a goal, they naturally become life-long friends with each other. When they only drink and play games, it is more likely that they would not contact with each other afterwards. For example, when a group of people goes to an orphanage and takes care of the orphans, they work toward a common goal. After the trip, the people in the group will share their experiences and enjoy their time. This type of approach would make the program called BadgerConnect more effective and meaningful. It is different when people go to concerts and game nights. Students would only go to concerts with their friends. They would hardly meet new people there. Even if they meet new people, the conversation would end with a phrase like is there a seat left. Game nights are the most ridiculous idea to promote multicultural awareness. At game nights, each ethnicity would gather with people with the same color of skin or nationality. At the end, this would ironically create a rivalry among different racial groups. An idea to help Black and White students establish new friendships and promote multicultural awareness is excellent. However, it is only the approach that can be improved. Doing something meaningful together is more effective to create friendship than going to a concert with old friends and a game night with a same racial group.
I am for the idea of BadgerConnect as I see it as a good way to create social harmony within the campus. As an exchange student myself, I have encountered culture shocks, and I think mingling with other students more would help us in understanding each others culture. The same idea applies to Black and White students. And since the events are mainly casual events, it would be a good way to start. However, as an Asian myself, I would say BadgerConnect could be extended to other ethnicities, instead of just limited to Black and White students. Focusing merely on black and white students might make students from other racial backgrounds feel omitted and might lead to some cultural tensions here. Therefore, a more comprehensive program would be favorable for achieving the goal of multicultural awareness. In addition to that, as there are quite a number of programs on campus e.g BRIDGE program that also aims at bringing people from different cultural background together, BadgerConnect must come up with a more organized structure and the organizers should think of more unique events to distinguish itself from the rest the other programs.
While I do think that many benefits can be attained with the implementation of BadgerConnect, there are also many downfalls and problems that may arise with the creation of BadgerConnect. The most foreseeable problem I see with BadgerConnect is getting people to come to the events that they intend on planning. Many students look at these groups as lame and boring and would rather do other things with their time than go to BadgerConnect events. If this was made something that was mandatory to attend students may feel like they are being forced to participate and not put forth effort or receive any noticeable benefits from participating. Another potential problem to making it mandatory is that it takes away time from many peoples lives who are already busy in other clubs and organizations. Not only are many students in various clubs but they are also striving to attain high grades through rigorous coursework. Then, another issue that can be raised is that will these events be open to everyone on campus or be directed towards the younger students at the university. In that case that may scare away older members of the university community. Many students are uncomfortable with talking about racial differences and may not want to participate in events just for the mere fact of knowing that they will be confronted with issues involving racial backgrounds. While I do think that BadgerConnect brings about great ideas to the student population, I think that many issues would need to be addressed like participation before implementing such a student service such as this one.
Although I believe in diversity and the benefits it has to offer, I disagree with the idea of creating BadgerConnect. My reasoning for this is because I believe that students should learn how to connect with other races and cultures naturally and not by a program. I feel that BadgerConnect would somewhat force diversity and has the potential to fail. There is nothing wrong with inter-racial relationships;however, it is not common among campus and I don't think BadgerConnect would be a strong impact on improving the situation. I support the concept of establishing relationships with one of another race, but it simply isn't as easy as making a program to do so. For example, I think the line particularly Black and White students that BadgerConnect promotes is somewhat racist itself. Why is there the need to exclude Asians, Russians, etc. I think our world has developed a habit of interacting with people of the same race and it needs to be approached, but I don't believe BadgerConnect is the proper solution. However, it is hard to develop inter-racial relationships because of the different ways ones are raised and the culture they're from. My best friend here on campus is Asian and I am White;however, she was adopted as a baby and grew up with White parents and siblings. She doesn't have the same cultural views as an Asian who grew up with Asian parents and family. Majority of her friends are White and she feels she doesn't fit in with the other Asians. I think creating diversity is easier said than done. Many people say they don't have a problem with having friends of different races but they naturally create friendships and approach others of the same race. Increasing diversity among campus is a great idea, but I don't believe a club like BadgerConnect will create the most success.
Personally I do not think that developing BadgerConnect Service would be a great way to strengthen the interaction between different racial groups, because doing so is a way of discrimination by explicitly pointing out the difference from race to race. It is well- known that as a public university, UW- Madison contains a variety of students coming from different racial groups, and they have interacted with each other harmoniously. Therefore, why waste energy creating such service that explicitly points out that color matters? Moreover, the aim of BadgerConnect seems to ignore the existence of other racial groups such as Asian Americans and some international students, which might upset those racial groups who are left out from this students service. By establishing BadgerConnect, it indirectly creates walls between different racial groups. And students who want to join a social group might be told that he or she is not qualified because heshe is not black or white! In my opinion, I think there are better alternatives to fulfill the purpose of promoting the relationship between White and African American students. For example, holding more student organizations studying different race culture, such as learning black history, or learning rap culture.
Though the discrimination among different ethnic groups seems to become less and less, there are still much of it we can feel about in our everyday lives. Thus, I strongly support the BadgerConnect program. It can help students, black, yellow, or white, to understand each other, to communicate each other at the first place, and then wipe out the untrue bias they had against each other before. When I walk around the campus everyday, I can always see white students gathering together, African-Americans being together, and Asians or Asian-Americans staying together (especially at the dinning halls, such as Dejope and Gorden). On one hand, it is a result that people from each ethnic usually incline to stay with the people from the same ethnic group. Maybe it is an unconscious behavior, or maybe students just feel like it is there comfort zone. On the other hand, it is a result that people from different racial groups do not want to reach out to other at the first place. Sometimes it is because of the cultural difference, while other times, it is because of the discrimination that underlies in peoples unconsciousness. For example, like my former roommate (last semester), she is a Caucasian. Although she makes friends with Asians and African-Americans, she still feels like being friends with them is something different. Once, she skyped with her friend, who is at another school, and said do you have many blacks there? Like I counted the ones living in our residential hall, and there are four that are really black. When I heard that, I felt very uncomfortable because being a black person is not special to me at all. And then she kept saying, but I make a friend who is black recently, and he is very nice. The implication of this sentence is black people are not nice usually. Other times, I overheard students calling others, and the conversation is like this Hi, do you want to go to a party with me? I have a friend there, and she is a Asian, but she is very cool... When I heard that, I also thought that Does she mean Asians are not cool usually? And she just find out an unique one? Believe it or not, based on my experience within UW-Madison so far, I can feel the discrimination everywhere and it is very strong here. Americans do not want to make friends with Asians and white people feel like being around with blacks is a very special thing to them. So I feel like UW-Madison really needs the Badger-Connect. At least, the events it plans to hold can help people from different ethnic groups to know, to try to understand each other at the first place, and to truly experience the multicultural awareness.
When I thought about coming to UW-Madison I imagined a strong multicultural community consisting of individuals of many different backgrounds. However, after being in school and being on the campus for a couple of months I noticed that the university isn't nearly as diverse as I had thought it would be. I rarely see people of different backgrounds and if I do I don't find myself interacting with them. When I see black people I usually see a group of them and the same usually goes for white people as well. It is rare to see black and white people hanging out which I find to be very weird. I come from a town that isn't very diverse so I was hoping that UW-Madison would be different but so far it hasn't been much of a change. I'm not sure if historical events influence how we think of different ethnicities but I think that we need to learn to put all of our judgments aside and get to know people on deeper levels. I think BadgerConnect would be a great way for Black and White students to get to know each other and gain more knowledge of different backgrounds. I always see signs around our residence halls that advertise ways in which we should connect with people of different ethnicities but that's about as far as it gets. I'm not aware of any events or activities that would further engage interaction with different people. Most of the friends I have made through classes or the people that I have met because I live next to are white and middle-class. BadgerConnect sounds like a great way to get to know people and broaden our knowledge of different people, places, and ways of thinking.
It is only after taking an anthropology class at the University of Wisconsin Madison that I find myself opposing this type of student service. In this class, I learned the idea that race is a social fabrication. After all, science has actually not proven that people among the same race are more similar than people among different races. This social fabrication has led to many stereotypes about races and problems in our society as far as employment and housing equality. As far as BadgerConnect, placing emphasis on the fact that it is bringing together different types of people again reinforces the concept of race and the misconception that we are all extremely different.
UW-Madison may be one of the most diverse colleges in the state of Wisconsin. There are many people from around the world that come here to study and learn. I feel that BadgerConnect will unify and make this campus a much more aware campus. BadgerConnect will bring in a lot of curious people and people that would want to make new friends. I think it would be a great way to get people connected and learn about other cultures as well. With such a big diversity group on campus, it would be nice to know of the other cultures and bring people together. Instead of being strangers to another, we could learn and build from each other. If BadgerConnect was implemented into an organization, the differences between skin colors and culture should gradually decrease. The students would start to notice the different individual groups and reach out to them. I believe that this program will benefit anybody who is scared to meet other people outside of their ethnic group.
BadgerConnect is a good idea because it will help bring students of different backgrounds together and help to teach people better cultural awareness. When students hang out together they get to know one another aside from what is just skin-deep. Being involved in student events outside of class in a more informally setting will help students of different backgrounds to learn more about each other. I think that BadgerConnect would help people to make friends with other students from different backgrounds and will help students learn more about people outside their culture. BadgerConnect would also be a great way to earn the ethnic study requirement because it would teach students about different cultures in real life situations instead of having students just sit in a class and learn about something they otherwise probably don't care about. BadgerConnect is a great idea and should be implemented at UW.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is a well diverse school in itself. It does not discriminate on who is accepted into the school and it does not segregate any part of the campus life activities from certain people. BadgerConnect is a great idea, but in reality students are not going to attend often. The campus already has many different activities and ways for students of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds come together.In classes, Greek life, athletics, clubs and many more activities people are interacting (no matter the race or background)and doing things they enjoy. This is the best way to have students be more aware with different cultural backgrounds. The students are able to work together on things they both enjoy and can bond over. Students are more likely to go with a group of friends to BadgerConnect activity and not venture out to meet a lot of new people because everyone is going to be with that clique they have already formed in the short months of being here. When students join clubs or sports teams it is usually because they enjoy it not because their friends joined. In this way, they are more open and more eager to meeting new people because they do not have the safety net of their friends being at each side. All in all, the campus already has organizations that bring together students of all different cultures. As a freshman at UW-Madison I have met many diverse students through clubs, activities and classes, rather then going to an event like BadgerConnect.
BadgerConnect would be a good start to connect UW-Madison students of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. Currently, there is too much division between people of different skin colors. People assume that they are very different from the other skin colors, for no reason at all. Sometimes, students may feel that they wouldn't belong in the other group because of language or cultural differences. If BadgerConnect were to force students together that normally wouldn't hang-out, the program may be a success. One of the more difficult barriers to break wouldn't necessarily be the Black and White racial barrier, since the Asian-American barrier is much more pronounced. This interaction may not come naturally, so BadgerConnect would hopefully just be a stepping stone to lifelong friendships and cultural understandings. Encouraging students to talk to and interact with different races and ethnicities would make this university much more special than it already is. If BadgerConnect is successful, students from UW would graduate with a greater level of acceptance of others than ever before.
Due to my biracial background and my upbringing in California, I have been exposed to diversity throughout my childhood. However, upon my arrival at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I have noticed that many of my fellow students have not had the same exposure to different cultures as I have. This exposure does not solely revolve around different types of food, but also different lifestyles. I have met many friends here at Wisconsin who have grown up their whole lives in towns with people from the same backgrounds as them. They have yet to try nigiri, let alone understand the importance of respecting your elders in the Japanese culture. College is a place for learning--not only in the classroom, but out in the real world. Its a place for discovering new things. By learning about the lives of others, one can learn so much about themselves in the process. Therefore, BadgerConnect would provide a platform for students to interact with other students from different backgrounds and form relationships with people they never thought they would due to preconceived connotations.It is so important to have a deeper understanding of those from different walks of the world in order for us to grow ourselves.
BadgerConnect would be a wonderful program to implement on the UW-Madison campus. Not only would it provide a way for students of different ethnic backgrounds to interact, but it would also expose students to views and opinions different from their own. BadgerConnect would be a great way for students of different ethnic and social backgrounds to get to know one another without any barriers. I feel that BadgerConnect would allow different student groups to get to know each other better. As a minority student here on campus, I often find that many people confine themselves to social groups where they have the same ethnic background. Although there is much diversity here on campus, there is not much integration. Therefore, I think this program would give students an excellent chance to expose themselves to the experiences and cultures of others. The concept of BadgerConnect is simple enough that everyone should be able to participate. However,there are still several possible issues to address. For example, how can BadgerConnect ensure that students who attend these sessions wont break up into their respective groups at the events? Again, in many classroom settings, I find that ethnic students will often pair up with other ethnic students whereas white students will also pair up with other white students. As ideal as this program sounds, I believe it will take more effort than simply putting everyone into a room together to play games to get students to really interact with one another and get to know each other. I am still in favor of BadgerConnect, but I feel that there are still several components that are missing.
If the BadgerConnect exist solely to help Black and White students establish new friendships, people will start questioning it. I do not feel that the university needs to do things like this as these things happen involuntarily in our everyday life which makes it more meaningful. If for example, a black student makes friend from the BadgerConnect, it would not be a normal white friend but labeled as my BadgerConnect white friend and so on. The idea of distinguishing two different groups of people severe their relationship even more. The students are badgers and that are what they should be known for, not just being black and white students. Being categorized that way makes either party feel bad. Its like classifying the international students and local students. People will have certain judgment on them. If we do not put a name tag on ourselves, and we do not look at things that way, there will be no difficulty finding or making friends. I do agree that student events like concerts and game nights are good ways to promote student interaction but don't we have enough of these activities? It will be a waste of money and time if there are too much activities going on campus and the number of responses too little. Games like football during the fall has already brought us together despite our different backgrounds. We do not care about that when were supporting our favorite team. We just want our team to win. This is the ultimate way for building and creating strong friendships. People who have the same desires interests that meet by coincidence. Lets say if we put a group of black and white students in the room and forcefully ask them to be friends. That will never work. See the difference in the two situations? The friendships made in the first situation is most likely to succeed compared to the second one where it was forced and you go into it with negative perspectives (e.g. I'm going to this party because the university wants me to be friends with Black people. Maybe they don't or cant have friends, which is why the university is doing this). This may bring up the feeling of superiority in one side of the group compared to the other because of the way human beings naturally think. The university is already promoting and have promoted multicultural awareness through its hundred over student organizations. There is no need to interfere with what is a natural process. Your students are already doing it for you indirectly, so why waste time, money and resources doing it all over again in a different way that might negatively affect the current situation.
I think that BadgerConnect seems like a good, fun way to better integrate the UW student community. As a first year student, I have already noticed how segregated social groups here can be and I think that a program to help bridge this gap would be helpful. I happen to live on a dorm floor made up of all white students with similar backgrounds as myself. Because these are the people that I spend most of my time with, I don't find myself becoming friends with students of other races. If a program like BadgerConnect existed, I think more students would go out of their way to build relationships with their peers of other races. However, students may need a bit of a nudge to actually participate in a service like this, so making it a part of every ethnic studies course may help boost involvement and encourage students to branch out.
While the goals of BadgerConnect should be lauded, I do not believe the program could be effectively implemented. Events such as these are put on by dorms currently and in many locations are sparsely attended due to a lack of publicity and an overall aversion to residence life programming. Therefore, I would be interested in how they would set up their planned programming and the internal infrastructure of the service. This is extremely important in a time of financial difficulty such as the one currently facing this university. My concern lies in the necessity of the service as they already run events such as the Wisconsin Welcome. This sense of necessity is especially relevant given that ASM ran out of money to allocate this school year and state funding has decreased in recent years. Despite all that is previously stated, if the program can be implemented in a timely and efficient manner it should be created. As much as people would like to sweep the issue of racial segregation under the rug it is too prevalent an issue to be ignored. There is currently an unfortunate divide between certain students that has no place at a university of this stature. Any successful effort to encourage the interconnectedness of the UW student body would be welcome. It just saddens me that our university is not enough on its own to provide this sense of connectedness. Are the black and white students of this campus really so different as to need a program to bring them together? I hope not, but if so anything that is needed to close this divide is welcome in my eyes.
A service like BadgerConnect would be very beneficial in bringing together a wide variety of UW-Madison students. I believe this is a smart idea because often times, it is difficult to find planned and organized social events that appeal to any or all racial backgrounds. On the other hand, by having BadgerConnect create an event that most people would enjoy, such as a concert or game night, attendance by both White and Black students would be apparent. And by spending more and more time in organized events with people of different races, UW-Madison would, overall, become a more diverse and accepting campus. So all in all, I think BadgerConnect would be a very positive service.
Being that UW Madison is such a large campus, it can be hard for students to meet and connect with other people. When students do being to meet people in their dorms or in classes, it seems that they generally spend time with people who are similar to themselves and have the same background. UW Madison is a very diverse campus and part of the benefits of attending school here is for students to be able to experience new things. It would be beneficial to students if the University could help to facilitate an environment where people could connect with one another, build meaningful friendships, and learn from people of different backgrounds. Truly connecting with others can be a difficult task for students when they first arrive on campus because it is intimidating to be alone on such a large campus. The first instinct for a person is to find someone that is similar to him or her because it will keep him or her feeling safe and in their comfort zone. However, the majority of learning does not take place in the classroom and one of the most important parts of going to college is to learn that stepping outside of your comfort zone can be one of the most educational experiences possible. The BadgerConnect program could be an effective way for the university to help students take the first step in learning to challenge themselves and meet new, different people. It is especially important for Black and White students to connect with one another. When it comes to going out into the real world and getting a job, students need to realize that they will be working with people from all different backgrounds and walks of life. It is important that the students are given opportunities to connect with different people in college so that they are prepared for a job. Also, giving students the opportunity to talk to different types of people than who they might normally talk to could be an amazing learning experience. Learning about different cultural traditions, family styles, and religions could help the students to better understand other people and to be more accepting in general. The BadgerConnect program would be extremely helpful in helping students to get the out of classroom experience necessary to work in the real world and to better understand others.
BadgerConnect, although an innocent idea at first glance, underestimates the power of UW Madison in bringing different races and cultures together as students. With the tropes of promising fun and friendships, there is also the possibility that this program would address that UW Madison has a racism problem, which I do not find as a student here. I fear that implementing this program would alienate students since the purpose of this program in particular is to bring together black and white students. There are so many different cultures on campus that each student interacts with everyday. For example, my own roommate happens to be a new student from China this semester. It wouldn't be right to leave her out for this one program, or even mention that this is for black and white students to build new friendships. An idea for a program such as this would also imply that we know the black and white culture. I'm fine with having a program promoting multicultural awareness, but what culture differences are separating black and white students, particularly those who have been living in the US for generations? A program like this might be able to pull this off between black and white students, but I highly doubt that the students wouldn't take some offense to magnifying the differences between these races, as we share the same American culture. In short, I do not see the benefit of promoting friendships between black and white students in this manner. I have plenty of friends who are black just from being in classes with them, and it is the same with people of all different races, from Native American to Asian students. I simply don't see the need to promote friendships particularly between black and white students via a special program.
I think that BadgerConnect is a good way to promote diversity but why just black and white? There are also other minorities here on campus who would also like to be engage and participate in social events. Most of the time I feel like people only see the  black and white picture and exclude the other race that are present here at UW-Madison. Students who are non-black and non-white would also like to participate in these social events as well. I strongly believe to understand diversity, we must learn from other cultures beside just black and white. America is made up of so many different cultures and ethnicity. Why limit it to only two race? Race is a touchy subject and in order to make it more comfortable for students to talk about it or to associate themselves with another race, we as UW-Madison students need to actually engage with people of different culture and background. BadgerConnect can be beneficial to students if it is open to everyone (regardless if you're black or white).
First of all, this BadgerConnect will definitely foster the diversity of a students daily life. One big advantages studying in American universities is that we have the access to friends with various background. People coming from different places with own special culture will not only broaden local students horizons by introducing new culture and information but also enrich their experience with a better understanding of the rest of the world. Moreover, this program, which aims especially to help Black and White students establish new friendships, can certainly enhance the social ability of students. Obviously, people with different cultural background manage daily events in certain ways, which may be in conflict with others habits. That is the beginning of a possible collision among students. However, this program can directly lead students to face these problems and help them to manipulate them through a more soft ways.
The integration of students socially and educationally is extremely important to the success of of students, and BadgerConnect would be a great way for this to happen. The students at the University of Wisconsin Madison come from a variety of backgrounds and cultures, and I believe that students best learn about theses differences through their peers. Solely through education and in the classroom, students are unable to truly motivate themselves to learn about other cultures and backgrounds. However, through social events such as concerts and game nights, it will provide students a social setting in which they can comfortably discuss and share differences that exist. Furthermore, because students are in a comfortable, and enjoyable social setting, they will be able to become more than just cultural mentors; they will have the opportunity to develop life lasting friendships. Not only is BadgerConnect a great way for students to meet students of a different culture, it is a great way for students of the same culture to meet as well. Racism and bigotry is a large issue in the United States, and although legal measures have been made to lessen these conflicts, growing up without exposure to these different environments will ultimately cause students to continue their bigoted views. However, through BadgerConnect in college, students are able to expand their minds, and open up to new ideas about different cultures. Only through learning and accepting are we able to forgive the events of the past, so that we can create new memories. In conclusion, BadgerConnect is a great program that will ultimately benefit students by exposing students to different cultures and by teaching them that acceptance will create lasting friendships.
For most students, college is a major transition and their first experience with almost complete independence. In order to be successful, they need to develop important life skills such as time management, study habits, and exercising regularly. They also meet many new people and make new friends. I am against badger connect because I believe it will deprive college students of specific social skills that will greatly help them later in life. A very important life skill is the ability to make friends and interact well with strangers or new acquaintances. BadgerConnect would prevent students from acquiring this skill. Out of college, whether it be the work force, the military, etc., there will most likely not be organized events in which to meet new people. It is up the the individual to introduce themselves, and socially interact with the people around them. If they are sheltered by BadgerConnect, their main experience with social interaction would be from a planned school event, which is quite unlike the real world. BadgerConnect also seems forced and can provide for an awkward situation. Focusing on the relationships between black and white students would make each persons race stick out more. At BadgerConnect, it would be very clear who is black and who is white, and the relationship would seem forced. A stronger, more positive relationship are those formed by choice, and not by attending a school event where one type relationship is stressed more than another. In conclusion, BadgerConnect is not an affective way of creating interaction and friendship between black and white students, and it deprives students of learning an important life skill.
I think BadgerConnect will be a useful thing for this school. I think having something that will organize and put on student events like concerts and game nights will be a nice tool to have. It will be a great opportunity for students to meet new people and its an easy way for students to see what's happening on campus for that day. Plus this program is a great opportunity for students to get involved and put on some of these events in a real world setting. I don't see why the diversity is so stressed though. I think these events can go on without stressing that there needs to be people from all backgrounds. Why not just put on the event and see who comes. Maybe put on certain events aimed at certain individuals and see who comes from that group and other groups of people as well. Ultimately though I feel that BadgerConnect can be a good thing for this campus because it is a way for students to get involved and to interact with different people. So my vote is yes for BadgerConnect.
BadgerConnect sounds like any program designed to integrate kids of different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. It reaches right into peoples lives and forces them to participate in activities that they probably do not want to do. People can choose to expose themselves in other ways to diversity, mainly through clubs and classes. While BadgerConnect is designed to promote racial bonding and bridge-building, it will not achieve their goal because those who do not voluntarily participate in racial bonding often drag their feet when forced to participate which will cause more animosity and discord among races and the program as a whole. People I associate with regularly talk about the Ethnic Studies requirement in a negative light. They see it as a detrimental program because they want more time in their schedules to fill out requirements for their major or take classes they are really interested in. I was fortunate enough to get into an Ethnic Studies class I really enjoyed, even if the class work felt a bit tedious in comparison to the other classes I had that semester. But there are many who cant stand their ethnic studies classes. And I feel like the same thing would happen with a program like BadgerConnect. There would be many people who would embrace and applaud the program for the efforts to make people more well-rounded and familiar with their classmates. Then there would be those who would make the best of it and would passively participate. They would do the minimum requirement and get it over with and might say it was beneficial, but they did not like it at the time. Then there would be those who absolutely despised it for a number of reasons. They might site that they don't need a program to help them make friends with people of other races. Then there would be those who have no interest in making friends with those of other races and would prefer to stay separate, although I doubt you would hear that kind of language in todays day and age. Then there would be a third group of individuals who would not like being forced into a social setting. These people are the people that just like being left alone. These introverts might not participate at all out of a dislike for having to participate in a social group. The three groups that I see being against it are what would ultimately torpedo the whole program. They would not enjoy it, give it bad reviews, blame the University, and reflect poorly on the efforts to unity people of different backgrounds. Thank you.
In theory, BadgerConnect sounds like a good idea, but honestly, I don't think very many people will be willing to give up their time to go to these events unless they see some personal gain. I know that for me, living in lakeshore, where I am relatively far from most of the things happening on campus, I probably wouldn't venture out to attend one of these things. I would rather hang out with my friends I already have where I know I will have a good time than go to some event where I don't know if I will enjoy it. I am just one person but I think there are a lot of kids on campus who feel the same way. We like to think we would be willing to go meet new people, but we are lazy and content with the friends we have. I'm not sure if it would be a good investment to use money on this program when very few people will go, rather than using the funding on something more important. Also, I know that for me, making friends under these situations usually doesn't work. I am more open and willing to meet people in a natural setting rather than some forced cooperation. I think that if I were to go to one of these events, I would be extremely shy and not talk to anyone, rendering the event useless. If I did go to one of these events, I certainly would not go to it alone. I would bring a friend or two so I wouldn't feel like a loaner in the crowd. However, once I was there, I would most likely spend all my time at the event with just the people I came with. I would rather stay in my little group of friends where I am more comfortable than venture out to meet new people in the larger group. This would make the event very clique-y and uncomfortable. This feeling could have the potential to make the feeling towards not only the event, but the other people there a negative one. I would feel awkward and out of place in the group which could potentially make me feel less inclined to interact with the other races of people there at the event.
Madison has already provided me with a large sense of diversity and I think that introducing a program such as BadgerConnect would not help the diversity situation. Personally, I believe that those with different racial and ethnic backgrounds tend to stick with those similar to themselves. Unless you previously have had a friend with a different background and meet new, culturally different people through that friend, it does not seem that people go out of their way to get to know other peoples backgrounds and build friendships with them. Although BadgerConnect could be that first step in helping students on this campus develop friendships with culturally different people, we should not have to rely on a program and planned events to bring these cultures together. People should have enough integrity and stamina to build these friendships on their own and step out of the comfort zone to meet people they may not have previously associated themselves with. Similarly, if BadgerConnect was implemented, what stops people from showing up to these events and sticking with the friends they came with and already know? I think that if new friendships are going to be made with people of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, it has to be the individuals choice and willingness, and not because of a organization trying to bring diverse people together.
I strongly favor the idea of the BadgerConnect. This kind of service is necessary for the UW Madison, because it can gather students from different cultures together and help students make friends with each other. Although black and white students are much more connected to each other than before, there are still some gaps between them. This student service can build a stronger bridge between these two groups. This can diverse the students college live, expand students mind, and exchange different ideas. Also, this kind of activity should be promoted, because such activities can make students spend more time with other people, communicate and talk to each other, instead of spending much time on video games or TV shows. Talking to people can improve students ability to deal with the relationship with others and improve their negotiation ability. By promoting such activities, students can spend more time outdoor and be more active and outgoing.
I disagree that we should have a BadgerConnect organization. I suggest there is no need to have a specific organization to try to connect the black and the white, because this behavior indeed has stress the differences between the black and the white. First, I am afraid if there is such a organization in our campus, there would not be too much black people are willing to attend. In my opinion, they will feel free if nobody treat them as a special group, and the best atmosphere for them is not one that is specially create for them. Few of them would like to attend the meetings and be members of the BadgerConnect. Second, though there are black people who are willing to come, the situation will be like, the black would sit next to the black as a group, and the white enjoy to sit next to the white as a group. Though they will have activities to push them to contact with each other, the amount of friends they talk to will be few. Last, there must be funds to support the new organization. And if there are few people who are willing to come since they feel free to meet people spontaneously, there will a waste of resource and money. The best way to connect the black and the white is to let them feel free to interact each other. There is no need to have an extra organization to stress the differences between the two races.
I think BadgerConnect is a good point for the university to promote connecting within diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds students especially useful when choosing to put on student events, which will be pretty fun. I think the idea of BadgerConnect is good because maybe black and white students may not often communicate with each others and holding this kind of event can help people communicate more with others from different areas. For some events like concerts, people with talented have the chance to show their talent and get appreciation from others, which is a good mean to be respectful to others. However, I think BadgerConnect may not be so useful as imagined because there are already many kinds of activities like Bridge, Guts and so on, which also aim to promote multicultural awareness and interact with people from different racial background.
While I do not really oppose implementing a program like this, I do not understand the main goal of the program. I do not understand how it will connect students of different races. Even though multiple races may attend, there will most likely still be segregation into different racial cliques in the population, unless the event is specifically directed at cultural awareness or racial integration. But, generally, those events would only be attended by those who are interested and would have no concerns with making friends of the different race, and they do not seem to need the assistance you wish to give to others who do not associate with other races. I believe that if you want the student population to be less racially segregated, it is up to the students because they choose what they attend or are interested in. So, if the idea of the program is to unite races, I say it will not work very well.
In a University as large as University of Wisconsin- Madison, with as many students as it has-- from all over the world-- I believe that University of Wisconsin-Madison has the right idea when thinking about this new program- Badger Connect. I know from a personal experience that moving into the dorms, i knew absolutely no one. I was on my own for the first couple of weeks, walking to class, getting food,studying, and though it helped build confidence and self-reliance , i can tell you that at times it was hard. Sometimes you needed that friend. Yes, i have many friends back home, but its not nearly the same as a having one on the bed beside you, or on the other side of the bathroom door.Furthermore, as weeks went by I met a group of people that i felt meshed well with my interests, goals, hobbies, and i started to hang out with them. Till this day we meet up, talk, discuss issues, eat food, watch movies; however, I know most of everyone's opinions and stances on certain things. I feel as if we have turned into a clique. One of those cafeteria table groups that has assigned seats and specific roles. And frankly, we don't meet very many new people. We do the mostly the same thing over and over. We don't reach out and meet the rest of our fellow Badgers from all across the world. We stay in our little pigeon-hole and do our thing. That's why I feel that a program like this should be implemented into the lives of Madison students. Everyone has their own story. Everyone has their own experiences, struggles, accomplishments, history, culture, and traditions and it is up to us to learn to respect and honor what each and everyone of us stands for. It allows to grow as people. I see UW-Madison as Willy-Wonkas factory of opportunities. Coming from a European family, many people don't understand the traditions i have grown up with, the certain foods i like to eat, the culture that has made the student standing right in front of you. Therefore I believe that Badger Connect would help students grow as individuals, become well-versed in different cultures and traditions, form friendships, and most importantly becomes well-rounded students. Because we all have been told that colleges and universities look WELL-ROUNDED students). what does that mean? exactly what Badger Connect is trying to accomplish. It means students trying new things, reaching out, constantly learning something new each day. It means becoming generous and big-hearted, the way others have been with you. It means finding yourself within the masses of people in your everyday life. Those who mind, don't matter. Those who matter, wont mind. So try something new each day. You only are given one chance to do so.
Being a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been an experience,as a badger one of things that I notice daily is how diverse the student population is.That being said I do not feel that it is necessary for there be a new student service to connect students a like. This coming from the fact that who one associates with is something that he or she should choose for him or herself. In addition there are so many other avenues that UW-Madison students are able to use to connect with other students. For instance the well known Twitter and Facebook that is easily available and widely used by students. There is also clubs and other organizations of the like that have many opportunities for people from different cultures and races to become friends, or to simply learn more about one another. In my opinion students already have a mindset on the kind of friends they want to have in college, and most of the time it is people they met on their dorm floor or classes. Though I believe that most students become friends with other students based on his or her personality and not their race, and really the choice is theirs.
I do not believe BadgerConnect would be a good idea for the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Students will feel extremely uncomfortable being forced to attend events and socialize with others strictly because they are from two different ethnic backgrounds. I pick my friends because they are people I have common interests with, they are people I can trust, and people I can have fun around. If people do not want to be friends with people from another race, leave them alone. That is their own choice. If I knew that if I chose to attend UW-Madison that they embodied a program which make me share the company of people Id rather not be around on my own time, Id choose a different school. I believe this program will promote racism rather than destroy it. I, myself, would not join a group or club like BadgerConnect. What would be the reason to join? I'm sick of white people; better join BadgerConnect. Doesn't come off very well in my mind. Also, if a student is a good moral and sound individual, they will create friendships based on anything, except racism. However, if a student was raised to believe in morals such as only valuing their own race, then that is their business and no one else's. I have friends outside of my race and I have friends within my own race. Who's to tell me that I need more black friends than white friends? Not BadgerConnect and not anyone else for that matter. A club like BadgerConnect with has NOTHING to do with race is a fantastic idea. A club that puts on social events to promote friends is tremendous. Leave race out of it.
I do not think that establish such a student service called BadgerConnect is a good way to connect students of various racial and ethnic backgrounds together. First of all, such kind of service cannot deal with the problems those students who totally do not want to involve into the connect with students in other racial and ethnic backgrounds have. Students who do not want to talk with or play games with multiracial students will still not come to such kind of program. Secondly, if there is not a good strategy to call people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds to gather, the BadgerConnect may become a totally party for some particular background students, for example, white students. If such a large event or program become someone's private party, it will waste large amounts of money and time with less output. Furthermore, BadgerConnect may do not have the ability in coping with the disrupts among students of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. People of different racial and ethnic backgrounds may have different points of view of political, cultural, economical issues. Quarrels will be easily set up among those students. Moreover, they may even fight with each other on some very serious problems. From that case, if we cannot ensure that we could cope with the disrupts among students, we should avoid such kind of program. Above all, since so many potential problems and threatens, wed better avoid such kind of program called BadgerConnect.
Diversity is a key component of our campus culture, and is definitely something that should be supported and celebrated by everyone. BadgerConnect, however, is not the way to do that. College students are at a critical point in their lives, where the experiences and interactions they have during this formative period has the possibility to shape their persona for the rest of their lives. Another key characteristic of college students is the fact that their anti-authory nature. College is the first time in their lives where they have complete control over pretty much every decision in their life, and if they feel like they are being forced into doing something, it makes them all the more likely to develop a negative attitude about it. Connecting students from different backgrounds is too important to risk giving students a negative attitude about, or make them feel forced into doing something, which is why BadgerConnect, while it has a very important goal and critical mission, is exactly the wrong way to implement that goal.
I think a organization like BadgerConnect would be resourceful for students here at UW-Madison because even though we like to say we have come far from prejudice we still have a ways to go. People can learn that we are all the same, just have a different appearance. My parents are from the Middle East and I obviously look like I am from the Middle East and I have had incidents where people just stare at me and start whispering; talking about me. Just because there are certain people in the world that tend to be extremists, doesnt mean I should be grouped with them. Same example goes for African American people. They are constantly bullied and harassed because we, making a general statement, have this notion in our minds that because they are Black they are bad people. I have met so many African Americans that are really good people. College is about experience and helps the students grow and find themselves as humans in the real world; this program can help the students grow even more. They can show how it doesnt matter where you are from, what color your skin is, who or what you believe in; your still a person on this Earth trying to survive and make it so why would we stop each other from doing that? Thats what discrimination and prejudice does it stops the human race from growing and this program could spread the word and make the world a happier place. Teaching the younger generations about tolerance will surely mean it will pass on to their kids, then their kids; eventually, hopefully getting rid of the intolerance in race.
I believe that BadgerConnect is a great way to integrate different members of our community into one larger, more encompassing group of diverse students. Although I think that this idea is very good, I do believe it should be more than just black and white students that are focused on. With that said, I think BadgerConnect will be beneficial overall to the community. If the events are organized well and the events seem enticing to students in the resident halls, people will attend and the goal of having more diverse groups of friends will be accomplished. I find that in my daily life, although I have a very diverse group of friends, that most people I see walking around together are of the same race. If BadgerConnect is real and lives up to its goal of diversifying the social environments around campus, I think that students, primarily the ones living in residence halls, will begin branching out more. Then again, our society relies heavily on social imprinting nowadays, so students will primarily spend time with those they feel comfortable with (i.e. friends from high school or whomever they think they should hang out with). Overall, I think that BadgerConnect could work, but only to a certain extent. It will be like all of the other similar groups on campus and most likely stay small or fizzle out in a few years.
I think is a great idea for the university to develop such a great connection between black and white students. Since I'm an international student, I often hang out with my own racial group and I also noticed that both white and black people tend to spend much more time with their own racial group than with others. The BadgerConnect will probably not only help develop multicultural awareness in campus, but also benefit others such as international student like me. Besides, its cool to have extra student events such as concerts and game nights. Moreover, we get a chance to know each other better. It creates an opportunity for us to come out of our comfort zones and communicate with people in diverse racial and ethnic groups, which also can broaden our horizons. Meanwhile, events like BadgerConnect can do no harm to us so why not get involved and support the university for a new event.
I support the idea of BadgerConnect. I believe it is a good way to promote the relationship between students with different background. BadgerConnect provides chances for student to establish connection. Some times students do not care about the difference of racial, but they have no chance to express their opinion. Now, there is no such of activities that is aim of building students relationship and there are some segregated phenomenon. students don't mean that, but it happens. I think that might be reasonable because people are likely to talk with people who are similar to them. However, because of this long term split, some misunderstanding might appear. thus, I think BadgerConnect should set a stage for students to speak out their culture to different people. Also, except black students and white students, the group of students from Asian is growing. Due to over focus on racial issue between black and white, people may ignore there is another group and their situation are even worse. Asian students make friends with Asian students and they can not make any progress on English at all. And there is some problems between culture. Since people in America do not really understand todays Asian and the national relations, some people may have bias about Asian. Building Badger Connect is necessary if students from different background are willing to express their opinion and discuss it. I think BadgerConnect should help students get integrated instead of becoming a battlefield where people criticize others culture or tradition. Also, we should pick some topic that students are really interested in. For example, how black think about white and how white think about black. Badger Connect should Find something that is worthy to discuss. It is a great opportunity for people to eliminate biases about different racial, so students who participate should be candid and dare to say their points loudly. Without these biases, students could understand each other and become friends in a long term.
I would like to give an disapproval for the BadgerConnect because of three main points as I mentioned below. First,BadgerConnect is somehow similar with some already existed website UW offered,such as WIN,ISS and etc.Its better to have these websites combined rather than to create a new website.Students are given too much information and resources that they would not think through them and utilize what they already have!A multiple utility website is easy to memorize and click in.Also,it is convenient to find. Second,as I mentioned before,several websites needs a bunch of people to work on and keep them working,its a waste of human resources.BadgerConnect and other websites are run by different departments of people who work separately.Thus,people are not under the same directions and leader.Therefore,websites they designed will become messy and not organized.As a result,students feel confused by entering these websites.They actually are similar!But why are these websites make me so annoying!They probably will not go back to any of this kind of websites any more! Moreover,UW focused too much on website construction but missed the real student life.In my opinion,UW should do some other work to establish friendship and commitment between Black and White students,such as media,poster,newspaper and etc.Providing opportunities for students to know each other is good,but establishing a multicultural and friendly environment for students to live in is much better!
This project is meaningful to all students because students in the campus do spend more time with same racial mates. The overall trend of the 21th century is to have cultures combined and interacted. A giant public university like UWM is an excellent circumstance for people with different backgrounds to learn about each other. Moreover,for an individual, BadgerConnect will expand the range of friends, with which an individual can attach to more various knowledge and perspectives. A member of this program, after spending time with global friends, will be more likely to adapt to the complicated social net during future career.
In my opinion, I prefer the BadgerConnect should be organized because it may make a connection among students with different races and make them know each other culture more deeply. Take myself as an example, I am an international student from China, which means I am Asian. And when I study in Madison, I feel it hard to melt into American culture at the beginning due to communication problems and culture differences, which are usually attributed to the racial and ethnic backgrounds. Therefore, I think building a program BadgerConnect is a wonderful chance for students with different cultural backgrounds from different regions, to know each other more comprehensively and remove the prejudice to other races. Thus, I support BadgerConnect.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is known for its academics and its large campus. Although a large campus comes with many positives, many negative effects occur. One of the negative effects of a large campus is lack of multicultural awareness, and opportunities for students of all racial and ethnic backgrounds to meet, interact, and establish new friendships. To increase multicultural awareness and opportunities, the service BadgerConnect should be established. For some, it is hard to meet people on such a large campus. And for many, it is especially hard to connect and interact with those who have different racial and ethnic backgrounds than your own. BadgerConnect will provide an easy means for interactions through various types of student events such as concerts and game nights. These events will provide all students with the opportunity to meet and interact with those from all sorts of racial and ethnic backgrounds. It is very important that BadgerConnect is established. It will not only help students meet and interact with others from different backgrounds, but BadgerConnect can help students establish life-long friendships. While the emphasis may be on connecting Black and White students, the events don't have to reflect that goal. Students will find that BadgerConnect isn't about specific goals like making Black students and White students friends. There's a bigger picture to be dealt with here. BadgerConnect is about making the University of Wisconsin a diverse social environment where those from all racial and ethnic backgrounds can easily interact. And even more importantly, the events organized by BadgerConnect are about having fun and celebrating this great University we all have come to love. Therefore, BadgerConnect should without a doubt be established. The service will put on fun student events, and encourage interaction between students. Students will have the opportunity to meet, interact, and befriend those with different racial and ethic backgrounds. Ultimately, BadgerConnect will bring this large campus closer together.
The idea of BadgerConnect seems like a great new plan to implement new and exciting social activities around campus. I think that this would be a great way to expand the social horizons of the students at UW Madison and understand and relate to people of different backgrounds. The concerts, games, movies, and events here at the University are already great ways to have fun on weekends or days where we aren't overloaded with schoolwork. I don't see why this new way of planning these events would be negative in any way, other than the effort to create this program. I think that this new idea is a great way to get more people involved in the events around campus and a great way to meet others.
I think that having a program such as BadgerConnect would be very beneficial to the University. It will not only allow students to interact with others cultures to which they might not have been in contact with before, but it will also enhance their overall knowledge about the other culture. This program could also bring about discussions about racial problems that students have in the university, and be a starting point to decreasing them. While already living as a Senior on Campus, I think that the University lacks many social groups that interact with people of other races, cultures and religions. Though we all interact with one another on an academic level, their is an invisible line that comes once classes are over and everyone returns home. By adapting this new service people will be able to learn more about other cultures that they usually don't interact with, and along with that learn more about what they have to offer. Secondly, I have noticed that every once in a while there are troubles between races that still occur on campus. Last year there was the frat that threw beer bottles and called racist slurs at two African American girls that passed by their house. By installing this program, events such as these would be less frequent and would make our Madison community closer to one another. Overall, this would be a fantastic program to implement!!
I strongly support BadgerConnect. Through this kind of program, students with different background can exchange their own culture experience and expand every students outlook. Moreover, for non-native students, they have a good access to American culture and they can find a way to quickly involve in this environment. Students can gain friendship here, which is one of the most important things in life. Finally, various campus activities really make students life colorful.
BadgerConnect is a great way for students of different ethnic backgrounds to meet and become friends. From what I have seen on the UW-Madison campus, not many students go outside of their ethnic group to make friends. Part of this problem is that there are not many organizations or events for the people of these different ethnic backgrounds to meet, and so it is almost impossible for them to become friends. BadgerConnect would enable students of different ethnic backgrounds to reach out of their usual friend group to meet different types of people from different backgrounds. BadgerConnect would help people of different ethnicities to meet and bond over common ground, for example, a mutual liking of a certain band or style of music. BadgerConnect provides the starting point for these relationships. BadgerConnect allows people to meet that under current circumstances would probably not have met otherwise. This will allow increase the diversity throughout campus. Increased diversity would be an increased understanding of different ethnic backgrounds. This understanding would allow people to be more patient and less judgmental of people who come from a different background as them. Overall, BadgerConnect is a great way for people of different ethnic backgrounds to meet, become friends, and learn about the differences and similarities between them. Overall, BadgerConnect would be a great service to the UW-Madison campus.
Personally, its a good way to develop the friendship between different races of students. As an international student, its not easy for me to get over physical and psychological differences until now. I think the main reason its the lack of information. Better interpersonal communication can helps me to get used to the life at Madison. American students can introduce their cultural or entertainment activities and an international student like me can also introduce mu hometown to other members of BadgerConnect. However, the function of creating BadgerConnect can be quiet inefficient. As far as I know, we already have different clubs or organization which aim to develop and connect students together. Some of them are great but the other may only include part of students who share same nationality. the thing we need to do now is not to create a new thing. we should upgrade the existed organization. Otherwise, its only a way to waste our time and money.
I believe BadgerConnect is a good but not a very successful way of bringing different communities together as most of the students who participate in such communities are those who are actually interested in forming such bonds. They already interact with other students from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds and this community will not help in creating any awareness in people who are not aware or interested in overcoming such differences. The mail goal of BadgerConnect will only be met when the students who are actually against interacting with other social groups join it and come out with a whole new perspective about the other communities.
Though BadgerConnect is attempting to build a positive interracial community, it may instead prove to be costly and to have a minimal effect on the overall campus attitude. The university would be foolish to spend its resources on something with low chance of success. This program will be costly and time consuming. While BadgerConnect may be worth it if the intended outcome is produced, it will be a huge waste of resources if it fails. There is not only the monetary value that each event will cost but there is also extensive planning that goes into these types of events. Most students, after their first two or three weeks attending UW Madison, already have formed their friend group. Being so, if BadgerConnect did have a reasonable or good number of students show up, there is a small chance of the different cliques interacting and forming relationships. This is a sad but true fact and needs to be taken into consideration. Different races may be represented at the events making it look statistically successful, but it would be misleading compared to the actual interactions taking place at the events. BadgerConnect will ultimately be a disappointment and instead of learning from a mistake, i strongly encourage the university to avoid making one in the first place.
BadgerConnect would provide many opportunities for people to socialize with their peers. We are all on the same campus and should connect with one another. the more people are connected with one another the better their experience at UW-Madison will be. These events will allow people to meet others and interact with people in a non-learning environment. These might be people that you would normally not interact with normally. These events will provide a place where students can meet new people and just hang out. The events would be entertaining and run as well. The events would push people to interact with and maybe form long-term friends with people of the opposite race. These events would make campus a place where race would no longer play a role in anything at all. We would see inter-racial friendships, which isn't as common as most people believe. We would be setting an example for the rest of the schools in the United States.
I believe that the concept of BadgerConnect would not have a strong response on the Madison campus. While having a fun and social organization that helps students make friends sounds like a great idea, students are not going to want to participate in something that is simply there to embrace multicultural awareness. It is not because students have necessarily anything against other ethnicities but the majority of students would rather spend their time choosing their own activities, and making their own friends (regardless of race). I am currently an activity director at a resident hall on campus. At the resident hall, there are many events offered that promote racial and multicultural awareness. No matter how fun the activity is, only the students that are forced to go make an appearance. Only a small percentage of students on campus would want to join an organization that would take their time to learn about other types of people. As sad as that fact is, students would rather go do activities that they know are going to be fun and that do not have a lesson behind them. A smarter idea would be for BadgerConnect to act solely as a group on campus that brings more fun to students. If BadgerConnect could actually bring in bands and activities that would be seriously appealing to students, then BadgerConnect would be able to bring together students from all aspects of life and multicultural relationships would happen naturally.
BadgerConnect could have a tremendous impact on the way that students at UW-Madison interact. The organization of student events that people actually want to attend would help increase the participation from students across campus. I think that concerts, game nights, and other activities would help racially diverse people come together and make friendships because when they attend the event, they know that they share the same interests as other people that are also there. The creation of a fun social environment that BadgerConnect promises to create would be a prime opportunity for these friendships to begin and flourish. In my experience thus far at Madison, black and white integration seems to be a problem. Many black and white students do not engage in conversations with each other on a daily basis. I am not sure what the exact reason for this would be, but I think BadgerConnect has an opportunity to fix the separation of the two ethnic backgrounds. Most students here on campus do not have a problem with talking to people of other backgrounds, but simply do not have the opportunity. The events put on by BadgerConnect could give them this opportunity and allow them to have fun at the same time. I would love to see BadgerConnect organizing student events for all students to participate in. If enough people know about it, I am sure that there will be a good turnout.
Badgers are about being diverse and welcoming anyone into their lives with open arms.Badgers are a combination of diverse groups gathered to achieve the same goal, a goal to unify our knowledge and broaden our horizons. BadgerConnect seems like a great way to connect individuals in ways that will do such this. Although being a badger not only includes members from the black and white communities. Being a badger means you can come from anywhere in the world, which truly broadens our horizons. Badger connect should not only focus on two backgrounds, black and whites, but should focus more on the world as a whole. Badger connect should focus on the world as we are taught to be so open to all different backgrounds. Having a particular goal of focusing on only blacks and whites will in a sense be teaching us everything we already know. BadgeCconnect should be focused on gathering people of all ethnic backgrounds with a particular focus on making sure everywhere feels welcome to the Badger community. Badger connect should focus on involving everyone and focusing on teaching students about culture and the background of every different ethnic study so our understandings of the people around us on campus can broaden. BadgerConnect seems like a great way to meet new individuals you would never before have come across in your life, but their should be no focus on only two backgrounds. There should be a fair ratio of all students from all over the world. University of Wisconsin- Madison is one of the most diverse schools, but yet a lot of the students do not even realize this. This should be a clear indication of the fact that something needs to be done and more individuals should be getting involved to expand their knowledge on the world. Even though this is another way for students to get involved, deep down it will be the individuals own choice to participate in Badger connect. This participation needs to come from the individual wanting to express these interests and being apart of BadgerConnect can truly make them want to be involved. BadgerConnect has many positives but deep down wont it be like any other class or organization? Only people who seem interested will take it, BadgerConnect needs to reach out to all individuals and not just put a focus on blacks and whites.
Building a Bridge Between Cultures One of the important goals of college life is to broaden ones horizon. In this more and more globalized world, we need to interact with people from different cultural backgrounds and cooperate with them. BadgerConnect is a valuable opportunity for university students to promote multicultural awareness and enhance cooperative spirit. First, students can have a close look at cultures different from their own through events provided by BadgerConnect. Understanding about others cultures help students learn to respect.Mutual understanding and respect are the foundations of future cooperation. Second, understanding of cultures different from ones own leads to the reflection of ones own culture. We can better understand ourselves from learning about the outside world especially those things that are different from our past experiences and habits. We may find the advantages and disadvantages of our own culture and realize the positive and negative influences of our culture on our development. In all, BadgerConnect builds a bridge between students from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. This kind of connection and communication may not be easily achieved in students everyday lives. Thus, it is a program worthwhile organizing and participating.
BadgerConnect is an organization that hopes to connect UW-Madison students of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds through the use of social environments. While at first glance this may appear to be beneficial, it in fact, in my opinion, will actually be detrimental rather than helpful. My opinion is shaped by the diverse connections I already see occurring, as well as, the idea that this group would only increase awareness of diversity. To begin, I will discuss the fact that there is diverse intermingling already occurring on our campus. In my opinion, UW-Madison does not have a majority race that attends this university, rather we are a melting pot of all cultures and ethnicities. Our high academic standards have drawn in many people from around the globe. Here at UW-Madison we have students from all over the globe. There are students from the United States, China, Australia, South America, etc. All of these races and ethnicities bring something new to our community of students. As I go about my daily life, I realize more and more how we mingle with different types of people each and every day. In a single lecture hall there may be as many as 10 different races or ethnicities present. Therefore, I feel that we already work together and create friendships across races at this institution. We are given many opportunities to work along side and partner with people of various backgrounds each and every day. For example, sitting in a coffee shop the other day, I saw a young Asian girl working with a young Caucasian boy on a project perfectly fine. In short, we already have cultural awareness and acceptance at our school. Equally important, I feel as though by creating a group that specifically addresses this topic, we are actually making it a big deal rather than helping the situation. If everyone on this campus is already working together and functioning as one, why would we want to further agitate an already settled topic? Most students on campus who have an increased multicultural awareness are already mingling with the students of different ethnicities. Additionally, those who are racist or merely do not wish to work with or get to know those people of different backgrounds already refuse to work along side others and would not attend these activities anyways. Thus, those who are already accepting of others would be the only ones attending these functions, rather than those who we would actually like to affect through these programs. Ultimately, we should not implement this program as it would really do no good for our growing community at UW-Madison. It would be detrimental and would only create problems rather than solve them. The people who refuse to accept others wont change their minds regarding this topic merely from this program. Thus, this program would not be a good fit for our university.
It is important to develop and support multicultural awareness services like BadgerConnect, especially at a big university like UW-Madison. Some people want to connect with other students from different ethnic backgrounds but never have the opportunity or know about student events that promote racial diversity. Therefore, it is critical to have a student service like BadgerConnect that will keep students informed about events and promote multicultural awareness. If the students are more involved with multicultural events, they will generally be more successful in working in a multicultural or a diverse racial environment. These students will be more open-minded and accepting of different cultures. If a resource like BadgerConnect is made available to students, then we may see more diverse racial and multicultural friendships and awareness on the university campus.
In my opinion, the events like BadgerConnect is unnecessary especially when it has the background of connecting white and black students together. first of all, students might be pressured when they are attending the program. more students are attending the program to have fun, not for the purpose to connect white and black together. if that is the purpose, there will be some students who are not interested and feel like the whole program is a racist program. secondly, i do not think it is a good idea to put such a racist goal as a purpose for the university even though it starts with a good intention. i do not think as a university, we should not try this hard to try to solve the problem by using a strongly purposed event. my suggestion is that change the purpose to let us all have fun and send the invitation to all white, black, yellow, brown students and if students are having fun, they will disregard the fact that they are in different racist. to conclude, i do not think it is a good idea to put students in the pressure to social with different racist of group, especially when the purpose of the event gave to students the feeling of  in-group and  out-group. Again i think when student do not feel pressured and having fun with a different racist, they are more likely to social more with them.
I do not believe that BadgerConnect will be beneficial to the University of Wisconsin Madison. While it would stimulate friendships between individuals of varying races, I believe that these new friendships should occur naturally. In the work force or in every day activities, people have to learn how to get along and accept each other on their own. They are not encouraged to join a club to promote acceptance of differences. I believe that this service would force students to get along, without solving the true problems regarding racial inequality. Secondly, students should be allowed to become friends with whoever they want. The University itself is extremely diverse. There are individuals of varying races in your classes, housing, jobs, sports teams, or clubs. It is through these environments that students learn to work with those that are different from them and create new friendships. Overall, I think that the idea of BadgerConnect is good; however, the environment is not true to what students will actually experience in the real world.
Although I do think this could work as a method to promote multicultural awareness, I do not think students should be forced to do such a thing as part of an ethnic studies course. I personally would not wish to partake in such this service. People have their own opinions and should not be forced or even be expected to do such activities. If students wish to branch out and connect with other cultures they can make that decision on their own. They should not be expected to interact with other cultures if they do not choose to. I guess I'm not really against the idea of BadgerConnect as a whole as much as I am against it being part of an ethnic studies course. To just simply supply a service where students of different cultures would be fine, but with as many things as there already are to do on campus I don't see how this service would be much different.
While the idea of BadgerConnect, which is promoting diversity by helping students to learn about each other seems nothing new, such process is essential especially for early years of college students, who are presumably going through a significant transition. It seems innocuous if this program is carefully planned and conducted accordingly in ways that do not promote stereotyping against different cultural groups. In fact, promoting communication is often helpful in resolving any misunderstanding between distinctive groups who don't have a lot of opportunities to interact each other. Even though the result of such effort is not often easy to tell, despite the fact that there has been a lot of effort historically in this campus to motivate students to learn about the differences between cultural groups, such as many first-week welcome events, this should be a continuing strive as a part of college experience.
BadgerConnect is a great way for people to connect with people of different backgrounds, cultures and races. College is a new experience for everyone, and everyone who attends UW-Madison comes from a different background and has different experiences. College is about gaining new experiences and although the ethnic studies requirement does get students to think about different culture, BadgerConnect would simulate an environment that is more like the work-environment where people don't get lectured by professors on the history of races and cultures but more personal based experiences and stories from their peers. BadgerConnect would also force students to step out of their bubbles to experience the world around them through their peers and as a result establish relationships that may not have occurred otherwise. Overall, BadgerConnect is a excellent way to get students to be more open-minded by considering and respecting the backgrounds of those around them.
From what I can tell, BadgerConnect would be a social setting to mix different cultural groups in an environment that is comfortable for all. I think this is a strong idea because although racial discrimination has technically been resolved for many decades, I still see lingering effects every day in my surroundings. I think that our society is not as equal as we like to think that it is, and BadgerConnect would help to strive towards the picture we have in our minds. I think that one of the reasons people tend to avoid interracial associations is that they are unknown and intimidating for some. An organized setting would soften these feelings and perhaps make the mixing easier, allowing people to gain the assurance to interact in their own lives. In addition to this, associating with people of different racial groups who may have come from different backgrounds is a way of learning on its own. I have been a dancer since I was three, and having been required to take African, Mediterranean, Irish, French, and American dance classes, among several others, I have been exposed to the backgrounds as well. Even in such a confined setting as a dance studio, the amount you can learn from another culture applies to everyday life in more ways than one. I think that taking this to a social setting in something like BadgerConnect would be beneficial to everyone that participated in it.
With such a diverse, beautiful campus it is a true shame that there is still a lack of integration. Where Madison has numerous opportunities, it is seems clear that there should be a service which encourages the meeting of new people, regardless of skin color. BadgerConnect, based on the concept of bringing different races together to build community amongst the students, is a great idea. Although I believe any organization that aims to instill a strong bond between students is crucial for a college experience, BadgerConnect idea to use recreation events to have various ethnic backgrounds get to know each other better is admirable. I believe BadgerConnect would be beneficial to this university, with one recommendation; the addition of other ethnicities. Our campus could use a club that focuses on garnering a better understanding of other students backgrounds without it being in a classroom setting. The marketing of this club would have to be done tactfully, but I do believe it would be a successful group, especially during welcome week when students are looking to meet new people etc. This campus is spread out much farther than just white and black and the those limitations tarnish the services integrity as multicultural awareness. Being someone that loves the opportunity to meet new people, the opportunities BadgerConnect could offer would be phenomenal. I would vouch for this service entirely.
As diverse as the University may feel, this diversity will be nothing great without unity. Often institutions, organizations, etc boast about their diversity but what good does this do when there is no unity? If there is no encouragement for unity, this diverse campus simply falls into an average high school lunchroom. Cliques form in general populations, as will homophiles on this campus. This defeats the purpose of having diversity and in fact seems more like a facade that the university is showing off. Without unity in diversity, there is no exchange of new ideas, or open-mindedness. We are simply conversing with the same type of people we are familiar with. With BadgerConnect, there would be a facilitation of students connecting with other students from different backgrounds. Many ethnic minorities in America already face assimilation, because of this many hold two different cultures, their native culture and the American culture. Here at UW, we would like to feel safe and racially sensitive but it has been evident that there are many Caucasian-American students who hold extreme prejudice for other races, and ethnic groups. This has been seen through social media, such as the popular UW-Confessions. Although this webpage has no affiliations with UW itself, it does strongly reflect its students. Furthermore there have been events on campus that have heavily affected minority students, such as the human-like doll hung from the porch of a house. This image itself is horrific, it dispels any idea of belonging to a university for minority students. To combat these issues, I believe that ethnic studies requirements are essential for racial sensitivity. With BadgerConnect there could be a greater understanding of other cultures for student in the campus. Interactions between diverse racial backgrounds can create a safer environment for all UW students. Creating new friendships can possibly absolve discrimination and prejudice that students may hold of each other and with that there would be room for greater productivity on campus.
This idea for a BadgerConnect group to bring students of different ethnic backgrounds together would be beneficial to University of Wisconsin in many different ways. The program would be a great way for students to get involved in something outside of classes that can be their stress reliever from school. Being involved in this program would also be a great way to make friends. The BadgerConnect program would be beneficial to students because it would be a great outlet for them to go to outside of classes as a stress reliever. This organization would be larger than a small student run club and could provide for many more students at one time, including students of all ethnicities. Having this organization on campus would open up new doors for students who want to get involved with on campus activities while having fun and interacting with students who may have different cultural backgrounds. The activities put on by BadgerConnect would be a great way for students to relieve stress from school and to spend time with people of all ethnicities. This organization would have a huge impact on freshman because it would be a great way for them to make friends. People who join in on the activities would have opportunities to talk to people that they might not live with or who they wouldn't strike conversation with normally. The events that could be put on by this program could bring students together and allow for new friendships and intermingling between different ethnic groups.
Although some would argue that learning is the main focus of college, friendship is also an incredibly important factor to ones life, as it builds social outputs and learning connections. This being said, BadgerConnect would be a good program to implement at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, because it will promote friendship across racial barriers which are not always the easiest to overcome. This program would allow students of different races to gather, enjoy themselves, and meet others at a variety of different events, such as concerts and game nights. This would only strengthen the ideas of unity and friendship throughout the campus, something a large university like UW-Madison could use. Not only would the program promote friendship, but also the classroom and learning relationships the come with it. By having more friends or acquaintances in class with you, it would greatly relieve the stress of being alone or withdrawn from classroom discussions. This could be seen in classrooms across campus, largely influencing a growth in the intellectual presence at UW-Madison. BadgerConnect would be a great program to implement at this university as it provides just another option to create new relationship to benefit one socially or intellectually.
I would support university to develop BadgerConnect. From personal experience, I, an Asian student, have been in UW-Madison for half a year. What I have seen is that there are less black people than white people. However, every time I saw black people and white people either working or talking with each other, they seem really friendly to each other. Some,I can tell, are intimate friends. In other words, I think people in Madison are not racial, at least from what i have seen. But I am still agree with this plan, not due to the aspect of reducing racism. Because black people and white people, obviously have different culture. By organizing BadgerConnect, people will have chance to know others culture. People from different culture may have different views on a same issue, so to know differences in the culture can help students to understand others, especially those who are not from their culture. I have been in a similar program which is to help international students know more about American culture by assigning them American partners. From this program, I really had the chance to know better about what the American life is like and how different the way we think about the same issue is. Therefore, I think BadgerConnect can truly promote multicultural awareness.
I believe that BadgerConnect would bring together multicultural students in a positive way. Being that the events will be fun and exciting, it would make it easy for black and white students to integrate and gain multicultural awareness. As long as the events are diverse and are not repetitive and boring, BadgerConnect would definitely be a successful organization. I also feel as though it would be an organization that would promote participation from the students. It has the potential to become a large organization on campus because it is not something that would require students to donate a lot of their time. It would be something brand new and different, so it will inspire curiosity from the students and hopefully inspire them to join BadgerConnect. The only downfall to this organization would be the potential difficulty in establishing an equal ratio of black and multicultural to white students. In order for this organization to be successful, it would help to not include the description of particularly black and white students because it may drawback multicultural students who are not black. BadgerConnect will need to specify whether or not students of different races and backgrounds are eligible to participate.
I do not believe that a new student service to connect black and white students is necessary. I think that the university is much more diverse that just black and white students. If there was going to be a service like this created I think that it should be aimed at all races not just two (since there are a wide diversity on campus). Having the group focus on two races may make the other races feel unimportant. Personally, I do not see a problem with race segregation or exclusion on the university and if there was a problem, I do not think that creating a service such as this would change anything. Also, creating a service that aims to unite the two groups would be implying that there is an issue on campus as far as racism goes, which I do not believe is true!Overall, I do not support BadgerConnect because it would be only focused on two races (making the others feel less important) and it brings up an issue that I do not think exists.
I think that BadgerConnect would be a very good way to bring different students of diverse racial and ethic backgrounds together. This can promote unity and a connection on a deeper level amongst different groups, especially black and white students. Madison is has over 50% white students and less than 30% black. Each ethnic group tends to stick and group with their kind, while this is natural, BadgerConnect can help change this and create a more unified group of multicultural students that stick with each other regardless of race. In addition, BadgerConnect raises the awareness of the importance of achieving diversity within our community. Black and whites go to this school and it only makes sense that everyone learns the goodness in all of the different groups. A lot of people that I have met here have been raised in a community that is predominantly from their own ethnic group, with several exceptions. For example, some of my dorm mates went to an all guys, private high school; they claimed their school was 95% white people, with 2 Asians and 1 Black kid (not accurate, but just an example). It is safe to say that most, if not all, of their friends are white. It would be more eye-opening and beneficial to these white dorm mates of mine to be exposed to what other ethnic groups deal with and how they have lived their lives. Diversity is one of the ideas founded in America. Incorporating colored people and women into the big picture was one of the greatest things that has been done so far. So wouldn't it just make sense to create an organization like BadgerConnect to unify the students of our university as a way of living out what our country made possible?
BadgerConnect provides students from different ethnic background and area the same opportunity to have a better understanding about people from different group. And this effort will largely promote harmony and understanding among people. I've learned during psychology class that if people from different group can cooperate and get the opportunity to know each other, the communication will be easier and stereotype left or learned can be changed. All the events are aimed at encouraging friendship while have fun. Once you know people from different group its much easier to get to know other people from that group who are strangers to you. On the campus, we can see multicultural expression all over the place. For UW-Madison, its a proper place to be the advance in connecting people because its basically a small world where promotion of understanding and helping happens.
In my opinion, the purpose of BadgerConnect is really thoughtful. The university is full of student that are different races and came from different cultures.i think through BadgerConnect, student will be more connected to each other. As i see in the university, minority student tend to hang out with their friends that are their own race.As we know there are not many Black student in this school, sometimes it will be hard for black student to find friends that are their own race.If BadgerConnect organize events suck as concerts and game nights, more people will join and they will be able to meet new friends that share similar interests with them there.BadgerConnect provides a place for Black student or even any student to meet new friends. Once BadgerConnect is established, more people will be aware of the issue of racial interaction. They will try to be friend with student that are from different ethnic background.
Personally I think this is a not a good idea to establish such an service in university for two reasons. First of all, the aim of this service is to develop some new friendship between white and black students, but that means we have already admitted the difference situation black and white students are facing. Like feminists, who always want to win equal opportunities for women as men, are actually and subconsciously admitting that women are being treated unequal and weaker than men. So even out of protection, feminists had already put women at an unequal position firstly. Likewise, if university of Wisconsin Madison is going to offer BadgerConnect, that means we are admitting the difference between white and black students. Secondly, racial and ethnic backgrounds are cultural issues, which basically cannot be changed easily. If the University want students from different cultural backgrounds to have some communications about their racial and ethnic habits, they might should let all students who have different races join the service together, not just black and white. Besides, the aim of this service is too direct. If black and white students have already know that they are putting together aiming to build up friendship, this service might oppositely lead to some negative consequence. So due to there two reasons, the BadgerConnect should not be held. If the university want to create a better relationship between students have different races, they should not just confine the race to be black and white.
It is important to connect students of different racial backgrounds together. First, as an international student, when I first came to America, I felt a strong culture clash which made me panic and have no idea what I should do. By BadgerConnect program, more international students could get help and adapt themselves to the environment better. Moreover, by helping students of different racial backgrounds establish friendships, students could know more about different cultures and races, which can reduce the racial discrimination and ethnic issues as well. The program is good for multicultural communication.
I personally support the BadgerConnect. This is because this service can help students to build new friendship and decrease the discrimination of African American. Moreover, the events that BadgerConnect would host, such as game nights, can release students from heavy study and let them have more fun. Last but not the least, the BadgerConnect can spreed out the idea of equality of each races. However, as the description said, BadgerConnect is now focusing particularly Black and White students. As an international student, i hope the BadgerConnect can pay more attention on other races, such as Asian students. There are also many bias and discrimination happened on Asian students while the Black discrimination is getting much better than before.
I don't feel BadgerConnect, such a student service program is not really needed in UW-Madison at this point. First of all,there are already some organizations and programs which aims to link students from different racial and ethnic backgrounds together existing, such as Bridge. Bridge holds a lot of events, workshops and activities every semester. Also, there are many other organizations on campus, too. Students are encouraged to join in those organizations, and since UW-Madison has students coming from different races, all the students can get many opportunities to interact with others with different skin colors. Secondly, in my opinion, i don't see the point that the aim of BadgerConnect is to between relationships between whites and blacks. It has been so many years since black students and white students can go the same school together and get education equally. Many white students have good friends who are black people, and many black people have friends who are white. Many of them have already built up close relationships. If the university implements BadgerConnect, it would just make white students and black students feel that they differ from each other. Thirdly, implement a new program requires human resource and all kinds of supplements. And obviously hiring employees and reserving places for events need money from the school budget, which i don't believe using the budget to build BadgerConnect is a wise choice.
I would think BadgerConnect is a good idea. First, sometimes its easier to make friends through games, competitions and activities, especially with those people different from ourselves.In a competition or such, the partner is usually randomly chosen, so the participants would not stick together with those people they know, they will get to some random people, to say, strangers, instead. And the strangers are very likely to be some one completely new. And through competition or activities, the team members have to work together, cooperate with each other and also get to know each other, which leads to more understanding of the members and also build the foundation of friendship. Even if they end up not being friends, the participants sill get to know something new about people. In addition to that, people like those with the same feather. It is common that people tend to make friends with those similar to themselves. With common family background, interest, cultural background, and life experience, communication is easier and friendship is then easily established. Also, people may feel uncomfortable to get to those different and unknown. Because they don't know the other group, they may feel afraid or nervous, which is out of their control but unnecessary. Therefore, I think BadgerConnect is a good idea, which provides students with a free and open environment to know another group of people, establish friendship and have fun.
I believe BadgerConnect is a really good guiding star that may lead the university to a more global or divers campus for everyone. For me, as a Asian, I sometimes feel hard to involve with white community, though I am a good English speaker, so I know there must be barrier between black and white community too.The barrier is invisible but also horrible. Same as my high school, Asians always play with Asians, Whites always play with Whites,and Blacks always play with blacks.It constants the idea of multi culture community that we have tried to build. I think BadgerConnect will a fantastic solution for this particular problem, and I know there are many previous successful programs, in other high school, or college, which work really well. Why do we just take a chance and see if there are any benefits.
I am against BadgerConnect. Because if we know that these events are especially based on our racial and ethnic backgrounds, it will influence our decision to participate or not. The idea of the event gives me a feeling that white students are helping black students instead of we are helping each other and learn from each other. As an international student, I will think the white students are in majority and they are more likely want to know me just because I come from a different background instead of who I really am. But I can get to know the white students background in my daily campus life. I don't need a special event for me to find where are the white students. Also I think the basis of different racial backgrounds will influence white students participation decision as well.
Personally speaking, I think developing BadgerConnect is a really good idea. First of all, people from the same country are always hanging out together due to the reason that they are more likely to have common hobbies. Thus, BadgerConnect can provide lots of opportunities to gather people together and share their interest by organizing a party for girls to chat with others or sport or game night for boys to share their hobbies. For my personal experience, the Chinese organization at Madison is CUSA and i had made lots of friends on the basketball game it had organized at NAT. Therefore, i think BadgerConnect will achieve this goal as well. Secondly, BadgerConnect can organize study groups for students. For example, i have been struggling with psychology during this semester but my American classmates are doing really good. In contrast, Chinese students might do better at math or science. Thus, by organizing study groups, BadgerConnect can not only help students with their studies, but also help students make more friends. I think organizing game nights is useful because people are going there for fun not for other things. Also, organizing some sport games like soccer or tennis might be useful as well.
I truly agree with the launch of BadgerConnect. As I've observed, students on campus tend to hang out and mingle with their own ethnicity groups. Its not a very good phenomenon, one reason is that racial problem is among the biggest issues in America and the segregation of racial ethnicity groups wont help the improvement of racial problem, rather will increase it. Another reason is that the segregation will prevent students from learning a broader perspective about culture or ways of thinking. America is multi-cultural country, it has the potential to let every ethnicity group to mingle together, communicate and learn from each other. As to these reasons,i think BadgerConnect is a brilliant ideas which can increase the communication between white, African America, Hispanic and Asian American students. Therefore, the communication and understanding among these ethnicity groups will not only reduces the intense of many current racial discrimination, but also helps white American students more open-minded. And at the meantime, BadgerConnect will help all ethnicity groups students establish a healthier, more friendly and diverse web connect on campus.
I am for BadgerConnect. University of Wisconsin-Madison is such a big school, students can get lost easily in a massive amount of information. For example, I receive emails from the business school, ISS, my residence hall, and all the student organizations that I am involved in. Some of the information in these emails are the same, so I get lost track of events easily. It will be really nice if something like BadgerConnect can put together a event page, so I wont miss or misunderstand of what's going on at school. Also, meeting people with different background is very interesting to me. Within my clubs, I usually meet people that have a similar background as mine. I would love to meet people from different cultures and interact with them. If students all understand each other better, we can have a better environment on campus. Overall, I really like the idea of BadgerConnect.
From my point of view, BadgerConnect will definitely strength the connection between students from all racial and ethnic backgrounds. From BadgerConnect, students not only can get information of their own race and ethnic background, more importantly, they can know what are other students doing. One advantage of BadgerConnect is that the life of all students are more connected if there is a certain service that putting all the student event together. Students can choose activities they like from the service regardless different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Another advantage it has is having more common events and activities among all students groups, some doubts and questions towards students from other races and ethnic backgrounds can be answers automatically with the process of events.I am sure that many students, like me, are curious about how the life of students from other races like. Do they think differently than I do or we share the common sense? BadgerConnect is absolutely a good tool for these doubts to be solved. On the one hand,students will have more chances to be aware of different cultures and know more details about them. On the other hand, after knowing about more cultures, students will definitely be more respectful of certain cultures.The more understanding we have towards another culture, the more we will think from their aspects and thus build up a better relationship among all different racial and ethnic backgrounds.
I think it is a very good idea, not only for the native people, but also for international people. Normally, people who are from different countries and cultures are quite hard to interact, because of the culture shock or language barrier, BadgerConnect would offer a very good opportunity to students to communicate and make friends. Secondly, some black students only hang out with other black students, because they might not be confident or might feel uncomfortable to hang out with white students, BadgerConnect would give them a good platform to know each other, make those black students feel UW-Madison is a big family.
I am in favor of BadgerConnect. It will provide students great opportunities to make new friends from different racial and ethnic background. As we all know, society today is multicultural and it is vital for us to make connection with others. Not only can students establish new friendship but also they can learn about different culture. The service links Black and White students together and can let them know more about each other. It might be a little uncomfortable for some students at first. In this situation, it is more necessary to make this kind of connection. Learning about different culture can enrich the knowledge and make students become more social. It also helps develop the communication skills. Students need to learn how to interact with one another, because at most times cooperation is important for a task completion instead of finishing it alone. Besides, it can help reduce racist. Black and White students are having fun together and it can change prejudice. It is a good way to advocate the equality. As for me, I am an international student too and I think the service is a good way to interact students from different cultural groups.
As for building a social network, which is known as BadgerConnect throughout the university, the first thing I came out is that it is an opportunity for students, to better communicate with each other. Being an user of BadgerConnect, you can jump out of your social cycle and find some new friendships and know people who share common interest, or attend the same course with you. Even more, you can interact with the professor or faulty (if they are one of the BadgerConnect users ). However, with many benefits this social net work might bring, I have some concerns about the risks of BadgerConnect. First of all, how the the BadgerConnect keep users personal information? Is that possible that the users information might be giving off outside of BadgerConnect? As an user of one of the biggest a Chinese social networks, the Sina microblog, I heard that my privacy information is shared by some ads company. Even though I do not whether they have the rights to do such a thing, I really do not like the feeling that my privacy is shared to others whom I do not know. Secondly, I am concerning that BadgerConnect would not be necessary to exist since there are several big networks, such as Facebook or Linkden. These social networks are covering the services that BadgerConnect could bring, and they even can serve far more that BadgerConnect are incapable to reach. For example, if I need to choose be an user of Facebook or BadgerConnect, I probably would go with the formal one. Perhaps I am not a big fan of the social networks. So I prefer to use one for daily use. I probably would be a Facebook user, why? Because I can know activities or new friends in the campus, moreover, I can know people who are outside of this University. The BadgerConnect obviously provide limited service and sources comparing to other big well-functioning social networks.
I think that BadgerConnect could have a positive impact on the UW-Madison community. As of right now I am not aware of many organizations which offer a service such as this, and I believe the university is in need of such a program. By organizing fun events such as concerts and game nights, this organization would likely draw a great deal of interest from students. Multicultural awareness is something that all students could benefit from. I would assume that a great deal of students would be interested in establishing new friendships with students of all races, and this organization would help connect them. While there is a great deal of diversity within the dorms and classes. It seems as though the majority of students stay within a small social group and don't branch out to meet people of other races. I have met a number of students in my dorm who are from a foreign country and they say that they don't always feel confident with their speaking skills or knowledge of American culture to approach strangers. This organization would be especially beneficial to them, because they would be placed in a friendly environment where they would feel more comfortable talking to and meeting new people. Overall, I am completely in favor of BadgerConnect and would like to see it developed in the near future.
it is a good idea to establish such a service. an American-born-Chinese once told me that they always want to find Chinese to play together. However, they do not where and how to find them. I think this will be a problem for a lot of people. Another reason is that for some people they are too shy to play with people who are different, and also because they are afraid of culture problems. Thus, a student service will help those people to overcome those situations.
I believe it is a good idea to promote organizations to link students from multicultural backgrounds. However, I think there is a lot of organization in the UW-Madison having the same purpose. It is not necessary for school to spend more money on the things for same purposes. In my experience, I took part in the BRIDGE which is an program held by ISS. In the BRIDGE, I knew a lot of friend from all over the world. It is no interesting to know what others think about other cultural backgrounds think about. In the meantime, I believe the racial difference is not much emphasized. Moreover, I knew a lot of those kind of social organizations in the school. I believe it is not necessary to build another one. Moreover, I don't think it is a good way to emphasize the racial difference, which will make the Badger Connect seems intentional. It will always remind us there is different ethnic background between us which is not a good way for the original intention.
Well, i think it is a good idea. It is fun event that every one could participate and it also enriches the diversity of the campus. Even though the era of racial segregation has passed, many people still hold some biased opinions towards certain social group. The BadgerConnect may be a good way to eliminates those wrong conceptions and facilitate communication.
I am strongly favor of BadgerConnect. Since I am a student from China, which is a country consists of many races, I deeply understand the importance of getting along with all the population. Although different people have different social and cultural background, it is the mix of culture that can bring us different perspectives on issues. In the process of getting to know each others cultures we may find ourselves interested in some part of the other cultures. By admiring various cultures their cultures got spread, and in return we can also spread out the good part of our culture.In addition, we can also solve the misunderstanding and confusion that we both have. For example, some students do not understand why Christian is such a big thing in here. University of Wisconsin-Madison is certainly a huge campus and students cultural background varied. Thus developing BadgerConnect can bring students that didn't have a chance to talk to talk to different people before together, and create an warm environment for them to socialize and speak out. I know from my experience that Chinese student tend to be together with Chinese as well. Although it is understanding that hanging out with people from the same country is more comfortable, sometimes in our life we have to step out our comfort zone;to see from the big picture. But since there are already some clubs in the university that have the same purpose as BadgerConnect, I think the BadgerConnect can regroup those clubs, absorb the good ideas that they have, and become a more organized and more influential organization.
In my opinion, the BadgerConnect is a good way for blacks and whites to get familiar with each other and make friends. As we all know, the people from different backgrounds are harder to make friends than those from the same background. And Sometimes, even if we want to explore their world, its not easy to find a chance for it. And BadgerConnect provides us a good way to get connect with each other and make more friends from other culture backgrounds. And I'm one of the MLC, multicultural learning community, I think its fun and necessary. Sometimes, they are not friends just because there isn't a chance for them to get involved in these connection. Its interesting to work or play with whites, blacks and Asians in the same time. And since each ethnic has its own advantages, like Asians are good at math, its a good way for us to find someone to help us with problems. And since its not a forced program, just the ones who want to get to know others from other backgrounds will take part in, non the others who don't like it. So its a good and amazing program.
I am against BadgerConnect because in a way it is making it appear that the students on campus are not prone to integrating, that they just want to stay in their own individual cultural groups and actually have a dislike for interacting with one another. This implication can be made by the fact that a program has to be made so that integration can actually occur. This leaves my question to be, why does a program such as badger connect have to be constructed for new friendships between black and white students to happen? Why cant the connection be made regardless of where they were to hang out? It also makes it appear as if the only right place for multicultural awareness to happen is in this badger connect group. I think having a program as such would lead people to feel as if outside of the badger connect, the black and white students should not interact as much because it is not part of a concert or game night. What would be ideal would be to promote multicultural awareness but not in such an enclosed environment, such as the environment that BadgerConnect would create. BadgerConnect seems to exacerbate the problem by pointing out the lack of integration and making it happen under unnatural circumstances, instead of letting friendships develop on their own.
BadgerConnect is not a good idea. This program sounds like it will be forcing students of different backgrounds to hang around with each other. While this may seem harmless, putting different ethnic groups in the same place will have very negative complications. Due to peoples natural tenancy to stay with people who they feel more similar to, these events will end up not meshing individuals together, but rather pitting them against each other. The groups will most likely avoid each other, and if they don't they will make fun of each other and or argue. The program will also fail because these events will only attract a certain demographic. Many people want to take ethnic studies classes, and are more compelled to enroll in them no matter what. BadgerConnect will bring a lot of the same type of person, as it is such a specific program. It is hard to find concerts and game nights that everyone will enjoy, and too few people will actually be pleased with the results. Finally, it will be awkward. People are just too shy these days, and are much more likely to be on their cell phones chatting with their friends they already have. People are resistant to change, and this does not seem like the type of program that will make any difference. Although BadgerConnect has good intentions, this is not the way to integrate students of different backgrounds and promote awareness. People, students especially, will not be excited to take on the challenge of breaking these kinds of barriers.
BadgerConnect seems like a good idea to me. Learning about other cultures and minorities reduces discrimination. It would be useful for students to learn more about each other. Much of the ignorance for other cultures would be diminished. However, I do not understand why an emphasis is placed on relationships of blacks and whites. There are many minorities present at this school which is very diverse. I think that the activities are a good idea to get students together, but it seems as there is an emphasis placed on how different everyone is. This is pointing out different minorities that people belong to - separating instead of uniting. I don't think that people will want to attend events where they are viewed solely as their ethnicity instead of the individual that they are. In theory, Badger connect is a good idea, but I don't think it will accomplish much.
I think BadgerConnect would grant a great opportunity that can connect UW-Madison students more organized. I have seen a lot of situation that some people have hard time connecting themselves with people from other racial background. Also, many people do not have chance to be integrated with other ethnic groups. Therefore, this program would be helpful creating and establishing friendship through many activities with other racial group of people. By promoting multicultural awareness, this will help Badgers to be more open and diverse.
Although the integration of black and white students at the university seems to already occur, I see no reason that we as a university would not seek to further and strengthen this integration. Other than the costs, I see no downside to BadgerConnect. The key would be to actually get students to attend events. Having some sort of connection between BadgerConnect and students ethnic studies requirement seems to be an effective way to do this. In order to fully argue for this program, much more information would needed to be disclosed. What types of events would occur? How would the program address the obvious discrepancies in numbers of students with non-white ethnic backgrounds? If this program can develop effective answers to these questions, BadgerConnect could become a very beneficial program. If I were involved in the development of this program I would focus rather on the relationship of Asian students with white and black students. There seems to be distinct cultural differences that lead to the separation of the Asian and non-Asian groups. I think in the long run this emphasis would be more beneficial for both the University, and the students.
I believe that overcoming racial and ethnic stigmatization is a necessary thing in todays society. Sadly, in a era of progression there are still many misinformed and unwilling individuals who segregate themselves from others just on the basis of skin color, language, cultural or ethnic background etc. I feel that such a program allows the opportunity for racial and ethnic mingling to occur and could possibly be beneficial to this campus and community in general. However, I just have a few thoughts to keep in mind when formulating the plans for BadgerConnect. Coming from a small town, I felt the diversity on this campus was substantial. I was later told that it was a predominantly white campus. Now, many people from my hometown (which is predominantly white) are openly racist or at least prejudice. I however, am not and therefore had no problem approaching, cooperating with, and building friendships with people of different backgrounds. I feel that such programs rely upon whether people are willing to participate and be open minded about said topic. Therefore, those that may truly need this program may not go. How will you approach this? Also, I do not think it is wise (if promoting to public) to advertise that this program is driven at specifically Blacks and Whites. Being half Mexican myself, I felt slightly discontented when this was stated. All races and ethnic backgrounds are important and should be respected equally. Everybody should have a chance to learn about every background (equally) that is present here on campus and in the community. In conclusion, I believe a program would be beneficial, but keep in mind my suggestions.
BadgerConnect would be a positive way to integrate groups of students from different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Although students at UW-Madison probably have no issues with having relationships with people of different ethnicities, sometimes it is not realistic in every day student life. People only meet each other when they live in the same dorm, are in the same classes, or are participating in the same clubs. In a lot of cases, this may mean that because of the dorms or classes they chose, they don't have the opportunity to meet students of other backgrounds. Because of this, creating a program like BadgerConnect might be a positive way to make it easier for students to meet people of different ethnicities, and find out about things they all have in common. The student events that would be put on by BadgerConnect would help to break the barriers between the groups and make it comfortable to start a conversation. In a perfect world, students would have many friends of different backgrounds and race, and would feel no barriers to forming these friendships. In reality, however, this may not be so easy. BadgerConnect would facilitate the relationships and help make them a reality.
I think the BadgerConnect is a good idea to connect students with different racial and ethnic backgrounds. First of all, it is always good to make more friends. Creating a network in which we can help each other is crucial for us. Getting to know more people is an advantage , the more people we know the more potential help we can get for our life. Secondly, knowing about other people culture is useful . This is a globalization era where we will work with many people from different part of the world with different ethnic background. Hence, understanding their cultures is important for us to behave and work with them. Thirdly, as a badger we are considered family, due to racial background, people may not be reluctant to make friends. Strong bond of friendship will strengthen the school spirit and the badger network. I personally think that the BadgerConnect is a creative and helpful idea. I think it needs to extend to more people not only limit to Black and White students.
I personally think that a program like this would benefit students of both ethnicities and would be a much more hands on approach to the ethnic studies requirement that is instituted currently. I think that BadgerConnect would allow for students who want more diversity in their college experience to seek that and it would encourage new multicultural friendships. The only downside I would see to this type of program would be that the majority of the applicants would be those who are already comfortable in multicultural social groups and there would be less learning than a mandatory ethnic studies class because everyone needs to take the ethnic studies to meet the requirement. I also feel that the majority of people who would connect to BadgerConnect would already be multiculturally aware. This may not be entirely true so I would still recommend this as a good idea because there are definitely new students at UW that feel that there is a lack of diversity among the students. This particular aim to focus on Black and White student relations would be particularly helpful as I feel like there are far more White and Asian students than Black students on campus. I feel that BadgerConnect could cater to these students that wish to be apart of a more diverse group in campus. In that area BadgerConnect would seem like a great idea to bring these types of students together while also giving them credit for ethnic study requirements. I also like the idea of these students who are already share multicultural awareness will be the ones setting up events to increase social diversity because they already have the knowledge and experience of such events in the past which will hopefully help the new events succeed. I personally have attended multicultural events through the Student Athlete clubs SAAC & SAESO. I really enjoyed these event, One of which was a multicultural dinner with performers who wanted to discuss their culture through stories while be ate foods from different ethnicities. I thought it was both fun and also really helped me get to know some people from other cultures who I may otherwise not have had a chance to meet. I feel that the non-athletes should be able to experience something similar and I feel that BadgerConnect could be that experience. Overall I think that BadgerConnect would be of great benefit to the campus of UW-Madison as a whole and I personally would look forward to attending events in the future.
Recently the idea a of BadgerConnect, a program that organizes student events to help establish new friendships between students of diverse and racial backgrounds, was introduced. Badger Connect would allow for students to meet other people from different backgrounds in a non-stressful setting where they can interact through various activities. I believe that this is a good idea as it will allow for a greater sense of community to be felt throughout the campus as well as expose each student to a different culture enriching their college experience. Currently on campus it is easy to see the groups of friends that form, and while it may not be intention many of these groups are formed of people from only one different background. Once people find their group of friends they tend to stick with mainly those people and the friends of their friends; this often prevents them from forming close friendships with other people outside the group. BadgerConnect would allow for the students to go either with a friend or alone to a non-stressful event where they could meet and interact with other people. Even if through this or multiple events the person did not make any close relationships they would still have gained new experience in interacting with people of different backgrounds. This experience could be crucial to life's later experiences, especially if the person were uncomfortable doing this before, as it would allow them to interact comfortably with others. Though it could be a slow process I believe that BadgerConnect is a good idea as it would allow students to if not form close friendships, it would at least give them a comfortable situation in which to interact with people of a different background. This could overtime allow the person to be more comfortable in different kinds of setting and allow them to eventually form close friendships with people of different backgrounds.
Integrating students of different racial and ethnic backgrounds is something that could be improved at UW-Madison, and BadgerConnect can help. Bringing students of different races together into an environment that causes them to make friends and interact with people unlike themselves will not only provide them more opportunity to get involved in an organization that promotes multicultural awareness, but it also does so in a fun and beneficial way. BadgerConnect, however, would have to stand out of all the organizations like it that also have the same goals in mind. One of the main ways BadgerConnect accomplishes this is by providing the students with an Ethnic Studies credit for participating in the program. This will not only grab students attention, but it will also allow them to fulfill their ethnic studies credit in a unique, creative, and fun way. This alone would be enough to get a good amount of students to participate in it, but there are other benefits as well. BadgerConnect also allows students to relax and unwind from their other classes with events like concerts and game nights, all the while interacting with multicultural students and making friends of different races. Students could also bring friends to BadgerConnect to widen the net of friendship and awareness even further and create a safe and fun environment for all. Although there are some worries about this program such as if the students would actually branch out with people beyond their race, if enough students will sign up for this program to make it worth it, and if this program will stand out from all the rest, BadgerConnect sounds like a fun program that will not only advance the student in school, but allow him or her to make new friends, learn about different cultures, and have fun along the way as well.
As a 3rd year transfer student at the UW madison, I think nothing but great things about the University. That being said I have found that there is a large disconnect between students of different cultures and races. I'm personally for badger connect because I believe that college is a time in which you should meet new people and have new experiences. Since very often people don't leave their comfort zone, it is impossible for them to meet people from different cultures. I believe that having a program such as badger connect would bring people together who would normally not meet. I see very little downside to this program and I strongly believe that it could do nothing but good for the school and surrounding community. Having more diversity at UW Madison would be a great thing.
In todays integrated economy and social environment, it is a major benefit to be able to see issues not only from ones own perspective, but also the perspectives of others of similar and different ethnic backgrounds. BadgerConnect is a program that would emphasize the benefits of such diverse interactions and help to assimilate various racial groups by organizing social and educational events that help to embrace the idea that learning about others is key to becoming a well rounded person. Not only will the program help students meet other people of varying cultures, but it will allow for the exchange of world views and discussion of topics that may not usually be discussed by college students such as affirmative action and other such current issues. This mingling of various backgrounds will also benefit students on a direct level since the program may be allowed to offer ethnic studies credit for attending events and putting effort into the program. In essence, BadgerConnect is another way that students can find a constructive, fun environment in which they can meet new people and learn about the cultures of people very different from themselves. With this program implemented, the University of Wisconsin-Madison will have taken another great leap towards fully actualizing the Wisconsin Idea in which every student that passes through this prestigious institution will have the tools necessary to not only impact the immediate community, but also to take their diverse views and apply them on a city, state and global level to help all those around them.
A campus is its own world in itself. Members of the domestic and international public sphere should be allowed to connect with one another, if not through social media, then through community building activities. The university is one example of an international and domestic public sphere in that it is home to thousands of students from different ethnic backgrounds, states, and even countries. BadgerConnect would be beneficial in forming a more stable understanding of diversity if students are exposed to other members of this academic community. If there is a lack of multicultural exchange, how will students come to understand one another, if not on a cultural level such as respect for ones religion or cultural practices, but on a level of academic interests such as studying together and very basic cooperation skills and manners like holding the door or saying please and thank you without feeling that sense fear and awkwardness around a peer of a different color. BadgerConnect is crucial in social development at the university. With lack of exposure to a variety of ethnic groups, students or people in particular, will grow to develop a lack of understanding and communication with not only just their peers of color, but they will lack the common social skills needed to communicate with others in general. With this interdependent and transnational day and age, remaining within ones ethnic social circle in inevitable. Students from every corner of the globe are either consuming foods from other cultures such a Chinese and Mexican food, or living with a roommate who may not be a member of their ethnic community. At times, many students may also come across a tutor who is not of their ethnic background and may find communicating with them much more different because their grade is on the line. This example however, should also be argued that while many students would assume that most math and science tutors are Chinese, they don't think of them as any particular individual they would communicate with outside of the classroom, but rather just as a tutor or another student. The thing is with these students who are uncomfortable with social interaction with other ethnic groups is that they do not realize that they are already consuming, interacting, and becoming a part of the international public sphere. I feel that BadgerConnect will amplify and enhance these social interactions; the events held on campus do not necessarily have to be culturally related, but it should bring together students based on their interests such as interest in movies, music, and food, making it much easier to interact with one another. Global interaction and interdependence is inevitable and the University of Wisconsin-Madison is an example of that very process. Students are taking language courses, or may be engaged in athletics with someone of a different race. BadgerConnect should be the adhesive that further fortifies the bonds and relationships through common interests between students of color and should continue to develop interactions. Students, be it Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, Gay or Straight, cannot remain in their social circle forever. Of course there will be loopholes and arguments stating that the university's admission decisions are hypocritical and ethnically biased and that there is a lack of diversity, but as soon as students discover BadgerConnect and that Someone from Somewhere shares the same interests, they are more likely to be susceptible to change and openness.
The University of Wisconsin- Madison is a diverse campus that offers a lot of opportunities for all students of the University. The UWs activities and clubs on campus does not discriminate anyone from joining anything they would like to join. This includes academics clubs, sports, honors societies and fraternities. Therefore, I do not think it is necessary to have BadgerConnect on this campus. Although I can recognize the advantages that BadgerConnect would bring to students of different racial backgrounds, I think it is important for all students on this campus to interact in all clubs and organizations regardless of their racial background. BadgerConnect could take away from the diversity that enriches the already existing campus life here at the UW. What is great about this campus is that, anything you want to participate in you will be able to meet people from all different places and of different races. BadgerConnect could end up dividing this campus based on racial background. It is important to maintain the diversity here on campus. The clubs and organizations here on campus give students the opportunity to get involved in something they are passionate about while still promoting multicultural awareness because many people of different backgrounds come together and share their passions through a club. This is a better way to promote multicultural awareness than having one organization that divides race from normal organizations.
BadgerConnect sounds like a great idea because it will bring together students of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Many students around the country come from non-diverse high schools, especially when they are from rural towns. The high school I came from was very ethnically diverse (more diverse than the country average). People benefit from interacting with other races and ethnicities because they will need to do so throughout life. In the workplace everyone is not the same race or ethnicity; therefore, students will have to interact with different types of people. When interacting with different people students will learn more about different cultures and become more well rounded people. One critique I have of the university is not enough emphasis on learning about different cultures and should require students to have hands on experiences with other cultures, races, and ethnicities. Ethnic studies is a great addition to the curriculum that came about from the civil rights movement. Students across campuses protested that there should be ethnic studies courses in the college curriculum. I agree with those students and say further that students should not only learn about other ethnicities, but also interact with them. By implementing BadgerConnect the students will experience first hand different ethnicities and races. The students will be given opportunities to get to know people of other races and ethnicities. Education and interaction with other races also cuts back on stereotypes and racism. If one becomes friends with someone that is black, they are more likely not to have racist thoughts and can pass these thoughts to generations to come. After a few generations if we teach properly we should be able to significantly lower or all together get rid of racism. This is important for improving society and making the world a better place, which should be a goal for any university across the world. I am also Jewish, and have experienced anti-Semitism first hand. It is not a pleasant feeling when someone is not familiar with your religion (or race or ethnicity) and has negative views because of the lack of knowledge. As soon as I taught him a little about the religion he was intrigued and wanted to learn more. Also, living in a predominantly Christian town I was always surrounded by people who were different. My boy scout troop was ran out of a church; therefore, I had some experience with learning another religion. I found that the more I learned the more I started to accept it and realize that it is not that different from Judaism. BadgerConnect can accomplish the task of spreading knowledge about other ethnicities and races because interaction is the best way to spread the view of everyone is human no matter what race or ethnicity they are. Also, BadgerConnect is a great way for students to make additional friends and provide a transition from high school to college.
I believe that an organization like this wont be a good thing for the University of Wisconsin. I think diversity is an important and diversifying our campus is also important. But programs like this are insulting, trying to bring black and white students together like this is wrong. They should meet in classes or in other clubs they see each other in, this way they know they have a common interest. I think this program is simply too forceful. It feels like they're trying to make black and white students hang out instead of it happening naturally, which is by far the best way to let it develop. I believe that BadgerConnect should still exist as an organization on campus, i just believe it has to change their goal of the program. This program should simply put on events and game nights and invite all of campus, and whoever comes comes. It shouldn't be aimed at just getting black and white students together but should be about getting students of different backgrounds together. That way the program would flow naturally and not feel forced and would also bring about positive change to the University of Wisconsin Madison.