The Barometer Online

Issue date: 7/1/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Brock Ameele Matt Holland, an English student at Oregon State University, is the winner of an essay contest put on by the Office of Community and Diversity. The winner of the contest receives free tuition for one year.

By Gail Cole
The Summer Barometer

The chance of winning a year of tuition certainly draws attention, something Terryl Ross and the OSU Office of Community and Diversity hoped for when the "This is My OSU: A Destination of Choice" essay contest was developed last winter.
And attention it got: by the February 27 deadline, over 100 applicants submitted an essay in the contest that awarded in-state, undergraduate tuition to the winner.
Director of the Office of Community and Diversity Terryl Ross, who describes his office as a way to "help people connect with people who are different than them," thought the essay contest was a great starting point for students to share their ideas about their university.
"I've been meeting with a lot of students, and for a lot of students, diversity is kind of P.C. for them," Ross said.
"I was trying to figure out a way to make it real and meaningful for them and I thought, what would be better than to start by asking them what they think."
According to Ross, after the deadline, the essays were collected and distributed in groups of 20, and the authors kept anonymous.
The essays were first read by 37 different students, faculty and staff around campus - including President Ed Ray - before the final five were selected.
Pat Ketcham, associate director of health promotion at Student Health Services, was one of the 37 readers of the essays, and found the students "really putting some thought around practical application of ways to experience diversity on campus."
"What struck me was really some very thoughtful responses from all of the individuals that had submitted their essays," she said.
After the five finalists were selected, all students, faculty and staff had the opportunity to vote online to select the winner - Ross said over 400 participated in the final voting.
In the end, Matt Holland, a fifth-year in English, won the contest and a year's worth of tuition.
Holland first heard about the contest in his class, Philosophy 280: Ethics of Diversity, taught by Lani Roberts, last winter term - and it was this class that drastically changed his way of thinking about diversity.

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