Moorpark College celebrates diversity
within non-mainstream cultures every year. The third Tuesday every
April welcomes presenters, lecturers and vendors during this Muticultural
Day.

This year, the event took place on Apr. 15 with the theme of “Technology Changing Culture.” This is the same as the ‘one campus, one book’ and the ‘year of’ theme, usually happens.

The Multicultural Day committee usually adopts the other two groups’ theme as they decide on it sooner, according to Ranford Hopkins, history professor and chair of the Multicultural Day program.

This system, however, does not satisfy some of the committee members.

“Since we had the Multicultural Day program first, there are a number of us who think that we should come up with a theme before the other two groups,” Hopkins said.

After a theme is decided, the committee turns its sights toward finding and inviting presenters as well as lecturers to fill the classrooms that day.

Some of the presenters are invited back repeatedly, and provide multiple lectures. If a presenter is pleased with the outcome of the day and the committee finds that students can benefit from a repeat lecture, then the presenter is invited back.

“We kind of look at Multicultural Day like Disneyland,” Hopkins said. “There’s not enough time to go to every single event, but if you come back next year, you have an opportunity to see similar presentations and more.”

The more daunting task, however, is to find new presenters who are willing and able to provide significant information to students. These presenters are often professors or staff, though some are members of the surrounding community, who are found through connections or word of mouth.

Multicultural Day originated as a way to create more awareness on campus about cultural diversity.

“One of the things that was apparent was that Moorpark College was not as diverse ethnically or internationally as many colleges,” Hopkins said.

The lack of diversity did not stop Hopkins from wanting to educate the students about different cultures and traditions.

“It doesn’t matter how homogeneous or how heterogeneous we are,” Hopkins said. “We all need to know about cultures.”

Hopkins, John Baker and Bruce Garber co-founded the event, which started in 1991.

Since then, Multicultural Day has been an alternative day of instruction used to teach Moorpark College students about different cultures and customs as well as the importance of accepting the different.

A big part of ensuring Multicultural Day’s success are teachers who urge their students to participate in and attend events, often instead of class.

“We really appreciate faculty who continue to support Multicultural day as a day of alternative learning,” Hopkins said.

This year, more students participated in the event by attending lectures, though less were seen in the quad visiting booths, according to Hopkins.

It was a successful year for Multicultural Day, not in a small part due to the committee’s preparation and hard work.

“Every year we try to … have more things prepared prior to the event,” Hopkins said. “And I think this year we … succeeded better than any year in the past.”