Can Holiday Campus Programming Be Inclusive?


Posted by Lisa Endersby on 19 Dec 2012 / 4 Comments


Our next Final Question post comes from Adam Hughes, who reflected on our 11/29/12 #SAChat Christmahanakwanzika and Your Campus with “What kind of programming needs to happen to be inclusive? Small, targeted ones or a large one that appeals to all?”

antiChristmasTree

It’s that time of year again… when holiday decorations go up throughout campus, students get ready for final exams before winter break, and programming that revolves around a certain aspect of the holiday season is implemented. It’s a season that nearly everyone looks forward to (minus the exams, of course!); a season where students can relax between studying, take in all those decorations, and enjoy festive programming.

Yet for me, I struggle with this season on college campuses. Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy all the programs that take place, all the decorations, and so on. I just wonder if we take a moment to think about who our students really are. What are their needs? What do they enjoy the most? Are we thinking of students’ different beliefs when it comes to holiday programming?

I’ll leave all the political correctness, the holiday vs. Christmas debate, aside for another day. My point is, how do we appeal (and are we even appealing) to those students who don’t celebrate Christmas, for example? Are we thinking about students, say, from the Jewish community? What about those who celebrate holidays in addition to (or other than) Christmas?

Maybe it’s because my undergraduate institution (The University of North Carolina at Pembroke) was so diverse; one of the most diverse on the East Coast, it really opened my eyes up to how different people were. Ever since, inclusivity is something that means the most to me. This is true especially during the holiday season; it is a time of giving, after all, and it’s important to me to make sure we are giving all students a reason to celebrate the holiday season!

So, for this reason, I wonder how we can go about doing this. In a time of budget cuts and limited
resources, I know this is easier said than done. I know nothing is more frustrating for a Student Affairs
professional than a program that just bombs. So, finding a balance between inclusivity and limited
resources is difficult, I know. But there has to be way to find middle ground somewhere.

I look at the events my office is holding- a madrigals dinner, celebrating winter and all its holidays.
A great (and large!) program, but with a $22 student admission price that will certainly stop some
students in their tracks. The Nutcracker ballet, pictures with Santa, and ornament and Christmas card
making; smaller events, but they scream “Christmas” to me!

So, how do we balance out budget issues and student needs during the holidays? Do we implement a
large-scale program where we try to celebrate all of winter’s holidays, or do we branch out, creating
smaller, targeted programs for our diverse students? Which is more realistic in your eyes? I’d love to
know your thoughts on this. Let me know what events take place on your campus (or what events you’d like to see happen), in order to insure inclusivity.

Adam Hughes is a graduate student at Western Carolina University. He is currently completing a
Master’s Degree in the College Student Personnel program, and is the Graduate Assistant for Operations for WCU’s A.K. Hinds University Center.

Written by Lisa Endersby


  • http://twitter.com/lmendersby Lisa Endersby

    Great post with some important questions Adam. I’m not sure it’s entirely possible to balance the needs of all students (and faculty and staff) exactly during the holidays, but working to create and maintain a campus culture where one holiday does not take such precedence over another would be a good start. There is, of course, the challenge of negotiating resources and time with program ideas, but not just recognizing but celebrating diversity with (not for) our students would go a long way to support an inclusive campus environment.

  • http://www.facebook.com/dan.taylor.3910 Dan Taylor

    Let me first disclose that I am Catholic and celebrate Christmas. I cannot deny that there is a lot of focus on the Christmas holiday this time of year. Every store you enter, every show AND commercial on television, and every street you drive down reminds us of December 25, as if it is the most important day of the year (actually, for Catholics, Easter is). But, yes, what about Hannukah? Kwanzaa? Winter Solstice? And myriad other holidays that may or may not be known to us? How do we acknowledge and evenly represent them so as to be inclusive, when it seems society mainly recognizes one day?

    My solution would be to put some ownership back on those who celebrate each holiday. Put out a call for presentations, starting sometime in late September, where each group that wishes to acknowledge their holiday submits a proposal on what they would like to do at this time of year to bring focus on their celebration. Make them the teachers, we the learners. Isn’t this a basic tenet of Student Affairs? Enabling and empowering those that are under-represented, rather than doing it ourselves.

    With the proposals in, now budgets can be developed and spread evenly. Maybe celebrants of Kwanzaa wish to hold a drumming concert instead of seeing balls and kinaras hung about. Perhaps this year it could take the place the annual Nutcracker rendition. Maybe Wiccans would like to hold a feast. And if a group of celebrants decides not to be represented, that is fine as well.

    It seems my solution focuses on several small-scale events, rather than one large, all-inclusive event. But, it could become an all-day or all-week December festival. Yes, maybe right in the middle of finals is not the best time to do all this. But, if it is important, people will make time.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=27203526 Clare Cady

    I think that something that makes it hard is that it can often be seen as a 0 sum game. If you give time to someone else’s beliefs/holiday then you are taking away from mine. This can be particularly hard for Christian students who are in the majority in most places, take the fact that their holiday will be represented everywhere for granted, and who do not realize the privilege they have. Changing the status quo can be very scary and threatening, and we need to be aware and understanding of that. It can feel to those students like we are erasing them and their beliefs. I realize that the rest have that happen every day…and it is important to engage all students in a way that helps them to feel recognized. Go too far in any direction and you can cause a lot of hurt – either through our actions, or through a negative and harmful reaction.

    This issue is rooted in issues of social justice and privilege, which makes it all the more difficult to work on – especially in newly-formed communities such as residence halls, which tend also to be newer students. You take the first semester to focus on community building and the lower parts of Maslow, and often the community is not ready to address power and privilege before the break hits. That said, perhaps that is one thing that can be done in a community like a residence hall – setting a foundation of understanding of privilege? That is a hard thing to do quickly – it too can be harmful and can end up disastrous if pushed too hard and too quickly.

    One thing I did try when I was a RD was to take it all to the individual level, and encouraged students to decorate their doors with their own traditions. Each floor looked amazing, and the students felt they were able to express and honor their own traditions, and learn about others’. Even our secular students got into it, and we got some really interesting Dawkins and Hawking decor. I wonder how something like this could be generalized out to a whole campus? I think that doing something that gives credence to the individual, while having some educational conversations about why the institution is not going to put up specific kinds of decor might be a good way to go…

  • http://twitter.com/Laura_Gerth Laura Gerth

    I work with international students at a Catholic university, so this is actually an issue we deal with year round (although it is perhaps more prominent in the Christmas season). Our office has done a couple of different things to help our students including promoting/sponsoring the celebrations of our cultural clubs such as Persian New Year, Diwali, Chinese New Year and even Canadian Thanksgiving. We also have a “Catholicism 101″ optional workshop both during orientation and as part of our continuing orientation series. Since Catholicism is so prominent at our school it’s important that we don’t just ignore Catholic traditions with our students, but help them understand them and learn how they can participate (if they would like to) as a non-Catholic in various services. I do think our students celebrate holidays and traditions within their own culture groups, but it would be great it we could find ways for them to share that with the larger student community, too.

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