Students celebrated their first Diversity Day with the Public Relations Student Society of America, by making T-shirts in Free Speech Plaza Tuesday.
PRSSA members gathered around a table in Free Speech Plaza and handed out flyers to passing students.
The members also encouraged students to take a white T-shirt from the table and to write “I am,” with colored markers on the front. The participants then wrote what makes them different from others on the back of the shirts. After finishing their T-shirts, participants were invited to attend a panel on diversity.

The panel was hosted by mass communication assistant professor Josh Grimm in the Holliday Forum of the Journalism Building later that day.
“If we can raise awareness and bring diversity to the forefront,” Grimm said, “we can all realize that we have so much more overlap than the things that makes us different.”
The panel was composed of representatives of the Muslim Student Association, the African American Cultural Center, the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Club, LGBT advocacy organization Spectrum and the Girl Gang, a women’s professional organization.
The representatives spoke on a variety of topics including the specific challenges they each have faced during their first semester. The speakers emphasized the importance of dealing with ignorance patiently while standing up for what you believe.
“The most optimistic thing I’m noticing is the conversations that are being had … and because of our crazy-connected social media, I think that we’re able to have decent conversations now on a much broader scheme,” said Monique LeBlanc, co-founder of the Girl Gang and editor in chief of X Culture magazine.