A group of Cal State San Bernardino students and staff members attended the annual National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in American Higher Education (NCORE), which was held in New Orleans, May 29–June 2.

“The conference gives students a real insight into diversity issues,” said Fred McCall, the director of CSUSB’s Office of Student Engagement, which sends students to the annual conference.  

The students represented undergraduates, graduate students as well as Pan African, Latino, Native American and Project Rebound members of the student body.

The conference featured dozens of workshops and several special events, including a welcome reception that featured music and dance from the local New Orleans/Mardi Gras culture, delicious food, and spirited speakers, said alumna Charli Eaton, who with Sociology Professor Elsa Valdez accompanied six students to the conference.

Twillea Evans-Carthen, director of Ombuds Services, said the conference dealt with many issues of diversity including social justice, micro aggression, cultural and generational diversity.

NCORE is one of the leading and most comprehensive national forums on issues of race and ethnicity in American higher education. It focuses on creating and sustaining comprehensive institutional change designed to improve racial and ethnic relations on campus and to expand opportunities for educational access and success by culturally diverse, traditionally underrepresented populations.

Since its inception in 1988, NCORE has evolved into a vital national resource for higher education institutions, providing an annual multicultural forum that attracts Black/African-Americans, American Indians, Asian/Pacific Islanders, Latino/as, and European Americans representing higher education institutions across the United States.

NCORE is one of the major programs of the Southwest Center, which is a department with the Public and Community Services Division of the College of Continuing Learning at the University of Oklahoma.