The NIU Orientation Office is looking for ways to expand its horizons and increase diversity training for incoming freshmen.

“With the current one-day format, we don’t have time to deal with diversity issues in depth,” said Denise Rode, associate director of Admissions and Orientation.

Rode said students need to be presented with facts and education about people from all religious and cultural backgrounds as well as different races, sexual orientation and gender.

Rode said the orientation staff, which consists of 12 NIU student leaders, has been “radically trained in diversity issues.

“My hope would be that discussions of diversity is an ongoing process,” Rode said.

“We’re always looking for ways to implement diversity in the one-day program,” she said. “We rely a great deal on our student leaders.

“One of my goals in selecting our staff is to have a group of student representatives that can work well together,” Rode said.

Jim Luka, student orientation leader, said he definitely would like to see a greater emphasis on diversity and an expansion of the orientation process.

He said that he and other student leaders handle diversity questions that often come up during the day. Luka said if the issues don’t come up, he’ll bring them up himself.

“You deal with a lot of prejudice, and our job is to help people to see that stereotypes on the basis of color are unjustified,” Luka said.

Luka said some students apparently come from backgrounds where racism is accepted. They sometimes make comments when told that they could end up with a roommate of another color.

“I try not to assert my own values, but if someone asks me I will tell them what I think,” he said. “I do it in a way that doesn’t make them feel like they have to agree.”

He said it’s difficult to tell how students react to having their prejudices questioned because they usually don’t respond. He said that sometimes students will come up to him at the end of the day and thank them for discussing serious issues.

Luka said he and fellow staff members recently attended a conference, the National Orientation Director’s Association in Kansas City.

“It was a time to brainstorm and share ideas on enhancing students’ college experience,” Luka said.

He said there were a number of workshops on stereotypes of students of other genders, races and sexual orientation. He said the conference had a large emphasis on diversity.