MSU Police Promoting Awareness of Diversity
EAST LANSING, Michigan—Respecting the diverse cultures in an international community like the campus of Michigan State University is a goal of every division of the school—including the campus police department.
Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor emailed our publishing house about a display of books on diversity the department maintains in its lobby.
“The table sits next to a window near the chairs in our waiting area,” she wrote, sending along a photo. “We have numerous patrons, including professors, who enter the station for various reasons. Once they see these books, they praise us for displaying them. They often ask if we have extra copies of a particular book and I always manage to find one. I also tell them that they are available on Amazon. I can’t begin to tell you how much positive feedback I’ve received from folks about these booklets. While taking the photo to send to you, our police desk cadet shared a story with me about a woman who came into the station last week. I asked her to put it in writing.”
Then, here is what Cadet Downer wrote: “Recently, I was approached by a woman who is applying for American citizenship at the police desk. She was able to take a few of the books home which aided her in studying for her exam. In the past few months, numerous people have expressed interest in these books for personal and professional uses. I truly believe they go along with our department’s mission of inclusion and community-oriented policing practices.”
Thank you, Michigan State University police department for this effort!
Consider this: Become a book Angel yourself! Are you responsible for a community reception area where these books might be displayed? If you do start passing along these MSU guides as your small part of promoting diversity, please let us know your story.
Care to read more?
Recently, we shared the news about a new book in the MSU series that will help us understand and respond with compassion to emerging truths about gender. We asked the head of the Michigan State University School of Journalism diversity publishing project, Joe Grimm, to write about the new book. Here is his story …
And, writer and editor Karla Huber recently wrote an online column about MSU’s larger series of guidebooks to cultural competence. Karla wonderfully outlines the importance of these short books—and provides lots of links to earlier volumes.