By Ivanna Carlos |Staff Writer|

Diversity can lead to creativity and CSUSB has plenty of it.

In today’s environment, diversity plays a big part.

According to the CSUSB website, our campus has the second highest African American and Hispanic enrollments of all public universities in California.

“Having this much diversity on campus can bring good and also bad,” said CSUSB student Lilian Gutierrez. “You can come across someone that doesn’t speak the same language as you.”

Diversity may create barriers between people, causing difficulties in relationships. These obstacles may stem from subtleties of the same language and disputes in colloquialisms, not including interplay between two foreign tongues. Perhaps even encountering those of different customs or religious beliefs may arouse cultural clashes.

When thinking about positives there are many.

Get a diverse group together, whether in a work or school environment, or in personal relationships. You can get an open background from each individual.

Strength can be gained in the long run because many different thoughts and ideas are thrown out from those of varying backgrounds and cultures.

Professors on campus seem to agree that learning in a diverse environment helps students comprehend more of what is around them.

“Diversity is good. You have to be able to learn in a diverse environment,” said Dr. Risa Dickson, professor at CSUSB.

“You meet different types of cultures, personalities, religions and you are exposed to see more than just what you were taught,” said Gutierrez.

Gutierrez adds that diverse environments help students become more aware of their surroundings.

“I believe that diversity is everywhere. I transferred from RCC and there was a wide variety of different races just like there is here at CSUSB,” said CSUSB student Miguel Calderon.

“I enjoy coming across different people in my classes and throughout campus because it expands my knowledge and opens my mind to the new things around me rather than being closed-minded,” continued Calderon.

Being open to diversity may be beneficial, particularly when you have to work in groups composed of diverse members.

In a work environment, if you don’t have a conclusion to come to, you may miss out on powerful ideas and strategies; ideas that you could have never thought of while brainstorming in a homogenous think tank.

When you are open to diversity, it can make it easy to tolerate those around you that may have different beliefs, which is a situation you may find yourself in throughout your life.

After all, five diverse minds are better than one, just like anything else, the more the merrier.