Southeastern NEWS

                                                       Southeastern Louisiana University
                                           Office of University Relations
                                           SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
                                           504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
                                           publicinfo@selu.edu
                                           www.selu.edu/NewsEvents
    Date: 4/14/98
      Contact:                           Christina Chapple  92

Editors: Photo accompanies release -- Please note local interest
SLU CELEBRATES DIVERSITY WEEK
     HAMMOND -- Southeastern Louisiana University began a week-long celebration of
April 13-16 as "Diversity Week" with a tree planting ceremony honoring the university's first
African-American graduate.
     President Sally Clausen said the late Mildred Myles Crawford of Hammond "came to
Southeastern because she was interested in getting an education and because she had the courage
to try something new and different." Crawford, who graduated from Southeastern with a
bachelor's degree in elementary education in 1959, died March 3. Her family, including her
daughters Frances Russell and Kaye Davis; granddaughters Mildred Johnson and Karen
Brumfield, and  two of her 13 great-grandchildren, attended the ceremony. 
     Mildred Johnson remembered her grandmother, a retired teacher with 30 years service
and a member of Hammond's Greenfield Baptist Church, as an "educator and a friend...Every day
as I pass Southeastern, I remember what she stood for," she said.
     Clausen said Diversity Week, sponsored by Southeastern's Dream Team student
organization, is "one of our most important new initiatives." By celebrating differences, "we
allow our differences to define us, not divide us," she said.
     The Diversity Week opening program also included remarks by Joann Williams, who in
1986 was the first African American student to win the Miss Southeastern crown, and a
performance by the SLU Gospel Choir. 
     Williams, a registered nurse who is originally from Roseland, now lives in Ponchatoula 
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DIVERSITY WEEK -- Add One
and owns Medical Careers Institute, which offers continuing education program for nurses. She
encouraged African American students to participate in campus activities. "Be a part of the
community and the body as a whole," Williams said.     
     During Diversity Week, the Dream Team also plans a "Diversity Collage" display in the
Student Union Mall and a "World Showcase" in the Student Union Park from 11 a.m.-1 p.m.,
Wednesday, April 15, featuring food and information booths from different cultures and
countries.
     At the closing ceremony, scheduled for 1 p.m., April 16, in the Pottle Music Building
Auditorium, student leaders and Lance Hill, executive director of Tulane University's Southern
Institute for Education and Research, will present "Bridging the Gap."
                                 - SLU -
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www.selu.edu/NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/newsp98.htm