Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s DEI Alliance will celebrate and embrace cultural identities and intersectionality at the 2024 Unity Ball Global Met Gala on April 11.
Open to the IUP community, this event will begin at 6:00 p.m. at the Hadley Union Building Ohio Room. There is no admission charge, but reservations are recommended by March 29 and can be made through Crimson Connect.
Fabulous food representing a number of cultures will be served, and music will be provided for joyous dancing. Remarks will be offered by IUP Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer and Title IX Coordinator Elise Glenn.
Formal dress is requested for the event, which will feature a red-carpet entrance and a backdrop for photo opportunities to capture the evening.
The DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) Alliance is a unified cohort of student organizations who each have a mission to support minority students by developing community, collaborating with other organizations, and creating cultural visibility programs.
The DEI Alliance was created in fall 2022 by the Office of Social Equity and Title IX.
Current cohort members are Collegiate Women in Progress, Colors in Unity, IUP Hillel (previously known as the Jewish Student Union), India Students Association, Latino Student Organization, Lambda Sigma Upsilon Latino Fraternity Inc., National Association for the Advancement of Colored People IUP Chapter, and South Asian Student Association,
“Culture visibility means acknowledgment and understanding,” said Erika Jackson, who is coordinating the Unity Ball Met Gala with the support and planning of student leaders within the DEI Alliance.
“It means including the student body of diverse backgrounds in conversations, it means personal invitations to hear the concerns of students from a variety of backgrounds. Cultural visibility means not just marketing students of color on social media but interacting with us. Get to know all of the student leaders in student groups, not those easily accessible,” she said.
“Cultural visibility looks like spreading messages that IUP is against hate. It means creating and promoting workshops for all to attend to understand their implicit biases and cultural ignorance. Cultural visibility means that there is actionable effort to support and create a community for students of a variety of cultures,” Jackson said.
This is IUP’s third annual Unity Ball sponsored by the Social Equity and Title IX Office; the first Unity Ball was hosted by the IUP’s Latino Student Organization (LaSO) in 2022 and was a truly spectacular night; the 2023 Unity Ball was hosted by Students Against Racism which raised money for a charity serving the homeless.
“The original idea for a Unity Ball came from our student Austin Marsico, who wanted to provide an opportunity for the IUP community to come together, embracing and celebrating the many identities that create the IUP community,” Glenn said. “Each year, the organizing group is encouraged to develop its own theme for the event, and this year, the DEI Alliance decided to build on the theme of the Met Gala,” Glenn said.
“We are all IUP and my goal for the evening is for us to celebrate who we are individually and together, to share a meal, dance, and celebrate,” she said. “The DEI Alliance is continuing the Unity Ball tradition in honor of the many cultures represented by IUP students and employees, and to recognize that we all contribute to the identity of the IUP community.
“The students have planned a wonderful event which we are delighted to sponsor, and I encourage all members of the IUP community to attend this event,” she said.