Old, young, black, white, Jewish, Catholic, Muslim, male, female, transgendered, rich or struggling; each of these different sets of people make up the complex and fascinating world in which we live.
It is the reason that we at Sonoma State University are working hard on educating our students to the increasingly diverse and complex world they are about to enter.
In our classes on a daily basis we are having productive conversations about the tangled issues of race, gender, class, disability, poverty, cultural and religious differences and the social and political issues of our time.
Diversity in the classroom takes various forms as students of different backgrounds learn to value how complex others opinions and perspectives can be.
By educating a diverse population, we are teaching our students to expand their worldliness, often meeting folks for the first time who come from groups other than their own.
We are preparing our students for career success by becoming sensitive to others, since the number of minority groups members is increasing exponentially and will reach a 55 percent majority by 2050.
By educating students to diversity, we are also helping them with their social development, allowing them to expand their body of knowledge and experience. And by educating a diverse student body we are enriching their own self-awareness by opening them up to new vantage points and angles.
Sonoma State University has had excellent success recently in reaching its own goals around diversity.
We now are 20 percent Hispanic students, 4 percent Asian, 8 percent of multiple ethnicities, 2 percent African-American and 61 percent white.
Our community has united in planning for SSU's future around diversity in a campus-wide dialogue that included faculty, students and staff.
Having recently hired a new director of the Multicultural Center as well as the ongoing position of director of diversity and inclusive excellence, we have key positions in place to further our goals.
Our recent art exhibit titled "Diverse City" brought out people from all over our community for a celebration of our complexity. SSU is an exciting place to be right now when we talk about diversity.
Elaine Leeder is chairwoman of the President's Diversity Council and dean of the School of Social Sciences at Sonoma State University.
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