Where Are We Now: Multi Ethnic Student Services
You always have to try, you don’t know if it fits till you do it.
Dr. Cynthia taylor
Multiethnic Student Services better known as MSS has changed in many ways since it first became a program in 2013, but has especially grown in the past 18 months. Olivet’s diverse students make up 18% of the student population.
What is MSS?
It’s a department that contributes to the well-being and support of its minority students while educating others about different cultures. Dr. Cynthia Taylor is the director and oversees the department.
“MSS is the way that this university affirms and fosters ethnic and cultural diversity,” Taylor said.
MSS has three affinity groups to raise awareness for the dominant group because Olivet is a predominantly white institution. The purpose is to raise awareness and understanding from a Christian perspective of how to embrace and include each brother and sister in Christ no matter what they look like. The three affinity groups Hispanic, Asian and Black students. Olivet MSS also has Pacific Rim Student Services office for our Polynesian students and a group for international students. However, Taylor focuses on students from the United States.
Students flourish through MSS
Taylor describes how she’s seen students embrace themselves and blossom through having MSS as a resource. Last year there was a party called La Fiesta in the backyard for Hispanic Heritage month. She recalls that as time when she saw a student truly light up because of MSS. She talked about how she saw a freshman who attended La Fiesta and they were from another Hispanic country. The student told her that it reminded them so much of home.
When they said that to me immediately it made my eyes tear up to hear them say that it helps students to have a part of home where they are.
Dr. cynthia taylor
Taylor continued saying she’s “seen students flourish in their niche and become empowered to go further. We used to have ASC, and now we have SDAG ( student development association groups) which allows some of our students to find their way in with different clubs and different departments.”
With new groups come new opportunities
SDAG have weekly meetings and with this new format MSS student leaders are now officially in all the meetings having to do with campus activities.
“We get to speak into different things, during International Education week we were able to speak into the food that was offered in Ludwig for the international club Pacific Rim,” Taylor said. They try to not only celebrate with events but have small meaningful things like having different food so that students can have a taste of home here.
What did MSS look like when it first started?
It started in 2013, when her son Jasper Taylor wrote a proposal to then-president Dr. Bowling about celebrating ethnic events on campus. He noticed by being an African American student at Olivet that other students of color also struggled when navigating the University.
“The first event he had was to celebrate Hispanic heritage month and he had a banquet along with black history month,” said Taylor. After her son graduated she was asked by Dr. Woody Webb, the VP of Student Enrollment at the time, if she would take over the program.
Has MSS changed with the new president, Dr. Chenoweth?
“I won’t say it’s changed, I wanna say that it’s more so expanded,” stated Taylor. Dr. Chenoweth has his strategy PAVER and the V stands for virtue. Diversity falls under that category and Dr. Chenoweth has helped make diversity more of a priority here on our campus. He has helped emphasize it as important as our leader.
Is there more change we should strive for?
MSS has been making positive steps toward change and heading in the right direction, however this all takes patience and time. In order to make those positive steps sustainable it has to be done with intentionality.
Taylor states that she “would need a bigger space even more accessible for people with disabilities.” MSS is currently working out of the third floor in the counseling center. Continuing to make diversity a priority at higher education university is beneficial for students, according to the journal Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
