Writing About Your Campus Through the Lens of Diversity.

While this session drew me in with its caption, I should have read the blurb more closely. This noontime session on Thursday spotlighted George Mason University's VoxPop magazine and Web site, both dedicated to tell stories of diversity on campus. The staff and advisors discussed the elaborate team-building and creative processes that went into launching this project as well as the work that goes into producing and publishing VoxPop now.

The last thing I need is another student medium to advise, but the determination to seek out diverse voices and coverage is something that I want to cultivate in the media that I already oversee. I picked up an issue of VoxPop to leaf through and bring back. The magazine is impressively colorful and glossy -- it looks like the alumni periodicals that I get from much larger universities with much larger budgets.

VoxPop's articles and features cover a wide range of cultures and voices, ranging from "Mason Moms" (students with children) to "Minority in a Sorority" to "To Hijab or Not to Hijab?" (Islamic clothing) and beyond. It's clear that the VoxPop staff, which is larger than the entire staff of our campus paper, was dedicated to finding new approaches to reporting on existing tensions and to showcase diversity as a strength in the context of their campus.

Suggestions from VoxPop for campuses wanting to start a similar project:
- Know your audience. Who will read your publication?
- Find ways to partner with organizations and involve the community
- Identify grant sources and other funding options
- Solicit advertisers who might have an interest in diversity issues
- Emphasize distribution and promotion strategies

Note: while VoxPop is a publication of George Mason's University Life office, students edit, write and design the magazine.

Dr. Lee