OSU-Cascades students promote diversity in Bend

A group of OSU-Cascades students are looking to create opportunities for more diversity and inclusivity in Bend.

The group went before the Bend City Council on Wednesday night to share their research and ideas on how to create a more diverse and inclusive Bend as it continues to grow.

According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, 86% of people in Bend are white, while 9% are Hispanic.

The group wanted to look beyond just ethnic backgrounds, but also make sure people who come from all walks of life are represented throughout the city as well.

The group’s instructor, Erika McCalpine, who teaches at OSU-Cascades, said in doing their research, the group looked at other cities with a similar makeup and population to Bend to see what they are doing to create a more inclusive environment.

“I was surprised to learn that many towns that are over 80 percent white are doing a ton of work in this area,” McCalpine said. “And it really speaks to Bend’s initiative to be concerned about this because as we grow, as fast as we’re growing we need to be concerned, and make sure that the climate is here in Bend is welcoming to the diverse population that will come.”

One of the city council’s goals is to create more opportunities for diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Gunnar Marino is one of the students who did research on this topic comparing Bend to other cities around the country to see how it can better inclusive programs.

Marino, who grew up in Central Oregon, said he wants to be a part of the solution.

“Part of every single growing community, for it to be successful and sustainable, it needs to be inclusive of all members,” Marino said. “You can’t have anybody excluded. You can’t have prejudice, harassment, discrimination and exclusion. So I wanted to be on the forefront of this. I wanted to be fighting for people to have a more inclusive environment and make it more attractive to everybody that is coming here.”

The group of students provided city councilors with numerous suggestions to better create an inclusive environment.

Some of those include creating a steering committee for this topic, hiring a part-time intern to help create a strategic plan, or simply creating multilingual city documents to reach as many people as possible, among other things.

The city council will now likely take these ideas into consideration before creating a concrete plan.

If you would like to read more about the project, click here.