Message from the Director

Hello and Welcome to the Department of Multicultural Student Services website at Lenoir-Rhyne College.

I am the Director of Multicultural Student Services and am responsible for providing student support, programs and events, and leadership opportunities that help make Lenoir-Rhyne a more racially harmonious community.  I also serve as an advisor for multicultural organizations. 

Multicultural Philosophy & Approach

Upon graduation, our students partake in a multiethnic, multiracial and indeed multicultural society.  For those who have been raised in fairly homogenous communities, this may be their first interaction with such diversity.  For some, this evokes deep fears of losing their identity, while others view it as a way of adding to their identity.  

I see it as an opportunity for both!

Diversity, if viewed and handled properly, provides us with an opportunity to choose our identity.  In doing so, we will lose some of our misperceptions and misunderstandings of ourselves and others, while simultaneously adding to our understanding and appreciation of ourselves and others.  Therefore my aim is to provide ethnic and race-related programming that both challenge and validate all of our students' cultural identity.

In accomplishing this, I seek to follow the Golden Rule, to "do to others what I would have them to to me."  This notion permeates all that I do, and sets the stage for the manner in which controversial issues are addressed.  In this purview, even the most controversial and challenging issues can be presented in a way that does not compromise one's identity.

Two Essentials of Multicultural Programming 

I believe that effective multicultural planning must reflect a multicultural Presence and multicultural Themes.  Presence is the physical representation of people from each group that you desire to impact.  Themes are the topics, issues, accomplishments, achievements and dilemmas relevant to each particular group that you would like to affect. Both are essential for successful multicultural programming.  

Presence is essential as it provides students with opportunities to see themselves in others who look like them.  Themes demonstrate to students that issues germane to their culture are significant.  A lack of presence invalidates one's person, while lack of themes invalidates one's culture.  Creating a harmonious balance between the two is the essence of effective multicultural programming; and this is the balance that I seek.

Contact Information

Office: Cromer 206

 Telephone: (828) 328-7288

Fax: (828) 328-7329

Email: Emma.Sellers@lrc.edu