After a recent rash of hate crimes committed on the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater campus, students will hold the first annual “This Is Our House” diversity week to celebrate and educate students on diversity.

According to UW-Whitewater junior and a diversity week Coordinator Donvontae Walton, the week-long event will begin Nov. 29 and run through Dec. 3.

In an e-mail to The Badger Herald, Walton said he and other students had always wanted to have a diversity week on the campus, but the event was mostly inspired by the number of hate crimes the campus has witnessed.

“[The] majority of the students are not for tolerating what is happening and we want everyone to know that,” Walton said.

Walton said student organizations such as Residence Life, Royal Purple, the Whitewater Student Government and the university have all collaborated in order to make diversity week possible.

A series of events will take place throughout the week, including presentations made by guest speakers, a diversity panel and conversations with UW-Whitewater officials on the student’s perspective of diversity on campus.

UW-Whitewater Vice Chancellor Thomas Rios said the university made great strides to address the issue of diversity on campus and he believes diversity week will be a continuation of the university’s efforts.

Rios said he thought students would greatly benefit from the “Ask a Black Dude” panel, an event that will allow students to pose questions to black students.

“For students who have never been exposed to different cultures, it will give them the opportunity to get that exposure and generate some good conversation,” Rios said.

Rios also said he believed the event would be an important one for the campus even if the hate crime incidents had not occurred.

He added UW-Whitewater is not the only school dealing with diversity issues; these issues have caused problems on campuses nation-wide.

Within the past semester, three hate crimes have been committed against UW-Whitewater students.

The most recent crime was committed earlier in November when the cars of several black students were vandalized and marked with the letters “KKK.”

The two other crimes occurred earlier in the semester and both involved the assault of students due to their perceived sexual orientation.

Dalton said he hoped the week would remind students to be proud of the diverse culture on campus and speak out against acts of hate.

“What we hope that people take from all of these events is a different perspective of each community that is represented on our campus,” Dalton said. “We also hope that they can stand up for what is right.”

Some students were not convinced diversity week would influence the beliefs and thoughts of all students.

UW-Whitewater freshman Jamee Jurecki said she thought diversity week would help to expand her horizons, but doubted it would do anything to change the minds of the people and students who hold discriminatory beliefs.

“The people who have been doing these things and supporting these crimes will not be in attendance at this event,” Jurecki said.