The University's vice president for diversity and community engagement, Gregory Vincent, was honored this weekend at the 2007 Institute of Interfaith Dialogue Awards ceremony.
The Institute of Interfaith Dialogue is a nonprofit organization that was founded in Austin in 2002 by UT graduate Yetkin Yildirim. The organization promotes community education and tolerance of world religions, spiritual traditions and cultures through interfaith dialogue. The institute gives awards each year to community leaders who facilitate learning about other cultures and faiths.
Vincent received the Education Award for his work in making UT more inclusive and diverse. As vice provost for inclusion and cross-cultural effectiveness under former UT president Larry Faulkner, Vincent held a series of "campus conversations" to address UT student and community concerns regarding inclusiveness and diversity. As vice president for diversity, he has worked on projects such as The University of Texas Elementary School, a charter school started by UT in 2003.
"Interfaith dialogue as an institute is entirely consistent with what we're looking to do on campus, which is to promote education about diverse cultures, backgrounds and faiths," Vincent said. "It's a natural fit for us to work with the Interfaith Dialogue, and it also promotes understanding about relationships, not only on campus but also what happens when you can connect community organizations with University life."
Around 200 guests attended the ceremony, including State Reps. Donna Howard, D-Austin, and Elliott Naishtat, D-Austin. The attendees represented various Austin churches, Austin Area Interreligious Ministries, UT's Islamic Dialogue Student Organization, the Austin Police Department, the sheriff's office and the FBI.
"The reason that all of these groups are here is that they are supposed to serve the community and the people," said Arban Uka, a volunteer for the institute since 2002. "They have realized that diversity is very important and have done a lot of collaborative work. The purpose of serving the community brings them together."
Austin Mayor Will Wynn received the Gulen Award, the institute's most prestigious honor. The award is named after the famous Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, known for his promotion of religious tolerance and peace. The institute praised Wynn for encouraging diverse religious existence in Austin, as well as for his environmental work and other community service.
In March 2005, Wynn promoted the Coexistence Billboard Art Exhibit displayed at Auditorium Shores, which was designed for "Light: the Holocaust and Humanity Project," an initiative of Ballet Austin and UT's College of Education.
"I tell people frequently that Austin has seemingly overnight become a remarkably diverse, 21st century, urban American city," Wynn said in his acceptance speech. "It has 715,000 people. We now find ourselves as the 16th largest city in the country, and nowhere does it show itself better than in the beautiful diversity of our citizenry. Every major religion is well represented in Austin."
Future diversity goals may include expanding the work of UT's Diversity Institute in the School of Social Work in order to create more educational opportunities for students in the area of diversity and tolerance, Vincent said.
The interfaith institute works closely with UT, partially because Yildirim is a faculty adviser for the Islamic Dialogue Student Association. Each year, the Institute of Interfaith Dialogue helps with the panel discussion during the Islamic Dialogue Student Association's Tolerance Week.
"Last year, [institute] members and Yildirim came and participated in our panel as speakers," said Kadir Nagac, a graduate economics student and president of the association. "It caused more students to become involved in interfaith dialogues."
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