Thanks to the Northern Iowan for reporting on student experiences last semester regarding diversity.

In Black Hawk County, there is a particularly toxic form of inequality: one out of two children enrolled in Black Hawk County schools qualifies for free and reduced meals. In some schools in Waterloo, more than 80 percent of children qualify. 19,000 people in Black Hawk County (6,000 of them children) do not know where their next meal will come from. There is poverty in Black Hawk County, which leads to all sorts of other life-long troubles.

These are chronic problems that charity and food banks alone will not fix.

What if we (UNI students, faculty, staff and community partners) put our collective talents, insights and resources on a couple of long- term projects to significantly reduce poverty in Black Hawk County? Increasing the minimum wage to a living wage, for example, or working to implement a number of other policies we know have worked to reduce systemic poverty. Let’s show we can take on this nasty inequality.

Such an initiative can cut through a lot of the issues expressed last semester and bring everyone together to address a common mega-aggression right here in our county and our state. Let’s actually do something together that will improve the lives of many children and families in this county.

Imagine an organized army of students, staff and faculty (much like the Dance Marathon). Wow! We could get so much done to significantly reduce poverty.

Once we get going on this path, we will soon realize that the ability to empathize–to understand and feel other people’s lives — is in some ways more important than “diversity.” Taking on a real problem in our own backyard will force us to deal with the diversity of experiences, learn from many community leaders and, before we know it, transform us.

–Kamyar Enshayan, Director at the Center for Energy and Environmental Education