The University of Michigan Engineering Council hosted a town hall meeting at the Lurie Engineering Center last night that featured discussion on the importance of establishing a positive social climate on campus and increasing tolerance among students.

A panel of University officials opened the program, including Jim Toy, a leading gay rights activist in the state and co-founder of what is now called the Spectrum Center, Director of the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities Stuart Segal, Associate Dean of the College of Engineering James Holloway, and Managing Director of the Center for Engineering Diversity and Outreach Robert Scott. The group spoke to a crowd of about 75 students about increasing diversity on campus and then opened up the floor for questions.

In light of recent incidences of bullying against LGBT young people, including Michigan Student Assembly President Chris Armstrong, Toy spoke about why the Spectrum Center is a crucial tool for gay, lesbian and transgendered students on campus. As a co-founder, Toy helped launch the center — which was called the Office of LGBT Affairs at the time — after the Gay Liberation Front in Ann Arbor asked the University to develop an organization that would cater to the needs of homosexual students.

Toy said he hopes to foster an environment of increased tolerance at the University by quelling hateful speech and cheers at hockey games, which he hopes University Athletic Director David Brandon makes a priority.

“The climate at hockey games is totally sexist and totally homophobic, and that situation has got to get addressed,” Toy said.

Extending the conversation beyond sexual orientation, the panel emphasized decreasing segregation in the classroom and on campus, particularly within the College of Engineering.

Holloway said many students view the liberal arts and humanities classes as pivotal places for learning the basics of respectful discussion and diverse interaction, but many don’t think they can learn the same values in the more science and math-based and less interactive discipline of engineering — a notion he believes is false.

“Sometimes as engineers, we tend to step back and say we do analytical stuff that’s all very clear cut and scientific, and so we don’t have that same kind of issue, we don’t interact in the same way,” Holloway said. “Of course that’s garbage, because we interact with each other in exactly those ways.

“Our ability to interact with each other in a respectful way, to hear each others' needs, to take into account how various stakeholders have competing needs and how to balance those are very important as engineers,” he added.

Scott, a University alum, said while integration has greatly increased since he graduated in 1975, he still sees students of the same ethnicity clinging together and not venturing outside racial boundaries.

“The fact that minority students are here does not mean that they are necessarily included and engaged,” Scott said. “You can walk around campus and see diversity, and see that diversity moves in clumps. Our center is all about trying to change the paradigm.”

Halloway said the College of Engineering is also working to increase diversity in gender in the engineering field.