{"id":151552,"date":"2016-04-14T16:37:04","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T20:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=151552"},"modified":"2018-02-09T10:17:53","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T15:17:53","slug":"irfan-bashir-19-wins-antiracism-student-video-contest-151552","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/irfan-bashir-19-wins-antiracism-student-video-contest-151552\/","title":{"rendered":"Irfan Bashir \u201919 wins antiracism student video contest"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_151632\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-151632\" style=\"width: 450px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-151632 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/irfanbashir.jpg\" alt=\"Irfan Bashir '19\" width=\"450\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/irfanbashir.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/irfanbashir-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-151632\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Irfan Bashir &#8217;19<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When Irfan Bashir \u201919 heard about the University\u2019s antiracism video contest, he knew it was something he had to attempt.<\/p>\n<p>Never mind that he had never made a video in his life.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had to try,\u201d said Bashir, a computer science major from Kashmir, a conflicted region between India, Pakistan, and China. \u201cI wanted to show that although this is a diverse campus, racism does exist. But together, we can stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The result is a three-minute video called \u201cMeliora\u201d that features University students of different races and nationalities holding signs with phrases that illustrate the multiple cultures and ethnicities found on campus.<\/p>\n<p>Bashir was announced Thursday as winner of the video contest, capturing a clear majority of the 6,663 votes cast in week-long balloting among the University community.<\/p>\n<p>The contest was organized by a campus working group that was established to raise awareness about and to combat racism. The committee is an initiative of the Commission on Race and Diversity, a University-wide group appointed last fall by President and CEO Joel Seligman.<\/p>\n<p><strong>WATCH BASHIR&#8217;S VIDEO, &#8220;MELIORA&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"embed-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/0B_sd0Qs-Au2_STlFTGJkNTZyYWc\/preview\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>The contest asked students to produce a video that focused on the issue of racism on campus and how best to fight it.<\/p>\n<p>Bashir received a check for $500 at Hirst Lounge in Wilson Commons during a ceremony to celebrate the University\u2019s Communal Principles. His video will be used in the antiracism committee\u2019s marketing campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Runner-up Michelle Ikediobi \u201919, a Houston native studying business marketing, received $200 for her video, \u201cWhat Is That?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bashir\u2019s video was produced with help from his Sigma Beta Rho brothers, Harris Ackermann \u201916, Christopher Sardi \u201917, and Teron Russell \u201918. For most of the video, there are no spoken words, just messages about diversity on white poster boards held by students.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wanted to communicate in the most simple of terms, and for even those who can\u2019t hear,\u201d Bashir said. \u201cSo I used signs that people could read.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Beautiful shots of the Eastman Quadrangle and Rush Rhees Library are interspersed with photos of diverse students.<\/p>\n<p>The video\u2019s final 30 seconds are devoted to students from countries including Bangladesh, China, Colombia, and the United States saying the antiracism committee\u2019s slogan, \u201cWe\u2019re Better Than THAT,\u201d in their native languages.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFinding diverse students was the easiest part of the whole thing,\u201d Bashir said.<\/p>\n<p>The video offers suggestions for ending racism on campus:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy raising awareness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy acknowledging and respecting differences.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy confronting micro-aggressions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy getting involved.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It closes with the words \u201cUR Meliora: Ever Better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cochaired by Beth Olivares, dean for diversity initiatives, and Norman Burnett, assistant dean and director of the Office of Minority Student Affairs, the committee meets weekly with senior administrators, staffs, and students representing several organizations.<\/p>\n<p>Olivares stresses that the video contest is a small component of an ongoing, larger effort.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s but one way of gathering awareness and gaining student involvement in the \u2018We\u2019re Better Than THAT\u2019 campaign,\u201d she said. \u201cThe committee will be making a series of recommendations to Dean (Richard) Feldman and the commission within the next few days.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One endeavor is that all incoming students will complete a common reading that will provoke discussions on race and racism, followed by small group discussions as part of the One Community orientation event.<\/p>\n<p>The committee\u2019s vision statement reads: \u201cRacism and hate speech have no place at the URochester. We aspire to be a community whose members are equally valued and respected.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For more about the committee, and to watch all the video contest finalists, visit r<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/better-than-that\/\">ochester.edu\/better-than-that<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI wanted to show that although this is a diverse campus, racism does exist. But together, we can stop it.\u201d Bashir&#8217;s three-minute video called \u201cMeliora,\u201d was announced Thursday as the winner after a week-long vote of the campus community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":672,"featured_media":151562,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[28422,31862],"class_list":["post-151552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-university-news","tag-presidential-commission-on-race-and-diversity","tag-were-better-than-that"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Irfan Bashir \u201919 wins antiracism student video contest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/irfan-bashir-19-wins-antiracism-student-video-contest-151552\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Irfan Bashir \u201919 wins antiracism student video contest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cI wanted to show that although this is a diverse campus, racism does exist. 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