Monday April 6, marked the opening for the Center for Diversity and Inclusion at Central Arizona College’s Signal Peak campus. The two directors of the center are Professor Kolette Draegan and Nev Kraguljevic. The event was co-facilitated by Sherrie Soria. The student chefs at CAC courteously catered for the event, and soon the room was filled with CAC staff and students. People were there to watch a film called Tough Guise 2 which demonstrated a lot of issues in our society as they pertain to men.

The room’s walls were adorned with three questions, each trying to gauge our minds and get us more involved with the event. We had to go up to each question and write down an answer, or as best an answer as we could. This was not only to get us thinking about the film, and the issues involved with it, but it was also meant to help Professor Draegan and Kraguljevic gain a better understanding of what we know when it comes to these complex issues in our culture.

Professor Draegan also talked about certain aspects of our culture that inflict upon men a “tough guise” as the film suggests. The film Tough Guise 2 talks about how violence in America is rooted in our country’s inability to move past the outdated ideas of manhood; resulting in the stunted growth of men in our society. It is an eye-opening film that is meant to empower a new generation of men to challenge the social norms of what a “real man” is and change the future for the better.

Some students who attended came from other campuses, including a psychology class from Superstition Mountain Campus. They were asked to write a paper on the film and at the end the audience was asked to answer some film-related questions. As I sat with a group of students from SMC, I noticed how seriously they took the content of the film—so seriously they even applied it to the men in their lives, which helped them better understand the messages of the film.

I believe this center will be very beneficial to CAC life, and it will teach students about real and important issues. This will help us understand, as the leaders of our generation, that these are the issues in the world we will have to face, and hopefully it will inspire us to change the world we live in. This center is a safe place to talk about the things we feel are wrong with our culture, and here we can feel encouraged and empowered to stand up and do something about it.