FSC Mission Statement Spoken in Six Languages
February 26, 2018
Celebrating international languages spoken around campus is one thing, but reciting the new FSC mission statement in languages such as Bangla, Chinese, Italian, Arabic, Spanish and Farsi is quite a novel idea.
It was the brainchild of International Mother Language Day organizers Dr. Nazrul Islam, 
chair of the Department of Security Systems and Law Enforcement Technology, and Dr. Chiara De Santi, assistant professor of Italian Studies.
“The objective of the event was to promote linguistic diversity in the campus community and respect each cultural heritage,” Dr. Islam said. “FSC is motivated to prepare graduates with efficient and state-of-the-art knowledge. If we can deliver our mission to diversity in their own languages, it will be more significant and effective.”
Held the day before UNESCO’s annual February 21 event, International Mother Language Day is the result of the struggle between Bengali-speaking Pakistanis and the Pakistani government, which in 1948 had declared Urdu as the country’s sole national language. On February 21, 1952, students at the University of Dhaka and other activists organized a protest. Police fired at the demonstrators, killing four students. Those deaths are remembered on International Mother Language Day.
The FSC presentation included Dr. Islam’s review of the history of the event, and Dr. De Santi’s talk on language diversity. Dr. Nader, in his remarks, reminded the audience that FSC had just recently won SUNY’s Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice Award.
The celebration concluded with student performances featuring music and dance representing Northern Indian, Chinese and Bangladeshi cultures.
