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Campus celebrates dialectical heritage

Thursday will be recognized as International Mother Language Day to the UH community thanks to a bill passed by the Student Government Association.

Authored by civil engineering junior Tanzeem Chowdhury, the bill has been in the works since Thanksgiving. With 20 sponsors backing it, it made its debut at a senate meeting two weeks ago and was approved with a final vote of 24-0-2.

“International Mother Language Day will help create unity in diversity and international understanding through multilingualism and multiculturalism,” according to the bill.

International Mother Language Day goes back to the late 1940s to the early 1950s. In 1948, east and west Pakistan (now Bangladesh) were divided by India. The government ruled that the official language for both sections of Pakistan would be Urdu, pushing out the Bengali language.

On Feb. 21, 1952, University of Dhaka students protested for the protection of their language and were shot by police.

Now, the United Nations-recognized day is celebrated worldwide, honoring culture and language. Chowdhury believes UH will be the first campus in the area to add the day to an academic calendar.

Although Chowdhury wrote the bill on his own, much of the senate was behind him. Among the supporters is the bill’s co-sponsor Senator Guillermo Lopez, a political science senior.

“I am a big supporter of the International Mother Language Day bill because the University of Houston is in the top 25 universities in the country for international students, and we are the second most diverse research university in the country. By adding this new tradition to the university calendar, we further strengthen our University’s commitment to diversity,” Lopez said.

“I think students will react positively to this new tradition because many of them do have a mother language other than English and will appreciate having a day to reflect and celebrate their cultural heritage.”

In honor of the day, a free event will be held from 6:30 to 10 p.m. Sunday in the University Center Houston Room.

SGA is working to promote the event with fliers and social media and has already caught students’ attention.

“As a fellow student of UH, I would love to celebrate this day with great pride and remembrance,” said media production junior Darwin Morrow. “I believe that language is something of great importance to culture and that we should stand up for its protection.”

The event will have performances by singers and dancers, who will represent various cultures, as well as traditional Bengali food.

“This is not just an SGA thing, this is a University of Houston thing. Our main goal is to let everyone know that we do appreciate the fundamental part of culture, which is language,” Chowdhury said.

“The beauty of language should be acknowledged and celebrated everywhere. We really hope other universities can catch up to us.”

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