From NCC, a lesson in diversity.

Byline: Bob Welch / The Register-Guard

Jeff Wright's telling stories a week ago on Eugene's "eXit Files" - an informal list of minority professionals who have left town with regret - remind us that, as a community, we still suffer from blurred vision when it comes to race and ethnicity.

And I did my share of "look-in-the-mirror" columns last fall after taking an ethnic studies class at Lane Community College.

But we're being shortsighted if, while spotlighting our shortcomings, we don't also celebrate the victories in the shadows.

Which brings me to Northwest Christian College.

Two years ago the 496-student school was rocked by discrimination charges. Its diversity coordinator, the only black faculty member, quit to protest the firing of a school dean whom she believed was dismissed for speaking out about allegations of racial bias. Two other faculty members resigned. Guest editorialists chided the college as the latest example of Eugene's lingering unwillingness to "get it."

So it might surprise some people to know that last month, the Eugene MLK Day Celebration presented its Sponsorship Trophy to - yep - NCC. That the school played host to author Bebe Moore Campbell, the keynote speaker, for a talk in the chapel. And that the NCC faculty has voted to require a diversity studies course for all entering students.

`I've worked in training some of their faculty and I'm very impressed with what I believe is a sincere and heartfelt attempt to `see with new eyes,' ' says Carla Gary, the University of Oregon's assistant vice provost in the Office of Institutional Equality and Diversity.

The suggestion isn't that, as an institution, NCC once was blind but now can see. Two years ago NCC wasn't a wall-to-wall bastion of racism, any more than it's now the perfect example of community bridge-building.

But the school is humbly examining itself, making course corrections and carrying on toward a higher ideal. That's rare these days.

Maureen Cole, chairwoman of NCC's new Diversity Committee, recently joined one of the Eugene City Club's study circles to discuss racism. "More than anything, I've realized how you can't appreciate someone else's perspective if you're so ingrained in your own," she says. "In terms of institutions, how could we not have a bias if we're basically an all-white institute?"

In the past two years, the college has sponsored or been part of nearly 50 events that encourage racial understanding. It has offered its new Morse Center to host the 2006 MLK Celebration. And it has a new president, Dave Wilson, whose background in social psychology seems to give him a heightened appreciation for what needs doing.

"Our Christian faith carries with it a charge to offer dignity, love and respect to all human beings," says Wilson. "We want to promote justice. We want to make that a basic in our teaching." And, he says, do more to attract faculty, staff and students of color, which now make up 10.5 percent, 5.7 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively, of those at the school.

Progress isn't as much about rehashing the sins of the past as a willingness to change the future.

`NCC is exercising that `courage muscle,' ' Gary says. `They're saying: `Let's move ahead.' '

Some may see NCC's steps as nothing more than a PR push to shore up its image. I don't buy it. Nobody from NCC, for example, suggested that I do this column; I got the idea after meeting with Cole, who wanted to hear more about what I'd learned in the ethnic studies classes.

"They have new leadership and my perception is they're genuinely trying to do the right thing," says Greg Evans, a longtime leader in the black community. "The last couple of years NCC has emerged out of its bunker mentality and is trying to reach out. They're building relationships.

"It's not some quantum leap, but they're feeling their way through the dark, which is more than a lot of people have done."

And which more of us should do.