As the ASM Student Council rubber-stamped the SSFC budget last week, which included unprecedented increases in segregated fees (student taxes) to fund student organizations seeking to create diversity on campus, a disturbing trend has emerged. This trend, however, is not limited to forcing students to give up more of their hard-earned money to student organizations. Unfortunately, the UW administration and faculty also wishes to foster diversity on campus in a troubling manner.
Late last month, the UW housing department unveiled their plans to begin a Multicultural Learning Community in Witte Hall next fall where 50 to 100 students can live with a more “diverse group of people,” according to UW senior Peter Moran, and participate in special activities aimed at race. Housing official Larry Davis pointed out that of the 6,900 students currently living in university residence halls, only about 800 are ethnic minorities. These efforts are well-intentioned, but this type of neo-segregation on campus is not an effective way of addressing the need for diversity.
During my sophomore year, I served on the committee of faculty, students and staff charged to form a vision of a multicultural residential community on campus sponsored by the university housing department. This committee laid the conceptual foundation for the recently announced MLC. Current UW Housing director Paul Evans and Multicultural Student Coalition chair Tshaka Barrows served on the committee as well.
During one of our brainstorming sessions, I clearly remember one particular exchange I had with Michael Hinden, another member of the committee and a professor with the Office of International Studies and Programs. As the committee made suggestions for the concrete goals of this learning community, I mentioned that if we are genuinely committed to creating diversity on campus, we should emphasize the participation of Caucasian students in this endeavor. I told the committee that diversity on campus must particularly concentrate on outreach to Caucasian students so that the new community is not seen as some sort of racial enclave reserved exclusively for ethnic minorities. I pointed out that several friends of mine feel that the Multicultural Student Center is only for minorities and that they are not welcome since they are Caucasian. I simply wanted to avoid that sentiment from affecting the success of this multicultural learning community. I thought that this would be a suggestion that most members would agree about.
As it turned out, Mr. Hinden remarked that a previously stated goal — making a “comfortable” environment for minority students — is a more important aspect of the learning community. I disagreed, since the campus population is 80 percent Caucasian. I argued that to exclude a concerted effort to outreach to the majority population of campus would subvert the larger goal of creating campus diversity to providing a place where minority students could retreat and hide away. Despite my steadfast objections, my goal was not included on the list. Soon thereafter, I no longer received information about when committee meetings were held.
The MLC’s stated goal of being a comfort zone for minority students and creating this special place for ethnic minorities seems to be contrary to the mission of creating true diversity. Rather, it restricts the diversity of background you find on campus and sends a message of division and close-mindedness. I have spoken with many students on campus who have expressed their reservations about the MLC. They question the concept of the MLC project because it does not promote the active involvement of ethnic minorities in campus activities. In fact, Mr. Davis once remarked that “[participants] are hopefully going to live in an environment that is more like what they are used to.”
Sadly, this would not be the first instance of administration-sponsored segregation. I frequently receive e-mails like the one I found in my Hotmail inbox on Nov. 7, 2001. The subject line read “A GET AWAY” and gave details about an off-campus conference from Friday, Nov. 31, until Sunday, Dec. 2, called “Student of Color Connection Fall 2001”. According to the e-mail, the activities focus on “building a sense of community with other students of color.” The facilitators of the conference are “committed to student-of-color concerns” and include the Dean of Students Office, the Office of the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, University Housing, Associated Students of Madison, the Multicultural Student Center, the Multicultural Council and Cross College Advising. Additionally, every fall there is a separate “Student of Color Orientation” aimed at freshmen ethnic and racial minorities. What troubles me is that so-called diversity initiatives undertaken by the administration look more like ways for ethnic minorities to withdraw from the larger campus community. How is diversity achieved through retreats, orientations and exclusive communities like the Multicultural Learning Community and the Multicultural Student Center, where integration with the rest of campus is not even on the agenda but making minorities feel comfortable is the paramount consideration?
The fact is that learning new things and reforming our previous opinions about people is not about comfort and not about familiarity. On the other hand, it is about encouraging students to step out of their comfort zone and interact with people that may not look like them, may not talk like them and may not act like them. Diversity is a challenge. Diversity is honestly evaluating how you perceive others. Diversity is ideas and perceptions.
Superficial diversity is the herding of ethnic minorities into a little corner of campus where they live with people who look like them. Superficial diversity is achieved when the standard of this diversity is simply the color of one’s skin, not the content of their character or their individual and unique life experiences.
Diversity of ideas will only be achieved on campus by giving students the opportunity to just be individuals with unique characteristics that we live with, study with, attend classes with and socialize with. We should not perceive each other as members of divisive racial and ethnic groups. The first step away from the shallow diversity and neo-segregation on campus is acknowledging the counter-productive efforts taken by the UW administration. Instead, we should take the challenge upon ourselves to experience some discomfort and be prepared to learn things about others who do not happen to look the same. By exhibiting this type of openness, we will soon discover what we have in common: similarities unrelated to race.