The Multicultural Student Coalition (MCSC) began in the fall of
1999 with the intended purpose of promoting diversity education
throughout the campus community. To that end, the MCSC was approved
for approximately $80,000 in funding for the next year. Since 1999,
SSFC has given the MCSC more than $700,000 of student tax dollars.
Today the MCSC comes before the SSFC requesting eligibility for
continued funding.
Diversity education needs to be conducted in a
manner that is welcoming for all students, regardless of skin
color, ideology or religion. Diversity of ideas is a bedrock of
this university and should be a foundation for all educational
experiences on this campus.
The MCSC fails both of these marks.
We are not na�ve enough to think this
amount of money, or any amount of money for that matter, will solve
all diversity issues on this campus. But we do believe that there
must be some progress and some sign of a coherent service being
provided that is beneficial and educational to students after
receiving large amounts of funding for the past three years.
The MCSC is in the middle of their M-ONE
month, a month that the MCSC has geared solely toward students of
color. Little advertising has been done to the campus community at
large, and what the MCSC does to directly benefit students on
campus outside of September is beyond our grasp.
Even sadder is the idea that one cannot
disagree with the MCSC without being prepared to face their
highly-funded wrath. Last year, a few rational members of the SSFC
questioned their funding request, along with many other
organizations. In the Mad Observer, published by the MCSC, these
students were attacked and labeled “a reckless mob of white
students (who) decided to unleash white supremacy on the SSFC
process.”
Besides behaving as poor journalists, by
attacking individuals and groups of students without any specific
claims, the MCSC is also sending a message that neither white
students, nor those who disagree with their outrageously large
budget, are welcome within their ranks.
The MCSC makes the claim that the Mad
Observeris necessary because of poor relations with the campus
newspapers. To this we reassert: our pages are open and we welcome
guest editorials and letters to the editor and frequently publish
these letters when space permits.
Last year alone, the MCSC was given more than
$500,000 to use to provide a service, yet if you ask the average
student what is the Multicultural Student Coalition and what do
they do, you will be met with a blank stare. For $500,000, every
single student should be able to recognize what MCSC is and what
service it provides on campus.
We hope SSFC will take tonight’s hearing
seriously and not simply pay lip service to this process, as many
students expect they will. There is no way to justify that the MCSC
meets SSFC’s basic eligibility criteria.