Did anyone watch the season finale of “Cupid” last week? I only bring it up because the victorious contestant refused to get married on the show, passing up a million dollar dowry for a more traditional and meaningful ceremony at a later time. It’s not often that you see individuals who can look past a huge sum of cash to see what really matters.

Away from Hollywood, those of us at UW manage to embellish our own drama in the often-ignored student government. Many have suggested that the Multicultural Student Coalition is too intolerant and exclusionary of white individuals, is unworthy of being considered a service and therefore does not deserve the opportunity to request its budget of approximately $500,000. Unlike the winning contestant of “Cupid,” these authors are ultimately more concerned with the precise dollar amount than the meaning it ultimately stands for.

Let’s be honest here, half a million dollars is a lot of money. It’s a heck of a lot more than most of us will ever make as a salary, and it’s probably even more than most of us will have in our bank accounts at any given time. This is, of course, entirely the wrong way to look at the issue. Personal savings and government service budgets do not and never will equate.

I had the opportunity in high school to sit on my school board as a nonvoting student representative. Knowing nothing about anything, I quickly discovered all the effort behind services I took for granted. Take, for instance, the district bus contract. You’d be surprised by how much it costs to supply and maintain an entire fleet of school buses.

Could we have saved money by forcing all the high school students to car pool in a purchased fleet of 1985 Hondas? Certainly. Would it have been a good idea? Of course not. Liability, impracticality and inevitable abuses make it an awful idea. The effectiveness and practicality of school buses justifies their expense.

Make no mistake: one of the largest problems facing this campus and society at large is awareness of diversity. Every statistical analysis from every population study done in the last several decades tells us that the demographics of America are changing, and that those of exclusively European ancestry are dwindling.

We could address these changes by fleeing to a northern militia, declaring the government morally bankrupt and preparing ourselves for the upcoming apocalypse with death drills. If that’s not quite your cup of tea, then maybe we could start looking at the idea that the past 200 years of American history have not treated all of us in the exact same manner.

Although blatant acts of racism still surround us every day, it’s the subtle, unconscious forms of pervasive discrimination that make things uncomfortable for those who fail to fit neatly into the majority. Not sitting next to racial minorities in your lecture or wearing an Afro wig on Halloween may only seem like little things, but as the wise lads in Good Charlotte told us, it’s the little things that hang around. Add these instances up and you have a burden that a select group of students are unfairly forced to deal with.

It would be terrific if the UW Administration mandated the funds to address diversity awareness, but their already tight budget is taxed by state deficits and SEVIS fees and simply doesn’t have the room. That’s why students created the Multicultural Student Coalition; they were tired of waiting for a desperately needed service. This organization has all the duties and responsibilities that a university department ought to have, but it is forced to go through unconventional means to achieve its resources.

There are complaints that the MCSC isn’t visible on campus, but consider that hundreds of guest lecturers come to campus every semester. How many students have an acute awareness of the range of orators available to them? Anyone who pays attention to diversity programming knows that nearly every event is organized or cosponsored by the MCSC.

Diversity isn’t an easy issue, and examining the flaws in our daily idiosyncrasies is neither comforting nor simple. It’s a challenge that, when adequately addressed, can benefit the people around us and ourselves.

When we consider everything that goes into government budgets and what they seek to accomplish, the value behind them becomes easily apparent. Nearly a century ago, Irish, Italians and Eastern Europeans were so looked down upon that they were not even considered to be “white.”

Let’s take the steps necessary right now so that it doesn’t take another 100 years to treat the rest of the country with the respect they deserve.

Rob Welygan ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in political science and history.