- The Record Archives
- Volume CXVIII, No. XXI - November 17, 2005 -
Diversity dilemna
Understanding the minority: part 3
The Record
Ciara Houston has seen it many times.
She said a student of color steps onto the bus and sits down. The brown or gray seats slowly fill with white faces. All except one seat is filled, then someone takes the last vacancy. The isolated minority student finally has someone to share the seat with.
Houston, a black and white mixed Minneapolis native, said that when she started at CSB/SJU, she wasn't very impressed with the racial diversity.
"When I was a freshman, I felt alienated and uncomfortable with who I was because of the atmosphere," she said.
Senior Aisha Sylvester recounts similar experiences.
"I would be the last person picked to be in groups, and the professor would instruct people to be in a group with me," Sylvester said. "I would be asked to speak for every minority group because I am a minority."
Sylvester, an international student from Trinidad and Tobago, is the co-chair of the Cultural Affairs Board and CAB's representative for the CSB Senate.
She said on campus racial dialogue is at a low point.
"It's severely lacking because people think it's such a sensitive issue," Sylvester said. "At a college level we are supposed to be taking part of experiences that make us uncomfortable because that's what we will learn from."
Houston agrees.
"Students don't feel comfortable discussing these issues," she said. "They don't know what to ask, or they don't care."
SJU junior Andrew Dealy said the diversity at CSB/SJU could be improved.
"I think we need more diversity because the majority of students are from white, middle-class families, and a lot of people are intimidated by racial factors," Dealy said. "We need more diversity to help us learn."
The past and present
Theresa McNutt, director of Multicultural Student Programs, started working at CSB/SJU in 1999. At that time there were only two faculty members of color and 120 American students of color. The school didn't even have a statement about diversity, she said.
"It said a lot to me as far as where the institution was and where it was going," McNutt said.
McNutt said at the time the "buzz" word was diversity. Steps were being taken to acknowledge and celebrate diversity, she said.
Today, things are different. CSB/SJU now has about 166 American students of color and is working toward an established goal of diversity for the year 2010.
"Personally, I would like to see systematic institutional changes around diversity," McNutt said. "We need to be looking at every aspect of the institution to bring about change."
Although Multicultural Student Programs focuses on American students of color, it also tries to connect with white students.
"It's not just about the American students of color or the international students," McNutt said. "It's also about the white students. We do a disservice to the white students because they are not getting the broad spectrum of experience and exposure that they should be."
McNutt said that greater diversity will be encountered after graduation and they won't be prepared for it.
The Future
Many things make the situation at CSB/SJU look hopeful.
McNutt said that the collaboration of faculty, staff and administrators working together on these issues is improving.
Houston said her classmates are doing their part as well.
"Through student work, [campus diversity] is getting better," she said.
Sylvester has noticed the same thing.
"I have the vantage point where you get to see where people are working on it and trying," Sylvester said. "I work with people that are really interested in changing things on campus."
Houston said she believes racial diversity will improve on the CSB/SJU campuses because of organizations like CAB and Multicultural Student Programs.
Through events such as "Common Ground Dialogue," the Retreat of Race and Ethnicity and "Campus Wide Speak Out," the discussion of diversity on campus is widening.
"We have come a long way," McNutt said. "But we still have a long way to go."