Council finds theme for diversity programs

By Mary Georgevich

When pictures of students dressed in stereotypes of Latinos surfaced on Facebook a year ago, they shook up race relations on campus and created dialogue about diversity at Santa Clara.

The Provost's Council on Diversity, Multicultural Learning and Inclusive Excellence was formed last fall to address issues of diversity on campus. This five-member council now meets every two weeks to discuss plans for increasing student involvement, creating dialogue on issues and improving inter-organizational cooperation on events, said Provost Lucia Gilbert.

Gilbert said the council's main accomplishment has been creating the theme, "Identity: Individuality, Community, Humanity," which will remain the focus during winter quarters 2008, 2009 and 2010.

"The idea is instead of looking at where we're all the same and trying to find commonalities, looking at how each one of us as individuals shape our identity," said Lester Deanes, assistant dean for student life and member of the diversity council.

This past quarter, the diversity council did not put on any of their own programs, Gilbert said.

However, when the President's Speaker Series speaker, Robert M. Sapolsky, was scheduled to discuss a topic that fit into the identity theme, the council organized a question-and-answer session to follow the speech.

"We're very intentionally moving slowly," said Deanes. "Right now is the research phase."

The council has plans in the works for events with the de Saisset Museum, as well as the Music at Noon program in winter of 2009, said Gilbert.

"There will be other things on campus in spring and fall quarters, but they won't be affiliated with the theme," Gilbert said.

The role of the diversity council is not to heal the campus community after the division caused by the theme party last year, said Deanes.

"I think each of us understands that it's not our responsibility to be the ones to fix the campus in relation to the theme party issue," he said.

Instead, the council is encouraging the campus community to take responsibility for the way their actions affect others.

For example, Deanes said his office is working on creating a workshop with diversity training.

The school has initiated programs to attract faculty members with more diverse backgrounds. Gilbert said they are educating search committees on diversity, and training is being done across campus about harassment and respect for other cultures.

In addition to Gilbert and Deanes, diversity council members include Mary Ho, program director of the Office for Multicultural Learning; Eva Blanco, assistant dean of undergraduate admissions and financial aid; Allen Hammond, a law professor; and Andrew Starbird, professor of operations and management information systems. Each council member is charged with a different focus area, such as faculty retention and recruitment.

Senior Judy Kuo, director of the Multicultural Center, said she hadn't heard much about the diversity council this year until she was contacted to comment for this article. However, Kuo said after speaking to Deanes, she's trying to see if she can get the MCC involved in some cooperative efforts with the council.

Gilbert said the council is not currently working with any student groups to plan programming, but the creation of a student advisory council is in the planning stages.

Sophomore Jose Arreola, a member of the English class who created a video in response to the theme party last year, said he thinks the administration has not done enough to prevent something like the theme party from happening again.

"Unless we can get the administration to do more than just set up a council where they sit and talk about diversity for I don't know how long, there won't be a change," he said.

Sophomore Lauren Chriss, another member of the English class, said she has noticed a difference in the way diversity is talked about on campus.

"Conversations that I've heard going on are better; people are more conscious," she said.

One university program aimed at making minority students feel welcome is the Lead Scholars program, formerly known as the Bridge program, which was developed to provide support and additional opportunities for leadership for first-generation college students and students of color.

This year, the Lead Scholars program director's position will be up for renegotiation on March 15.

At the end of 2006, there was enough of the Irvine funding left to fund 30 students in the program for the 2007-2008 academic year. Therefore, next year will be the first year the program will be operating without funding from the Irvine foundation.

As a Bridge participant, Arreola said he believes the program is effective in helping students make a smooth transition to college.

"I definitely would not be (at Santa Clara) if it weren't for the Bridge program," he said.

In addition to programs like Lead, Ho said she hopes future programming will help shape the way diversity is approached by the campus community.

"I definitely think that the theme party created a lasting impact. Many people were affected by it. Whether it changed them or not, I definitely think there was a change in sensitivity," said Ho.

Gilbert said that instead of dozens of diversity events attended by only a handful of people, she would rather see fewer events around diversity that attract a larger audience, so that more people will have read the same book or heard the same speaker, "because conversation comes from common experiences."

Arreola said he thinks improving the campus climate is within reach.

"A lot of this has to do with the general demographics of the university, but if the university could break this natural segregation on campus, if the university could only get students of different backgrounds into a room with a facilitator and just have them talk to each other in a way that's honest and productive, that could be the most meaningful programming of all," Arreola said.

Contact Mary Georgevich at (408) 554-4546 or mgeorgevich@scu.edu.