If Alianza President Lilly Gonzalez had $10 million to improve Northwestern, she would expand the Multicultural Center.
Associated Student Government president Adam Humann would create a more diverse curriculum.
And For Members Only member Tiffany Berry would hire more African-American faculty members.
Student leaders and administrators shared these visions Tuesday night at a community forum called “Diversity at Northwestern: How Can We Improve?” The 11-member panel discussion was part of the Campus Week of Dialogue sponsored by the Campus Activities Office.
“People here are very race-conscious,” said Humann, a Weinberg senior who said he attended a very integrated high school. “I don’t see the racial mix (here), and it really bothers me a lot.”
The panel members identified ways in which NU could improve its commitment to diversity and cultural awareness. Laura LaBauve-Maher, coordinator of Hispanic/Latino Student Services, said the problem may be too much of a good thing — each night is overbooked with cultural programming. It is frustrating for a biracial student, for example, to choose between an FMO and an Alianza event scheduled at the same time, LaBauve-Maher said.
“Our students are not apathetic,” she said. “Our community is very unique in that we are multicultural. There’s too many events going on.”
For Berry, a Weinberg sophomore, the community forum itself was symptomatic of the desensitization caused by a saturation of events. An appreciation of diversity needs more than endless discussion, Berry said.
“I think NU has exhausted our diversity talks,” she said. “Everyone’s to the point where we’ve talked about it too much. It’s time to take some action.”
That action includes breaking down barriers between the different cultural groups on campus, panel members said. Although most of the groups have their offices located in the Multicultural Center, leaders said there was not enough communication between the organizations.
“I feel like we have many separate communities at NU,” Humann said. “We tend to stay within our own community, and that’s really unhealthy.”
Matthew Barbour, president of the Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian Alliance, said it was important not only for cultural groups to communicate with each other, but to make themselves an important part of the larger community.
“I think we’ve noticed that while it’s important to work on our (identities), we have an obligation to make a contribution to the community as a whole,” said Barbour, a Weinberg junior.
Panel members also criticized other facets of the NU community for their failure to recognize diversity on campus. For example, Carretta Cooke, director of African-American Student Affairs, said it was “unconscionable” that The Daily didn’t run a picture of NU’s first black Homecoming couple in Monday’s paper.
University Chaplain Tim Stevens said the actions of student leaders and administrators would increase cultural awareness on campus, but that those actions would benefit minority students as well.
“It’s important for us to be intentional about reaching out to others,” Stevens said. “If we view each other as neighbors, we have a lot to gain. We can enrich our own identities.”
