In its eight years of existence, the Multicultural Advocacy Program has worked to create a sense of community between Northwestern’s various cultural groups.
But with applications due today for next year’s Multicultural Advocates, some dorm presidents – and even some former MAs – say students largely are unaware of the program, and that the MAs have yet to live up to their potential.
“I definitely built a dialogue with my students,” said Ethelbert Williams, a former MA who left the program in November. “But I didn’t feel I was getting out of the program what I should have been getting out of it.”
Williams, a Medill senior, said that although the program has admirable goals, its ties to the administration hinder its efforts to open up a dialogue on campus diversity issues.
“If you want to promote diversity and if you want to promote multiculturalism, why do you have to do it under a bureaucracy?” Williams said.
ADDRESSING CAMPUS DIVERSITY
The program was started in 1993 in response to increasing racial tensions at college campuses nationwide, said Curtis Askew, program coordinator.
“It came out of the desire to address diversity on college campuses,” Askew said at an informational meeting for the program Wednesday night. “You’re not out there to police people – you’re out there to get people to think about things in a way they might not have thought about them.”
Twenty multicultural advocates serve the 29 residential halls and 29 Greek houses on campus. Participants in the program receive guaranteed housing and two course credits for a four-quarter seminar on diversity in higher education.
MAs are required to develop two events per quarter for their dorms and to create monthly bulletin board displays with cultural information. The program also co-sponsors events such as the Diversity Conference.
Gillian Schauer, president of Allison Hall, said residents enjoyed a combined effort between MAs, dorm government and the Japan Club.
“The entire dorm had make-your-own-sushi,” said Schauer, a Speech sophomore. “That was a big hit in Allison Hall.”
But some MAs said they had difficulty getting students to attend their events.
“It was frustrating,” said Traci Lato, a Speech senior and former MA. “The one reason anyone would complain was that we were planning the programming and no one was coming.”
Despite low turnout for some events, program supervisor Kiersten Elliott said MAs can plant “seeds” for change in the students they reach.
“You may not see them blossom and grow,” she said Wednesday night, “but you are the one planting seeds in people’s heads.”
‘WHERE ARE THEY?’
Current MAs are not allowed to comment on the program, and Askew and Elliott declined interviews. But many dorm presidents said MA programming has not been well-publicized.
Music sophomore Jenny Stapf, president of 1870 Orrington, said she doesn’t know which MA is assigned to her dorm.
Woodlyne Jean-Charles, president of Foster-Walker Complex, agreed that MAs lack visibility.
“Where are they?” said Jean-Charles, a Weinberg junior. “I’m unhappy with the lack of multiculturalism in this building.”
MAs should make students more aware of others’ cultures, said Magdalena Lamprecht, a Speech sophomore and president of Rogers House.
“MAs should encourage people to speak up and make the connection,” said Lamprecht, who said she has not met her MA this year.
Obaid Jaweed, president of Ayers College of Commerce and Industry, was not aware that Williams, his dorm’s MA, quit. He said he hoped an MA would become more active in CCI.
Some students said MAs should be allowed to discuss with residents the implications of any racial incident on campus, which they are instructed not to do in certain instances.
For example, a racist comment was posted on a door in Kemper Hall during Spring Quarter, but MAs were not allowed to talk about the event with the residents because of confidentiality issues.
Williams said the program should be separated from the Office of Undergraduate Residential Life so advocates can talk about specific incidents.
LEADING BY EXAMPLE
At Wednesday’s meeting, Askew said MAs are expected to lead by example.
“People do look at you,” he said. “When you drop the ball, people will look at you and say, ‘That MA screwed up.'”
Williams said he left the program because he wanted to be involved in multicultural issues without having to answer to administrators. Students still come to talk to him about multicultural issues.
But Lato said that despite the “red tape” that comes with being affiliated with NU, the program’s affiliation with Res Life is mostly beneficial.
“It’s necessary that the university supports these kinds of issues,” she said. “Especially in (the program’s) fledgling years, it’s important.”
Former MA Carey Swanson said despite the program’s flaws, it still can improve.
“There’s good ideas behind the program,” she said. “But it’s not necessarily fully acted out at this point.”
