High school talent shows are rarely memorable affairs. But I will not soon forget the day Albert Cheng walked onto the floor of my high school’s gymnasium, waited for the music to queue up, stiffened his back, straightened his shoulders and then launched into an Irish folk dancing routine. Albert’s dilettante Riverdance is an example of what happens when two distinct cultures intertwine. On Tuesday, President-elect Morton Schapiro expressed his commitment to a similar cultural interchange, calling it the “hard learning” toward which any good college ought to strive. Yet, compelling though these educational experiences can be, and despite the lessons of our nation’s history with racial segregation, cultural integration remains one of the most embattled issues in higher education. At Northwestern, where whites, blacks, Asians and Latinos each resign to separate dorms, fraternities and off-campus avenues, this issue is particularly acute.
Schapiro hinted in Tuesday’s speech that promoting diversity at Northwestern will be a leading priority once he takes office this summer. He described diversification as a two-step process: first, students of varied backgrounds must be welcomed into the university community; second, these students must be encouraged – and, if necessary, forced – to interact with one another.
Schapiro’s efforts to integrate Williams College likely provide some clues as to what to expect over the next few years. There, his plan for integration consisted of the “de-balkanization” of its campus housing system, meaning the removal of compartmentalized living arrangements for different ethnic and economic groups. In this context, it reads like a polite term for ghettoization. Asian students live in one area, black students in another, etc. At Williams, where virtually all students live in campus housing, Schapiro restricted students’ freedom to select their rooms. Previously, most students had opted to live with members of their own ethnic groups and socioeconomic classes. Sensing this to be a problem, Schapiro said he abandoned his principles as a “free market economist” and limited the students’ autonomy, assigning them to one of four pre-diversified “neighborhoods” and allowing them to select their room within that area.
According to Williams senior Peter Nurnberg, former president of one of the “neighborhoods” and current co-president of Williams’ College Council (their analogue to ASG), students there have few complaints with the Neighborhood system. It remains to be seen how such a policy would fare at NU. Students today seem largely content with a housing system that enables them to live with whomever they choose, and to use that freedom to live only with persons of their own race and background.
Integration will be much more difficult for Schapiro to achieve at NU, where fewer students live in school-managed housing and race-specific Greek houses are well-established. At NU, Schapiro’s experience with integration and his ability to build a rapport with students will be essential. NU got the president – and will soon have the housing policy – it needs. Now is the time to convince students that this is the housing policy they should want.
