By Hannah Gray
At the beginning of the year - a time when new students are awkwardly trying to fit in - junior Yuuki Ohashi, a new international student from Japan, was struggling to find friends. She was afraid to speak English and couldn't find many Japanese students on campus.
The first month was particularly hard for Ohashi because she ate lunch and dinner alone many times. But over time, she had an opportunity to talk with lots of people in her classes and events that Corrado Hall, her residence, held.
"I realized I needed to be open. The first time I was closed because I was afraid to speak (English) and make friends," Ohashi said.
On March 18 a group of 35 students and faculty met in Franz Hall to discuss ideas on how to improve diversity and diversity awareness on campus.
"The significance of this event is that it raised an issue that doesn't seem to be on the forefront," said Kenneth Laundra, the proctor of the meeting and a visiting professor for the social and behavioral sciences. "It doesn't seem to be a high priority, particularly the establishment of a multicultural center. The students will be the ones to make it an issue - the meeting was an important first step."
The issue of diversity is also being addressed in ASUP. Junior Alyssa Schmidt-Carr, a senator for the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, received requests from her constituents to make diversity even more of a concern in ASUP. From there, Schmidt-Carr submitted a proposal to make a separate diversity committee. ASUP restructured its committees, and there is a Diversity subcommittee of the ASUP Awareness Committee as of March 23.
The meeting began with a documentary sophomore Lisa Woo made for her Social Justice Perspectives class concerning diversity at UP. The documentary featured informative ethnic percentages and students' thoughts on diversity.
"There's been a lot of controversy about what I've been doing. At times it made me want to back down," Woo said about her documentary. Woo is currently making another diversity documentary about minority students at UP.
The purpose of the diversity meeting was "to create a place to share opinions and not be attacked," Woo said at the beginning of the meeting.
Some of the ideas discussed within the meeting were a multicultural center or a student union, recruitment of professors, need-scholarships based on ethnicity, requiring cultural classes as a part of the core curriculum, having clubs interconnect more and changing the UP mission statement to include diversity.
Constituents at the meeting discussed that a multicultural center or student union would be beneficial to students. The multicultural center would be a place to encourage minority students to feel welcome and have a common place to go.
"A multicultural center could be used for anything - anyone to get together," Schmidt-Carr said. "It doesn't have to be the best thing ever, a corner in St. Mary's would be progress."
Another suggestion was to recruit more ethnic professors. "This is a problem for all students," said Bethany Sills, the assistant director of Student Activities and multicultural programs coordinator.
Need-based scholarships were an important aspect of the meeting. UP does not offer scholarships based on ethnicity, nor does UP recruit minority students.
"We need to recruit more students with different backgrounds," Schmidt-Carr said. "If we have more race-based scholarships that is something that will attract more students."
An important topic was that UP currently requires philosophy and theology classes as part of the core curriculum but does not require multicultural classes.
"I think the administration needs to do something like adding required classes that have intercultural studies," senior Dhieu Arok said.
Students at the meeting thought that intercultural classes should be implemented along with the core curriculum.
"The University has a responsibility to teach cultural competency and an easy way to do that is through the core curriculum," Woo said.
UP's philosophy is that diversity is connected and weaved into the core curriculum as an important aspect of each class.
"In the issue of diversity, what we did was to incorporate diversity in core classes," said Robert Duff, professor and chair of social and behavior sciences. The aspect of diversity is embedded into the core classes. They are "a set of courses that are responsible for exposing students to the whole concept of cultural diversity in different elements," Duff said.
One of the biggest and most talked about issue was that clubs don't talk with each other and rarely coordinate plans or events. A lack of communication leads to low attendance at events. Also, many students are intimidated by the names of clubs.
"I want to encourage all the students to attend events by multicultural clubs," Arok said. "They are not meant to be for only the people in those clubs. People should not be intimidated to come to the events."
Schmidt-Carr wants to see more involvement between the clubs and ASUP. "I feel as if it is really important to work together," Schmidt-Carr said.
A different approach was a suggestion to change the University's mission statement to make it more directed at diversity.
"Students can only go so far without an administration push," junior Julia Strang said, an office-campus senator. "Nothing is going to change without a mission statement change."
The Moreau Center was also brought up in the meeting. Sophomore Elle Hoxworth came to the meeting and discussed some of the issues the Moreau Center faces.
"The Moreau Center has a lot different programs that address all different aspects of diversity," Hoxworth said. "It's a safe place to come and talk."
The Moreau Center, although it provides many programs and a place for people to come to, is one of the most underfunded programs, said Hoxworth.
"In the Moreau Center everyone is able to share and learn from one another," Hoxworth said about providing diversity with different backgrounds and people.
One change that is Schmidt-Carr is currently doing is working with tech services to develop a Web page on diversity.
"Nothing shows up when you plug in diversity," Schmidt-Carr said. She hopes the Web site link will attract more ethnic students when considering UP.
