Indiana Alumni Magazine

A Community of Cultures

In a university setting, diversity means more than race relations.

by Mike Wright

In October 1997 nine pledges of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity at Indiana University Bloomington were arrested for stealing a street sign. It was one of the items they were to collect on a scavenger hunt. When the list for the hunt became public, however, what drew national media attention were the racial, gender, and homophobic slurs in the instructions.

Less than two years later, on July 4, 1999, graduate student Won-Joon Yoon, a native of Korea, was on his way into church when he was gunned down. The killer, Benjamin Smith, was a former IU student who had distributed hate literature in the Bloomington community for months before going on a two-state shooting rampage. Those two incidents were a big wake-up call, says Charlie Nelms, IU vice president for student development and diversity.

"This was the first time in probably 25 or 30 years that Indiana University faculty, staff, and students had come face to face in a very direct and public way with the forces of racism," says Nelms, MS'71, EdD'77.

IU President Myles Brand acknowledged in an Indiana Daily Student column that the tragic shooting had forced the university to re-examine some of its policies. IU would look at ways, Brand said, to increase the education that all students receive about the value of diversity. And, he wrote, IU would examine its commitment to building and maintaining a diverse community. Nearly four years after ZBT and two years after the murder, students, faculty, and administrators from IU's eight campuses say progress toward these goals is being made. But it's slow going.

"It's happening, but happening slowly," says John McCluskey, IUB professor of Afro-American studies. "We need to apply wisdom and to keep inching it up with each generation of students."

BENEFITS AND SUCCESSES

Nelms suggests that diversity includes mixing race, ethnicity, gender, age, economic background, geographic origin, sexual orientation, disability, and religion to enrich the whole human experience. It's about celebrating the differences among people and acknowledging the similarities.

"It's the diversity of perspectives that you're able to get by having a diversity in the people who make up the institution," Nelms says.

In the collegiate setting, diversity means an opportunity for a better life for students coming from a background of poverty. It means exposing students, often for the first time, to people unlike themselves and exchanging points of view that otherwise would be unavailable. It is a microcosm of life beyond the borders of home and campus.

"A diverse campus really prepares students for the world in which they will live," says Pamela Freeman, IUB associate dean of students, director of the office of student ethics and antiharassment programs, and chair of the campus commission on multicultural understanding.

Adds Jacob Oakman, president of the student body at IUB, "We're here to prepare for the work force. You would be hard-pressed to find a career where you work with only one ethnic group."

Nelms says diversity also is essential to IU's being a top-level academic institution. Excellence, he says, is achieved in part through the richness of interactions in the classroom, residence hall, social setting, or athletic field.

"The more diversity there is within a group, the greater the probability that people will learn something or gain a perspective they would not otherwise have," Nelms says.

Students value those multiple perspectives. Hundreds made that point loud and clear on Martin Luther King Day in 1997 when a coalition of student groups marched through the IUB campus to the Sample Gates to protest what they perceived as IU's "failing commitment" to diversity. The students demanded not only greater effort to increase the minority presence among faculty, staff, and students, but also an actively and intentionally antiracist, antisexist, antipoverty, antihomophobic university.

"We wanted a commitment to change the life chances of the student population, and a university fully aware of its role in the larger American society," says Ryan Pintado-Vertner, BAJ'98, who was one of the leaders of the student coalition that marched in 1997.

A new Asian Culture Center and the hiring of a Latino studies director were direct results of the march. Other diversity successes would follow.

Nelms was hired in 1998 to give diversity a voice at the highest administrative level. He restructured IU's diversity education program and encouraged the various ethnic culture centers to do more collaborative programming. He has an assistant in charge of strategic hiring, and another who heads academic support programs.

After three years, Nelms sees indications that IU is on the right path. The population of minority students is rising with the rest of the enrollment. Recent hirings are another example.

"There have been some major senior-level appointments in policy- and budget- and decision-making authority in the last four or five years," he says.

He cites his own appointment and the hiring of deans Astrid Merget in SPEA, Gerardo Gonzalez in education, and Kumble Subbaswamy, PhD'76, in the College of Arts and Sciences, IUB Chancellor Sharon Brehm, and men's basketball coach Mike Davis. Those appointments put two women, a Cuban-American, an Asian-American, and two African-Americans in high-profile positions. "When we make some key hires like that, it tells me, yes, we are getting serious about diversity," says Nelms.

He believes the issue is important to our country. "It's about educating more of the talent pool to maintain our competitive place and posture in the world's economy," he says. "If we want to maintain our position of leadership politically, economically, culturally — however you want to slice it — it is good for America that higher education focus on diversity in new and more powerful ways."

And IU is moving in the right direction.

"I don't think we can claim we are victorious," Nelms says. "The question is, Are we getting better, staying the same, or getting worse? I think we are getting better."

EFFORTS AT ALL CAMPUSES

Representatives from around the system say diversity is improving throughout the university. Programs are in place to encourage recruitment of a diverse student body and faculty. From elementary schools to adult learners, these programs urge college attendance. They provide financial and academic assistance. Social programs support students who are alike, and cross-cultural events unite people who are different.

IU Northwest. IU Northwest in Gary is the system's most integrated campus. In the fall 2000 semester, 36.4 percent of IUN's students were minorities. More than a quarter of the 4,649 students were African-American. Those numbers far exceed the state's minority percentages. IUN students, faculty, and staff of different backgrounds educate each other about their cultures, differences, and similarities.

An interracial communications project at IUN brings together people from IUB, IUPUI, and two campuses in Wisconsin to talk about diversity issues. Henrietta Moore, coordinator of multicultural affairs at IUN, lists some other programs: a workshop on confronting white-power music, women's studies conferences, bringing the AIDS quilt to campus, a women's expo, a student outreach club that mentors elementary and high school students, and a gospel choir that performs in the community. "Diversity is an ongoing effort, because you can always come up with new ideas," says Moore, BA'88, MS'89. "It's not like we've achieved something and it's time to stop."

IU Southeast. At the other end of the scale — and the state — is IU Southeast in New Albany, which has just 4.3 percent minorities among its enrollment of 6,427. The faculty and staff are 10.6 percent minorities. Jackie Love, MS'94, IUS director of equity and diversity, says an affirmative action plan seeks to increase the numbers of faculty, staff, and students of color.

"We are doing better," she says. "We have more diversity programming than ever before. But we still have a ways to go."

IUS is currently the only campus with an African-American chancellor, F.C. Richardson, although Nelms formerly was chancellor at IU East and Hilda Richards was chancellor at IUN from 1993 to 1999.

In the last three years, the IUS affirmative action office has become the office of equity and diversity. Along with the name change came an upgrade from a part-time to a full-time staff member and an office that expanded its role to include more diversity programming and training. At IUS, diversity programming includes conversations on race, diversity training on campus, an international festival in the spring, and an informal luncheon dialogue once a month called NETWORK (New Energy To Work Out Racial Kinks).

"Our main objective is to make sure that our students experience a diverse education to prepare them for the real-world experience," Love says.

"That's important because if you've never worked alongside someone who is disabled, gay, or of a different race, you may not know how to react to them. If we can prepare students for the diversity experience, they will have a better chance at success."

IUPUI. IU's capital-city campus has a student population that closely mirrors the racial makeup of the state. Like IUN, IUPUI has programs that focus on communication. Diversity efforts are more integrated than previously, says David Koerner, interim director of student life and diversity programs.

"Diversity was part of our program when I came here," he says. "Now, it infuses everything we do. It's not an add-on."

IUPUI has a new assistant vice chancellor for student development and diversity, the campus has created a diversity cabinet, and the admissions office has hired professionals to help recruit underrepresented students. In partnership with the local YWCA, IUPUI sponsors study circles on race.

The IUPUI campus, Nelms says, is one of the few places in the country to run two Upward Bound programs. Upward Bound targets low-income and first-generation potential college students, many of whom come from minority backgrounds. The year-round program offers tutors for middle- and high-school students, residential campus experiences, field trips, and information on career planning and preparing for college. The goal is to encourage underrepresented groups to pursue higher education.

IU South Bend. Charlotte Pfeifer, BA'76, MPA'81, diversity director at IU South Bend, says the campus has a comprehensive program that focuses on heritage months throughout the academic year. The main initiative is conversations on race, held in November. Daylong discussions cover different aspects of race and culminate with a presentation by a well-known speaker.

Another part of the constant interaction between the campus and the South Bend community brings Asian and Hispanic schoolchildren to campus to display their art. Pfeifer says she would like to develop a campuswide diversity plan. "The campus climate is pretty good and getting better. And sure, it needs work," she says.

IU Kokomo. The three-part mission of IU Kokomo's diversity effort is to recruit and retain students of color, develop programs to promote cultural diversity, and enhance the campus environment for all students, says Catherine Barnes, IUK director for campus climate.

IUK celebrates heritage months and has an international day festival. Campus speakers spark dialogue about diversity. The newest initiative at IUK is to provide leadership for IU's diversity infusion project. "Our real commitment is to include diversity in the curriculum," Barnes says. "Programs are great, but to make an impact it has to be in the curriculum. We're moving down that path faster than we have in the past."

IPFW. Reyna Franklin, a part-time graduate student, came to Fort Wayne from El Salvador and likes the attention diversity receives on the campus.

"This is important because learning from one another makes us better individuals," says Franklin, BA'99. "Our diversity council is working to include everyone and looking at a lot of angles to make this a better place."

Despite its status as the campus with the lowest percentage of minority faculty and staff, Christine Patterson, director of multicultural services at IPFW, says she has seen a lot of effort to diversify the campus. She cites the summer bridge program that recruits low-income and underachieving students and mentors them toward a degree.

"Everybody wants the stars," Patterson says. "This is a program willing to take a chance that if a student is highly motivated, he or she can be successful."

IPFW's summer youth program for students in grades 8 through 11 explores career options, describes requirements to reach career goals, and offers job shadowing, networking, and mentoring. Another program, Envision a Bright Future, sends IPFW students to Fort Wayne-area middle and high schools to tell students how to get to college and be successful.

The IPFW campus also is working to integrate diversity into the curriculum, Patterson says. For example, literature classes offer a diverse sampling of authors, not just the classic American writers. Instructors in other disciplines also try to add information about the heritage of people being studied.

IU East. Tim Williams, director of multicultural affairs at IU East in Richmond, says he conducted a survey of underrepresented students and found a good campus climate. But IUE continues to provide diversity programming such as its Educational Awareness project that helps minority students in grades 7 through 12 to develop personally and to succeed academically.

IUE also has a program that stresses the importance of higher education and gives parents information about how to get financial aid and how to encourage their children academically. Its new Minority Scholars program sends faculty and students into the community schools as role models.

A new initiative at IUE is a faculty and student exchange program with colleges in the area. Because the IUE campus has a low minority population, Williams says it is trying to diversify by temporarily bringing in faculty and students from elsewhere.

IU Bloomington. And then there's IUB — the system's largest campus, residential in nature, and a center of research. Bloomington has diversity recruitment programs for faculty and students, mentoring programs to help students succeed, and programs to introduce different cultures to each other, whether that means black students to white, urban to rural, Midwest to East Coast, or American to foreign.

A few of the academic programs that bolster diversity at IUB:

Throughout the year IUB's various culture centers offer outreach programs to educate students and community members. The centers serve as a home for students of similar background and a resource for others.

For example, the Asian Culture Center invites day-campers from the Bloomington community to spend a few hours a week at the center for classes on Asian culture, crafts, food preparation, and games.

The African-American Cultural Center will soon have a new home, part of the Theatre/Neal-Marshall Education Center east of the IU Auditorium. It will have performance venues for the African-American Arts Institute and its performing groups — the IU Soul Revue, the African-American Choral Ensemble, and the African-American Dance Company. The office of African-American Affairs and the activities of the former Black Culture Center will also reside there.

Diversity education takes place in the residential centers as well. The CommUNITY Education program sends student staff members of the division of residential programs and services into the residence halls to talk with their peers about diversity issues, challenge assumptions, and promote tolerance and acceptance.

In July IU also was a major presence at Indiana Black Expo in Indianapolis.

THE ULTIMATE GOAL

The goal of all these programs, and others, is to advance the notion of diversity to the point that it is simply part of the culture of the university. Sometimes it's a tough sell.

"If I've learned anything in this work, it's that whoever the enemy is out there, he works to divide us," says Doug Bauder, coordinator of the office of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender student support services. "But when we work cooperatively, we benefit personally, and the community moves forward."

Freeman, who co-chairs incident teams for responding to harassment, says she has seen the full range of people who "just don't get it." People who commit acts of harassment do so for a variety of reasons, she says. "Some do it out of ignorance and want to learn and change," Freeman says. "Some do it intentionally and are very defensive when confronted."

A hurdle that has to be jumped repeatedly, she notes, is that entering students may have had no previous experience with people unlike themselves and may be reluctant to go outside their comfort zone. But that's what diversity and higher education are all about.

"We have a place where people can meet, live around, and socialize with every other type of person," Freeman says. "That's a real plus for coming to Indiana University." End of Article

Mike Wright, BA'78, is managing editor of the Indiana Alumni Magazine.



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