Task force aims to reduce tension caused by diversity

The Cal State Long Beach Associated Students Senate is forming a multicultural task force to train senators on how to be more culturally diverse as well as sensitive toward those cultures, A.S. Vice President Alma Salazar said.

She said that the task force is now in the early planning stages. There are five to 10 people that Salazar said would be on the committee.

Salazar said the task force was formed to alleviate tensions that exist on CSULB due to the misunderstanding, as well as the lack of basic knowledge, of the different cultural diversity around campus.

James Sauceda, founding director of the Multicultural Center, agreed with Salazar, saying that the campus, as a whole, has not really expressed how they feel about crossing cultures.

"There have been few opportunities to address some of the underlying tensions, suspicions, and fears that our diversity creates," Sauceda said. "Managing that tension is what the Multicultural Center is all about, rather than denying that tension exists."

Sauceda will try to decrease tension among students by creating cross-cultural events to promote unity, which is something that Sauceda said the campus is lacking.

"We're still a monocultural form of programming," Sauceda said. "For instance, if you bring a Latino performance troupe, Latinos attend, but not the campus at large."

Sauceda said another way to reduce tension is through workshops, such as Cal Star, a program that teaches CSULB students about cultural diversity. These students are then trained to teach high school students how to alleviate their tensions as well. He said that the A.S. senators will also be trained for cultural diversity.

Salazar's hopes the task force's influence will reach the senators this semester, and that its full impact will met by the 1995-96 school year.

Sauceda congratulated the A.S. government on passing the resolution that resulted in the formation of the task force.

"I think this is a really positive step for the A.S. government because it allows our programming to evolve and become more truly inclusive in the entire campus community," he said.