Campus
diversity not quite achieved
By Kristen Force
On-line Forty-Niner
Many
students at Cal State Long Beach say they
feel a lack of community on campus between
different races and cultures, despite the
large range of ethnicities students use
to identify themselves.
Senior biology major Danielle Prior said
that there is an evident division between
cultural and racial groups.
“This campus is most definitely segregated,”
Prior said. “I do socialize with other cultures,
but I spend most of my time in a small group.”
A campus with such a diverse population
must address issues of racial harmony and
accept differences, said James Manseau Sauceda,
director of the Multicultural Center.
“When something is uncomfortable to talk
about, we tend to not talk about it,” Sauceda
said. “What we need to do is make people
more comfortable while talking about those
uncomfortable issues.”
Students need to find positive ways to express
their concerns and views of others because
the conflict can have constructive results,
Sauceda said. Pretend civility masks the
tensions under the surface and does not
lead to solutions.
Sauceda said that creating dialogue on campus
between different ethnic groups is important
and especially crucial in the residence
halls because of the close proximity of
students. While it is natural for people
to prefer what is familiar, it is also important
to learn about different experiences and
beliefs, he said.
“There are isolated townships on this campus,”
Sauceda said. “We need to balance the sense
of home, but not at the expense of the community
at large.”
Although race-related crimes have a low
occurrence on campus, incidents like the
vandalism in Parkside Commons two weeks
ago does happen.
Some universities across the nation have
adopted speech codes — rules that further
restrict or forbid students’ rights of speech
regarding the expression of racist, sexist,
homophobic or ethnically demeaning speech,
according to the American Association of
University Professors.
CSULB does not presently have any speech
codes and follows the California Penal Code
and the California Code of Regulations.
“A speech code was under consideration five
to 10 years ago,” Jan Reyes, director of
Equity and Diversity, said. “But it is my
understanding that it was deliberately not
adopted here. The university felt that regulating
speech was not something it could do.”
The regulations manual for the university
states that any person who uses offensive
words within any building or upon the grounds
that is inherently likely to provoke an
immediate violent reaction is guilty of
a misdemeanor.
The student conduct and discipline code
further states that any person engaging
in abusive behavior directed toward a member
of the campus community has the possibility
of facing probation, suspension or expulsion.
Nadia Garcia, a sophomore business major,
said that she is aware of exclusiveness
in various ethnic groups on campus, but
is able to find common interests with many
different students.
“Everything is segregated,” Garcia said.
“I see that people hang out in different
groups, but I feel in place at this school
because of the diversity.”
Sauceda stressed that a lack of documented
crimes or verbal disputes does not mean
that problems do not exist.
“We have a very self-segregated mindset,”
Sauceda said. “If we don’t see violence,
we say it is a peaceful campus. But as Martin
Luther King Jr. said, ‘The presence of peace
does not mean the absence of violence.’
“Multi-ethnic does not imply multicultural.
We have not made the bridge to a multicultural
campus yet.”
|
