Twenty students gathered yesterday afternoon to continue discussions stemming from racial slurs discovered on a door frame of the Channing Cox apartments.
Student Assembly President Frode Eilertsen '99 said he organized the meeting in the hopes that discussion and action would not end with last week's panel at the Roth Center for Jewish Life.
"I think you see community improve greatly during times of crisis, and then things fall apart," he said. "What I'm really passionate about right now is that we do something."
David Nelson '01 expressed the feelings of many students at the meeting when he said, "I want to be pro-active, not reactive."
Yet some students present said they find it difficult to make students pro-active.
Rachel Gilliar '98, an undergraduate advisor and Assembly member, said she had to "drag people to Community at Dartmouth," a presentation on diversity for freshmen during this orientation.
Several students at yesterday's discussion said part of the problem was that the people who attend meetings about diversity are not the ones who need to learn about acceptance of other people.
Other students responded positively to a suggestion made by James Gallo '99. He proposed to organize a joint meeting of several cultural organizations -- such as La Alianza Latino Americano, La Casa and the Afro-American Society -- where they could discuss issues of diversity.
He added that the groups should also hold a party together, encouraging interaction between different types of people.
Olga Kulinets '01 said she thought diversity should become a part of the academic program at the College.
"It's a skill necessary in life -- to get along with people who are different from you -- just as it's a skill necessary in life to be able to write a paper," Kulinets said.
She suggested writing letters to professors and undergraduate advisers encouraging them to hold discussions with students about diversity and respect.
Most of the participants said several groups on campus already exist to face and discuss issues of diversity, so they did not feel the need to create another.
The students discussed the creation of a core group to foster communication and bring different people together, but they did not want to create a separate formal organization.
Eilertson mentioned the option of holding town meetings and community dinners about diversity, and he suggested inviting faculty to join the discussions.
The group plans on holding another meeting during the first week of Spring term.
