To gauge what some prominent students of color think of the Trustees' World Cultures Initiative, The Dartmouth conducted interviews with four campus leaders: Afro-American Society President Olivia Carpenter '00, Pan-Asian Council Co-chair Christen Einsiedler '00, La Alianza Latina President Omar Rashid '00 and Casey Sixkiller '00, chair of the council that represents Native Americans at Dartmouth.
While their viewpoints varied widely on some subjects, the four leaders agreed that the WCI represents a step in the right direction, but that it is vague and leaves the future of multiculturalism at the College open to question.
They also agreed that a sweeping, pervasive change is needed in the way the College community views diversity. Rather than seeing multiculturalism as a duty or an obligation, they said, it needs to become an integral part of people's lives.
Olivia Carpenter
As president of the Afro-American Society, Carpenter had advocated the inclusion of multicultural issues in the Student Life Initiative even before the steering committee released its recommendations to the Trustees, including the World Cultures Initiative, on Jan. 10.
So when she found out the committee had listened to her group, she was glad -- at first.
"Upon first read, it was like, 'Wow, they were, listening, okay. That's good.' Because some of the content was a direct reflection that students of color had with the committee, but when they went further and they talk about the remedy, you see that there really wasn't one.
"This task force recommends the creation of another task force to look at these issues. And that was a little problematic for people. I think that people's expectations were for this committee to recommend something to be implemented."
Carpenter referred to an April letter to the student body from Dean of the College James Larimore which increased from part-time to full-time the positions of the advisers to Afro-American, Asian-American, Latino and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students. She was pleased with this move, but questioned whether the advisers will truly be able to help all members of the communities they serve.
Carpenter said she supports the committee's recommendation to build a cultural center -- "but the idea is not, 'Let's have a building.' The idea is, cultural awareness needs to pervade everything that we do on this campus. It needs to pervade academics; it needs to be part of social life."
As for what attributes the proposed center should have, Carpenter stressed "having programming and making the space warm and welcoming. Students like study spaces. Students might like a library in there or a few cafs or something, so that everyone comes in."
Carpenter also suggested holding diversity training sessions, integrated with academic classes.
"One of the ways to get people in there would be to link it with the academic departments so that when people are covering their distribs, like non-western, profs should make it mandatory that people from the class go to the sessions. That gets people in the building.
"I think it says something very different to people when the College implements something, versus the Afro-American Society. It sends a very different message about the importance, and who thinks it's important."
Christen Einsiedler
Einsiedler, co-chair of the Pan-Asian Council, was also disappointed with the nebulousness of the WCI.
"I was glad they included something about [multiculturalism], because there was definitely an effort to get proposals in before the deadline, but [the recommendations] seemed pretty vague," she said.
She said it is hard to predict what form the WCI will take because the recommendations were so vague.
As for the committee's recommendation to create a cultural center, Einsiedler said she supports the idea strongly, "because there isn't anywhere right now to go to.
"You can go to a dean if something comes up, but a lot of students talk about the burden falling on them, being the role of educator on campus to other students about issues of diversity, and the toll that takes on their academics and just their life here."
Einsieder said a multicultural center could help fill this educational role. She stressed the importance of a central location for the building.
As for the issue of a "diversity training" requirement, Einsiedler said she supports the idea of mandatory multiculturalism education -- but like Carpenter, she advocated tying such a requirement in with academics, mentioning also the need for a Korean language program and for more Asian-American history courses.
In concluding, she stressed again how little is concrete in the proposed Initiative.
"I don't even know who the people are who will be running the committee on the World Cultures Initiative ... this is very far thinking."
Omar Rashid
"The general issue of multiculturalism is that too often, people, I think, consider it to be a side issue, sort of like you have the history department, you have classics, you have science or biology or whatever, and Latino Studies is on the side. But in reality multiculturalism is a part of everything in our life, everything in the real world, everything in all academic departments."
That was the main thrust of La Alianza President Omar Rashid's argument of how multiculturalism should be addressed.
He also stressed the need for a support system for people of color.
"How can you expect someone to perform at Dartmouth, even to focus on their studies, when they're still adjusting to the environment here?"
He continued, "You can't be a monk in a monastery, you have to be involved with what's going on around you, so I think there are two sides to this multicultural issue."
Rashid stressed the importance of helping students survive psychologically as well as academically.
"It's almost like we're an extension of Dick's House. I compare myself to other organizations, whether it be Greek or non-Greek. I sit in CFSC meetings and they're worried about, 'How do we deal with alcohol on this campus? How do we organize parties?' whereas my organization is like, how do we make sure that these guys don't flunk?
Rashid stressed the importance of his organization's reaching out to freshmen when they arrive. "You come here, and you're different, and you're dealing with that difference," he said.
In creating a cultural center on campus, Rashid stressed a philosophy of counseling combined with resident experts who would help implement programs and diversity training.
Casey Sixkiller
"I thought it was very ambiguous," Native Americans at Dartmouth's Casey Sixkiller said of the WCI.
"It struck me as odd that something that had caused so much attention in both the local and national media, as far as conflicts in race relations, that something that has been that big would get a very small section," he said, referring to multiculturalism's role in the Student Life Initiative.
Sixkiller, like Einsiedler, said it is important for a multicultural center to be centrally located.
"Where is it in terms of our priorities? ... With placement you have to be very careful. ... It's not just for students of color, it's for everyone."
As for whether cultural training should be required of students, Sixkiller said he is "kind of on the fence" about the issue.
He said making such training a physical education requirement, as some have proposed, would not do justice to the material.
"It would be great if we could find a way to talk about diversity, but at the same time I don't know if it's a good idea to force people to do it," he said.
Summing up, Sixkiller said he does not see the WCI in its current form as a strong commitment by the administration.
"It has to be a top-down effort," he said. "It really has to be institutionalized."
"There's a lot to be said for experimentation. ... This is for everybody. I don't see this as a big change, I see it as a way to make Dartmouth better."
