Surrounded by the same ivory walls and well-worn pews, they mirrored generations of students that preceded them.

“You, tonight, stand on the shoulders of those thousands upon thousands of students who have sat and voiced their concerns, like yours, right in this very space,” Hendricks Chapel Dean Tiffany Steinwert reminded the audience, which, on this night, nearly filled the chapel’s lower level.

Under the same domed ceiling of Hendricks that housed discussions on war, civil rights, poverty and gender in decades past, the conversation Tuesday turned to diversity at Syracuse University. The nearly two-and-a-half-hour event, titled “Healing the Scars,” served as a forum for students to air concerns about diversity issues, including self-segregation, professors tokenizing minority students and a general feeling of discomfort among students about race and other diversity-related issues at SU. The event was co-sponsored by Hendricks and the Office of Multicultural Affairs.

The event was born from sophomore Ronald Taylor’s observations of self-imposed social barriers on campus.

“There really was no interaction among races,” Taylor said in an interview before the event. “There were events that tried to encourage it, but they were so poorly attended. I just felt pressing issues regarding race, and not just race, but just diversity in general, on this campus weren’t being had.”

Taylor’s observations morphed into Tuesday’s panel, which featured panelists Abi Zambrana of La L.U.C.H.A., an organization dedicated to Latino undergraduate students; Allie Curtis, Student Association president; Angel Arroyo, president of the National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations; Kavell Brown, a freshman civil engineering student; and Whitney Clinkscales, vice president of the National Pan-Hellenic Executive Board.

The panelists fielded an array of questions from Steinwert and audience members. Each acknowledged that racial divisions exist among the university population, and greater interaction across groups would enhance students’ learning experiences at the university.

Self-segregation often results from a natural tendency to retreat to the comfortable and familiar, said panelist Zambrana. But reverting to that familiarity also has broader-reaching consequences, she said.

“You look around, it’s very diverse, but naturally, you go to where you fit in,” Zambrana said. “I think that can lead to segregation. Adding a bigger group of diverse students, you’re enhancing that. It’s self-segregation and it happens outside this campus.”

Zambrana pinpointed multiple misconceptions she said minority students face on campus. When discussing race-related issues in class, there’s an expectation for minority students to speak on behalf of the minority group to which they belong, as some professors and students “assume that you’re a representative of that color,” she said.

Additionally, Zambrana said she took issue with being identified as “Spanish.”

“I speak Spanish but I’m not Spanish,” said Zambrana, who prefers to identify as Latina. While Zambrana said those who identify her as Spanish generally do so because of a lack of knowledge or understanding, students should be open to outright asking how a person would like to be identified.

One of the night’s more poignant messages came from Clinkscales, vice president of the National Pan-Hellenic Executive Board.

“Raise your hand if you consider yourself a minority,” Clinkscales directed. A sea of arms shot up.

Reversing the question, Clinkscales asked who in the crowd considered themselves part of the majority. Far fewer hands were raised. Clinkscales used the responses to demonstrate the demographic involved in campus discussions on diversity.

“Who is listening to these conversations? We are the diverse students on campus speaking to the diverse students on campus,” she said, to a wild applause and cheers.

Clinkscales emphasized the importance of personal accountability. Returning home and watching television shows that perpetuate negative stereotypes or “tell me how bad I look” neglects that responsibility, she said.

“We need to point the finger at ourselves first,” Clinkscales urged.

After cycling through questions written on index cards from audience members, Dean Steinwert posed her final question of the night to all in attendance, asking how they would address the issue of better diversifying the campus.

A few students lined two aisles and waited to speak into the microphone, with many disobeying the one-sentence limit imposed by Steinwert. Here is a sample of some of the responses:

• “I need the university to make me feel safe as a black career woman.”
• “We know that diversity exists in this institution. What is the university doing to implement and support the diversity it already has?”
• “We can’t say that we don’t see color, that we don’t see gender.”
• “To be taken seriously, we have to step back and really set ourselves apart and look at the conversation without too much emotion.”
• “I feel like we became so comfortable in our states that we became afraid.”

Karina Avila, a senior public health major, generated one of the most boisterous responses after her time at the microphone, as a trail of applause followed her to her seat. Avila, who is Mexican, said she takes offense to “fiesta-” themed parties thrown by students.

“My Mexican culture is not a costume for anyone to wear, if you’re not respecting it and you’re not understanding the history and significance behind a certain clothing,” she said.

The event was not without criticism, as some attendees criticized the lack of university administration in attendance via Twitter. Sophomore Minji Hwang spoke as an audience member and criticized the lack of diversity among panelists.

Taylor, the event organizer, responded to Hwang’s concern, and said that of the approximately 300 student organizations he reached out to for the event, 10 responded.

Building off of Tuesday’s event, Taylor said he’s in the process of arranging a sit-in at the Schine Student Center, where attendees would be dressed in coordinated white shirts.

“If you have the audacity to stop the bigotry of hatred and low expectations, work with me, join me,” Taylor said, where he ended the event to a standing ovation.

Published on February 27, 2013 at 2:43 am

Contact Debbie: dbtruong@syr.edu | @debbietruong