To: Dr. Earl
Mitchell, VP of Multicultural Affairs; Dr. Edward
Lawry, Faculty Chair Chair
CC: Deborah Desjardins, OSU Foundation; Jason
Caniglia, OSU Foundation; Patricia Long, Women's
Studies and Psychology; Michael Willard, American
Studies and History
Suggestions
for Diversity Education
Dear Earl and Ed:
It was with sadness and dismay that I learned of the
Alpha Gamma Rho incident as I listened to KOSU on the
Internet in my office at Oregon State University. An
attempt to remain informed about my home institution
(I am on sabbatical this year) instead became a
dispiriting reminder of why being a self-proclaimed
liberal and feminist professor at OSU-Stillwater can
be such a challenge.
My depression, however, has given way to anger as I
have listened to and read the administration's "this
is not OSU" mantra through the lame efforts to
address the Alpha Gamma Rho affair. Are they taking
about the same institution where I've worked for six
years? The place with fewer than 1,000 African-American
students out of 20,000? The place with no domestic
partnership benefits or spousal hiring policy? The
place where minorities and women are hugely
underrepresented in the administrative and faculty
ranks? The place whose "diversity" vigil
was not only led almost entirely by white people but
also granted an audience to the fraternity president
who failed to prevent the offending incident? "This"-if
one means a paper-thin commitment to insuring real
diversity-*is* OSU in countless ways garnering much
less attention than Alpha Gamma Rho.
Given these feelings, I heartily applaud Earl's call
for a diversity general education requirement. I know
from student reaction to my multimedia lectures on
the history of lynching how powerfully a more
inclusive curriculum can shape students' views of the
present. Rather than wait for the next racial
incident to occur, it is time we take substantive
steps to impart the realities and complexities of
multiculturalism in ways that lead to fundamental
change.
If I may be so bold, I'd like to offer some other
suggestions.
1. Some press coverage of the decision to add
sexual orientation to the anti-discrimination policy.
If President
Halligan is as committed to diversity as his press
statements of late proclaim, why was this historic
change made so surreptitiously? I am certain that few
members of the OSU Community, gay or straight, know
the policy has been amended.
2. Paid directors for all of the area studies
programs.
As a core
faculty member of both the Women's Studies and
American Studies programs, I have seen firsthand what
a difference having administrative support makes in
launching multicultural courses and programming.
Women's Studies and American Studies are making great
strides in short periods of time because of that
support. Why not make the same commitment to African-American
Studies and Native American Studies too?
3. More multicultural programming and
fundraising.
Pardon my
immodesty, but I know that events like the OSU
Women's Film Festival have made a big impact on
shaping community attitudes and fostering dialogue.
It takes some creative fund-raising, but this
festival receives substantive support from many
sectors of OSU. This year, the Eco-Film Project,
whose organizers were inspired by the success of the
WFF, have had similar success in gathering financial
support from OSU administration, departments, and
private donors. We need to sustain and expand this
sort of programming.
I have been extremely fortunate in having the
assistance of Deborah Desjardins and Jason Caniglia
at the OSU Foundation. Both have gone out of their
way to help me cultivate donors, craft fund-raising
appeals, and publicize events. Unfortunately, they
are the exception. The Foundation as a whole,
frankly, has not been eager to target specific
populations such as women, gays and lesbians, or
minorities. It is time that the administration
broaden its development mission and methods.
4. Support the teach-in currently being
organized.
Trish Long, Director of Women's Studies, is
organizing a day-long diversity teach-in. The Office
of Multicultural Affairs and the Faculty Council
should support this event as financial backers, but
more importantly, as participants.
5. Try to bring the "Without Sanctuary"
Exhibit to OSU.
I suspect that either or both of you may know about
the "Without Sanctuary" exhibit originally
at the New York Historical Society and now in Atlanta.
This truly devastating exhibit forever changes many
of its observers. Most Americans do not know about
the history of lynching, the motives that drove it,
or its use as spectacle and entertainment for
thousands of whites. Getting this exhibit to campus
and/or a major Oklahoma museum or archive would make
a real statement about why lynching is not an
acceptable subject for a fraternity prank.
See http://journale.com/wit
houtsanctuary/ for more information.
Let's work to make "diversity" more than an
OSU marketing slogan. Although the fiscal crisis
constrains us from moving forward on some of these
recommendations at present, we can set an agenda for
building multicultural institutions in the future.
For those suggestions requiring no financial outlay,
we have no excuse for not proceeding immediately.
I appreciate the opportunity to voice my concerns as
well as your collective efforts in trying to make OSU
a better place.
In Solidarity,
Laura A. Belmonte
Associate Professor of History
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Olé! |
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