Student groups critique roadmap on diversity

The University released its Roadmap on Diversity and Inclusion last March partially in response to the Black Student Union (BSU) protests in the fall of 2015. The Roadmap details the University’s plan to increase diversity among faculty and students, in addition to creating more opportunities for underrepresented minorities (URM).

Many students, especially students of color, feel that have expressed frustrated with the document.

The University is currently gathering feedback from students, alumni, faculty and staff to prepare a new draft that will be released this semester.

In an email on Sept. 16, University President Ronald J. Daniels updated the student body on the progress the University has made, including hiring more faculty members of color, holding events and programs related to diversity and inclusion and a new interactive workshop, “Identity and Inclusion at Hopkins,” which is required for all incoming freshmen.

Many student groups, however, feel that these efforts have been inadequate. Corey Payne, co-chair of the Hopkins chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), specifically pointed out the University’s failure to address racial discrimination.

“The biggest issue with the Roadmap is that it’s 45 pages and it never uses the word ‘racism,’ not once,” Payne said. “It’s all about increasing diversity. That’s a nice buzzword, but it doesn’t change anything.”

While the Roadmap includes definite proposals to hire faculty from underrepresented minorities, BSU President Tiffany Onyejiaka made the distinction between increasing diversity and creating a supportive environment for inclusion.

“Diversity and inclusion are two completely different things,” Onyejiaka said. “Being diverse means you have a student population that’s representative of the entire country, meaning you show students of all backgrounds. But inclusivity is more about making sure that these people feel welcomed and respected and that this campus is really their own.”

In creating an inclusive environment, Onyejiaka argued that the University has failed to stimulate real change.

“Many students who are minorities don’t feel happy or welcomed here,” she said. “They don’t feel like they can join any club or sorority or even go to some parties on campus.”

In particular, Onyejiaka feels that the difficulties faced by lower-income students have been largely ignored.

“Hopkins is severely lacking when comes to diversity in socioeconomic status,” she said. “Some people feel that they can’t really delve into all aspects of life on campus because they can’t afford it. There are people who have had to leave campus because they simply can’t afford tuition.”

Both Onyejiaka and Payne agree that some of these problems stem from a lack of addressing specific past racial issues in the text of the Roadmap.

“[The Roadmap] only addresses the composition of the student body and the faculty without actually talking about structures of power, racism and white supremacy,” Payne said.

Onyejiaka hopes that the next draft of the Roadmap will mention  specific occurrences and how they will be addressed in the future.

“[The Roadmap] never talks about the racial instances we’ve had,” Onyejiaka pointed out. “At other schools, it’s understood that you can’t be outwardly aggressive to minority students. At Hopkins, I don’t think that anyone feels that way. They need to acknowledge past failures and discuss how they will prevent them in the future. I want more concrete plans, numbers and dates.”

At the end of 2015, the BSU released a specific list of demands that they hoped would be included in the Roadmap. Among these were the request that the Center of Africana Studies (CAS) be made an independent department and the proposal to have a distribution requirement in cultural competency. Neither of these demands were fully addressed by the Roadmap.

“The current Roadmap talks about increasing funding [for the CAS], but [the BSU is] asking for more autonomy in selecting faculty,” Payne explained. “Because they’re a center, the faculty have to be approved by individual departments, meaning that departments with majority white faculty members, whose specialties are not Black Studies, get to decide whether someone’s academic contributions to Black Studies are worthy.”

Onyejiaka argued that by having a more diverse faculty, students will gain a more comprehensive education.

“We learn from what people say, but we also learn from their experiences,” Onyejiaka said. “When you meet someone from a different background than you, they can expand your perception of the world.”

The cultural competency distribution detailed in the list of demands would require all students to take a class on modern and historical prejudice and inequality. Payne argued that this requirement would increase open-mindedness in the student body.

“The University has been unnaturally hostile to this idea,” Payne said. “One of the key ways to start addressing racism is to educate the student body, and we can’t do that if the administration doesn’t require some sort of cultural competency course.”

Payne agreed that ignorance about diversity and inclusion can be detrimental to a college campus.

“The current environment is toxic, meaning that when you’re a person of color, it’s not mentally healthy to be at a primarily white institution and have to face people who don’t understand what you’re going through and who have internalized white supremacy and racism every day,” Payne said.

Not all students believe that the University has failed to provide instruction in diversity and inclusivity. Osiris Mancera, outreach coordinator of the Organización Latina Estudiantil (OLE), spoke positively of the University’s recent efforts in diversity education.

“The school has had various workshops, guest speakers and discussions about race and culture which really has permitted students who come from places where these topics are unknown to become engaged and curious,” Mancera wrote in an email to The News-Letter.

For Mancera, this widening of student perspectives is vital to feeling welcome on campus.

“I feel most fearful being around close-minded people who are apathetic to the issues that matter to me and to people like me,” Mancera wrote.

Senior David Cui, president of the Inter-Asian Council (IAC), also recognized the Roadmap as a significant step by the University but questioned the feasibility of its implementation.

“Even though some parts of the Roadmap on Diversity are not entirely substantive, it does show that effort was put into this Roadmap and that the university leadership has responded... to the concerns of students,” Cui wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “Now whether their written words will actually become initiatives for inclusions has yet to be determined.”

Onyejiaka also agreed that the Roadmap is an important first step, but still stresses the need of improvement.

“Do I think Hopkins will get to where it needs to be in the next few years? I can’t say that,” Onyejiaka said. “But I think they’re moving in the direction to need to be, because they have to.”