Just under two hundred high school seniors, all representing various minority groups, will arrive on campus this afternoon, invited by the University to get an early feel for life at Tufts. When organizers of the Students of Color Outreach Program (SCOPE) began planning the two-day event several months ago, they could not have anticipated just how much perspective the University's now-turbulent, controversy-laden atmosphere might offer the group of prospective students.
There have been three separate rallies and forums on campus in past week, one drawing attention to gray areas in the University's nondiscrimination policy, one promoting awareness of women's issues and violence towards women, and one discussing the 11 individual hate crimes that have been committed on campus this fall.
While the flurry of protest events has pushed these topics to the forefront of student and administrative concern, they are by no means new issues on campus. For years, the nature and caliber of diversity has ranked high on Tufts' list of persistent race issues.
"There are big race issues on campus... one is the way the administration uses the word 'diversity' in general," said freshman David Wu. "For me personally, I don't think this campus is very diverse. I don't think the diversity truly represents the American society."
Though Wu's words echo the sentiments of many students on campus, the administration maintains a much more positive outlook.
"I think we're making progress faster in some areas than others. We are dong pretty well with students," said Vice President of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering Mel Bernstein. "If you look at campus, it doesn't look like peoples' high schools."
Dean of Admissions David Cuttino agreed, adding that the admissions office is always working to improve diversity.
"There's a clear interest here and support to students who bring different perspectives and experiences; we're never satisfied," he said. "We've seen improvements but we want to work on continuing to make the University more representative, and the SCOPE program is a part of that."
Comparisons to the general ethnic make-up of America aside, the University's gross diversity numbers are better than ever.
"In terms of race and diversity, I think we have more students of color here than ever, so I think that's very positive," said Rub?©n Stern, the Hispanic-American Coordinator of the Latino Center.
Additionally, in the wake of the 1997 report of the Task Force on Race, several committees of students, faculty members, and administrators are working to deal with racial issues and questions. This is also the second year of a four-year initiative to eventually set aside $500,000 for "initiatives focused on diversity," according to Bernstein. Last year, most of the allotted money went towards meeting specific needs of the University's six culture houses, as well as bringing several high profile speakers to campus.
This year, one-third of the freshmen identify themselves as students of color, and many acknowledge that the Tufts population is growing more racially diverse. Even so, many say that racial issues extend beyond simply the number of minorities on campus.
"Tufts focuses a lot of getting people different experiences and different backgrounds and history with the intention of creating the best possible environment. But once you get there, there are a lot of promises there are not kept," said junior Senator Mernaysa Rivera, who is co-chair of the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate's Culture, Ethnicity, and Community Affairs Committee.
While some students point to Tufts' abundance of racial cliques as a symptom of a segregated campus, others say that such association is natural, and should not be considered a problem.
"I think it's interesting in college that there's a lot of free association but it ends up being in similar racial backgrounds," senior Angel Hossain said. "I think it has to do with hyphenated (or minority) Americans. There are so many more similarities between hyphenated Americans it makes it easier because you have more in common. But, I don't think it's a bad thing, I don't think it's negative."
Jenn Weng, who represents Tufts' Asian Community on the TCU Senate, was more critical of race-oriented cliques. "I've heard that some students see the Asian community as very cliquey. So that's one issue, to break that idea," she said. "I think ethnic cliquing a problem, but it's a fault of both sides. It's not strictly the Asians excluding themselves from the rest of the community... I think it's the majority's fault as well because they think, 'they just want to be in that clique.' Both sides need to make an effort to get to know each other more."
Many fear that ethnic cliquing has negative consequences.
"Segregation between groups, lack of communication between clubs and organizations, and lack of collaboration are all consequences of ethnic cliquing," Wu said. "And instead of having one united voice on issues dealing with racism and bigotry, you only get a small population."
In addition to problems caused by ethnic cliquing, many feel that there are other, deeper dimensions to racial tensions on campus.
"Nobody recognizes Arabs as a minority group and therefore we don't exist, and our problems don't exist either," said senior Dina Karam, co-president of the Arab Students Association.
Karam commented that people at Tufts take a hard line towards people of her ethnicity because of historical and current political issues.
"I feel that every Arab on this campus cannot speak his mind about the Middle East. We know our ideas are unpopular and we do not feel free to express them," she said. "We do not have any anti-Israel sentiments, but we don't feel free to talk about our Arab sympathies for the causes we support.
"It doesn't matter if you're Jewish or not... Many people here are very, very sensitive about Jewish causes, and they consider any support of the Arab world to be anti-Jewish," she said.
Extensive education, Karam says, can be an important first step to resolving many of these problems "Increased dialogue between various cultural and political groups so that we understand each other and where we're coming from [could help], so that there are no negative feelings," she said.
