Following a string of campus hate crimes, long-standing controversies over diversity at Tufts become intensified over the past few months. Campus activists barraged University Trustees with race-related questions at their spring meeting in Dewick-McPhie, and students have lobbied Ballou to increase Asian American course offerings.
While student opinion differs as to the role that culture organizations play - and should play - in campus diversity issues, many respondents voiced their displeasure with the current culture group system.
When asked if culture groups serve to support or divide Tufts' different racial communities, 50 percent of respondents said that groups did more to divide. Twenty-seven percent said the opposite. Over 60 percent said they rarely or never attend culture events outside of their own group.
Senior Martin Ankamah said the culture group system needs reform. Along with many other poll respondents, he said culture groups were important for people with common interest to meet and take pride in their culture, but that the gap between culture groups needs to be bridged. "We need to make groups come together to see that we have differences, but we have a lot more in common," he said.
One respondent said he thinks "students and the administration need to work together to make sure that students of all ethnicities come together regularly. This campus needs to feel more like a community." Some respondents proposed more forums and co-sponsored events as a way to better integrate communities.
The poll also asked students to identify their race. Of respondents who did so, African Americans were the lone group in which a majority said the culture group system is more of a bridge than a divider.
Asked whether they had been discriminated against by a member of the Tufts community, respondents answered differently. No Hispanics reported discriminatory treatment, 12 percent of Asian Americans, and 36 percent of African Americans said they had experienced discrimination.
Associate Dean of Students Marisel Perez said the groups and culture houses played an important role on campus, but students needed to interact with students outside their ethnicity.
"Students need to find opportunity to be in their own environment and I don't want to take away the importance of being with people with similar experiences and backgrounds," she said. "But you have to have both."
TCU President Eric Greenberg said culture houses and centers are "necessary" on all college campuses and should be used as a resource by both students of color and others. "Lots of students that don't belong to them feel for some reason that they shouldn't go in there" he said. While saying that campus race relations had improved since his matriculation, Greenberg said that "It'd be nice to see more mixing between races."
Perez said she had seen many groups across ethnic lines coming to her office for advice on how to co-sponsor events. "Students are saying they need more opportunities to come together," she said. "We are here to mentor, advise, and support."
Other poll respondents said they feel Tufts needs to improve its curriculum diversity, retention of minority faculty, response to hate crimes, minority programming and orientation training.
Perez said her office had worked to bring more student groups together, and to give all Tufts students more common experiences. She said initiatives to bring students together as a class could help all Tufts students feel part of the community.
In response to a question on whether Tufts is an ethnically diverse campus, there was more unanimity. In each ethnic group polled, the majority of students said they felt Tufts was ethnically diverse. The majority of students overall said diversity should be "somewhat important" in selecting applicants.
Divided by their ethnic identities, students did not clearly prefer one course of action, but responses were notably different along gender lines. Among men, 43 percent said Tufts should not use affirmative action in reviewing applications for admission. For women, only 29 percent said the same.
Some students encouraged peers who are unsatisfied with diversity to take note of Tufts' positive aspects before criticizing. "Tufts is more diverse than the real world," Senior Marc Skolnick said. "While it would be great if Tufts were more diverse, it is more diverse right now than outside."
The majority of students agreed diversity should play a very important or somewhat important role in selecting new faculty. "Among the students there is a degree of diversity," Perez said. "But one area we want to focus on is recruiting and retaining faculty of color."
A racial divide emerged on the contentious issue of whether culture representatives to the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate should be allowed to vote. Among white respondents, 28 percent said they should be able to vote. In contrast, 86 percent of African Americans, 50 percent of Hispanics, and 77 percent of Asians and Asian Americans said the reps should be have the right to vote.
While white respondents largely said culture reps should not vote, nearly 60 percent of whites said that the Senate should have culture reps.
Greenberg expressed his endorsement of culture rep voting privileges. "My personal opinion is that the current system is not perfect, but I feel right now that culture reps having a vote is a positive thing," Greenberg said. "However, the proposed amendment is not a good solution... there are too many problems with it as it stands."
Both current candidates for TCU President have opposed stripping the culture reps of their ability to vote in the Senate.
Of 102 respondents to the poll, 14 were African American, eight were Hispanic or Latino, 15 were Asian or Asian American, four were "other," three were multiracial, and 58 were white or Caucasian.
