Steps to improve diversity awareness making little progress

    Plans to improve diversity awareness this semester have met a slow start and may go unnoticed by members of Tufts' Class of 2013 during orientation, but administrators pledge that a number of initiatives are in the works and will eventually address students' calls for increased awareness.
    With last April's bias incident in hindsight, in which a then-freshman shouted racial slurs and engaged in a physical altercation with members of the Korean Students Association, administrators agree that orientation is an ideal environment to raise diversity issues. The office of University President Lawrence Bacow released a statement in the days following the incident that included plans to review the diversity component of orientation and "maximize its impact."
    Most changes to diversity programming during orientation, however, remain behind the scenes or in the planning stages.
            "There's definitely talk and a recognition that orientation is an important time to have this type of programming," said Office for Campus Life Director Joe Golia, an orientation organizer, but he added that no formal committee has been formed to discuss improvements to diversity education during orientation.
    Orientation organizer Ryan Heman, a junior, attributed the slow start to a lack of people, money and experience. Most administrators and student organizers involved in orientation are new this year, he said.
    "The way you get things to change is not to tell people you need things to change," he said. "We would love to see more people involved in diversity actually come forward with a program."
    Golia said any changes discussed will be implemented in future years.
    "It doesn't mean that we're not doing anything," he said. "If any time is great for this type of programming, it's orientation."
    Orientation is largely run by students. Heman is working in a committee of eight.
    "The problem is just that [for] our little committee," Heman said, "[diversity] is a big thing for us to tackle."
    A number of diversity initiatives throughout the university are in planning stages but will not be revealed until later in the semester, according to Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman. He added that events and programs of this nature may not be appropriate for an orientation setting.
    "You could have all the desire to include more things in the world, but there's only so much you can do in the two and a half days [of orientation]," he said.
    Executive Director of Institutional Diversity Lisa Coleman and Provost Jamshed Bharucha plan to release the university's first annual report on diversity this fall, offering a "status report" on diversity initiatives across Tufts' campuses, according to Reitman. Coleman declined to comment on the report until it is released publicly.
    Presenters at one of orientation's major programs, "Many Stories, One Community," which will take place on Thursday evening, also will announce a new social justice initiative to begin this fall, according to International Center Director Jane Etish-Andrews, one of the organizers of the program.
    The program will offer diversity workshops for interested students. Organizers, including the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs and members of the "Group of Six," a collection of Tufts student centers that seek to promote diversity, hope to offer a certificate in future years to students who partake in a number of these workshops.
    Major changes to orientation this year have centered on Orientation Leader (OL) training, which has been informal in the past, Heman said. Coordinators created a new position to direct OL training and have set up formal training events focused on diversity issues.
    Orientation Leaders have attended presentations on diversity-oriented programming that all freshmen are required to attend, including "Many Stories, One Community" and "In the SACK." OLs also have attended a training session by BEAT Bias, a student group that seeks to improve awareness of campus diversity.
    "In general, we are putting a lot of emphasis on realizing that not everyone who comes to Tufts is that kind of stereotypical Tufts student," said senior Shani Scheiman, who is the first to hold the OL training coordinator position.
    But Scheiman agreed that the task should not be confined to orientation
    "Orientation is a great time for this type of training, but it's not just the orientation team that should be taking this challenge on," she said. "The entire university should be implementing programs."