The Minority Rights Coalition unveiled its new multicultural sensitivity program, “UP: unpacking privilege | understanding perspective,” at a town hall event March 21.
A series of presenters covered a wide variety of topics, including statistics, psychology and University history.
The statistics portion of the presentation compared the racial makeup of the University’s student population with other colleges and universities in Virginia and the United States. Presenters also discussed the lack of statistics for those with disabilities.
Presenters for the psychology section covered several topics, including fundamental attribution error —in which characteristics of a person’s personality are emphasized to explain their actions, rather than considering external factors.
The history segment of the program addressed pieces of the past which are often overlooked because they are considered to portray early University students negative light.
People who have challenged the University’s system — including Caroline Preston Davis, the University’s first female student, Alice Jackson, the first African-American woman to apply to the University, and Bobby Bland, the first African-American student to receive an undergraduate degree from the University — were also discussed, as well as more recent events.
In addition to the presentation, there were several breaks for activities and discussions where students could focus on how they identify themselves and share with others.
Third-year Architecture student Emily Votroubek said she had not realized there was a lot of University history she did not know about.
“There are a lot of aspects that are kind of brushed over,” she said. “So it’s very interesting and enlightening to learn about U.Va.’s real history.”
Emily McDuff, a fourth-year Engineering student and MRC vice president of organizations, said there are big plans for the program in the works.
“We’re going to start piloting with a lot of CIOs and a lot of student groups on Grounds, and I really want it to feel and look kind of like a Safe Space or Green Dot program where people can request it to come to them,” McDuff said. “We’re going to start recruiting moderators in a few weeks.”
McDuff said she wants students to see how they can change the culture themselves.
“The ultimate goal for why we put this together is to give people the opportunity to see the University college experience in different lenses and to realize that there are multiple ways that people live in this space and use this space and go through their daily lives,” McDuff said.
McDuff said she hopes participants take away a better sense of themselves from the program.
“I want people to be surprised and to question who they are and how they can help make U.Va. a better place,” she said.
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