News
By Kristin Hawkins
|
October 31, 2006
Student leaders gathered last night to discuss ways to increase diversity in historically white organizations at a forum sponsored by Student Council Diversity Initiatives.
The event centered around the efforts of four groups -- Student Council, the Honor Committee, the University Judiciary Committee and The Cavalier Daily -- to advance race and diversity-related issues within their organizations.
Leaders of organizations within the Minority Rights Coalition responded to the statements and questions of the group leaders and of audience members.
Student Council President Darius Nabors noted the importance of looking at diversity in two ways, both in representation of diverse backgrounds within an organization and in the actions an organization takes to respond to the issues of different underrepresented groups.
Nabors said that while he does not think there is a large problem with current participation in Council, he believes the organization can "do a better job of representing minority issues on Grounds and having continued involvement."
Eli DeJarnette, UJC vice chair for trials, and Honor Chair Allison Tramba both noted their groups' efforts to reach out to underrepresented student populations while recruiting support officers who could eventually become leaders in their organizations.
Tramba noted that Honor has revived the once-defunct Diversity Advisory Board this year in order to encourage discussion of issues that affect minority groups at the University.
DeJarnette noted that while UJC does not have a standing diversity committee, it created an ad-hoc committee last year to deal with hate crimes and also recently changed its constitution to allow the Committee to take bias incidents into account during the sanctioning process.
Cavalier Daily editor-in-chief Michael Slaven said there has been an effort in recent years to improve coverage of events sponsored by cultural organizations.