Just days after the upheaval over the marriage forum cancellation, students are once again questioning Fairfield University’s decisions in the arena of diversity. This time, the spotlight is on the admitted high school AHANA students.
In the first half of Horizon’s weekend, students expressed concern over the fact that the program appeared to segregate the AHANA students away from the general student population.
For those who aren’t familiar with the program, Horizon’s weekend is a collaborative effort between the Multicultural Relations Center and the office of admissions. The 15th annual Horizon’s weekend was broken down into two days.
“After I realized how they only selected a few of us, all of which were minorities, it makes me question why they are segregating the minorities more so than society already does,” said Jonathan Vecchiet, a high school senior from Pequannock, N.J. “I don’t see a need for extensive isolation and it doesn’t make sense to me.”
Another admitted student shared a similar perspective.
“I think they had good intentions but it wasn’t executed properly because I felt very uncomfortable at times,” said Christina Ju, a high school senior from Queens, N.Y. “I’m used to being in outreach programs for minorities but I don’t understand why they would have to segregate.”
The intent of Horizon’s weekend isn’t to make admitted students feel uncomfortable but rather to help them feel welcome within the Fairfield community.
“The purpose is to attract AHANA students so that they can come and meet other diverse students,” said Lizette Ortiz, a graduate assistant who helped coordinate this year’s Horizon’s weekend. “That way, they can see there is diversity here and it’s to make them feel at ease.”
The first day featured 32 admitted AHANA students receiving an introduction to campus life with the aid of 15 hosts, 12 of whom were AHANA undergraduate students.
The admitted students sat through an actual class session and attended the mandatory programming: a pizza social, a comedian and a dance party. The admitted AHANA students then slept over in their hosts’ rooms and attended the University Admitted Student Open House the next day; the second half of Horizon’s weekend.
“Our feeling was, we wanted the students to get the opportunity to meet with each other and spend time with their hosts,” said Karen Pellegrino, the director of undergraduate admissions. “We thought a pizza party would be fun instead of eating in the cafeteria on a Friday night.”
Although the pizza social was strictly for the select group of admitted students, the comedian and dance party were both open to the general public. Attendance by current Fairfield students for both public events was very low.
“The student body should have realized [the two events were] open to all non-AHANA students,” said Ortiz. “But they didn’t come to the events. Whether or not they weren’t going to be comfortable, I do want to open it up more next year so that [the admitted students] do get to see the regular students.”
According to Jessica Bromberg ’08 who served as a host to several students, a fix to the dilemma of some admitted students feeling alienated would be to have them attend a day’s worth of classes and eat in the main cafeteria if they want a real Fairfield experience, since those are two very important elements in freshmen life.
Some students feel that the division in race and ethnicity should have no bearing on the quality of the student body.
“You’re a student; everyone’s a student no matter what color your skin is,” said Vecchiet.
Not all students were discontent with the first half of Horizon’s weekend.
“As far as I’m concerned, I felt in place with Fairfield because I’m used to the small community, diverse or not,” said Meghan Collins, an Asian high school senior from Medway, Mass. “I felt comfortable because everyone just seemed really nice and nothing was out of the ordinary for me.”
According to the university fact book, AHANA students make up 10.5 percent of the undergraduate student body. But each student’s background and experience also play a role in how they individually deal with events like the Horizon’s weekend.
Admissions has always received positive feedback about the program through evaluations, but it doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement.
“From the students who participated in the program and are attending now, it was one of the reasons why they chose to come to Fairfield,” said Pellegrino. “We always look to make these programs better and it would be great for us to receive negative feedback so we can take them under consideration.”
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