This article is the first in a series commemorating Black History Month. Next week: How far have African-Americans come in higher education?
Cultural diversity among Fairfield students and staff members has long been an issue on campus.
The Princeton Review ranked Fairfield among the 20 campuses with the most homogeneous student body and the least race/class interaction last year, and the University has struggled to shed its image as a culturally limited institution.
But in several measurable ways, the University has moved to become a more welcoming place for students of color.
The latest administrative change – which was implemented at the beginning of the spring semester – was the division of the Center for Multicultural Relations into two separate entities.
The Center was divided into the Office of Student Diversity Programs, which is aimed at facilitating a connection and communication among the student body, and the Office of Institutional Diversity Initiatives, which will deal with issues affecting the institution on a larger scale.
Lari Mazon, director of the Center for Multicultural Relations will head the Office of Institutional Diversity, and William Johnson will lead the Office of Student Diversity Programs.
Mazon said he hopes to integrate large-scale issues by by helping students realize that their peers come from various backgrounds and, therefore, have important experiences to share.
The goal, Mazon said, is “to have students graduate feeling comfortable culturally.”
Currently, there are no definite plans in the works, though a forum to promote respect and cultural awareness is a possibility in the future.
Mazon said the University should put better support services into use so that students “understand that they can succeed and institutions can provide them with what they need.”
“[The University needs] more opportunities of motivation for all students to pursue the things they were created to do,” said Kish Fuller, assistant director of the Office of Student Diversity Programs.
Mazon’s initiative to spark diversity of thought and awareness of multiculturalism on campus mirrors the aim of Black History Month, which commenced with the Martin Luther King, Jr. convocation last week.
Similar University-sponsored events are set to appear throughout February.
These efforts come at a time when the gap between students of color and white students in higher education nationally has become a cause for concern among many universities.
To bring a physically diversified but intellectually unified community to Fairfield, Fuller said student input must be addressed,
Michael Jude ’10, a black student, agreed.
“It really is up to students to take that initiative and get outside their comfort zone,” he said.
Students agreed that although diversity may not be prominent on the campus, the possibility for it to grow in the future exists.
Daniela Pirraglia ’10, a white student, said that the lack of multiracial students on campus and in her dorm makes it difficult to interact with them.
However she said, “I feel that if there were [non-white students on campus], then I’d have an eclectic group of friends as opposed to a homogeneous one.”
“It seems as if people from the same races tend to stick together, probably because that’s what people are most comfortable with,” Niko Valaris ’08, a white student.
Students, including Senegalese immigrant Mamadou Diakhate ’08, a forward on the men’s basketball team, said the time has come for Fairfield students to make the effort to move beyond their comfort zones.
“I don’t look at others as black, white, yellow. I look at them as human beings,” he said.
Mirror staff writer Andrew Chapin contributed to this story.
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