As first-year students, we’re not afraid to take a stand on the controversial issue of diversity. We believe Fairfield students should actively embrace diversity on this campus.
People say we need more diversity here, yet most students don’t take part in the diversity we already have. We all need to go beyond our limitations and create a genuinely open and diverse community. This may be difficult but so are most things worth fighting for. If we put in the effort, chances are we can succeed.
Most students sit back in ignorant bliss and avoid acknowledging prejudices at Fairfield, assuming someone else will take care of the problem. So, the attitude toward diversity on campus never changes. We really should feel embarrassed, upset or disappointed, especially when we do nothing to improve the situation.
Differences in skin color can frighten people. Sometimes on our campus, whites stop their conversations when minorities walk by, while minorities crack jokes about whites.
“All this diversity is making me very scared,” said a white Fairfield student to his friends as they passed a group of touring black high-school students – one of whom overheard and felt upset that he was seen as “scary.”
The longer we’re here, the more mundane it feels on a campus without much diversity. People tend to mingle with their own ethnic groups. With Fairfield students saying to The Princeton Review, “The majority of the people here are white,” it may sound to some as if they are bragging. This might discourage minorities from applying here.
Click to see Fairfield’s rating by the Princeton Review
Fairfield University is composed of only 12 percent minorities, and even with Admissions working hard to diversify the student body, the new freshman class consists of only 25 percent AHANA students.
These low levels of diversity show that Fairfield hasn’t broken the stereotype of a rich, white school, and therefore doesn’t seem welcoming to students who are diverse in ethnicity, sexual orientation, geographical background, religion and income. No one chooses this school because of its diversity.
All Fairfield students should stop steering away from people who look, talk and dress differently. We should be open-minded and stop fearing situations such as a diverse group of peers at a lunch table.
Fairfield has many diverse clubs – Alliance, SALSA, Irish Cultural Society, UMOJA and others – but they often attract students from these groups only.
Every one of us should consider attending a club that doesn’t match our own identity. For example, a white student could learn a lot from attending an Asian Student Association meeting. There are 15 clubs on campus based around diversity, and we should all take some time to see what they can teach us.
Several of us think we should have more clubs, including a group for Muslims, that could come together to pray and share meals. Others have suggested forming a new club that would encompass all groups. In this club, students could attend events from all different cultures to learn and experience something new. Students of all different backgrounds could come together, creating diversity.
Learning the beliefs of various cultures would educate and liberate us. One day this may lead to the acceptance, tolerance and appreciation of diversity.
A more diverse campus community would better prepare us for the “real world” that we are bound to experience in the future. We would be educating the whole person, in our goal of cura personalis. Ten years from now Fairfield would be very different than Fairfield today.
Sincerely,
Greg Behrens ’11; April Booker ’11; GinaMarie Capriglione ’11; Caitlin Damadian ’11; Brian Davidson ’11; Mark Donne ’11; Stephen Golmont ’11; Katlyn Griffin ’11; Andrew Koenig ’11; Chris Lacarenza ’11; Lubna Latif ’11; Mariam Nasiri ’11; Devon Porrino ’11; Mariann Regan, professor of English; Patrick Shea ’11; Matthew Uy ’11.
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