Over the past four years, the minority enrollment at Fairfield has doubled and the University, as well as more than a dozen student groups on campus, have been striving to increase diversity awareness on campus with various programs.
The Inter-Residential Housing Association [IRHA] and several other cultural clubs planned Diversity Week, a series of events scheduled between March 28 and April 4.
According to Campus Currents, the program was created to honor the variety of cultures, races, economic backgrounds, genders and sexual orientations represented by students on campus.
“Hopefully there is something that everyone can go to,” said Meredith Marquez, assistant director of the newly created office of student diversity programs.
According to Marquez, the goal of Diversity Week is to mix education about diversity with fun activities so that students will get the chance to learn about other cultures and enjoy it.
The program will include an Italian-themed dance, a day of cultural movie viewing, a comedian discussing race issues, an international cooking contest, a wheel of fortune game that will touch upon GLBT issues and a cultural fiesta.
Diversity Week links IRHA programming to the University’s ongoing effort to develop a more diverse and accepting student body.
Diversity initiatives first gained momentum in 2005, when University President Fr. Jeffrey von Arx included the issue in Fairfield’s Strategic Plan.
When he first came to Fairfield, von Arx said that he saw the percentage of minority students was only 9 percent and said that it wasn’t acceptable.
Through marketing and financial aid reforms, the percentage of minority students has risen to approximately 18 percent.
Despite this improvement, Fairfield’s diversity statistics are mediocre when compared to other comparable Jesuit schools on the East Coast.
According to href=http://www.collegeboard.com/splash/> collegeboard.com , Fairfield’s percentage of minority students is higher than that of Loyola College and St. Joseph’s University. However, Villanova, Fordham and Georgetown Universities are far more statistically diverse than Fairfield, with Georgetown having the highest percentage of minority students at 28 percent.
But it’s not just about numbers, von Arx said in a news writing class press conference.
“It’s a transformation of student culture,” he said.
“I think the school is trying to make it more diverse, but it’s still not as diverse as it could be,” said Weronika Pleban ’11, who was born in Poland.
“I don’t think the emphasis on the diversity programs is really helpful,” she added. “No one seems to care.”
Felix Coronado ’11 is a minority student and a member of Alliance who said Diversity Week will be fun but not necessarily effective in educating people.
“I am going to the Alliance Jeopardy event because my friends from the club will be there,” he said. “I’m not going to learn.”
Coronado said that the school-sponsored organizations involved have spent an “outrageous” amount of money on Diversity Week.
“I think that is why FUSA didn’t want to be a part of it,” he said. “I don’t think they thought it would be worth the money.”
Many organizations around campus are making similar efforts to promote this cause, including FUSA.
“I think that we are taking initiatives to improve the level of diversity but I also think that our concept of diversity is keeping minorities together.” according to recently elected FUSA Vice President Emily Dragone ’09. “When you label it ‘diversity,’ you turn people off.”
Dragone said she also thinks that the student body should not only focus on minorities, but also on students who came here from outside of the tri-state region.
Coronado is planning to live in a diversity living and learning community, part of the new housing plan, next year. He said that the label “diversity” has created a problem by isolating students.
“It’s all minorities planning on living on the social justice floor since they added the word diversity to it,” he said. “There was one white girl who applied to live there but she changed her mind.”
Kristen Edwards ’11 is a black student and said this school has created a reputation for having few minorities and that she doesn’t know if people are truly ready to make a change.
“Diversity will only improve when students and staff show that they are fully open to welcoming others,” she said.
In response to criticisms of the program, Marquez said that the office of student diversity programs has been trying to bring students and faculty of all different backgrounds together to deal with the issue.
“We’re trying to get across the point that diversity includes everyone,” Marquez said. “Especially when it comes to social justice issues, it has to include everyone not just minorities.”
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