Diversity stems from taboo topics

In her column about unconventional intoxication methods, Sarah Sanders sparked conversations on the Web. This week, she’s addressing and questioning the controversy.

After reading the responses to the last issue of my column, my first thought was, “Fantastic!” The very apparent revulsion of my readers indicates to me that I did exactly what I set out to do: use real and current situations to make my readers squirm. Several claim there was no redeeming value in coverage of anal beer bongs and vodka tampons, but maybe they just haven’t tried it.

However, I want to make clear that I appreciate these comments, and I took them into consideration. The critics who really got to me were those who questioned how the column topic was relevant to Temple and its students. They’re right; I made no effort to question the “experts” as I had promised. I received additional criticism for my lack of school spirit. I’m making Temple look bad by implying that this behavior is commonplace.

These are not my intentions, so I’m determined to clean up my act in this issue. I decided to investigate a virtue that Temple can really stand behind: diversity.

Students are well aware of the endless praise the university gives itself for being one of the most diverse campuses in the nation.

Junior criminal justice major Kami Mattioli, who largely opposed my last issue, understands why the element of diversity could be appealing to prospective students.

“No one single group is isolated, nor is another alienated, and theoretically, everyone’s happy with his or her ability to formulate his or her own opinions,” she explained.

The trouble with diversity is that it inherently encompasses issues that some may consider inappropriate for classroom discussion, social conversation or a student newspaper.

“Diversity works in multiple ways,” Mattioli said.

Indeed it does; appreciating a diverse population means appreciating everyone for how they are different. But sometimes, difference makes people ill at ease. You may have heard religion and politics are two things you should never bring up in polite society – or else you’re taking the risk of being offended or offending.

I’ll agree with the first one. But you cannot stop people from discussing their politics. Political party banter has become incredibly popular, and people have become incredibly stubborn when it comes to “switching sides.” Thus, I disagree that politics remains a taboo topic for conversation, as you don’t really run the danger of offending anybody anymore. You may get into a heated discussion, but in the end, I’m sure you’ll come out the winner.

Religion, however, is another story. Junior [major] Cody Long is president of the Religious Studies Club on campus. He suggested religion is touchy because people are reminded of their mortality.

“To attack, even indirectly through the notion of religion, a person’s mortality clearly makes people uncomfortable,” Long explained. He also added religion as a topic of discussion leads to “big questions” that may not have answers, which can make religion “highly personal.”

Additionally, the “religion and politics” adage makes its out-datedness clear as it omits topics like sexuality or race. Although I could not seem to get a response from a professor of race studies, the president of the Queer Student Union, senior political science and anthropology major Keith Davis, was able to sit down with me. Regarding diverse sexuality, the topic necessitates a discussion of what some might consider non-normative.

“Homosexuality is taboo because of the culture we’ve been raised in,” Davis said. He added that people avoid the issue out of fear that they would be viewed as homosexual. Davis explained that his ideal social atmosphere would be that where students did not have to confront the fear of social exile for being gay, or talking about gay culture.

“Being LGBT should never have a negative effect on your life,” he said. Davis explained that this particular atmosphere is what QSU strives to create.

So why do diverse topics make people so uncomfortable?

“While Temple prides itself on being accepting of all different points of view, I personally don’t believe it’s ever a good idea to universally portray all Temple students as sharing a certain mindset,” Mattioli said. Regarding university publications, she advised against these “taboo” topics, as we don’t know who might be reading.

My next question: When is the appropriate time to discuss these topics?

Davis suggested that if there is no designated time or place to discuss them, perhaps any time or place has the potential to be.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Mattioli added. “I don’t consider writing about race, sexuality and religion as completely out of line, but I do think that the content should have some redeeming social value, as dictated by the standards of the community of which it represents.”

Perhaps I should have taken my interviewee’s advice and kept anal beer bongs and vodka tampons out of The Temple News. But, I’m thinking given the activity, the community it represents does not have high standards anyway.

Sarah Sanders can be contacted at sarah.sanders@temple.edu.

Flags on hold but not forgotten

In case you’ve ever wondered, the United States, China, India and South Korea are the most widely represented countries on Main Campus.

And, if you haven’t already noticed, 44 flags hang in the Student Center, just above the stairs, for whoever’s coming and going to see. If you pay close attention, though, you’ll realize those 44 flags don’t encompass every nationality at Temple.

Many were unhappy to learn their countries were not represented in the Student Center’s atrium. Currently, Haiti does not have a flag up, and members of the Haitian Student Organization have noticed.

“When I didn’t locate my flag I was like, ‘What’s up with that?’” said Melissa Menardy, a senior tourism and hospitality management major and the vice president of HSO.

“Then, I came across the display detailing the purpose of the flags,” she added. “The board definitely helped me to better understand why my flag wasn’t there.”

There’s actually an explanation as to why some flags hang and other don’t – one that may quell any complaints by underrepresented Main Campus groups.

“The first four [flags], U.S., China, India, South Korea, have the largest student populations,” Jason Levy, director of the Student Center, said, “and the following 40 were alphabetically chosen from the remaining countries.”

Levy said that choosing the 40 flags alphabetically would ultimately make it impossible for students to have a problem with the flags currently on display. It is an unbiased system, based on statistics obtained from International Services and, quite simply, one’s ability to alphabetize.

Information on process of selecting the flags, located on a board by the Student Center elevator, clarifies why they’re up there. The sign explains that there is no random selection going on but simply a use of statistics and the alphabet.

It is also important to note that the flags will change next summer and every summer thereafter. For more detailed information on this schedule, visit temple.edu/studentcenters.

So bravo to Student Activities, Temple Student Government, International Services and the Student Center for introducing this project, which has been in the works for three years, to better represent the members of Temple’s community.

The Student Center has never looked better, and 44 countries being represented are better than none.

Tara Moore can be reached at tara.moore@temple.edu.

New center sets out to research diversity and self-segregation

The center will explore the issues of diversity on a smaller level, using the Temple community as a microcosm.

Temple boasts a reputation as one of the most diverse campuses in the country. And with a student body representing a broad spectrum of races, nationalities, religions and socio-economic backgrounds, it has reason to do so.

Demographics alone, though, do not guarantee interaction among the many groups that make up the Temple population, and a lack of such interaction can fuel visible, self-imposed segregation along such lines. Temple recently announced the formation of its Academic Center on Research in Diversity, or ACCORD, a group that will seek to change this.

Developed by the Faculty Senate Committee on the Status of Faculty of Color and headed by Committee Chair Dr. Roland Williams, the center looks to assess and improve the state of race and class relations at the university.

With the U.S. Census Bureau predicting that non-Caucasians will constitute a majority of the population by 2042, Temple serves as a microcosm to what can be expected in the coming decades.

Realizing that diversity will continue to become more relevant in the coming decades, ACCORD plans not only to research the impacts of such drastic demographic changes but also to examine social barriers that lead to self-imposed segregation.

While there’s generally no apparent hostility between the parties, truly diverse social settings do not necessarily occur as often as Temple’s reputation would suggest.

“Temple will be an excellent place this kind of experiment because we’re already ‘the Diversity University,’” said Williams, an English
professor who teaches courses on racial imagery in American literature and film. “The kind of population that we have is the kind of population [we’ll] face in the future. Avoiding diversity isn’t an option anymore.”

The first ACCORD program offered to students will be an undergraduate forum in October, titled “Our Changing Complexion and the Future We Face.” The goal of the forum is to open a candid dialogue on the current and future state of race relations in America.

Open conversation, Williams said, is the first step in reconciling long-held past prejudices.

“We have our biases against people in the abstract, and the way we come to understand someone is as an individual,” Williams said.

Using the forum as an outlet to establish such relationships, Williams said he anticipates “will help to transcend the tendency to self-segregate.”

But Williams was also quick to emphasize that the center will devote its energies to all forms of diversity, including economic background, the determining factor in de facto segregation. The effects of such segregation, as Williams points out, serve only to solidify class disparities.

“We use color to mask class conflicts,” he said, “and class has a tremendous impact on our relationships.”

Aside from race and class, Williams said the center would be concerned with immigration policy, the future of homosexuals in the armed forces and the disproportionately small number of women in the science fields.

Although no details on other undergraduate programs have been released, “theatrical workshops, student excursions, staff retreats and service to area youths” will likely be incorporated, according the university’s Office of News Communications.

The office also said the university plans to increase scholarship funding for “outstanding and diverse graduate students.” The amount and source of the increase, however, could not be determined.

Through working with students in the forum and its subsequent programs, the long-term goal of the center is to identify effective strategies for teaching students how to deal with the increasingly diverse population that has been brought about by globalization. Such skills will become even more critical in coming decades.

Williams, meanwhile, said he looks forward to the benefits that diversity will bring.

“Look at the Phillies,” he said. “[They are] in the middle of what’s probably their best run ever, and they’re one of the most diverse teams in the league.”

Don Hoegg can be reached at don.hoegg@temple.edu.

Diversity more than numbers

Diversity at Temple is visible to the naked eye, but how many students move past staring at a tossed salad of people and are brave enough to taste it?

These are the numbers: 55 percent of Temple students are female, 45 percent are male, 57 percent of students are white, 17 percent are African American, 10 percent are Asian, 3 percent are Latino, and international students make up another 3 percent of the university’s population.

On Main Campus, students identify themselves as Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Muslims, atheists, agnostics, gay, straight and bisexual.

“Temple has a lot of numerical diversity, but I’m not sure if students are really engaging in deep, meaningful interactions,” said Walidah Justice, associate director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs.
“It’s a lot of different types of people in one area who have different goals and interests,” said Stephanie Do when asked what diversity means.

Do, a junior pre-pharmacy major, is a member of the Vietnamese Student Association and said she feels race is just a small part of diversity.

Before enrolling at the university, Nansi Khalil, a junior biochemistry major, said she heard Temple was a diverse school.

“I didn’t realize just how diverse it was,” she said. “Temple has an incredible range of students coming from many unique backgrounds. I was pleased to find that the Temple society includes people from all different income levels and different racial and ethnic backgrounds.”

Khalil, who is from Egypt, is a member of the Muslim Student Association and the Arab Student Association. She said she feels the diversity that Temple has is great, but she admittedly hasn’t made an effort to branch out.

“It’s important for us to appreciate people who are different from us, and it’s also important that we maintain those aspects of ourselves that make us unique,” said Alex Chambers, a senior tourism and hospitality management major and president of Temple’s chapter of Omega Psi Phi, a traditionally black fraternity. “Omega Psi Phi was founded to bring together men of color to help develop them into stronger men and build strength in the black community.”

The focus on community remains a cardinal principle of the Omegas, and the same emphasis can be found in other cultural groups on campus. Sometimes, it takes a visit outside the Temple community to begin to appreciate others.

“It’s funny, before this trip, I can’t remember really having a deep conversation with someone who wasn’t white or Jewish,” said junior Jewish studies major Pesach Kessler, treasurer for Temple Students for Israel and alumni chair of Alpha Epsilon Pi.

Along with 25 of his fraternity brothers, Kessler volunteered during his spring break at several centers in impoverished neighborhoods in Los Angeles.

“My most memorable experience was when I shared stories with the administrator of the [Watts Labor Community Action Committee], a community center where Coretta Scott-King donated many of her personal photos of her life with [Martin Luther King Jr.]. It was incredible.”

“If you look at it from a business perspective, you can really be more successful if you know how to communicate with people from different backgrounds,” said Harshil Kakadia, a member of the Dholidaz Indian Dance Club. 

“Temple is a very unique place,” said Christopher Carey, associate director of the Office of Student Affairs. “It’s rare that you find an environment where you can have conversations with people from different parts of the world.”

Justice’s work with the Office of Multicultural Affairs helps to create spaces for such conversations to take place.

“College is a place where young adults are still forming their worldview and identity,” Justice said. “They can use these conversations to share their thoughts with others and have those ideas challenged.”

Justice said these conversations can influence students to form well-rounded identities of who they want to be.

The Office of Multicultural Affairs has held these kinds of talks in the past and plans to do more. One of its biggest accomplishments has been its Campus Unity Program, which brought more than 110 students from different backgrounds and organizations together for a night that featured ethnic foods and entertainment.

Student Affairs also holds programs to help facilitate diverse interactions. Some events include campus concerts and Free Food and Fun Fridays, held every Friday from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Last Friday’s theme was “A Night in Bollywood” and celebrated aspects of Indian culture and cinema.

Quentin Williams can be reached at quentin.williams@temple.edu.

Fuzzy Numbers

The debate over whether Temple is as diverse as it claims to be is on once again in this week’s issue of The Temple News.

Once named the most diverse university in the nation by The Princeton Review, the self-proclaimed “Diversity University” is now lower on the list, though many Temple community members insist the numbers don’t lie.

Temple’s student body is 55 percent female, 57 percent white, 17 percent African American, 10 percent Asian, 3 percent Latin American and 3 percent international students, according to the latest student profile.

Though the numbers are indisputable, they are also superficial.

According to the U.S. Census, the estimated population of Philadelphia in 2006 was 45 percent white, 43 percent African American, 4.5 percent Asian and 8.5 percent Latino. But like Temple, a quick look around Philadelphia is evidence enough that numbers can be meaningless if there is no interaction among the different racial and ethnic groups.

Temple offers its students a glimpse of cultural reality by hosting several groups like the Muslim Student Association, Arab Student Association, Temple Students for Israel, Students for Justice in Palestine, Dholidaz Indian Dance Club and Common Ground. These clubs, along with the Office of Multicultural Affairs, work to foster supportive environments for their respective cultures. But their existence may not fully facilitate communication among them.

Diversity is not about numbers, it’s about interaction – creating relationships built on tolerance, respect and understanding. In that respect, Temple – and Philadelphia – needs a little help.

Groups like Common Ground and the Muslim Student Association are positive things, but they need to work together more rather than serving as self-sustaining organizations. The leaders of these groups can look to Philadelphia as an example. A city that is almost equal in its number of white and African-American residents still has undeniable racial tension, which often leads to bigger problems like redlining, white flight and crime.

When organizations devote themselves to being just symbols of pride rather than sources of information, the basic principle of respect is not there. While it’s important for individuals and associations to be sources of pride cultural identification for their respective communities, self-pride does not earn respect from other organizations. In order for everyone to be on the same page, they first have to have the opportunity to be informed about one another.

Diversity is lost without communication.

Changes in minorities at ‘Diversity University’

Diversity is a goal that many colleges strive for. Ranked as the Princeton Review No. 8 school for diversity, Temple has been ahead of the game.

Though Temple is recognized as a diverse university, student profiles show that ethnic diversity among students has changed over the years.

In the university’s 2005 student profile, African-American students represented 18.7 percent of undergraduate enrollment. Asians ranked as the second highest minority group with 8.7 percent, and Hispanics ranking third at 3.5 percent.

The 2007 student profile shows that African-American and Hispanic enrollment slightly decreased representing 17.3 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively. The Asian population, however, increased to 9.5 percent. White students account for 57.8 percent of undergraduate enrollment.

“I haven’t been to other schools to see what their campus populations look like, but I feel like colleges are either [Historically Black Colleges and Universities] or majority white schools,” said Suzanne Solberg, a sophomore education major. “I don’t feel like there are any in between. I think we’re diverse, but not as much as we could and should be.”

The number of white students enrolled at the university has been nearly 58 percent for the past three years, but percentages for minority enrollment have decreased.

“There are more white students in general applying to college so more are accepted. The question is how to get more African Americans, Hispanics and even American Indians to apply for higher education,” said William Black, the senior vice provost for Enrollment Management at Temple. “The number of African-American, Asian and Hispanic students graduating from high school is rising. For the university to remain its healthy diversity we need to work hard finding these students to encourage them that Temple may be the place for them.”

“I first came to Temple in 1989, and it was quite different in terms of racial and ethnic demographics,” said Terry Rey, associate professor and chair of the religion department. “The black population was much higher then.”

Rey said the decrease of black applicants could be a result of academically rigorous admission standards implemented during David Adamany’s presidency.

Rey said he is proud of Temple’s efforts to expand diversity on campus.

“I believe in the university’s commitment to the local community,” he said. “Diversity is one of the great appeals with this university, and you can use it as a means for learning about the world.”

Diversity on campus is not limited to race and ethnicity, but also geographical location.

A majority of Temple students are from Pennsylvania. In 2005 the undergraduate Pennsylvania residency population was 71 percent. It remained the same in 2007.

“We have an ethical and moral commitment to the Philadelphia community. Our major market is the four county areas of Philadelphia,” Black said.

“There is an increase of urban school popularity,” said Rhonda Brown, assistant vice president for the Office of Multicultural Affairs. “Suburban kids think urban schools are hot right now, so applications are up from suburban schools. Students are applying here who wouldn’t have applied here years ago.”

Temple accepts more students from suburban areas because the suburban applicants are meeting the university’s academic criteria and requirements.

“Suburban schools get better funding, so the test scores are generally higher,” Brown said.

“The Philadelphia school district is not particularly strong but Temple is working along with Mayor Nutter to better the school system,” Black said.

Black said Temple has adopted a new program to development better enrollment strategies.
“This program is a telecounseling effort with [RuffaloCody LLC] to understand the quantitative side of marketing and admissions. Its primary target groups are students representing diversity and academic excellence,” Black said.

“The university’s commitment to access and excellence is our highest priority,” Black said. “We are trying to give opportunities to students from other places to come and experience Temple.”

Taara Savage-El can be reached at taarasavage-el@temple.edu.

Temple isn’t as diverse

Temple has been dethroned.

According to the Princeton Review’s annual list of the nation’s best colleges, Temple has dropped from No. 1 to No. 5 in the most diverse student body category.

The nation’s most diverse school is now Baruch College of the City University of New York.

Diverse population is the only category of 62 in which Temple placed. The Princeton Review lists the top 20 schools in each category.

Meanwhile, Penn State University in University Park, Pa., ranked No. 3 in terms of party schools, with the University of Florida and the University of Mississippi taking Nos. 1 and 2, respectively.

Other local colleges ranked, but not necessarily for positive reasons. Drexel University fared well in poor categories, like least beautiful campus (No. 3), long lines and red tape (No. 7), poor professors (No. 13) and least accessible professors (No. 15).

The University of Pennsylvania ranked 14th in best college newspaper and 20th in strained town-grown relations. On the other hand, they made the list of colleges with a conscience.

The book, which hits stores tomorrow, surveys 120,000 students from 368 colleges – two more than last year – on everything from financial aid and admissions to intramural sports and job placement.

Chris Stover can be reached at stover@temple.edu.