Despite ranking second in the nation in student body diversity by the 2006 edition of the Princeton Review’s The Best 361 Colleges, Temple Student Government Diversity Affairs Co-Chair Daniela Mendoza said last Monday that the university could be doing more to “act like a diverse campus.”
“There is a continuous cluster of different groups staying to themselves and not trying to interact with one another,” Mendoza said. “People claim that they want to be diverse but they do not make the attempt to do so.”
To help improve race-related issues among students and faculty, Mendoza said that the Diversity Affairs committee will hold a Diversity Fair in the spring. Any organization can participate, and the committee plans to try to coordinate a monthly chat session for various groups of people to talk about stereotypes, among other topics.
“When people decide that they want to sit down and have an open discussion about race and other issues, it can only help,” Mendoza said.
Mendoza and Diversity Affairs Co-Chair Juan Galeano have also worked closely with the Office of Multicultural Affairs and are currently participating in the search committee that will hire OMCA’s student support services director.
In other chairperson reports, student body President Oscar Chow said that TSG is in the process of creating a DVD that will be used as a marketing tool for prospective undergraduates. He also talked about adding a debate time to the general assembly meeting’s weekly agenda.
“Essentially, general assembly should be a time for everyone to express their concerns,” Chow said. “You should be able to openly voice problems to the general assembly and seek recommendations for those problems.”
Intercampus Affairs Chair Victor Feinman spoke about organizing an annual “best-of-campus” competition at the end of the year between the Tyler, Ambler and Main Campuses. The events would include dodgeball, softball and soccer.
“I want to start a tradition at Temple,” Feinman said. “We will issue an award to the winner that will remain on their campus until the next year’s competition.”
Tyson McCloud can be reached at Tyson@temple.edu.
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