"University Diversity II" by Patricio Chile

Students at Tuesday night's University Diversity II discussion concluded unanimously that AU students are self-segregated.The event held in MGC 4 and sponsored by AU's Kappa Chi Chapter promoted frank discussion on culture and race relations in general but most importantly on AU's "false advertisements" about its "great campus diversity." The attendees were divided into ten small groups whereupon each person wrote a question on a card. The group leader would read each question and a discussion would follow among the group.
Here are two of the questions and a summary of our groups’ responses:

Is AU really diverse?
The answer is clearly no. Almost everyone stated that they were initially shocked to see the separation of races and ethnic groups when they first came to campus. One student, Adriana, said she had attended a high school where diversity was forced upon the students. She became accustomed to interacting academically and socially with students of all ethnicities. However, at AU she was surprised to see self-segregation, even among the specific nations of the Caribbean. Another student, Mia, said she had spent her first semester of college at the Tenley Campus where she became close to all of her neighbors. She said the more constrained space and its isolation from other student housing is what caused this close sense of diversity. Mia said it is the larger size of the main campus that allows students to pick and choose who they want to hang out with, rather than being forced to interact with a smaller group of people.

What should AU do to improve diversity on campus?
Several students mentioned that a proposal had been started among participating groups including the Kappa Chi Chapter, to offer a general education course teaching “White Privilege.” The purpose of this class is to demonstrate to students, primarily those of privilege, that minority and lower-class groups feel alienated from the majority, which are wealthy whites. This has been controversial because students may be reluctant to take a course that will challenge their personal beliefs or their character.
The end of the event reiterated this proposal and the larger question at hand: “How do we get the students who choose not to attend these events, to hear this information?” The problem is that many students are not aware that they are promoting self-segregation on campus. It was brought up among several members that many students hide behind political affiliations especially liberalism so as to seem righteous and honest when in fact some of these students act in a very elitist manner towards people different than they are on campus. Some groups, especially fraternity and sororities, are traditionally separated into races. Worst of all, individuals seek out people of their ethnic group or race to be friends with. This applies to whites but also to all ethnic groups across campus. One consequence of not being inclusive to all people is that a repeat of the Virginia Tech massacre may occur as a result of a student or students feeling alienated or isolated.