Minorities blast SPEC meetings

CORRECTION: (3/3/92) Last Monday's story about minority concerns relating to Spring Fling contained several errors. Last week, SPEC's forum on diversifying Spring Fling was poorly attended, and over the weekend, it was heavily criticized by the minority leaders it hoped to attract. The directors of the Social Planning and Events Committee's Spring Fling and Minority Concerns Committees said they want to involve more students in the planning process, but Fling's theme, prices and major concert band have already been decided and, in the eyes of many, these are the most critical factors involved in minority participation in Fling. "Those are some of the most important aspects of Fling. The theme itself has a lot to do with it," College junior and President of the United Minorities Council You Lee Kim said. "Most of the themes are not themes that touch the entire the whole University . . . And I would have hoped that this year they would have made an effort to have a theme that would appeal to everyone." Spring Fling Committee Chairpeople Wharton senior Stacey Kossow and College juniors Joshua Perelman and Erik Sulman said at the diversity forum last Wednesday that it was not too late for minority groups to get involved in the organization of booths and bands, and they restated this in a written statement made by the three Spring Fling Committee chairpeople after the forum. "Many different areas for group involvement in Fling were discussed," the statement said. "In addition, the Spring Fling general meetings, which meet every three weeks, were indicated as an opportunity for individual input in the planning process of Fling. But the forum only drew 20 people, and Kim said that she declined to attend the forum because she felt that the organizers of Spring Fling were insincere about their intentions to diversify the event. "They've put on the pretension of having reached out to the minority community and it's just not true," Kim said. "For all intents and purposes, all the plans for Spring Fling have already been laid down and no matter what anyone said on Wednesday night, it wouldn't have made a difference." This sentiment was echoed by College sophomore William Gray, president of the University's chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "The issue as it appears is that the Social Planning and Events Committee has made up a program for Fling and after they've made up most of it, they're trying to diversify it," Gray said. SPEC has made efforts to work with the Black Student League to increase minority participation in Fling, and both parties are optimistic. The Spring Fling Committee members added that they are also concerned with the involvement of the other minority groups. "The issues of involvement were brought up, and questions were answered," the statement said. "We are very pleased with the interest this diversity meeting has sparked but are in no way done with our task." Minority leaders and members of the Minority Concerns Committee have complained that the composition of SPEC and its committees is part of the reason for the apparent lack of consideration of minority issues in the decisions made. "You have to remember who controls SPEC and who controls Spring Fling." Kim said. "For the past three years since its founding, the president has always been a Tri-Delt woman. Maybe it's time for a change to get a wider perspective." The representatives of the Spring Fling Committee said, however, that the lack of minority applicants result in the lack of minority leaders in the organization of Spring Fling. Kim, however, differed in opinion and said that the problem was not apathy among the minorities. "The charge that minorities are not interested is blatantly false." Kim said. "We have Lincoln Singleton who worked his butt off but the message that came across when it was time for executive board elections was that if you're not white and you're not Greek, it's going to be a hell of a battle." Singleton, a Wharton junior and vice president of the Black Wharton Undergraduates, remains positive about Fling and said he thinks SPEC has made some big changes recently. "SPEC as a whole has tried to diversify greatly in order to diversify student events," he said. "It's a vicious cycle because a lot of minorities don't participate because there aren't enough activities that appeal to them and the reason for that is that there aren't many minorities in the planning."

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