UMC claims year of successes

Time it was, and what a time it was . . . The past year has been an eventful one for the University's United Minorities Council, which has been witness to changes and discussion under the leadership of its president, College junior You-Lee Kim. With last night's elections for next year's board completed, outgoing UMC members are standing on the pedestal of their accomplishments -- accomplishments whose worths are uncertain in the minds of some members of the University community. As the UMC's 14th board, Kim said outgoing members have made an effort to lobby for traditionally marginalized ethnic and cultural groups at the University and to serve as the central political forum for discussion and action. The UMC consists of members from La Asociacion Cultural de Estudiantes Latino Americanos, the Black Student League, the Caribbean American Student Association, the Chinese Students Association, the Japanese Cultural Society, the Korean Cultural Society, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, the Penn Vietnamese Club and the South Asia Society. According to Kim, many of what the organization considers its accomplishments this year -- from the name change of the Oriental Studies Department, to the efforts to diversify the curriculum -- are a result of the group's long-term and short-term planning at the beginning of the year. "I think it's a strategy that a lot of groups should take," Kim said. "You need standards by which you can judge yourself as a success or a failure." And UMC members laud their successes in terms of their short-term goals, with the publication of Images -- a monthly newsletter -- and the departmental name change, which will take effect July 1. Kim said that this change from Oriental Studies to Asian-Middle Eastern Studies comes as the result of what has been a "struggle" for almost two years. "I think people realize the importance of names," Kim said, adding that she feels that with the close of the debate, the group can "move on to more substantive issues." The name change came about after two years of intense campus debate over the term "Oriental," which many Asian students said is offensive. The change was approved last month when University Trustees okayed the new name. But while Kim and other Asian students consider the change a sign of success, other students said they think the UMC spent too much time on the issue. "I think the Oriental studies name change was stupid, and just a waste of time," Engineering freshman Timmy Chen said. "I'm just indifferent toward [the UMC]." UMC members and administrators said the group has also been closely involved in the issue of minority student recruitment and retention at the University this year. This year's Scholars Weekend, a minority recruiting event held at the University March 20 to the 22, was host to approximately 250 to 300 minority students, the largest number in several years. "[The UMC] plays a very important role in recruiting efforts here . . . students coming here, with their help, can get the student point of view of what Penn is all about," Minority Recruitment Director Clarence Grant said this week. Grant added that the UMC helps extensively with touring, hosting and the planning of programs. And at the UMC presentation during Scholars Weekend, 150 students attended this year as opposed to last year's 25. "I think that the recruiting office is doing a lot more," Kim said, adding that the maintenance of the University's need-blind admissions policy, which holds that qualified students can be admitted to the University regardless of their financial need, is another priority of the UMC. "Both the majority and minority communities look to [the policy]," Kim said. The UMC has also directed its efforts toward expanding and diversifying the curriculum, lobbying the University to offer a new Latino Studies minor and several new Asian-American courses. "Education is the most political thing around," Kim said about the UMC's curricular concerns. "If Penn starts creating individuals with a broader range of ideas, you are not only improving the quality of one person, but of the University and of the world," she added. In spite of what she calls the UMC's numerous successes, Kim said she feels in retrospect that the group ought to have put more emphasis on its long-term goal of increasing the number of minority faculty members at the University. Kim cited Associate History Professor Dain Borges' being denied tenure in spite of what she said is his expertise in the field of Latin American Studies as a symptom of a larger problem. "If the University were really committed to the internationalization of the curriculum, they would have thought [that] through more carefully," Kim said. And Rene Gonzalez, director of the Greenfield Intercultural Center, said he thinks the goal of increasing the numbers of minority faculty is "a bit too optimistic." However, Director of Affirmative Action Joann Mitchell said that Kim, in her role as UMC chairperson and as a member of President Sheldon Hackney's Affirmative Action Council, has been very vocal on issues of equal opportunity. "She is very effective in articulating concerns from a student perspective," Mitchell said. "She holds our feet to the fire even on issues that aren't comfortable to say or hear." Gonzalez praised the UMC's unity over the past 15 years in its discussions and actions. "To have a group like that hang together for almost 15 years is just amazing," Gonzalez said. "They've gone through some struggles, and still managed to stay focused on their unifying goal." Praise for the UMC, however, is not unilateral. Some minority students said yesterday they do not know much about the organization or what it has done. "I've heard of it, but I don't know what they do," Chen said. "It's not really important to me." And College junior Sandra Rodriguez said she feels the UMC draws too much attention to minorities on issues of relative unimportance. "I think it's important to focus on important issues," Rodriguez said, and added that she has heard more about minority involvement in Spring Fling than about the UMC.