U. struggles to cross the racial divide

and CHRIS LAKE Vision Staff Writer On college campuses around the country, the problem of promoting harmony among an increasingly diverse student body has become a complex and troubling dilemma. And the University is no exception. After the controversial incidents of the spring, including the "water buffalo" racial harassment case, the national media has zeroed in on the University as an example of the racial tensions many campuses are experiencing today. Under the growing pressure of national scrutiny, students, faculty, and administrators are struggling to find the answers to the difficult and intricate problem of improving race relations. Interim President Claire Fagin said last night that part of improving race relations is establishing and maintaining communication throughout the University, especially between groups that have had tensions in the past. "If you can get people talking, that ultimately is going to pay off," Fagin said last night. "If we don't talk, there's no way we can improve anything – race relations or any other kind of relations." Executive Assistant to the Provost Linda Koons agrees that increased communication is necessary, but stressed the importance of student input instead of "high preaching" from the administration. "There are signs of progress in that people seem to be more willing to talk about differences and try to figure out how to change them," she said yesterday. "That is a step for the better – recognizing that it's everybody's problem and starting to deal with it." Associate Vice Provost for University Life Larry Moneta feels that the key to "ideal" race relations is a combination of "shared identity" and "shared interests." "Shared identity" activities, he said, include those of Jewish students at Hillel Foundation and black students at DuBois House, for example. "Shared interests", such as athletics and student government, are not related to multiculturalism. "Positive race relations will best emerge as a byproduct of common experiences of diverse groups together," Moneta said. "It does not mean that the existing opportunities for people to be with their own kind should be diminished, [but] I believe we should be emphasizing other opportunities to come together. "Ideally, people ought to have a balance between the huge time they spend in their shared identities and the time they spend at shared interests." Though increased communication seems to be the method of choice, talk has also surfaced about a more direct solution – namely a contrived living environment. One consequence of this concept would be that freshmen might not be allowed to live in College Houses – such as DuBois House – so they could be exposed to a more diverse living environment. United Minorities Council Chairperson Jun Bang said last night that forced integration is not the answer. "I don't think that you can have that type of forced integration," the College senior said. "The important part that [administrators] have to recognize is that students do need a choice, and that all comes as part of going to college." Bang also said the televised town meetings by Fagin and Interim Provost Marvin Lazerson earlier this semester are a good first step, but only the "outer shell" of many problems have been addressed so far. Black Student League President Kaplan Mobray echoed Bang's statements on the town meetings, calling for more action in the future. "You can't talk forever, [and] you can't meet forever," the College senior said. "All the talk and discussion has been good, but there needs to be some action upon the discussion." Fagin said she plans to continue communication efforts for the remainder of her short term. She added she hopes the next administration will do the same. "I think that we just have to keep at it – we have to make sure that everything we do is as inclusive as possible," she said. "We have to be very, very sensitive to situations that are not inclusive. "The only thing I can do is set up patterns of communication that become institutionalized very quickly, and a way of behaving that the [next] administration will be encouraged to continue or emulate."