Minority students criticize plans for more permanence

Tenafly, N.J. University administrators faced criticism throughout the year from minority students over the quality and pace of efforts to attract and retain more faculty and students of color. At a February meeting between minority student leaders and University President Judith Rodin, former Black Student League president Obinna Adibe, a 1997 College graduate, announced that the group would not participate in discussions regarding Rodin's plan for minority permanence, charging that the University hasn't addressed several important concerns for black students. Rodin's minority permanence plan, released last fall, lays out steps to improve minority student recruitment and retention by increasing the number of African American and Hispanic faculty on campus. "We feel that during this past year, we've been trying to get minority data and the administration has been giving us the run-around," said BSL Parliamentarian Jonathan Carroll, a College junior. "The University has not been cooperating as we would like them to," he added. But Rodin said she began the February meeting by "laying out all that we done since the November meeting and there were numerous initiatives, many of which Sean and Obinna had a hand in creating." In light of those initiatives, Rodin said she was surprised the BSL feels it has been ignored. "I find myself perplexed by the allegation that nothing has been done," she said. "The purpose of the initiatives is to continue efforts of the University toward recruitment and retaining outstanding students from underrepresented minorities," she added. The United Minorities Council did not take a formal position on the BSL's criticisms of Rodin's plan, but outgoing UMC Chairperson Susie Lee said her group fully supports the BSL's gripes. "The groups are going to do as much to support each other as possible, because we all share the same frustrations," Lee said. And Debralee Santos -- UMC representative for Asociacion Cultural de Estudiantes Latino Americanos, or ACELA -- said Latino students allow perceive that the administration has not accomplished much of many of its goals to increase the minority presence on campus. "The BSL is providing a forum for discussion and we appreciate their research and efforts," Santos said. In April, a crowd of about 100 black students, faculty, administrators and community members organized a public demonstration accusing the University of mistreating the black community. The demonstrators marched down Locust Walk from the W.E.B. DuBois College House to College Green, chanting their demands for greater minority recruitment and retention. Black Graduate and Professional Student Association President Vincena Allen, a graduate student in the School of Social Work, spoke to the demonstrators about the small number of black graduate students and the need for such students to mentor black undergraduates. She said she was shocked that there are only two black graduate students in the Annenberg School of Communication. "Do not tolerate us," she said. "Want us and respect us." Another issue plaguing the minority community is the question of whether to assign the United Minorities Council a permanent seat on University Council, and the issue -- which has been contested over a period of three years -- remains a tangled one. The UMC and its supporters have argued at Council that the student seats allocated to the Undergraduate Assembly do not adequately represent minority interests before Council, which serves as an advisory body to the president and provost on campus affairs. After being pushed under the rug several times, a vote on the issue was finally scheduled for the April 30 Council meeting. Council, however, failed to meet the quorum necessary for a binding vote -- with fewer than 46 of the 91 Council members present -- thereby precluding the vote and again delaying the decision. The UA unofficially gave the UMC one of its 10 Council seats -- complete with voting privileges -- until spring 1994. Any UA member may run for one of the body's seats on Council, with Council elections held at the same time as general UA elections in the spring and fall. When the UA received five additional seats in 1994, members proposed giving the UMC an official seat without holding an election. But Council ruled that the UA's request breached the body's bylaws. Only UA members may fill the group's seats, so the UA cannot allocate an automatic seat to the UMC. Outgoing UMC Vice Chairperson Olivia Troye, a College junior, said Council is delivering the message that minority affairs don't matter to the University.

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