For the past decade, leaders within the minority communities have repeatedly met to discuss new ways to inspire and cultivate increased interest for multicultural issues on Penn's campus. Despite the complexity and unique character of our respective communities, we are unified in recognizing that the Penn administration has failed to meet its promise for a nurturing and diverse campus.
The University's equal opportunity policy states that the "special character of the University is reflected in the diversity of the Penn community." This character can be only achieved by tackling the ingrained social and political realities of "an increasingly diverse and rapidly shrinking world." Penn administrators use words like community, security, enrichment and acceptance. But the University has failed to live up to its commitment.
Having recognized the pervasive need for diverse experiences in and out of the classroom, the newly created and quickly growing Student Movement for Change seeks to address the unfulfilled promise. The movement consists of a diverse group of concerned students who aim to create a sense of belonging for all Penn students, especially for communities of color. To this end, we have identified four aspects of university life where immediate change can and must be made.
First, the University must actualize its commitment to its ethnic studies programs through increased resources. Such academic programs include: African- American Studies, Asian-American Studies and Latin American and Latino Studies. This can be achieved by proactively recruiting and retaining tenured and tenure-track faculty devoted to ethnic studies. Most ethnic studies programs at Penn have only one tenured faculty member, and this reality detracts from the ability of these faculty to focus on the needs of these fledgling programs and their students. Ethnic studies require funding for development and administrative support for the purposes of sustainability and growth.
Second, minority presence is essential to the University's ability to offer an educational and social environment that emphasizes shared human experience and celebrates our differences. The University must make more of an effort to recruit in underserved areas with high minority and low-income concentrations. A parade of statistics indicates that the underrepresented minority and low-income students are adversely affected by the current early decision policy. By committing students to matriculate without knowing their financial aid package, the early decision policy grants special privilege to higher income and legacy students.
Recruitment, however, is only the first step. Once on campus, underrepresented minority groups have retention and graduation rates that lag far behind those of their white peers. To combat this issue, the University can provide a strategic plan for the specific retention of underrepresented minorities. This includes the allocation of resources for increased programming and fostering a "home away from home" environment for all students.
Third, Penn has failed to provide adequate resources to ensure the sustainability of the cultural centers: Greenfield Intercultural Center, La Casa Latina, Pan-Asian American Community House and Makuu. In order to serve the Penn community, these centers require functioning space, sufficient funding and adequate staffing. The University should hire a full-time development officer to enable the centers to increase staffing and space. Cultural groups must have equal priority over programming and event space, a benefit we are now denied.
Fourth, the structure of the Division of Public Safety prevents the legitimate representation of various interest groups that compose its jurisdiction. The disproportionate control of the DPS administration by its vice president suppresses the division's accountability. A restructuring of the DPS with a focus on decentralizing authority will increase accountability and improve feelings of safety on Penn's campus. Also, in light of the arrest of Rui DaSilva, a stronger public acknowledgement of the administration's commitment to not only re-evaluate the issue of racial profiling but also address its actions will help to foster the dialogue on race relations at Penn.
These issues are not new. Numerous campus leaders have brought these issues to the administrative table, only to be met with vague sentimentality and ineffective routines. The Student Movement for Change acknowledges the positive steps taken by the University, but we assert that these steps have proven insufficient. We, as students, have an ongoing mission and responsibility to voice our concerns to the administration; the administration has an ongoing obligation to meet the needs of the Penn community. Progress demands action.
