I'll be the first to admit, I can't define diversity. Is it about skin color, gender identity, class status, religion or all the above? Your guess is as good as mine.
More than anything this year, diversity has been about controversy. The failed ""diversity photo shoot"" in the fall pretty much summed up the problem on campus. In response, the administration held student town hall meetings to address concerns, but it's clear that a top-down approach isn't enough.
When I asked Clifton Conrad, a UW-Madison education professor, he gave me a very specific definition: ""Diversity recognizes and appreciates differences"" in race, ethnicity and class, but also life experiences and perspectives of individuals.
That's definitely a good start. But Tangela Roberts, the newly-elected chair of ASM's Diversity Committee, offered some of her own wisdom. She told me diversity can't be about everything, or else it's about nothing.
And for the purpose of the committee for which she is now responsible, that's exactly right. When it comes to developing a plan for the Diversity Committee, you need to be specific.
According to its mission statement, ""The ASM Diversity Initiative seeks to connect all UW students, faculty, admissions, administration, organizations, and programs with a common goal of experiencing a diverse college campus."" You want to know where that got the Diversity Committee last semester? Nowhere. It's too ambiguous.
The former chair MartÃn Uraga resigned in January after failing to make any progress with the committee in the fall. Participation was scant, meetings were few and far between, and to be blunt, it was a failure.
I'll admit, at first I was a little skeptical that anything would change. When ASM held elections to replace the former chair a few weeks back, it was a mess. Skin color, specifically candidate Dan Posca's whiteness, became the dominating issue.
On paper, Posca was more than qualified for the job. He had been working with the Diversity Committee since last fall. He developed a three-part strategy to jumpstart the committee if he was elected to lead. He was even encouraged by the two previous chairs to run.
He went on to lose in a runoff election later that night. Needless to say, I was pretty frustrated by the entire process. Although I'm still debating whether or not it's preferable for the chair of the Diversity Committee to be a straight, white male for symbolic purposes (and whether ASM violated its nondiscrimination policy), I didn't like that skin color was a central focus.
But after talking with both Posca and Roberts, I'm confident they're mature enough to move past the plague that is ASM internal politics and concentrate on strengthening the committee.
The committee needs to narrow its focus in the coming months. It needs some direction, and there's no doubt in my mind that Roberts will bring it.
Diversity historically is a touchy subject. That was clear during the elections. But Roberts wants to make sure people feel comfortable talking about issues like minority graduation rates, the achievement gap and even white privilege.
That's great. People tend to get defensive, even combative, talking about conventionally sensitive subjects like race or sexual orientation. But the committee can't dance around these issues with ambiguous, politically correct language. It has to be realistic and goal-oriented.
Although Roberts only has a few months left to turn the committee around, the outlook is promising. She wants to rewrite the mission statement and establish a core group of members to carry the committee in a new direction even after she's gone.
Unlike last semester, the committee actually holds meetings, and people actually show up. Its kickoff event is tonight at 6 p.m. in Gordon Commons, where attendees will be watching and discussing the movie ""Crash.""
We can't continue to let diversity be the insurmountable challenge it's been in the past. We might not agree on one meaning for the word or one goal for the committee, but we need to be willing to have the discussion. It's clear the committee needs to be taken in a new direction, and for the sake of the entire campus, I hope Roberts does a great job.
Dan Tollefson is a senior majoring in English. Please send all responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
