By
Sonia McBride
May 21, 2008
Yesterday’s Community Celebration of Diversity in Red Square commemorated the 40-year anniversary of the Black Student Union sit-in staged on May 20, 1968 in the offices of then-UW President Charles Odegaard.
Odegaard and his administration listened to the demands of the students and agreed to pursue aggressive recruitment of minority and disadvantaged white students, the hiring of more staff and faculty of color, and the creation of a center on campus for the academic and cultural development of students of color. He also approved the creation of a black studies department.
The celebrations featured food booths, almost 60 departments and student organizations with exhibits on diversity, as well as live performances by student groups and guest performers.
The formal program included two panel discussions in the Walker Ames room of Kane Hall. The first, “40 years of Visionary Leadership,” featured former vice presidents of the UW Office of Minority Affairs (OMA), and Sheila Edwards Lange, current Vice President for Minority Affairs and Vice Provost for Diversity.
“One of my challenges is following the great leadership that OMA and diversity that have come before me,” Edwards Lange said. “How can I continue the legacy that I have inherited?”
Nancy Barceló, former vice president of OMA, was concerned about decreased diversity in graduate programs and the implications of that for the diversity of faculty.
Myron Apilado, former OMA vice president, said the passage of the Washington State Civil Rights Act in 1998 was one of the biggest challenges during his tenure. The act prohibits “government entities from discriminating or granting preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin,” according to the Washington Secretary of State Web site.
Under the act, the University can no longer consider race as a factor in the admissions process.
Barceló discussed why diversity is still an issue today.
“This work was always seen as temporary,” Bareceló said. “We were seen as a problem and that one day it would go away. When that happens, resources are not allocated to these kinds of programs, nor are we held to the same kinds of standards for review.”
Some of the original members of the Black Student Union, who organized the sit-in, spoke at Red Square later in the afternoon. More than 900 Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) students were also recognized for making the dean’s list this year.
While recognition and celebration were featured yesterday, the celebrators were also aware that there is still much work to be done.
“The question, ‘Have we achieved diversity?’ is still out there,” Edwards Lange said. “I don’t think we are going to see offices of minority affairs, of social justice and equity go away for a long time.”
5 Comments
#1 Joe Davenport
on May 21, 2008 at 10:12 a.m.(Seattle, WA | Unverified Name)
Wonderful world of lip service, while the heroes of 68 were duly celebrated, the workers of 2008 (and our children) were being dissed by the same university. Not only do we face the typical attempts to weaken our contract (it's part of the process and we are moe than willing to fight for ourselves), but President Emmert is making it more and more unlikely that the children of the custodians, plumbers gardners, etc of the UW can ever attened this school. Does President Emmert have a funding stream to totaly offset the cost of a mandatory first year in the Residence halls for all students? If not it is a bad idea for working class students and their parents who chose to work here. Sir I challenge you right now to provide four years of tuition for classified union employees, thier family members or domestic partners for each ten years of service-and I challenge you to provide this over/above and seperate from anything we earn at the table perhaps then the line staff will not resent your car allowance (which exceeds 50% of the take home pay of many of our members)-for craps sake sir the idea is to prove you need the money, so show up in the Dodge with UW motor pooll stickers it's a PUBLIC University, live in the house that the combined income of 15 members of WFSE 1488 couldn't buy (and we all would love to have when called in from Everett, Whidbey, Bremerton or Tacoma to clear snow). Why don't you request a full audit of all self sustaing departmnts by the state auditor? You would be the hero of every line worker-from every union on campus-just call Mr Sonntag and let the crap fall where it amy. There I said it we don't trust your admisntration to tell anyone the truth about anything (least of all their boss).
#2 anon
on May 21, 2008 at 1:49 p.m.(Bellingham, WA | Unverified Name)
"People of Color" is a racist term, as it is geared to explicitly excluding European Americans.
#3 ???
on May 21, 2008 at 3:32 p.m.(Seattle, WA | Unverified Name)
Really? European Americans are excluded from something? Whatever.
#4 anon
on May 21, 2008 at 3:51 p.m.(Bellingham, WA | Unverified Name)
Yup! Look at some of the graduate classes in engineering and the sciences at the UW. Yellow as a dandelion. The main ethnic group that subsidizes those classes is being excluded.
#5 ???
on May 21, 2008 at 4:18 p.m.(UW Campus | Unverified Name)
I encourage you to get your facts straight and look at the actually demographics of populations represented in the engineering and sciences at UW.
Also affirmative actions is no long allowed in Washington State meaning that every student in the sciences and engineering deserves to be there. There is no preferential treatment given to any group in any academic department with race as the deciding factor.
You feel excluded? Try harder and apply again next year.
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