Forum discusses multiculturalism

Senior Katherine Chilcote asked the administration to "catch up with us."\nAs a representative of the Disabled Student Association, Chilcote said she was disappointed with the way IU's administration handles diversity and multiculturalism and its related issues on campus.\nFor Chilcote, it is the issue of accessibility for students with disabilities.\nThe Student Leader Forum on Diversity, held Wednesday night in the Fine Arts building, allowed 10 student leaders, representing 11 student groups, to talk about their organization's stances on diversity. \nThe forum is part of a week-long sponsored event by the U.S. Department of Education called "The Week of Dialogue." The forum was one of several events sponsored in part by the Office of Bloomington Mayor John Fernandez.\nThe Commission On Multicultural Understanding sponsored the event and promised many future forums for student leaders to discuss diversity issues.\nAlthough less than 40 people showed up for the forum, the panelists were more concerned with the administration's work regarding diversity than student attendance.\n"I often feel as a leader that we're screaming with these ideas and we're being very adamant about these ideas but we're not being heard," Chilcote said.\nMany on the panel agreed the administration is not always responsive to their needs. Graduate student Brian Burkhart, representing the American Indian Student Association, said there are no role models in the faculty for the 0.003 percent of students his organization represents and very little academic programming to explore American Indian culture.\nCOMU graduate assistant Eloiza Domingo reminded the panelists that COMU is part of the administration and was the sponsor of the forum. She said the commission is also publishing a resource guide for multicultural students offering a listing of all academic and extra-curricular programs, and faculty affecting diversity issues. \nCharlie Nelms, vice president for student development and diversity and vice chancellor for academic support and diversity, said the administration, his office and other offices, are making strides in the issue of diversity. The University has helped created outreach initiatives for middle schools in Indiana, and promote diversity programming on satellite campuses.\nHe said the level of programming at Indiana is "unparalleled."\n"I would like to think there are some things working quite well," Nelms said. He added that nine new faculty members are minorities and minority students have a first and second year persistence rate of more than 80 percent. \n"The University is doing something right," he said. "The opportunity's there. The question is whether people are availing themselves to those opportunities."\nOrganizations like the Black Student Union also urged a change on the part of student groups. Shaunette Byers, a junior and president of the BSU, asked students to do more than participate in a cultural program promoting specific group's backgrounds.\n"It's not diverse if we're going to have diversity programming and we're going to be diverse for two hours and then we're going home," IU Pan-Hellenic Council president senior Alta Thornton agreed, asking instead that students open themselves up to dialogue with someone of a different culture to create long-lasting understanding.\nPanelists also shared programming their groups are doing to promote diversity and multicultural understanding.\nAll groups urged students to take an active role in promoting diversity and urging administration to do the same.\n"The help is needed from all students, not just the student leaders up here," said senior Cecille Domingo, Asian American Association president.