Panelists look into diversity at Towson

Brotherhood event gives others chance to discuss administration

By Olivia Obineme

Published: Thursday, March 12, 2009

The Potomac Lounge was completely silent Tuesday as students and faculty listened to selected panelist discussing issues of diversity on campus.

Many attended the State of Diversity: Part 2 discussion which was hosted by Brotherhood: Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle. The panel consisted of four faculty members including, assistant vice president of student affairs for diversity Art King, assistant chair and assistant professor in the English department Lena Ampadu, special assistant to the president of diversity and equal opportunity Debbie Seeberger and professor of psychology and director of the institution of academic diversity and inclusion Paz Galupo.

“The panel was very different from last semester’s panel. We had four members of the faculty and administration here on campus that helped us understand how the administration deals with diversity on campus,” Brotherhood president Adam Jackson said. The moderator of the discussion, senior philosophy major Dayvon Love, posed some questions for the panel. The issues of diversity on campus and adjustments made to promote diversity were elaborated.Love based the talk on diversity as part of the “process of de-colonization.” “When Adam first came to me about moderating this [discussion] I was reading a book by Aimé Césaire called ‘Discourse on Colonialism’ which talked a lot about how the process of European colonization has shaped the world in such a way where often times those who are oppressed and marginal are considered last,” he said. The panel had many thoughts on the issue of diversity on campus, but they were mostly concerned about not everyone being as open to learning about different cultures and ideas.

“If we have everybody’s perspectives at the table then we can help everybody,” Galupo said. According to Ampadu students usually choose some of the classes that they take only because they know they can get an “easy A,” but they are not taking them to learn something. “Students are not always intellectually curious. They will take a course because it is required as part of the Gen Eds you see, instead of thinking that the subject course can be intellectually challenging,” she said.

The panel was concerned to not see a more diverse audience, pointing out that the audience consisted of more minorities. “We have to challenge what the definition of diversity is because often when we think about diversity we think we are only talking about people that are marginalized. White people tend to think of themselves as not adding to diversity,” Galupo said.

The event ended with the audience asking questions and commenting on what they have heard from the panel.

Junior mass communication major Morgan Moultrie brought up the topic of “cultural sensitivity” to the discussion. “It was important for me to speak out because I am really passionate about cultural sensitivity and I think it was important to ask about the position that white people have on campus as opposed to the minorities on campus. I felt that it was just really important to touch on that.”

There were also comments from the audience questioning the action that can be taken to promote more diversity on campus, yet the panel agreed that if the students can go out and talk to top administrators of the school, they would listen. “Dialogue is very important,” Galupo said. “[The administration] doesn’t believe that any of this is happening because when I give voice to them, it doesn’t seem to impact as much as students can, if they voice out.” King, who said he came from the Caribbean to the States a long time ago and had to deal with diversity issues when he lived in the South felt that “people need to feel uncomfortable in order for diversity to work for them.” Nevertheless, Jackson believed that the event turned out great and Brotherhood will continue to have such events every semester.

“This [event] gets the ball rolling. It was a good time for students to speak out about certain things.”

Courtesy of The Towerlight

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