DU Clarion Volume 124 Issue 29

MFJS PRESENTS: RACIAL CLIMATE SPECIAL EDITION

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DU CLARION

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EDITION

DISCLAIMER: THIS EDITION IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY LYNN CLARK’S MULTICULTURAL JOURNALISM CLASS (MFJS 3655/4655).

THE VIEWS AND OPINIONS PRESENTED IN THIS EDITION DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE OPINIONS OF THE CLARION OR THE UNIVERSITY OF DENVER.

ABOUT US

DU Clarion EDITORIAL STAFF

JOHN POE, Editor-in-Chief RYAN NINESLING, Executive Editor DANIELA SANTOS, News Editor NIKKY JOHNSON, Sports Editor ELIZABETH LOCHHEAD, Opinions Editor The Clarion is the official student newspaper of the University of Denver, serving as the “Voice of the Pioneers.”

Founded in 1899, it covers campus and local stories with the highest level of journalistic integrity possible. 1000 copies are distributed each Wednesday afternoon (throughout the academic year) across the DU campus, and every article is also published at duclarion.com. The Clarion does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the faculty, staff and/or administration of DU, and the opinions expressed by columnists and contributing writers do not necessarily reflect those of the Clarion.

Reproduction of The Clarion in whole or part in any form written, broadcast or electronic without written permission of The Clarion is prohibited. The opinions expressed by columnists and contributing writers do not necessarily reflect those of The Clarion. Weather forecasts are of courtesy of the National Weather Service. The Clarion reserves the right to reject advertising, stories, columns or letters to the editor that it deems graphic, obscene or that discriminate on the basis of race, culture, gender or sexual orientation.

The Clarion welcomes letters to the editor. Those who submit letters must limit them to 500 words. Some letters may not be published because of space limitations, overly-libelous content or similarity to past submissions. Please submit letters to duclarioneditor@gmail.com.

HOW TO JOIN

The Clarion is open to contributors of all years and majors at DU, including both undergraduate and graduate students. There’s no application necessary; all you have to do is show up to one of our weekly meetings, which are held every Monday at 6 p.m. (during the academic year) in the Driscoll Underground. Can’t make it to a meeting? Send an email to duclarioneditor@gmail.com and we’ll do everything we can to get you published.

ANNMARIE MARLOW, Arts & Life Editor KENDALL MORRIS, Arts & Life Editor CAITLAN GANNAM, Photo/Video Editor GRACE HOUSER, Photo/Video Editor MONICA MCFADDEN, Podcast Editor JUSTIN CYGAN, Copy Editor MAYA PINON, Copy Editor ANDREW MATRANGA, Faculty Adviser

CONTRIBUTING STAFF JESSICA JOHNSON DREW KORT SARAH LEISER DANIEL LORENZO EVAN PATTON MIKAYLA PEVAC KARA ROBERTS ISAAC VARGAS KIIRA WALSH MADELEINE WHITE

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Tearing down the invisible barrier: the first generation experience

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onique Garcia, a second year biology major and first-generation college student, didn’t, “feel like [she] was truly a part of a solid community on campus until the beginning of [her] second year.”

When DU admitted its most diverse incoming class ever this fall, the university also experienced a dramatic increase in the number of students who identified themselves as first-generation. Fully 20 percent of students completing their first term at DU this fall will be the first in their family to complete a college degree. According to the Postsecondary National Policy Institute, nationally, most first-generation college students are nonwhite, come from lower-income backgrounds and face multiple barriers to entering college. It’s likely that they have never been exposed to the rules of a successful college career, and their first time setting foot on the campus of a predominantly white institution (PWI) may come with both social and academic culture shock, according to experts in the field.

The experience of moving into your dorm during orientation week and feeling like everyone has known each other prior to move-in might be daunting for anyone. However, for first-generation students, this is a feeling that lingers, according to Garcia.

Establishing strong study habits during the fast-paced quarter system can keep these students from being able to integrate themselves in other organizations on campus, as Jorge Porras, a second year accounting major, now serving as the Latinx Student Alliance (LSA)

Photo courtesy of Marcos Elias

treasurer added, “The culture shock is incredible,” he continued, “The university, plain and simple, is not very first-generation friendly.”

Hernan Dominguez, a second year international business major, described the issue of getting students of color more involved in the campus community through his first-generation lens as well.

“DU’s campus hosts an invisible barrier that blocks minority students from getting involved outside of the expected social “DU’s campus hosts an invisible barrier that blocks minority students— a barrier that only we as minorities can see.” groups—a barrier that only we as minorities can see,” he said.

Dominguez currently serves as the president for LSA, and he mentioned that a priority in the organization is to make sure that first year students are made aware of their presence.

“We want to make sure that even before the quarter starts our first year Latinx students know that there is a space for them on campus,” Dominguez said.

Students like Dominguez and Porras have taken positions of leadership in affinity groups because they understand the difficult transition that students of color go through when attending a PWI. Student affinity groups, like LSA, work to ease that transition. They hope to tear down the invisible barrier.

Student affinity groups often work with The Center for Multicultural Excellence (CME), which, “challenges the University of Denver community to create a campus climate that ensures all of its members are valued, supported and thrive by embracing and engaging our social identities.”

For Chiemerie Ogbonnaya, a second year molecular biology major and the current president of the Black Student Alliance (BSA), “[CME] is a place where students of color, LGBTQIA+, religious differences and many more can go and feel welcomed.

There is something homey about recognizing there are many others who are eager to learn and educate others in this space.”

What comes out of the offices in CME are often efforts to promote diversity, celebrate culture and provide opportunities for students to have conversations around their identities, something that their regular courses often do not offer the opportunity to do.

As one example, this fall, CME celebrated the grand opening of the University of Denver Pride Lounge, DU’s first dedicated space for the LGBTQIA community, on Thursday, Oct. 26 in Centennial Halls. In collaboration with the DU Queer Student Alliance, CME works to serve their underrepresented students on campus, finding ways to improve their experience on campus—finding ways to tear down their invisible barrier.

The work of CME and the university’s affinity groups includes not only providing a brave space for students of color, but also offering opportunities for other students on campus to hear about the experiences and

Image courtesy of Tamara Chapman

cultures that students of color bring to DU. A recent example of this was a joint event organized by the Native and Latinx Student Alliances. They invited Lyla June, a well-known musician, poet and community organizer to speak.

Along with performances by local poets, the night was tailored to educate the community on Native and Latinx culture considering the recent debates revolving around the #NoMorePios campaign.

However, considering the growing number of first generation students on campus, leaders in CME say that they are hoping to better serve this population of students with their pilot program, “1GenU.” Founded by Alfredo Gallegos, the assistant director of Student Success, 1GenU is a program that is designed to support and assist first-generation students with navigating campus resources, developing strong academic and social skills and ultimately helping students adjust to collegiate life at DU. “Students are connected not only with people within the program, but they are encouraged to branch out and get involved elsewhere as well,” said Garcia, who works on developing the program.

Dominguez feels that, “It is an awesome program that has the potential to make a big difference in the first-generation community.” What he felt was most important was that, “the program allows for first-gen students to come in already knowing some familiar faces, and that creates a community.”

Tearing down the invisible barrier is often as simple as seeing a familiar face, according to James Artis, a second year double major in hospitality and business and the campus ambassador for the National Society of Minorities in Hospitality, who feels that CME for him is, “A place where I feel I can be my true authentic self.”

What programs like 1GenU, departments like CME and student affinity groups like LSA are doing is just that: giving underrepresented students on campus a chance to become acquainted with a group of familiar faces.

The hope is that through a proactive and intentional effort to educate each other on different cultures and experiences, a familiar face won’t be that hard to come by.

Isaac Vargas | Contributing Writer

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DACA’s end limits study abroad opportunities Photo courtesy of Jessica Johnson

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ot a single known DACA student from DU has studied abroad since President Trump’s election, according to the director of the Office of International Education (OIE), Denise Cope.

One of DU’s major selling points to prospective students is its nationally recognized study abroad participation. The allure of international opportunities elicits study abroad participation from nearly 70 percent of DU students, according to the Institute of International Education.

But now, DACA students are being forced off the study abroad bandwagon. “Pre-Trump, all DACA students were able to study abroad and we could help them and advise them and give them resources,” said Cope.

“Granted, there were some risks, but it was quite minimal.”

However, since President Donald Trump’s announcement in September that there would be an “orderly transition and wind-down of DACA,” the risk of travel for DACA recipients has increased, leading to the lack of DACA students going abroad, according to Cope.

U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) will no longer accept or approve Advance Parole requests which has contributed to the increased travel risk for DACA recipients.

Advance Parole granted permission to DACA recipients to reenter the U.S. after traveling abroad, according to the National Immigration Law Center.

Stephanie Roberts, the assistant director of the OIE, said that the existence of Advance Parole was the key to DACA students being able to study abroad. “[Advance Parole] was always somewhat grey. It was always at the discretion of the customs officer, but that was the avenue through which to be able to leave and come back,” said Roberts. “That no longer exists.”

Since Advance Parole ceases to be a viable option, nearly all 150+ study abroad programs offered by the OIE are now off-limits to DACA students, according to Cope. The OIE is working to find alternative options for undocumented students, but these opportunities are hard to come by. “The real-

ity is, it can’t be truly abroad,” said Cope. “[Their destination] has to be some type of US territory.” Though DACA students can’t cross any official foreign borders to study abroad, the OIE has added a program in San Juan, Puerto Rico with DACA students in mind. As of right now, this program is the only option for undocumented students, according to Roberts.

Though study abroad options are extremely limited for undocumented students from DU, they

mended that all DACA students abroad return home immediately and cautioned that “DACA students should not consider studying abroad at this time.”

The University of Richmond’s response to the frequently asked question, “What precautions should I take before international travel?” was that there were no precautions and that instead “students without proof of legal status are strongly encouraged to avoid international travel.”

Photo courtesy of Jessica Johnson

have more opportunity to study abroad than DACA students from many other universities.

The University of Texas at Austin, though “proud to have supported DACA students in successful study abroad experiences over the past four years,” no longer permits DACA students to study abroad as of September 5, 2017.

The City University of New York stated that, “Only students who already have Advance Parole documents have the option of studying abroad.”

Goucher University in Maryland recommends that DACA students refrain from study abroad, “even if they received the required travel permission from USCIS,” since there is no guarantee that they could return to the U.S. Princeton University recom-

The study abroad page for the University of Bowdoin in Maine is tacked with a bright red disclaimer that reads, “Students with DACA are strongly advised against making long-term trips abroad or make semester study abroad plans.”

Though DU is bound by the same limitations as the aforementioned universities, the OIE is still trying to make study abroad a possibility for these students, according to Roberts.

“We do have information on our website regarding the fact that study abroad can still be possible, with some unfortunate and very real restrictions,” said Roberts. In hopes of minimizing some of those restrictions, Cope is exploring program options in U.S. territories. “Where I’m limited is, I want to send students on programs where there’s sup-

port, so I have to find program providers that are operating in like Guam, or U.S. Virgin Islands, or Hawaii or something like that,” said Cope. “So, it’s not impossible, but those are few and far between.”

Though the options for DACA students are extremely limited, Roberts encouraged DACA students to come in and talk with an OIE advisor to discuss study abroad options and to brainstorm further opportunities. “We want you to feel you can come and talk to us about the concerns you have, and that you’ll find a receptive and sympathetic office here that wants to help you succeed in your plans to go abroad,” said Roberts.

The OIE hopes to have DACA students reach out to their office, since it is difficult for the OIE to know and reach this community, according to Cope.

“We don’t track students who are undocumented or DACA students, and there’s pros and cons to that,” said Cope. “The pro is, if ICE were to come on campus, there really wouldn’t be any written record. The con is, we don’t know who these students are, so reaching those students becomes really complicated.”

Cope and the OIE have partnered with the Center for Multicultural Excellence (CME) and other campus organizations, like First-Gen of DU, to try and reach some of these students and have conversations about the reality of the situation around study abroad. “I tell students, we are unafraid educators to have this conversation,” said Cope. “We are advocates for our students.” “[DACA] is not an afterthought for us,” said Roberts.

“We have put significant time into really trying to make sure we understand DACA, that we understand how it was as a program, and now, with this transition, we understand what new challenges are coming up for students now within what we have control over, which is helping the student with this conversation and determining what looks realistic.”

For more information on study abroad, or to contact the OIE, visit their website or make an appointment with an advisor.

Jessica Johnson | Contributing Writer

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Sanctity at DU for its Muslim students A

t the Jummah Prayer in the Driscoll Student Center on Friday Nov. 3, Imam Shafi (Masjid Abu Bakr) said, “Terrorism knows no religion.” The prayer, lasting just under an hour and co-sponsored

by DU’s Muslim Student Association (MSA or DUMSA), consisted, partially, of a 30-minute lecture

by Imam Shafi, wherein he talked briefly of the history of Islam, the prophets, the strive towards peace within Islamic devotionalism and Islam’s foundational nature to the historical development of the United States. Yet, despite the ease with which he conveyed pious practice, he spoke defensively regarding what is considered true Islam, which made apparent the prejudice, misconceptions and alienation that many American Muslims feel in contemporary U.S. Since Trump’s election, the majority of U.S. Muslims view Trump as “unfriendly toward Muslim Americans” as shown by the Pew Research Center’s study conducted from Jan. 23 through May 2, 2017. According to various other studies and articles, a climate of discrimination has surfaced in regard to Muslim Americans, and specifically since Trump’s election.

Issues such as Trump’s attempts at travel bans and his near-repeal of DACA undoubtedly contribute to three-quarters of U.S. Muslims’ feelings that “there is ‘a lot’ of discrimination against Muslims in the U.S” and to 68 percent of U.S. Muslims’ feelings of worry regarding Trump. Despite this, Imam Shafi, as well as other Muslim Americans, believe strongly in the sentiment: “we are not part of America, we are America.”

How, then, do these issues affect a campus’s internal “climate?”

More specifically, is DU truly creating an “Inclusively Excellent” environment for its Muslim students, a student population who may be faced with religious or racial prejudice? Further, how much can a college campus really do when it comes to protecting its students?

In a letter to the editor of The Clarion, published January 17, 2016, it was stated that DU’s administration received emails toward the end of 2015 regarding the campus’s “racial climate”: “one of the most recent on December 21st reassures the University’s Muslim community that DU will strive to be inclusively excellent and encourage ‘openness to new ideas, challenges to the status quo and compassion when discussing challenging topics.’”

According to Alia Reza, President of DU’s Muslim Student Association, the DU administration still has a ways to go in creating a truly “inclusively excellent” environment. Throughout her life she has experienced various kinds of racism and prejudice: due to her “Latina appearance,” she has been told on multiple occasions to “go back to Mexico,” though her Arabic name put her on the no-fly list after the September 11th attacks. However, in her introduction to DU, she felt comfortable among her peers in

Photo courtesy of Kara Roberts

the humanities and social sciences: “When I first started, I thought, ‘wow, this is great, people actually know what they’re talking about.’”

Despite her comfort within certain areas of DU’s campus, Reza’s feelings of religious persecution are not entirely absent while at DU. “I really want to stress: this happens mostly online where, after something happens in the world, people...have felt like it’s okay to go online and directly say things,” she said. This has happened more frequently in recent years, and both she and the Muslim Student Association have experienced discrimination, she said.

She noted that after the Paris attacks, some people posted random quotes from the Qur’an on her Facebook page. Taking quotes about violence out of context, they attempted to prove to her that Islam is a violent religion. She had similar experiences after the recent Vegas attack. “That was an old, white man, but this still happens where people [went] on the MSA

appears to require more attention before Muslim students feel entirely accepted, the policies and infrastructure have already been improved significantly in just two years, according to Frank Tuitt, senior advisor to the Chancellor and Provost on Diversity and Inclusion. He referenced the Campus Climate Report that was published in 2015, which offered specific recommendations aimed at creating a truly welcoming and inclusive campus.

Specifically, Tuitt credited DU’s implementation of policy recommendations and policy changes to Chancellor Rebecca Chopp’s leadership. After her arrival, the university reorganized diversity leadership, merging the Center for Multicultural Excellence with Campus Life to create the new division of Campus Life and Inclusive Excellence. The university then created an Office of Diversity and Inclusion that would focus more attention on the faculty. Now, Tuitt said, “we

Photo courtesy of Kara Roberts

Facebook page” and left racist comments, she said.

While she said she feels comfortable with other affinity groups on campus and has been invested in the MSA’s efforts to create alliances, encourage education of Islam and promote awareness around understanding issues such as DACA, she remains unshielded from racism and religious persecution. “They really do, on DU’s campus,” she said, “use online as a platform for those kinds of things. And it usually comes from students.”

Other Muslim students at DU voiced similar distress, but they chose to remain anonymous due to fear of persecution.

While the social climate at DU

really support the academic units in their efforts to diversify.”

According to Tuitt, the Faculty Senate partnered with the Office of Teaching and Learning at DU a few years ago in efforts to embed diversity and IE into the curriculum, passing an initiative to “do everything in their power to create inclusive learning environments in the classroom,” Tuitt said. This includes, among other policy and infrastructural changes, a Teaching and Learning series offered every third Thursday to provide faculty with opportunities to reflect on their pedagogical practices.

Additionally, since 2015 – according to Tuitt – the Office of Equal Opportunity and Biased

Incidents Response Team has been more actively engaged on campus, to allow for students to report biased incidents when they do occur.

Other areas of campus have also addressed issues of inclusion.

During Ramadan, DU’s food service provider Sodexo began providing meals for Muslim students to break their fast before and after dining hall hours. But this happened largely as the result of pressure from the MSA. Sodexo was “extremely helpful and we couldn’t have succeeded without them,” said Reza. But “the MSA Eboard did the vast majority of work on this.” The Eid-al-Adha Dinner, hosted by the MSA last year in celebration of one of the two main holidays in Islam, had a great turnout and was similarly supported by Sodexo.

But according to Reza and other Muslim students on campus, DU administration still falls short when it comes to providing the kinds of resources and policies necessary to provide justice for racist or prejudice actions. Reza said: “what’s interesting about DU…[is that] people will report instances of racism and prejudice and say ‘hey this happened,’ and DU will say ‘okay we’re going to take this into account, we’re going to do something about it,’ and two months later nothing’s been done.

And it’s like, I mean, you can be that person who would constantly follow up, constantly be in their face about it, but the problem is, you shouldn’t have to be that person. Right? DU should just step up and do something; the climate’s not going to change.”

Reza did, however, express enthusiasm for the work of the Social Justice Solidarity group that is encouraging DU to adopt the label of “sanctuary campus.” Even if it doesn’t change anything on an actual, legal level, the fact that DU would be labeled as a sanctuary campus would promote the safety and sanctuary of our students by their race, religion, background,” she said. She noted that she believed that students who were attacked would then feel that they would be protected. “We wouldn’t constantly feel like we’re about to be kicked out,” she said. Such a sense of protection “would change the social atmosphere, and for that reason I definitely think we should do it,” said Reza.

Tuitt, who is more reserved on the issue of the sanctuary campus label (see full online version of this story), agreed that students need and deserve a strong sense of security and community on campus.

“My general sense is that we still have students that experience isolation, we still have students who are struggling to find authentic, culturally relevant and affirming experiences that validate their presence here,” said Tuitt. “I’d like to believe there are less of those students than before, but the fact that some still remain means that our work is not done.”

Kara Roberts | Contributing Writer

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Athletic Division takes shot at diversity

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t is not at all difficult to miss the university’s efforts to visually demonstrate and preach the value of ethnic diversity within the community.

Banners hanging from light poles along campus walking paths, syllabi handed out at the beginning of each quarter and a variety of initiatives implemented and strategic plans released all detail how diversity should be increased, fostered and maintained. DU’s most recent campus-wide strategic plan, DU Impact 2025, asserts this point: “the challenges of this century are complex, requiring diverse teams to work collaboratively and innovatively toward solutions. Actively seeking a student body and a faculty and staff who represent the diversity of our region, nation and world is necessary to prepare students for an increasingly globalized and connected world.” The university has said there are many ways to do this.

Earlier this year, the Athletics and Recreation Division laid out a five-year strategic plan specific to its area of operation. This is the third strategic plan for the division, and each has had a ”strong diversity and equality component,” according to Peg Bradley-Doppes, DU’s vice chancellor of athletics and recreation.

Earlier plans included goals “to hire more minorities in administrative roles, on our coaching staffs and in the support staff,” Doppes said. DU currently has two head coaches of color leading the men’s basketball and men’s tennis programs, and the division has increased the number of staff of color, meeting a goal it set as part of the first plan which was launched in 2008. The division has also established a Gender Equity Committee to maintain compliance with Title IX as a result of its planning process.

The most recent plan provides a focused lens through which to dissect action items put forth to achieve and cultivate diversity, equity and inclusion.

These items are six-fold and, in my view, littered with a plethora of buzzwords. “Continue to implement athletic policies regarding the division’s commitment to diversity and gender equity,” one item beckons. When prompted, Bob Willis, the assistant vice chancellor for external operations and a member of the committee responsible for the creation of this document, did not provide specific examples of these policies, and understandably so. What would an athletic policy regarding a commitment to diversity and gender equity look like? The vague nature of this item makes this a problematic question to answer.

Another item in the most recent strategic plan details an effort to “maintain a division dedicated to creating a culture that recognizes and values common goals and diverse identities while encouraging respect, understanding and appreciation of individuals and group differences.” While there would likely be no contestation that this is

Image courtesy of DU Athletics

a worthy goal for the culture within the division, it seems there is no actionable item tied to this task. “I’ve been around other programs where teams can get isolated. What I’ve liked is it’s a family atmosphere here and [the athletic teams] support each other. That works for us,” said Willis when asked for an example related to how this task will be achieved. According to Doppes, Willis’ mention of the “family atmosphere” is consistent with the division’s efforts to establish and maintain a diverse culture. But a plan necessitates future movement and action in a common direction as opposed to the reiteration of that which has already been established.

The plan is not void of specific, material items, however.

One task lays out the intention of providing educational programs to senior athletic administration, coaches, staff and students.

As far as faculty and staff are concerned, Willis discussed the division’s partnership with the Center for Multicultural Excellence (CME), and their ongoing search to invite guest speakers with expertise in this area.

Some years ago, the division hosted Richard Lapchick, an alumnus of DU and a nationally known human rights activist in the area of racial equality. Lapchick spoke of the need for a more demographically reflective workforce in athletics, whether it be in coaching or administration. This is a respectable and relevant approach that works to advance the division’s desire to foster diversity and inclusivity.

Jake Holtzmann, a junior guard on the men’s basketball team, however, exhibited uncertainty when questioned about the educational programs outlined in the strategic plan. “I am unaware of any such programs,” he stated simply. This highlights the fact that the educational programs referenced in the strategic plan have been designed as professional development activities that are part of senior staff and coaches’ meetings and may not be open for attendance by all students involved with the division.

But the division has made “efforts to increase enrollment

for a more diverse student body and student-athletes,” Willis said. He noted that he has developed a reciprocal relationship with Hampton University in Virginia due to the similarity in athletic programs available at each institution. “We are able to share with Hampton our success and best practices…and Hampton in return will assist us to better understand how we could attract more students of color both on campus and in participation with our sports programs,” he said. Typical mechanisms used to attract a more diverse student athlete body are scholarships and endowments, tools which the strategic plan explicitly calls for and which the university offers.

Willis highlighted the details of endowments and gifts currently on the university’s books from corporations that consider ethnic diversity and inclusion an integral part of their institutional DNA. He also mentioned large sponsors such as Pepsi and Wells Fargo, and smaller sponsors such as the Tuskegee Airmen, who have created grants in conjunction with the university that are designated specifically for members of certain demographic communities.

The translation of goals for enrollment into simple action items related to fundraising and scholarship establishment is clear and encouraging. The division has been able to fulfill the goals that are related to measurable and realistic statements as set forth in its subsequent strategic plans. But other universities have even more specific and measurable goals. The University of Colorado Athletics Department, to name one, recently released its own two-year strategic plan.

While the plan details only three action items as opposed to DU’s six, they are unambiguous and numerically goal-oriented. “Significantly increase the number of internally (within athletics) offered educational opportunities annually around diversity and Inclusive Excellence to be 10 by 2020,” and “Significantly increase the percentage of staff and student-athletes attending at least 1 forum or diversity and Inclusive Excellence training

per semester (fall and spring) to 95% by 2020,” two of the department’s focal points declare.

Doppes points out that there are of course differences between a private and public institution and related issues of enrollment and budget. Still, it seems to me that goals could be made more measurable, and this would make those goals more actionable.

Taken together, the goals in the division’s strategic plan can be put into two dichotomous groups. Some are concrete and feasible while others are vague and superficial, and this is attributable to the very goal that is being chased: diversity. It’s a word that can take on several meanings and needs context to be understood properly. Does the term “diversity of ethnic make-up” provide enough context for one to gain a full understanding of it? It can simply mean a group composed of people of different backgrounds and cultures. But, diversity of ethnic make-up has also come to represent something that many groups strive to gain, or a sign of positivity and progress, as in this case. The intangibility of the word itself and the polysemic nature of its various uses and possible representations is what makes its attainability difficult.

As a graduate student attending DU, I am a champion of the initiative just as the university and its various divisions are.

But, a methodology shift seems needed.

Collaboration with other universities may assist in identifying items that have rendered results and those that have not. These items should then be fixed in actionable tasks.

The more transparency and viability that can be built into statements meant to move these goals forward works to serve all parties involved. The university can measure itself against past progress and fulfill the goals it sets for itself, and students and student athletes can prosper in an environment representative of our community.

Drew Kort l Contributing Writer

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Balancing free speech at DU

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t’s been over a year since issues of free speech were brought to the forefront at DU. The controversy began when a message supporting the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement was altered on the university’s designated “free speech wall” to lyrics from a song titled “Guilty of Being White.” The defacing of the BLM message caused uproar among several student organizations and faculty members. Since the incident, the university has employed various tactics to balance its support for open dialogue during a time when free speech has unfortunately become synonymous with hateful or racist speech.

The university initially responded to these events by issuing a statement condemning racist rhetoric on campus, while also shifting existing surveillance cameras so as to capture the free speech wall and the individuals who engage with it. Following this decision, the DU Faculty Senate published a document called “The University of Denver Statement of Policy and Principles on Freedom of Expression,” which outlined DU’s vision, values and mission when it comes to the First Amendment’s presence on campus.

Although DU’s efforts appear to be genuine, the administration has received backlash from students, faculty and staff with each step they have taken.

DU received criticism for its decision to monitor the free speech wall from student activist groups as well as from free speech proponents outside of the DU community. “By closing students’ avenues to speech under the guise of protecting it, DU does itself and its students a disservice,” claimed an article published by the conservative Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

“DU casts its surveillance and condemnation of anonymous speech as if it is in service of open dialogue is an embarrassment,” wrote Steinbaugh.

Photo courtesy of Connor W. Davis

Photo courtesy of Emma Decker

Emma Decker, who at the time was the president of the Feminist Student Alliance (FSA) and a member of Black Student Alliance (BSA), offered a different view. “As a student, I didn’t feel their message was as to the point as I wanted. For me at that time, I felt like there wasn’t enough of a stand. There wasn’t enough of a message of support for the students who were feeling hurt by the wall,” she said. Decker is currently the program coordinator in the Office of Student Engagement at the university.

And while it may have seemed as if these criticisms influenced the DU Faculty Senate to release the free speech document, discussions about free speech had predated the wall controversy, according to DU faculty member Derigan Silver, who was a member of the committee that drafted the free speech document. Efforts began earlier, in the summer of 2016, he noted. The faculty wanted “to be proactive, to think about if something arose at the University of Denver, how

would we want to handle it. The committee and the document appeared as if it was a reaction to events surrounding the wall but it was not,” he emphasized.

It is clear that this yearlong debate has put DU’s administration between a rock and a hard place while trying to navigate this free speech balancing act. With the creation of the free speech document, the DU Senate also voted to create the University Committee for the Promotion of Free Expression. The creation of the document and the committee appeared to be a response mechanism employed by DU to serve as damage control.

This type of free speech document and committee is not unique to DU. Both private and public universities have created organizations to promote freedom of expression as issues over speech have manifested in different ways around the country. A prominent example is Harvard’s document underscoring their free speech guidelines.

Silver explained that even though the DU document was carefully created and went through several rounds of editing, it still received plenty of criticism.

“I don’t think we were ever under the illusion that it would be accepted by everyone, but the criticism that I have seen is this idea that supporting free speech is supporting racism or is empowering very hateful speech,” explained Silver. He went on to acknowledge that he “certainly understands those coming from that viewpoint, but we worked very hard to make it clear that we want a proactive response to that kind of speech on campus. We want counter speech, we want the university to say, ‘these are not our views and not our values.’” Silver emphasized that DU as an institution has the same fundamental rights as students to denounce speech that doesn’t reflect the university’s values, while still leaving channels open for opposing opinions.

Some student organizations, like the Social Justice Solidarity Community, have criticized the Faculty Senate document, articulating their belief that the document disproportionately allows for racist speech that mirrors what white supremacist protesters are calling for today.

With the creation of the free speech document, the DU Senate also voted to create the University Committee for the Promotion of Free Expression.

The DU Committee for the Promotion of Free Expression is still in the process of forming, so it is hard to tell what kind of role it will play in mediating free speech and hate speech within the private institution, according to Silver. “The committee was created to promote the interchange of ideas in a thoughtful manner.

Looking at the ‘free speech wall,’ having people write on a wall in the middle of the night is not a great way to increase dialogue,” he explained. According to the official document, the committee will be tasked with providing forums and opportunities to discuss opposing viewpoints in a constructive manner, as well as serving as a working group to help the administration handle issues of speech.

When asked about the forming free speech committee, Decker stressed the importance of reaching out and supporting all members of the DU community, especially those who feel unsafe on campus. “I challenge the group to think outside of points of privilege and talk to people who are affected by these events on campus,” she said.

“I think communicating with different students is important because it has more to do with how safe and supported they feel, than with the actual messages.” Decker went on to advise, “When these things do happen it is important to look at how DU as a community can challenge those notions so students who do feel unsupported have an outlet.”

Madeleine White l Contributing Writer

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Learning the true meaning of “alliance”

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n two years at DU, I’ve had no more than three black classmates.

Since only 20 percent of our campus population is comprised of people of color, my experience is likely similar to most white students. We occupy a neutral, distant space when it comes to race: we’ve heard about the racial tension on our campus, we care about it, but we’ve never really come into contact with it.

Sure, I’ve heard stories around campus that have horrified me.

From a student having eggs thrown at him, to others having their cars vandalized to another finding himself pictured multiple times in a campus promotional brochure, hearsay about the racial climate does float among students and awaken our consciences.

But in the self-contained bubble of a hyper-busy DU student, it’s easy for me to forget about these incidents. In this space devoid of meaningful contact with black students, it’s easy for me to harbor biases and misconceptions.

In particular among these: my intimidation at the words “ally” and “alliance.”

Until last week, when I would hear about concepts like being an ally, I would sometimes get overwhelmed. Without anybody to explain it to me in person, I got the impression from social media that the best way for me to prove I wasn’t racist was to engage in constantly posting on social media and to attend meetings of every affinity group on campus—some nondescript slew of requirements I just didn’t have

Photo coutesy of Daniel Lorenzo

time for.

I’d think “oh, that’s those activists’ thing, not mine. I’ve got my own clubs.” But this mindset changed as soon as I stepped into my first alliance meeting.

On the night I decided to go to Black Student Alliance (BSA) to find sources for this Clarion issue, the content of the meeting surprised me.

BSA wasn’t talking strategy that night, or having a heated discussion about privilege or doing anything that could be considered “activism.” Instead, they were playing a raucous homemade game of Black Family Feud.

Worries had filled my mind as I walked in: would it be patronizing of me just to observe? Would it be more patronizing to introduce myself and assume I’m part of the group?

How will they know I’m not being awkward because they’re black, I’m just being awkward because I’m awkward?

But the laughter that filled the room was quick to dispel these. The host of the event that night came and introduced me, and I joined a team and had a blast. No one asked any questions.

As I allowed myself to have fun, a realization came over me. The word “alliance” didn’t imply any kind of mission that I wasn’t welcome to participate in.

This wasn’t a meeting of activists; it was just a meeting of, well, black students.

My realization was confirmed talking to the BSA members I interviewed, who all used the same phrase to describe their membership in BSA: “It’s the only time we can all

be together.”

The primary importance of BSA lies not in the opportunity it provides to advance some kind of mission, but just to provide a space for black students to come together, a necessity that had barely even occurred to me.

As BSA member Rebeka Betemedhin, a third year political science and theatre major from Las Vegas, Nevada told me: “Remember that discomfort you felt being the only one of your race in there? Imagine feeling that going into every class.”

Betemedhin explained the necessity even further: I had a choice to go to the meeting and could have left if I wanted to. Black students don’t have a choice to leave their classes.

In a sense, they don’t even have a choice to be in an alliance or not. Toni Dunlap is a third-year computer engineering major from Atlanta, Georgia in BSA. As an RA with 18 credit quarters and multiple club involvements, she explained that she was told, wisely, by her advisor to drop a commitment. But even if she wanted to, she wasn’t going to drop her only opportunity to be with other black students.

This struck down the flawed analogy I had formed in my mind between my club involvements and racial affinity groups. For those of us who don’t come from underrepresented groups, our membership in sports teams, religious groups or other clubs is far more optional.

What a privilege that the club I’m involved in isn’t crucial to my student experience. What a privilege that it’s able to be called a “fellowship” instead of an “alliance.”

Finally, I can’t imply that alli-

ances are all fun and games. While Black Family Feud taught me that “alliance” isn’t a scary word, it’s still a powerful one.

As Dunlap explained to me, the on-campus affinity groups were a major force behind the student demands document to DU administration that made news last year, and convinced DU administration to ask the person who graffitied the wall to make a public apology (though, reportedly, this never occurred).

BSA also provided crucial assistance for Ahmed Dado, a third-year international studies and psychology major from Nairobi, Kenya. According to Betemedhin, he was egged by anonymous attackers twice within a year, and was enabled by BSA to deliver an emotional in-person plea to Chancellor Chopp, with the alliance literally standing behind him.

If you’re a white student on campus who’s passively interested in your campus’s racial climate, I’d highly recommend going to an alliance meeting some point during your time at DU. And if you’re strongly opinionated about it in any way, or feel that there’s pressure on you as a white student, I’d say going to one would be a necessity.

Your experience won’t be identical to mine, and you may not bring any harmful biases or need to be “corrected.” But while you don’t need to go to prove to anyone that you’re not a racist, you’ll undoubtedly learn something valuable through interaction with your classmates of color.

Daniel Lorenzo | Contributing Writer

Taryn Allen | Clarion

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Diversity statement by the Daniels College of Business

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he Daniels College of Business is one of several colleges on DU’s campus that has a diversity statement included on their main website, but the only one with a page totally dedicated to the topic.

“A diverse and inclusive environment at the College is imperative,” according to Andrea Matousek, associate dean for Operation for Daniels College of Business. “This is not simply because the commitment aligns with our values but it reflects the fact that we have an obligation to meet the needs of our corporate and hiring partners—and they demand a talent pool that reflects the market in which they operate,”she said.

According to Matousek,

Photo courtesy of Gusto Kubiak

every aspect of a college’s makeup is based on people— people who come from different backgrounds and have had a variety of experiences in order to keep the college thriving.

“Diversity at the Daniels College transcends race and ethnicity. We recognize that teams comprised of individuals from diverse backgrounds, different experiences, cultural competences, economic circumstances, for example, perform better,” said Matousek. “Diversity in this sense enhances the College’s academic vitality, enables our students to study and engage in a more realistic environment and challenges the broader community to recognize the value and contributions from all member of

the community.”

The Daniels College also aims to contribute to the bettering of DU’s social climate through their Inclusive Excellence Business Case Competition (IE). Last year, 2016, the competition used DU and the free speech wall as their case study.

“As one of the country’s few business case competitions surrounding diversity, the IE Business Case Competition allows students to apply critical thinking and knowledge about diversity to real world problems facing the participating companies,” according to an excerpt from the Inclusive Excellence Business Case Competition website.

According to Matousek, Inclusive Excellence is not lim-

ited to just the IE Business Case event, however; the pursuit of diversity is interwoven into the very core of the Daniels College of Business, said Matousek.

“While the College has a great deal of work to do in an effort to achieve our own very high standards in this critical area, we believe that we are building the foundation necessary to support and facilitate our community’s continued progress in this space. Diversity is not a series of events for us.

It’s the feeling behind all of our actions,” concluded Matousek.

Overall, for Matousek, diversity is behind every action she and the Daniels College of Business undertakes.

Mikayla Pevac | Contributing Writer

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Students and faculty member speak on Latinx experience at DU

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o Latinx students feel supported at DU? Sometimes, but sometimes not, according to two DU students, Keylen Villagrana and Evan O’Rourke, and a faculty member who is the head of DULCCES (University of Denver Latino Center for Community Engagement and Scholarship), Deb Ortega.

Villagrana is a first-generation college student and U.S. American, whose two older brothers attended DU. Her parents immigrated from Mexico, and “have instilled [in her and her siblings] the importance of education.”

After being an English language learner herself, Villagrana now works in the DU Writing Center where she consults with students and helps them develop their writing skills in English. She can identify with their challenges, she said: “I still struggle with the two languages, so doubting myself is going to come naturally… it’s a clash between ‘I’m proud that I’m in the Writing Center’ and ‘I have to believe in myself.’”

But Villagrana doesn’t always feel as if she belongs.

“I was born here in Denver, but I don’t really consider myself American,” said Villagrana.

“Like what does it even mean to be American, you know?”

She continued, “When someone sees a Latino on campus, they automatically assume that they are Mexican.”

When asked about her experience as a Latina student on campus, Villagrana said, “The University of Denver likes to say that they strive for inclusive excellence,

diversity, and everything. But the thing about that is that it’s not apparent. It’s not apparent in the classroom, it’s not apparent in the hallways. You have to really seek it out… People constantly look at me as a token, like in class whenever we have a topic about Latinos in general, immigration or whatever, every time that topic comes up they glance over at me, saying like ‘Oh, what do you think about it.’ I always tell them I can speak on my behalf, I can’t speak for this entire group of people.”

Villagrana put her experience into perspective by saying, “You can’t help but constantly compare yourself to others who have privilege.” But her perspective has also given her a grounds to offer advice to others. “Don’t ever compare yourself,” she said, “because at the end of the day you have qualities and assets that other students don’t have. You have a lot of stuff that you bring to the table, you just have to bring that forward and stop comparing yourself to privileged individuals.”

Evan O’Rourke, a white-identified undergraduate, spoke to the importance of bridging the gap between certain privileges.

O’Rourke addressed the importance of diversity in the current socio-political climate of the US, noting, “Diversity is important, and DACA allows for that, but in order to understand where someone is coming from, you must make an effort to understand where they’ve been.”

Students aren’t the only ones who receive and provide support for Latinx culture at DU. Deb Ortega, the head of DULC-

Image courtesy of Evan Patton

CESS (University of Denver Latino Center for Community Engagement and Scholarship), strives to offer support both for students and for their families. The DACA repeal has directly affected her position as a person who provides support for students, faculty and staff, she said. “Many of us have already experienced long hours of problem solving and providing suggestions about keeping underage citizen family members safe in the event that an adult with DACA status is removed from the home. In other words, we help create safety plans so that a citizen child might be able to go directly to other relative care instead of having to be put into the foster care system.”

Chancellor Chopp released a statement on behalf of DU in January of this year, as a response to the DACA repeal. The following is a non-exhaustive list of Chopp’s statement: •

•

•

•

DU does not and will not voluntarily share student information with immigration enforcement officials.

DU will not voluntarily grant access to University property to immigration officials for enforcement, investigative or similar purposes.

DU Campus Safety never has and will not assist ICE, CBP, USCIS or Denver Police Department in efforts to identify and deport undocumented community members.

DU will continue to admit students consistent with its nondiscrimination policy.

• •

•

•

DU does not make housing decisions based on immigration status.

DU will continue with immigration attorneys and other community resources to provide support for undocumented community members. .

DU will continue to advocate for the continuation of the policies of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

DU will continue to support ICE’s treatment of college and university campuses as“sensitive locations,” where enforcement actions are prohibited.

From the student perspective, one might wonder how to help show support for the Latinx community within the context of DU. Ortega answers this with a suggestion of what can be done from within the classroom. “[Question if] your courses are populated with readings from primarily dominant culture authors (white, cis-gendered, able-bodied). Are you missing the perspective of the voices of others?

Is the kind of content you are learning dehumanizing?”

Jessica Johnson’s article in this issue, “The end to DACA signifies the end to study abroad for many undocumented DU students,” has the word on how DACA affects students, including a visual breakdown of the representation of ethnicity in US students studying abroad.

Evan Patton | Contributing Writer

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Should we be selling Inclusive Excellence?

Photo courtesy of Wayne Armstrong

S

ince coming to DU as a graduate student last fall, I have seen the term “Inclusive Excellence” everywhere. It is prominent in syllabi, sprinkled across marketing materials and used frequently in conference rooms across campus.

But what does this phrase mean and why does the university use it so much? I reached out to Liliana Rodriguez, DU’s first vice chancellor of Campus Life and Inclusive Excellence, to have her weigh in on the term Inclusive Excellence.

She told me,“It was meant to be philosophical. It is essentially saying you cannot be academically excellent until you are first inclusive.” Moving inclusivity from a lone office on campus to a central tenet of the university is, I believe, a worthy aspiration.

But as Vice Chancellor Rodriguez mentioned, ask any person on campus what Inclusive Excellence means and they will each define it differently. As a campus, DU needs a more concrete definition in order to all be on the same path towards Inclusive Excellence.

In 2011, DU published a “Strategic Plan for Inclusive Excellence.”

It outlines different goals that focus on “(1) increasing compositional diversity, with a particular emphasis on historically underrepresented groups, (2) creating a positive campus climate where all persons are treated with respect and (3) embedding the first two within University policies and practices so that they become part of the very fabric of the University” . These goals for the university embody what Vice Chancellor Rodriguez was saying.

At an intellectual and philosophical level Inclusive Excellence is a grand ideal, but the steps to making it a reality are less clear.

The first step to achieving Inclusive Excellence, according to the plan, involves building a diverse community through the recruitment and retention of diverse students, faculty and staff. This seemingly clear statement carries a lot of imprecision. The university defines a diverse community as “encompassing ‘race, ethnicity, gender identity, gender expression, religion, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, age, socio-economic background and other salient social dimensions.’” However, the strategic plan, in my view, seems to focus primarily on racial and ethnic minorities and women, ignoring that identities intersect and are not always easily visible. To me, this ignores the complexity of the plan’s stated goals. But the question remains: how does one market the idea of diversity in order to recruit specific students, and what are the ethics of doing so?

“I wish we told the story a little more authentically, in that inclusion is hard to achieve and requires daily work from the full community,” said Vice Chancellor Rodriguez when asked about marketing.

She also expressed concern with the intangible nature of Inclusive Excellence. “It’s so abstract that we can just pat ourselves on the back without showing any meaningful metrics of it,” she said. I am similarly concerned that the way diversity is marketed at DU is utopian and does not show true cultural respect and integration.

At DU, along with other institutions, we market ourselves as having already achieved the elusive goal of diversity. Everyone has seen the college brochure that features a photo of a group of ethnically diverse students decked out in the school’s merchandise, casually hanging out on a quad or pouring over textbooks in a picturesque library. Vice Chancellor Rodriguez suggested that marketing materials would be improved if they were focused more on attracting students who are open to the challenge of achieving true inclusivity and diversity on campus. This type of marketing could be more authentic and true to where DU is now in terms of the journey to being an inclusive university.

Vice Chancellor Rodriguez also discussed expanding on the ways that people think about Inclusive Excellence, moving beyond focusing primarily on the morality of being inclusive. “I seriously think we should equate [Inclusive Excellence] to what you need to be a 21st century anything: educator, CEO, lawyer… You need to be culturally competent, you need to understand that value systems are different…We need to start talking about diversity and inclusion as a necessity.”.

When asked if DU accurately markets its current state of diversity to potential students, Vice Chancellor Rodriguez stated, “our students would say no…I’ve spoken to a lot of students and they say we oversell it. So that we are posing ourselves as a place that has already reached inclusion.” She said that students come to campus expecting an inclusive community and then

face daily micro-aggressions and isolation. DU is perceived as promising a product they do not have and student’s expectations are not being met, she said. As someone who has taken several marketing and strategic communication classes both as an undergrad and grad student, I can tell you that this is an elementary marketing mistake.

It is one thing to take the time to write out goals and action steps packed with buzzwords about diversity, but without action and dedication beyond the words, these plans will fall flat. I believe that marketing DU as an institution that has already achieved diversity could ultimately be detrimental to its future. I’m not saying that inclusion isn’t a worthy goal, and I appreciate that the strategic plan describes Inclusive Excellence as something that should become a part of the very core of the university. But this ambitious goal requires constant work. At DU, rather than thinking of Inclusive Excellence as a destination, we need to recognize that it is never something that is fully achieved. We need to change our marketing approach to show our dedication to the process of Inclusive Excellence. Inclusive Excellence cannot be measured by the number of students in a certain demographic on campus. Rather, it should be thought of as a continual promise for the university. It is a promise we make to ourselves to reexamine and push beyond even the most ambitious goals for inclusion that we can currently envision.

Sarah Leiser | Contributing Writer Photo courtesy of Connor W. Davis

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DU’s historical efforts at Inclusive Excellence O ver the past 20 years, there has been an increase in DU’s institutional efforts to create a more diverse and inclusive campus. In the 1990s, the Office of Minority Affairs was primarily in charge of operating support services for students of color on campus. In 2001, with Dr. Robert Coombe as provost, the office was renamed the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA). During this time, more staff positions were created and the office’s responsibilities expanded to include supporting diversity and inclusion for the entire campus.

The idea of “inclusive excellence” was launched through a campaign run by the Center for

Multicultural Excellence (CME) in 2006 to move DU beyond the “simplistic definition of diversity to a more inclusive, comprehensive, and omnipresent notion of diversity that transfers the responsibility for diversity on the campus to everyone…as opposed to one unit or department shouldering the work of diversity.” With this understanding, the responsibility for inclusiveness of everyone is placed on administrators, faculty, staff, students and alumni.

Further, the idea of diversity as a numerical goal was shed. In its place is the goal to transform the institution so that diversity pervades every area of university life, including demographics, curriculum, policies, pedagogy,

financial resources and leadership, among other things.

Though CME was originally the Office of Multicultural Affairs, its name was changed in 2002 to reflect the philosophical premise of an “asset-based validation model” versus the previous philosophical premise of a “deficit model” when it comes to campus diversity. To elaborate, the “deficit model” conceptualized diversity “as a problem involving disadvantaged, under-prepared, and culturally deprived people.” In contrast, the “asset-based validation model” conceptualizes diversity as an “asset involving talented and gifted individuals who contribute to the very teaching, learning, service and

research mission of the University.” Since 2012 and Dr. Frank Tuitt’s appointment to the role of associate provost for Inclusive Excellence, CME has worked to create goals that prioritize campus diversity and that create an inclusive environment.

More information on this topic can be found at the University of Denver Campus Climate for Students Working Group Report of Findings and Recommendations from January 22, 2015 and DU’s Center for Multicultural Excellence.

Kara Roberts | Contributing Writer

Photo courtesy of Connor W. Davis

Paving a way for minority STEM students I

t’s no secret that the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) workforce is predominantly white and male. However, channels for diversity are coming to DU from initiatives run by minority students themselves.

“Equity in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (E-STEM)” is a new program in the DU Natural Science and Mathematics department.

Piloted this school year, it’s designed to provide career and academic resources and support to students from underrepresented backgrounds who wish to succeed in STEM fields.

The first year students in the program participate in weekly group sessions, a summer orientation and Teacher’s Assistant (TA) tutoring sessions, all with individual mentorship from older students in science and engineering majors.

Toni Dunlap, a junior engineering student who serves as one of the four current peer mentors, uniquely understands the need for a program like E-STEM. She’s the only black female computer engineer in her grade level.

“It helps a lot just seeing somebody that looks like you succeed at doing what you want to do,” she explained. “[These students] might not have had the right STEM opportunities before college. They might not have had the exposure to make a decision about whether it’s something you actually want to do, and nobody may have ever even told them that they can.”

“I wish E-STEM had been around when I was a freshman,” she said.

Dunlap plans to venture even further with increasing resources for minority STEM students. After attending a conference last year put on by the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), she was inspired to start a NSBE chapter at DU, which she hopes to have up and running as an official student organization status by March.

Daniel Lorenzo | Contributing Writer

Photo courtesy of Daniel Lorenzo

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Campus embraces diversity but some grad students express skepticism

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he pursuit of diversity is a common theme at DU right now as evidenced by the recent controversial uses of the Free Speech Wall and the Inclusive Excellence statements included on most, if not all, DU syllabi at both the graduate and undergraduate level. But most studies of race and racism on campus focus only on the undergraduate level, as seen on websites such as USNews.com and CollegeFactual.com, where data on graduate students are not included.

Diversity, when it comes to race, is defined as the “differences in racial and ethnic, socioeconomic, geographic and academic/professional backgrounds. People with different opinions, backgrounds (degrees and social experience), religious beliefs, political beliefs, sexual orientations, heritage and life experience,” according to Dictionary.com.

The data that are available on graduate students, from DU’s Institutional Quick Facts document for the Fall of 2016, show the trend in graduate school admission based on race.

Over 50 percent of graduate students at DU identify as white with small amounts of other ethnic groups. The above graph does show a trend of movement, however. In small increments, the percentage of white students has slowly gone down over the last couple of decades and percentages of “Hispanic or Latino” and “Black or African-American” students have slowly increased.

In 2008-2009, the categories of “Multiple (two or more races)” and “Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander” were added, thus increasing the inclusivity of the survey system (this is why no data are available for these two groups prior to the 20112012 bracket on the graph).

This change could possibly be attributed to the Inclusive Excellence and other campaigns to improve DU’s racial/ethnic composition and climate taken on by DU’s faculty and staff. Two offices in particular gave their insights into efforts to increase racial/ethnic diversity at DU and the goals their respective departments have in regards to improvement of the racial climate. Representatives from the Office of Graduate Studies and the Office of Diversity & Inclusion both emphasized that racial/ethnic diversity at DU is

Photo courtesy of Connor W. Davis

a topic at the forefront of their everyday administrative duties.

As vice provost for Research and Graduate Education at DU, Dr. Corinne Lengsfeld’s job is to watch the trends of admission and propose where improvements are needed or can be made. According to the data provided by Lengsfeld, DU’s graduate school is above the nation’s average in the percentage of matriculated domestic students of color.

Keeping the level of racial disparity in mind during university processes and creating plans for improvement are the main ways that the racial climate of DU will see change, said Lengsfield, which is why the Office of Graduate Studies is evaluating scholarships awarded to graduate students solely based on merit.

“The majority of university financial aid for graduate students is awarded by the individual academic divisions.

None of the awards from our office are currently race-based.

We are evaluating methods to improve the effectiveness of our money to advance priorities in the divisions and university,” said Lengsfield.

Dr. Frank Tuitt, senior advisor to the chancellor and provost on diversity and inclusion and professor in the Morgridge College of Education, researches “topics related to access and equity in higher education,”

according to Tuitt’s DU faculty bio, which continues: “His scholarship critically examines issues of race, Inclusive Excellence and diversity in and outside the classroom from the purview of faculty and students.”

“The Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) is committed to providing leadership, guidance and resources in support of the University of Denver’s commitment to building a more diverse and inclusive institution,” Tuitt said. “Recognizing that this commitment requires that DU establish and sustain a dramatically rich campus climate and culture that deepens our intellectual environment, ODI is responsible for addressing Inclusive Excellence and diversity matters that impact the academic experience at DU for faculty and students.”

ODI supports various racial groups on campus to show support for inclusivity on campus, said Tuitt. A specific endeavor of the ODI’s that involves graduate students is the “Roger Salter’s Institute Initiative.” This initiative aims to encourage graduate students from historically marginalized racial/ethnic groups and differing genders to pursue faculty and administrative positions in academia. The Salters Institute provides graduates students with “insights, information, and strategies from faculty and administrators who have spent their careers navigating the racialized and gendered reality of academe,” according to a statement about the Initiative on the Summer Institute DU webpage.

But some graduate students are less enthusiastic than Lengsfeld and Tuitt when it comes to experiences with diversity in their own programs.

Autumn Dowis is in the second to largest graduate program at DU (after University College)—Law. The JD Admissions Fall 2017 Incoming Class Profile, breaks down this year’s

entering class as 58 percent female, 42 percent male, and 23 percent “diversity.” But Dowis describes her program as predominantly “white.” Despite the efforts of administrators like Lengsfield and Tuitt, Dowis reported not seeing any evidence of efforts to improve conditions for graduate students from historically marginalized communities. Michelle Fahlbusch and Rachael Palaima are both graduate students in the Daniels College of Business, a school that has a prominent information tab on their website devoted to diversity at DU. But Fahlbusch reported that her program is not only lacking in racial diversity.

It is also lacking in gender and age diversity. “The majority of our class are white females between the ages of 22-30,” she observed. Both Fahlbusch and Palaima noted that race relations have not been brought up in any of their classes.

“I think DU tries very hard to push diversity and show that it is important to them. However, they define diversity as racial makeup.

Which, yes, is important, but there are other elements” to diversity, said Palaima.

Katelynn Fell is a counseling student, and is in a graduate program included under the umbrella of the Morgridge College of Education. Morgridge has a “Diversity in Action” bloglike area on its website devoted to stories about how their students are making a difference in the sphere of diversity. But Fell remains unconvinced. Fell, like some of her grad school colleagues, thinks that her program could “definitely be more diverse,” she said.

Mikayla Pevac | Contributing Writer

Image courtesy of Mikayla Pevac

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Dismantling racism through feminist action on campus F or women of color, sexism cannot be untangled from components of institutional racism, even on a campus that prides itself on inclusivity and progress. That’s according to student activist Makia Jones, who described her most salient form of black feminist activism as simply taking up and reclaiming space. “I truly do believe that to be a black person on this campus is a statement,” she said. “It is continual activism for our community to succeed within a community and this institution that was not made for us, and still is not for us,” said Jones.

Today, our nation exists in what’s been identified as the third wave of feminism, to use terminology associated with race/gender/ politics activist Rebecca Walker.

While feminism in the first and second waves often focused on the rights of white, well-educated and often affluent women, the third wave is defined by its inclusivity of gendered bodies of all abilities and backgrounds.

But attention to this “third wave” at DU and on other campuses does not mean that exclusionary behavior has ceased to exist. According to Jones, women of color have been highlighting the unequal performance of feminism for more than a century, mostly in relation to what’s known as black feminism. Black feminism has been evolving since Sojourner Truth first delivered her “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech in 1851, which critiqued the hypocritical demand for women’s rights in the U.S. while simultaneously

ignoring the issue of abolition.

Black feminism focuses on “intersectionality,” a term coined by feminist scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989 to describe the oppression individuals face depending on their position in society. This is a term that resonates with Jones. “Black women have struggled with being resilient and strong while also performing an expected femininity,” Jones explained. “We’ve been forced to be hard and cold, while being told to be soft and gentle at the same

“I truly do believe that to be a black person on this campus is a statement.”

time. Trying to be equal as black and a woman takes an emotional toll. On this campus I’ve had to be resilient and strong while performing my femininity and also realizing that there’s not always a place for that. When I’m an activist on campus I can’t simultaneously express my gender because there’s such a stigma of being a black woman,” Jones continued.

The intersection of sexism, class oppression, racism and gender identity are all emphasized in the curriculum of the Gender and Women’s Studies (GWS) program at DU, according to the

program’s description. Students studying in GWS are encouraged to explore the variety of ways individuals experience oppression based on these inextricable components of identity.

The GWS department at DU prides itself on using a cross-disciplinary education “to critically examine the intersection of gender with race, ethnicity, class, age, sexualities, abilities, as well as with other categories of difference,” according to the program’s website.

The DU community supports and advances individuals experiencing sexism and gender inequality through a variety of campus programs, organizations, affinities and online resources.

Such dialogues advance inclusivity on campus, according to Jasmine Pulse, assistant director for Undergraduate Student Success. Pulse noted that “limiting expectations of support, inclusion, and the dismantling of oppression to the diversity office [on campus] further contributes to the notion that it is our ‘problem to solve.’”

Students of color who identify within the LGBT community experience gender inequalities in an intersectional way, according to Pulse. And students at DU who do not identify within the gender binary may feel invisible within the LGBT community because of the commonly shared experience of racial discrimination and sexual orientation, or gender identity.

The components of oppression experienced by queer students of color cannot be divorced from the struggle for civil and

human rights, as Pulse noted.

When institutions of higher education employ a message of inclusivity and equality yet fail to recognize the differences in experiences of students within minoritized groups, they are not progressing towards a community of equality and supportive understanding, according to the U.S. News annual report on campus ethnic diversity, which rates U.S. public and private universities and colleges on their “Diversity Index.” Based on data drawn from each institution’s student body for the 2016-2017 school year, the Diversity Index creates a formula, considering the number of students who identify within the categories of black or African-American, Hispanic, American Indian, Asian, Pacific Islander, white (non-Hispanic) and multiracial.

The formula then generates a number between 0 and 1 to rank the diversity of the student body.

In the most recent report, DU ranked 0.38. That’s lower than Regis University located just a few miles from DU and the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs.

Pulse said, “DU is definitely making progress toward creating a more inclusive campus climate.

Although I have only been at DU for a year, I have gained a lot of context regarding where DU used to be and where we are now.” Still, diversifying a student body may not be enough to dismantle the social and racial issues that are perpetuated within the DU community, according to Pulse.

Kiira Walsh | Contributing Writer

Taryn Allen | Clarion

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DU CLARION

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Understanding the role of power in racism

“

In understanding the role of a university or college in creating a space of diversity and inclusion, one must understand the role of power in discrimination and marginalization. As the powerful voice and face of authority, the college has a special responsibility to ensure all of its students, faculty, and staff are not just safe but also

empowered when they interact on campus and build their academic careers. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Ph.D., describes the racism of today by its ‘covert nature’ in his book Racism Without Racists. In refusing to use or acknowledge racist rhetoric and actions, and in perpetuating the story that America is post-race, people add insult to injury. We allow racism

and they rebuke responses to the racism which we allow. With this in mind, the most effective campus programs and organizations which promote diversity are more explicit in their statements of targets and goals. They acknowledge that diversity on the campus is not satisfactory in overt terms, and they further acknowledge the inherent interconnectiv-

ity of the programs in the notion of intersectionality. In short, they are more effective because they more effectively combat the “covert nature” of the problem(s) via overt acknowledgement.”

CME supports over 15 affinity groups through a coalition building initiative, Joint Council, in which we bring the leaders of various affinity groups together once a month to build community, promote communication to avoid over programming and to connect these groups to funding, programming and job opportunities. In my experience, the affinity groups often facilitate dialogues on this topic in addition to bringing speakers and hosting movie screenings, etc. that address the intersections

of gender, race and sex.

The mission of our division, Campus Life and Inclusive Excellence, says “We are committed to providing students with the support and skills needed to become empowered citizens that positively impact the communities they are a part of, now, and in the future.” For CME, we look at this mission and reflect on how we are carrying out this mission for minoritized students.

Additionally, CME chooses not to approach our work from a deficit lens, meaning we choose

to focus on strategies for success instead of focusing on barriers to success. For example, we oversee three cohort programs that aim to develop leadership skills and provide students with navigational capital: Excelling Leaders Institute, 1GenU and E-STEM (Equity in STEM). We also host a graduation ceremony for minoritized students, Profiles of Excellence.”

- Samantha Allie, Religious Studies undergraduate student at the University of Denver

Additional resources for female students of color

“

In terms of campus programs, the Office of Inclusion & Equity Education helps facilitate campus dialogues covering a variety of topics including gender, race and sex through initiatives like DU Dialogues.

CME has hosted a Sisterhood Retreat for Black and African-American women for the past two years (hoping to host it again in 2018), an initiative aimed at building community, addressing climate and increasing persistence.

- Jasmine Pulse, Assistant Director for Student Success

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We thank the graduate and undergraduate students from our department for their work on this special issue!

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