In a library filled to capacity by a sea of racially diverse students sat three administrators prepared to speak, listen and respond. Amidst a recent abundance of student initiatives to improve minority life on campus — including last Monday's panel hosted by the National Council of Negro Women and the creation of minority focus groups by USG president Joe Kochan '02 — those students who attended the crowded dinner at Terrace Club last Tuesday caught a glimpse of what the administration thinks about minority life on campus.
The words spoken by Associate Provost Joann Mitchell, Director of the Third World Center Heddye Ducree and Vice President for Campus Life Janet Dickerson were representative of the administration's dual approach to race at Princeton: a combination of direct initiatives and a plea to the students for their own activism and input.
Mitchell, who has been researching race at Princeton for the last two years, delineated some of the administration's specific initiatives.
In addition to minority faculty and student recruitment efforts, she said there had been a recent conference to discuss diversity and that her office had established a diversity fund — for groups and individuals interested in celebrating diversity on campus.
All three women emphasized the importance of finding effective ways to target and funnel the profusion of ideas floating through campus, and applauded Terrace for getting involved.
According to administrators, race has been a perennial issue on campus.
"[Race relations] is one of the two or three most important things that the University needs to work at to improve the life of the people who live here," said University Vice President and Secretary Thomas Wright '62. "I've been here for 29 years as an administrator and I don't think there's ever been a year that [race relations] hasn't been at the top."
But while administrators say minority issues loom largest on their list of priorities, students feel the University depends too heavily on problems being resolved from the bottom up as opposed to from the top down.
"The most significant problem in terms of race relations is segregation," said Tschepo Masango '03, who presented a video on students' perspectives on campus race issues at the NCNW panel discussion, "and I think part of the segregation is the legacy of racial tension."
That racial tension — according to Mario Moya '01, former president of the Chicano Caucus and a panelist at the NCNW forum — stems from essential structural deficiencies within the University, such as the eating club system and MAA program.
Though he acknowledged it would be complicated for the University to provide funding for the eating clubs, Moya said club costs pose a huge barrier to more interaction between students of various backgrounds.
Moya said he joined Quadrangle Club first semester but dropped out this semester because he was already in debt to the University for his tuition expenses.
Moya, however, said his biggest gripe with how the University handles race issues revolves around the MAA program.
"The University lets all the diversity education fall to the MAAs, and it provides a superficial treatment of the issues," he said. Moya suggested that the program — which he said merely organizes optional panels and provides study breaks with ethnic foods — be replaced by an altered RA system in which RAs would assume responsibility for MAA programming but be in charge of fewer students. Moya said he thought students would be more likely to approach their RAs, whom they see regularly, than MAAs, whom they see on a much more infrequent basis.
Masango said that by providing insufficient funding and recognition to black organizations and programs, the University impedes black students from empowering themselves.
"While [the African Caribbean Student Association (Akwaaba)] receives about $700 [from the University] said Masango, "a similar type organization at my high school got $5000."
Dickerson said fundraising is one of the biggest complaints she receives from students, and she and other administrators have considered how to more adequately provide money to minority student groups.
Dickerson said she also wants to establish a fund for student organizations that aim to facilitate interaction between different minority groups. Last year she said that she co-sponsored a program in which Palestinian students met with Jewish students to discuss the conflict in the Middle East.
While Moya used to be actively involved in improving race relations on campus, he eventually became disillusioned with the lack of administrative support.
"I started feeling early on that this should not be my responsibility," said Moya. "I spent so much time trying to do things and I wish I could have stayed away from that and someone else would have set it up."
While Ducree said she has been impressed by the increase in student activism and the diversity of students taking action, she also said that "a lot of student concerns are within the hands of the administration."
"When you have new ideas and new ears seeing and hearing, you need to listen," she said.
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