Fields Center sponsors broad discussion of campus diversity

President Tilghman joined students, faculty and members of the University community last night to discuss the role of diversity in admissions, recruitment of minority professors and a possible cultural studies distribution requirement.

The panel discussion, the second of two sponsored by the Carl A. Fields Center, featured panelists Tilghman, Vice-President of the Black Student Union Ayana Harry '05, admissions officer Keith Light and Professor William Massey of the operations research and financial engineering department.

Harry promoted a cultural studies distribution requirement, similar to the one recently implemented at Columbia University.

"One of the most important things for us as students is to look beyond color diversity and really learn respect for other cultures on campus," Harry said. "This respect means understanding that there are a variety of different ways to view and study things, and a cultural studies distribution requirement would help encourage this sort of dialogue."

Taufiq Rahim '04, chair of the Fields Center Governance Board said in an email that the first step toward introducing this requirement would be creating an advisory committee. Rahim also said he hopes to hold a meeting with Janet Rapelye, the new dean of admissions, in the fall to discuss this possibility.

Though Tilghman didn't rule out the possibility of revising the current distribution requirements, she said most professors view the current system, which was last examined in 1994, to be productive in encouraging different methods of thinking.

Massey said another way to improve diversity on campus is recruiting more professors of color. "We are not doing well enough in attracting faculty of color," Tilghman said. "It is a matter of commitment and we will do better."

The panel also addressed diversity in admissions, with both Tilghman and Light saying that the University has no intention of altering its admission policy even if the Supreme Court rules against the University of Michigan's race-conscious admission policies.

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"We have no intention of allowing the decision prevent us from continuing to do what we believe and what we've always done, continue to consider race in our highly specialized and individualized selection process," Tilghman said.

Recent changes to the financial aid program have also encouraged growing socioeconomic diversity on campus, with seven percent of the class of 2007 being the first in their family to attend college, she said.

However, despite attempts to reach out to minority communities on campus, many minorities still feel disconnected from University social life, a feeling that Tilghman in part attributes to a lingering elitism associated with the eating clubs.

"Princeton is a small suburban town with few options outside of the dominant social scene of the Street," Tilghman said after the discussion. "We hope to see more eating clubs open up to minorities the way Campus did this year with its sign-ins. Also, with the introduction of the four-year residential colleges we hope that this will be an opportunity to create a milieu in these colleges that will be welcoming to minorities."