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The Rice Thresher
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by Mark Berenson Thresher Editorial Staff Diversity discussions moved to the residential colleges this week, where students debated reasons some choose to move off campus and the effects of Orientation Week. The dinner forums, held in every college except Wiess College, stemmed from a March 13 panel discussion about whether minority transfers between colleges should be facilitated. ADVANCE also hosted a roundtable discussion at Sid Richardson House Monday. About 50 students attended the forum, where topics discussed included whether O-Week is an alienating experience for some students and why students decide to move off campus. Sid senior Sonja Gee, who facilitated Martel's discussion Wednesday during the college's weekly lunch meeting in the Ray Courtyard, said she thought Martelians were responsive because many people transferred to Martel due to frustration with the college system. "Right off the bat, people said, 'Yes, there is an issue,'" Gee said. "And then conversations flowed the entire time about solutions." Students at the other forums spoke about the self-segregation that occurs when minority students move off campus. Jones College freshman Leslie Sage said this problem is not confined to ethnic and racial minorities. "If you had statistics for architecture or music students, I believe the results would be the same," Sage said. "The word 'minority' or 'diversity' is not well defined here." Will Rice College senior Mugambi Jouet-Nkinyangi said that if students were allowed to choose their college and colleges became race-based, there would not be a significant difference because most colleges are currently predominantly white. "The college system breaks apart what is already a really small minority," he said. "Right now, basically all of the colleges are white. ... So if you have six or seven colleges of white students and one of black or Hispanic students, it wouldn't be that different from what it is now." At the forums, many people spoke of the need to make sure that all students at Rice are culturally educated. However, some questioned whether this was possible. "I don't think you can make people sit down and learn about culture," Brown College senior Tanya Hanway said. Jones sophomore Rachel Rigg said she thought it was important to recognize that minorities move off campus in large percentages, but she wasn't sure what to do. "I just feel really helpless," Rigg said. The forums, which were arranged by Gee and Hanszen College junior Mustafa Dohadwala, were led by facilitators who posed questions similar to those discussed at last week's forum. Gee said the point of these discussions was to bring the dialogue to the colleges, and to provide enough education at the forums for others to start their own discussions. "Ideally, we will come away from this with people in all of the colleges who will take the lead," Gee said. Gee said she was happy with how the discussions went. "I think that people are starting to talk is positive and a step in the right direction," Gee said. Sid senior Tojo Thomas, who led the discussion at Sid, said he thought the forum was a success. "It was a little hard to get started, but once it got started, there was some great discussion," Thomas said. Wiess will host its forum on Monday at 7 p.m. after dinner. Former Wiess President Josh Katz said the college did not hold its forum on Wednesday because it would be against the spirit of family style. "Family style is an environment for people to go relax and have dinner with their friends," Katz, a senior, said. "It is contrary to the spirit of our tradition to have any kind of political discussions or meetings." Student Association Presidents Jamie Lisagor and Gavin Parks said they will be addressing the issue of O-Week at the April 2 SA meeting, during which they said they expected issues of diversity during O-Week to come up. "Often, people say there is a problem at Rice and it all started during O-Week," Parks, a Hanszen junior, said. "We want to find out if it is true." This meeting will be the first of the issue-based SA meetings that Lisagor and Parks are planning to hold every other week.
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