Hey EU, your performative activism is showing
The work that the university is doing now to build a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive campus is extremely important and necessary, but overdue. The school's sudden surge into promoting diversity through flashy scholarships and new banners puts into question why EU has only now started growing their initiatives around diversity and why they are being reactive instead of proactive.
Last Fall, Niebuhr Hall and the A.C. Buehler Library became drawing boards for hate speech targeting minority student groups. Initially, students heard silence from administration on the day following the hate speech found in Niebuhr Hall.
It took around 18 hours to get word from administration on the incident, and all they did was promote their new “Bias Incident Response Team” and hold various events and town halls to lift up and highlight the diverse communities that were targeted.
As a response, the school increased security and police officer presence on campus, completely disregarding students of color and how heightened police presence could make them feel unsafe and increase anxiety.
EU acted reactively to all the incidents regarding hate on campus last year, but very little was established to promote diversity or ensure the safety of minority groups on campus. This was mostly left to individual groups and clubs on campus.
Flash forward to now, when a national demand for equality continues to sweep the nation. EU has developed a new diversity scholarship and more talks on campus are focused on diversity and issues surrounding people of color, specifically Black people and the Black Lives Matter movement.
While the promotion of these on campus lectures, conversations, and scholarships is great, it feels performative. It feels like EU jumped on the bandwagon after a national callout this summer toward institutions, encouraging the promotion of diverse spaces and space to amplify Black voices.
However, the question arises: Why did the university wait to create scholarships and conversations until it was a national issue?
A diversity scholarship is nice, but why did it take this long to implement, given that one of EU’s pillars is diversity and they promote that they are a Hispanic Serving Institution, are actively recruiting international students, but not providing them with the opportunity to further fund their education through a scholarship until this year?
EU, we are calling you to do better. The Office of Diversity and Inclusion has only one employee; there should be more people to work in the office to assist in making more positive changes on campus.
Work closely with student organizations to create a dialogue and do not use student groups as a crutch to carry the work for you.
Keep making progress to bring more minority students, staff, and faculty to campus. Make it so minorities feel like they belong, so they can be taught by and work with others that look like them.
Continue to bring a diverse number of speakers and lecturers to the university to further educate the campus on issues past and present that minority groups have faced. Keep a constant dialogue on what further can be done.
Promoting diversity should not be framed as a “challenge.” It should have been integrated into the university’s principles from the start.
What has been done so far is appreciated, but from here on out, issues pertaining to diversity on campus needs to be done proactively, not because the national climate makes the administration feel inclined to do so.