Edit 11/2/16: This article referred to Dr. Samuel Museus as a graduate student. Dr. Museus was a faculty in the Higher Education program. Thank you to Vanessa Sovanika Na for bringing this error to our attention.
After the appalling email sent out last week, DU was sent into a whirlwind of chaos attempting to delete the email sent to over 300 students and faculty. The email was sent out targeting multiple Latinx DU community members, exhibiting racism, homophobia as well as fat shaming in protest of Addison Puffer’s suspension last spring after being reported for using racial and homophobic epithets towards classmates.
As a student of color, as a Latina, I was infuriated with the email but not surprised with the consistent themes of white supremacy reigning on campus. I cannot imagine being reported spreading anti-white rhetoric by 13 individuals across campus with the ability to return to campus, regardless of whatever merit-based scholarship I received. I would have been expelled. Why? I’m not white nor am I from a upper-middle class household. Not even my own prestige of being a Boettcher Scholar would prevent a severe punishment. Puffer was suspended for one quarter, giving students an idea that they are allowed to use hateful rhetoric and return to continue doing so on campus. Why is DU being so lenient with white students?
I have a theory. After the email was sent out and Chancellor Chopp sent her first statement regarding the incident, I wanted to discuss it with someone. With a quick Google search, it was quite clear that the Center for Multicultural Excellence (CME) was relocated to the Hub (the smelly frat house across from Sturm Hall) after half of the Driscoll Bridge was closed off for construction, even though this information has not been updated on CME’s own website. I traveled to the second floor to find only one faculty available to speak to. A majority of staff are waiting for a director who still has not been hired to take charge of CME, which has now been renamed to be the Office of Cultural and Spiritual Life. Once again, this information has not been updated on the website or included Another hit for students of color is the Volunteers in Partnership (VIP) program, focusing on students of color promoting confidence in middle and high schoolers. Their space was closed. The link to the program is broken and reads “Error 404.” Both the Office of Cultural and Spiritual Life and the VIP Program have not been mentioned in the DU Impact 2025 plans.
After a talk with said staff member in the Hub, I wanted to find and discuss this with other students. Two small rooms are available on this floor. One contains a mildew-filled small refrigerator leading to the main patio with space available for only seven or eight students. Another room next door is smaller with pieces of incomplete couches organized to seat five or six students. This is the CME. A single floor of a smelly building with incomplete pieces of furniture, staff awaiting an always shifting agenda and one student of color (me) present.
It is quite obvious that DU doesn’t want to nor plan to support or fund the students of color already on campus. Quite successfully, students of color themselves seem to create and organize plenty of events that are centered around their culture, needs and finding space that is not provided by DU. If students can organize, fundraise and attempt to create these spaces on their own, why can’t DU do the same? Their lack of retention of students of color is quite clear; even Dr. Samuel Museus created his own model during his own time at DU: The Culturally Engaging Campus Environments (CECE) Model: A New Theory of Success Among Racially Diverse College Student Populations, and this highlights the necessary growth for this Private White Institution (PWI). His research was published four years ago. Yet, we are still stuck in this systematic loop of being pushed under the table, despite DU even using Museus’s framework to survey students every two years.
I would like for DU to take the initiative to stop perpetuating ideas of white supremacy on campus by truly speaking to the students that diversity on campus and the true inclusion is worth more time spent sending email(s) clarifying wrongdoings of others. I want DU to build an Office of Diversity and Inclusion that doesn’t shift agendas or locations every year. I want DU to have physical events on campus, with Chancellor Chopp promoting these ideas in real life, literally standing in solidarity with students of color and not behind a screen.
Can DU successfully create an official Office of Diversity and Inclusion with a space for students of color to meet and interact? Is it really that difficult to invest some money into students of color or does all of that money go towards the marketing of students of color on every lamppost across campus?
