A group of students is holding a rally today to express frustration with the University administration after the group said officials failed to agree to several demands aimed at bettering diversity and increasing racial tolerance on campus.
The rally comes on the same day that the University Senate, a representative body of faculty and students, is scheduled to vote on the revised Five Year Diversity Plan, a controversial document meant to provide a roadmap for future diversity initiatives and efforts.
Students representing various campus groups met with Interim Vice President for Student Affairs and Director of University Housing Mike Eyster and Executive Assistant to the President Dave Hubin on Monday to explain the students’ four demands addressing what they see as oversights in the diversity plan.
Those demands were originally made by a coalition known as UO Action, which consisted of many of the members rallying today. Coalition members rallied on May 16 outside Johnson Hall to protest what they called a “hostile and unsafe” campus environment and to say they were tired of waiting for action to address concerns.
The students rallying today said the administration ignored those demands, which include creating new staff diversity positions.
Administrators said they want to fix problems of racial intolerance on campus but want to have conversations before making rash decisions.
“I think we’ll come up with better outcomes if we collaborate,” Eyster said.
Junior ethnic studies major Nate Gulley, who attended the meeting, said the students made their list of demands clear and said they expected by the end of the day a letter in response that committed the administration to addressing them.
The students are rallying at 2 p.m. at the intersection of East 13th Avenue and University Street to vocalize their message that student attempts at creating campus diversity have been ignored by the administration, Gulley said.
“We made it clear that we had a very concise list of very basic demands and needs for students on this campus that we expected to be met, and that that would be a sign that the University and the president were actually committed to diversity institutionally,” Gulley said. “Their line is that they are committed to working on it, but clearly not to any institutional action to make campus safer, make campus more diverse or to meet any of our basic needs that were laid out for them.”
The group of students demand the administration fulfill the requests made by UO Action, including:
? Staffing the Bias Response Team with full-time employees
? Departmentalizing interdisciplinary programs such as ethnic studies and women and gender studies and creating new minors for queer studies and disability studies
? Creating a staff position to build community among University members with disabilities
? Creating a staff position to advocate for residence hall students and to facilitate residence hall assistant training
In response to the meeting, University President Dave Frohnmayer wrote a letter to participating students saying he would ask Charles Martinez, vice provost for Institutional Equality and Diversity, Eyster and senior leadership to pursue the issues with student assistance.
“We take very seriously the issues you highlight, and we share your goals in addressing these issues,” Frohnmayer wrote. “We are committed to working with you on the points you raised to help make this the safe and inclusive community we all seek.”
In response to Frohnmayer’s letter, the seven students who participated in the meeting wrote in an e-mail that Frohnmayer’s response failed to meet their demands. Gulley said the letter was full of empty promises.
“We laid out four basic demands that we expected him to commit to meeting, and instead he wrote a letter saying he would think about all of them and do nothing on any of them,” he said.
Eyster, who also wrote a letter in response to the meeting, said he shared the students’ concerns about diversity on campus but didn’t know if the demands put forth by students were the best ways to address the problems.
“I can appreciate the sense of impatience because I also feel impatient that we have to try to create a campus where students aren’t being called names, having things thrown at them and where students feel safe,” Eyster said. “I think talking has to precede action. The fact that we’re recommending talking does not equate to inaction.”
Eyster said he was willing to meet anytime and spend whatever time it takes to work on the issue, but Gulley said the meetings have been going on for too long and that action needs to be taken now.
The University Senate will meet at 3 p.m. in 150 Columbia.