Acorn

Take a look around you right now. It doesn't matter where you are ? the Commons, Mead Hall, Brothers College ? because as long as you?re somewhere on campus, there are white people all around you. It could be a few, it could be a dozen, it could be a hundred. This may not sound like too big of a deal for most of us ? Drew has more Caucasians than the Country Music Awards do ? but for a small group on campus, it couldn't be any worse.

It would be absolutely impossible to understand what our African-American peers ? and professors and faculty, as well ? must feel like on a daily basis, but February must be the worst time of the year.

For those of you oblivious to the fact that February is Black History Month ? and judging from the dormancy of our SGA, faculty, administration and everyone else on campus who isn't African-American, you probably were until you read that ? this is the time of year to celebrate the achievements of past and present black heroes and innovators, inventors and pioneers.

Unfortunately, the shortest month of the year is the only time when we?re encouraged to think about such African-American ? and just plain American? icons like Thurgood Marshall, Jackie Robinson, Malcolm X, Sidney Poitier, Booker T. Washington, August Wilson and Rosa Parks, to name only a handful of an extensive list of notables.

Take a look at that list above. Do you know all those names? Half? Any? This is the time of year to learn about them if you don?t ? and celebrate them if you do ? but it is quite apparent that Drew is simply leaving it to Kuumba, the Umoja House and the other African-American students to deal with it howsoever they choose.

The month is half over, and the only things I've seen even acknowledging that it was Black History Month was an e-mail from Kuumba, a few events set up by the Umoja House and the bulletin board that my (African-American) RA put up.

There is no chance that a public university handles this type of national event like this. Granted, because we are a private institution, we don?t have that obligation, but come on. Everyone on this campus talks about diversity, and when one of the biggest stages to present diversity comes about, Drew drags its feet yet again.

I'm not sure who?s to blame for this. Is the 99 percent white SGA, the 99 percent white faculty or even the 99 percent white administration ? and don?t even think about the 100 percent white trustees ? at fault? If there was such a thing as White History Month, I?m sure we?d have events every night of the week. President Weisbuch would make a speech, and there would be flyers on every door of every building on campus.

This isn't simply an issue about Black History Month, either. It?s about diversity.

I've had one African-American professor in my four years here. You?re telling me a prestigious liberal arts college like Drew can?t lure a professor over from Morgan State or Howard?

Unfortunately, the only thing paler than our faculty is our administration.

When that presidential search took place last year, how many black candidates did you see touring the campus? We like to compare ourselves to Ivy League colleges, and yet Brown University hired an African-American president five years ago. I'd bet my tuition that the provost position isn't filled by a minority, even though diversity is so important to the deans.

Disregarding Black History Month is simply the most recent of Drew?s indiscretions. Changes need to be made and not simply discussed or written about in reports.

Hopefully they get done before next February. That would really be something worth celebrating on campus.

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