“Positions in Power”

USD ASG senators tackle racism and microaggressions

SPENCER BISPHAM / ASST. NEWS EDITOR / THE USD VISTA

(CW: microaggressions) When the USD Associated Student Government (ASG) convened for their weekly senate meeting on Thursday, Feb. 24, and reached the item on their agenda titled “Positions in power, social justice training,” presenters Chief Justice Sarah Babar, senior, and Chief of Staff Logan Tucker, junior, had something different in mind: a presentation focused on what they claim is institutional racism and microaggressions at USD, and microaggressions within ASG. Attendees, senate and executive members, and advisors were unaware that this presentation was happening on Feb. 24. 

ASG is a student organization on campus that consists of the Executive, Legislative, Judicial, and Torero Program Board branches. These elected student representatives act as a bridge between the USD community, its students, and the USD administration. 

As an institution, it is ASG’s mission and purpose to “promote opportunities for growth and expression, address student issues, and enrich a diverse, inclusive, and engaged community,” as stated on their website. Through this platform, Babar and Tucker chose to represent the experiences of their peers at USD, regarding social injustices within the organization and the campus community. 

As members of the Executive Branch of ASG, Babar and Tucker, noted that being a member of this institution and representing the community is a privilege. 

“For senators, we wanted to push them because they hold important seats at this table,” Tucker shared. 

As an elected official who gets paid for their role, Tucker continued to raise questions about what ASG members should acknowledge about their responsibility to the community: “What are you doing with your seat? How are you connecting with people that actually understand the issues that they are experiencing on campus? What are you going to do on the ASG side, is it a resolution?” 

In preparing for this presentation and raising these concerns, Babar and Tucker claim they acknowledged the potential risk toward their positions and credibility, which they perceived as a possible consequence. Originally advertised as a “training in social justice” Babar and Tucker chose to conceal the content of the presentation from other senators, executive members, and advisors to mitigate the perceived risk of it being “watered down.”  

Tucker elaborated on what she believed was put at stake by “lying” to present this topic. 

“We did lie to people to go up and present,” Tucker said. “And so there was some risk that that gets taken poorly, that people don’t want to work with us, or that no one trusts us going forward, or that the advisors have issues with our positions.”

Additionally, Babar touched on the reason why specifically herself and Tucker chose to take on this work. 

“I think that a lot of people could have done this presentation,” Babar said. “That’s not to say that they should have, or shame on them for not, but a lot of people could have done it… It’s exhausting work. But people are just trying to get by. We looked around and were like ‘Okay, we feel like this needs to be done,’ and that was our way of advocacy.”

Babar and Tucker both expressed why they were best positioned to give the presentation. 

“I’ve worked really hard just to gain the trust of people on campus that they were willing to come and start this conversation about microaggressions,” Tucker said. “A constituent just came up to me and was like ‘hey this is what’s going on,’ and that’s what started this whole thing.”

Babar elaborated on her experience as an ethnic studies major, which has been instrumental to her knowledge of  the history and meaning behind microaggressions and institutional racism.   

“I’ve been weaponized by the education the department has offered me, as well as the strong women of color I have looked up to,”  Babar said. “They have weaponized me with this information and now I am able to say ‘actually that is a microaggression,’ ‘that’s disrespectful,’ ‘you’re saying that because I am a woman of color.’ It’s so easy for me now because I’ve done that work, and I have been blessed with the education that I have.” 

Tucker similarly described her qualifications for giving a presentation on such a topic, as a White woman. 

“It’s important sometimes to have a White person in the conversation with other White people,” Tucker said. “I can’t get up there and talk about my own experiences when it comes to that type of discrimination, and unfortunately, a lot of White people don’t want to hear the stories of people who are not White.”

Tucker explained what she claimed as the presentation’s main objective. 

“Our presentation is an effort at education, accountability, and a call to action,” Tucker stated. “We would like to take you all through the history of higher education at USD, the campus climate, elements of performative activism, a lesson and reality check of microaggressions, and a series of action steps for administration, our campus community, and our senators.”

Babar then clarified the perspective from which they would be presenting. 

“We are presenting independently of the group itself [ASG], though we acknowledge our positions that we hold,” Babar said. “I understand there are people here today who are nervous about this presentation, who are scared about what we are going to say. I want to ask you and push you: Why? What’s so scary about us? We’re coming to you with intersecting marginalized identities, our lived experiences, what’s so frightening about that? What’s so frightening about the truth?”

The focus then shifted to the university’s changemaking culture, specifically its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. 

“How do students of color feel?” Babar asked the audience. “[Dr.] Margaret Leary who serves as the Director of Institutional Research and Planning, reported to us that only 28% of Black students trust USD’s leadership to meaningfully address inequities. Students who hold marginalized identities are untrusting of the admin who have historically overpromised and under-delivered when it came to systemic change on USD’s campus.”

The presenters then transitioned into the presentation that addressed microaggressions. They defined them as “a statement, action or incidence regarded as a statement of indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination against members of a marginalized group.”

In an attempt to draw attention to the seriousness of such statements, Tucker and Babar used past quotes that they witnessed being said by an ASG senator, executive member, or advisor currently sitting in the room: 

“I tried to be pansexual, it just seemed like it would suit my personality, but I couldn’t do it.” 

“I don’t get this whole [expletive] pronouns thing.”

“No, I’m talking about Asian Asians.”

These quotes were not attributed to a specific person. Babar explained why they decided to leave the individuals anonymous. 

“We are not in the business of embarrassing people,” Babar said. “It’s an optics thing, it’s not a good look for us to go up there and point fingers at people.” 

After reading these, Tucker and Babar contextualized the ramifications of these comments within the USD community. 

“Every one of those statements were microaggressions committed by people sitting in this room,” Tucker said. “Microaggressions do not happen in a vacuum, so we have to address more than just the individuals that are saying them. We claim that social justice, DEI, and inclusion are important to us, yet our peers are hurting members of marginalized communities.”

The two closed the presentation by encouraging the audience to sit with these comments and with their call to action for student leaders across campus.

“We live in a world of colonization and colonialism and as Frantz Fanon, an esteemed French psychiatrist, expresses, decolonization requires radicalism and violence,” Babar said. “Violence in this case is not being instigated, but serves as an equal and opposite reaction. We must work to challenge the system in place and engage in conversations that end with a plan to actually effect real change.”

Courtney Cureton, a USD senior who was in attendance at the presentation, described the atmosphere of the room after all was said and done.

“To be honest, I know that it felt heavy,” Cureton said. “It also felt really charged, and I’m intentionally using the word charged because I know there were individuals who were really stressed out. Not only did you feel it in the atmosphere but there was quite literally a disclaimer at the beginning that ‘there are individuals in this room that were against us being up here’ and that says a lot.”

In a post-presentation interview, Babar and Tucker emphasized that it was a demonstration by and for the USD student community.

“When you give a presentation like this and you’re trying to acknowledge the issues in the institution, you have to think like a community member,” Babar said. “Not even just as a USD community member, but as someone who holds intersecting marginalized identities. This is inherently my community [and] these are my friends, and if anyone comes for my friends or makes their experience at an institution uncomfortable, it’s my responsibility to do something about it.”

The two explained the role their peers played in the presentation’s inception, particularly current members in the USD community, ranging from participants in the Black Student Union (BSU), Gender Equality and Sex Positivity Club (GESP) and former senators who helped build the slides and gather research.

“We ride for the people that helped us with this presentation,” Tucker said. “The identities that they hold and the groups that they represent, those are our people, that’s who the presentation was for. We got so much help; it was a testament to a grassroots effort of getting the community together to put something special together.”

This effort left many students wondering what comes next, and Babar had a few points for them to keep in mind.

“Stay away from being neutral and hold your opinions and actions with conviction,” Babar said. “We have to remember that students hold an immense amount of power and that demanding answers for the way our institution runs is our right…I think accountability across all boards is critical for real change—hold yourself accountable, hold your friends accountable, hold your classmates accountable, hold faculty accountable, and hold administration accountable.”

USD Administration was not aware that this specific presentation was happening at the senate meeting, nor were they formally invited to the meeting. 

The USD Vista reached out to Dr. Andrew Allen, PhD., Vice President of Institutional Effectiveness and Strategic Initiatives, and was deferred to Associate Vice President of University Marketing and Communications, Peter Marlow, for comment. Despite not attending the meeting, Marlow acknowledged the points made during the presentation.

“I think the university’s answer would be [that] we recognize that we’re not there yet and that we want to be good listeners,” Marlow said. “While the undergraduate education is the most diverse and highest quality, it’s not enough.”

He also said that there are initiatives currently in place which are working toward the end of systemic issues at USD.

“USD created the whole Horizon Project, tied to systemic racism and issues of equity,” Marlow said. “[We] created a whole website about it where there’s funding to address these issues. The Knauss School of Business is [also] out there trying to drive forward the creation of wealth. Our strategy and outreach looks at different zip codes that can pay [the cost of tuition], but also at those whose students could never afford to come to a school such as USD. You have to have paying students to afford to support those who cannot.” 

Both the Horizon Project and the business school are ongoing projects with the former set to be completed in 2026 and the latter later this year. The Horizon Project is a strategic initiative that was established by USD with the intention to augment DEI efforts on campus and in the community. Overall, the project calls for the completion of several inclusivity-related goals by 2026 and a university-wide response regarding the enhancement of Catholic values and the expectation for social and racial justice among the community, at the highest level.

Babar and Tucker hope that their presentation marks a new chapter of ASG: one where the senators, staff, and administration will be held accountable for the changes they promise. The USD Vista will continue to follow up on any new developments pertaining to this story. 

Correction: March 16, 2022

An earlier version of this article attributed Logan Tucker to the quote “USD has spent more of its time and energy focusing on blowing up their DEI budget and initiatives than defending the dignity and sanctity of human life.” This quote comes from an anonymous student; these are not Tucker’s words, Tucker quoted the student during the presentation. The USD Vista regrets this error.