Students discuss diversity at USD

Although USD claims to be a university that advocates for diversity, many students think the community and administration needs to do more

Jenny Han / Asst. Opinion Editor / The USD Vista

As a Changemaker Campus, The University of San Diego identifies itself as a university dedicated to diversity and inclusion. In their 2020 Strategic Plan for Diversity & Inclusive Excellence, they aim to “justly represent the breadth and beauty of God’s creation in our own community, embracing the values of both pluralism and equity.” 

However, many students have mixed feelings regarding how well USD upholds their commitment to diversity. Several presidents of multicultural clubs shared their thoughts in a series of interviews.

Some students experienced a cultural shift coming to USD. Kapri Tulang-De Silva, a junior at USD and one of the co-presidents of the People of the Islands (POI) club, shared the cultural shock she experienced when she arrived on campus.  

“It was not until attending college at USD that I realized how race and privilege play a significant role in one’s life,” Silva said. “I would only hear about racial discrimination in the media but never directly observed such discrimination nor was I ever personally affected by it. However, I experienced culture shock when I attended USD.” This cultural shock was amplified when she realized how commercialized Hawaiian culture was in California. 

Jazmin Barajas, one of the presidents of the Alliance of Disability Advocates (ADA) experienced a different kind of culture shock. 

“Nobody around me needs the financial aid office, no one around me, like, needs the accommodations for the job that you have on campus,” Barajas said. “It was so strange like talking to people in my group projects, who have never heard about FAFSA.” 

However, others at USD were well aware of its culture before arriving on campus. 

“I was here to sort of experience the reputation that USD has as an institution within the San Diego community and it’s always had a very sort of very wealthy and white reputation,” Paulina Sierra, a senior at USD and president of the Diverse Sexuality and Gender Alliance (DSGA) said. “But in that it also has a lot of implications for especially in the Mexican community in San Diego, like a lot of those parents who have kids aspire to one day send their kids there because it’s to them. It’s sort of symbolizes like ‘oh, we made it like, oh, look at my kid.’” 

For Sierra, USD’s reputation results in creating two clashing groups of students.  “What that does is it creates two very different demographics for USD because you have, you know, your stereotypical wealthy white cis-gender students who are coming in and you know it’s sort of their birthright, like, oh, this is, of course, this is the kind of school that I would go to,” Sierra said. “And then on the other end, you have these students who maybe not academically but financially like barely made it or you know demographically barely made it.”

It’s the pride that they feel in their communities and the urgency to create change that ultimately inspires them to take action as leaders of their respective communities. 

“As a result of attending college in the continental U.S., the pride I have for my racial identity has strengthened,” Silva said. “I have developed a passion for cultural awareness and social justice which has landed me a position as co-president of the People of the Islands club at USD. Through this position, I have spoken at rallies and held collective conversations around my Hawaiian people and unfortunate circumstances that permeate our island home.” 

For others, it was a way of creating a space for those like them so they could feel less isolated and lonely. Lord Mark Bautista, a senior at USD and the president of the Filipino Ugnayan Student Organization (FUSO), stated how in the first few months of college.

“I felt really alone because I didn’t know if I could really connect with a lot of people that were on campus,” Bautista said. However, when he “started joining FUSO, when I started being in like a multicultural org and kind of finding those people that I kind of really had similar experiences to and could see like myself, and I guess it became a lot less lonely.” 

As of Fall 2020, out of the 8861 students enrolled, 49% identified as White. This makes USD a predominantly white institution. This is important to note as this has shaped the experiences of many student leaders. 

Not every student’s experiences with the USD community are negative.

“There have been some instances of recordings of like swastikas around campus or just like anti-semitic points of view that have been displayed on USD.” Samantha Wane, junior and president of the Jewish Student Union said. However, the response toward the Poway synagogue shooting that happened in 2019 “was a prime moment for the Jewish community and USD in general because we held a Service and Honor of what happened. And a lot of people came and showed their support toward it and it obviously wasn’t just Jewish people. But I think that that was a really prime moment that I remember. And I really appreciate it from USD.” Some students also noted that although their experience with the community was positive, they knew others who were discriminated against as minorities. 

For the most part, most student leaders’ experiences with the USD community were negative.

Brittany Le, a junior at USD and one of the co-presidents of the Asian Student Association (ASA) reflects how the way she was treated by members of Greek life made her feel unwelcomed. 

“I noticed when I was coming on campus that made me kind of arrow away from Greek life was when you pass by these tables, these recruitment tables, they would go to white girls who have the blonde hair, have the brunette hair, and get them posters. But whenever I passed by, I never got that type of interaction,” Le said. “I wasn’t entirely interested in the beginning because I think I’m more of an introvert. So I was a little bit out of my comfort zone. But just that gesture and itself I think already made me feel more disconnected from that like that institution.” Although not every USD student is involved in Greek life, it is an institution and cultural presence that plays an important role for many students at USD.  

Meredith Wiggins, a senior at USD and the president of the Black Student Union (BSU) also commented on the community’s response toward the Instagram page @blackatusd and activism for BLM. 

“People are like, I’m so exhausted. I’m like, you’re tired? Like you’re tired like you all did was post a little black square,” Wiggins said. “I’m tired, I don’t get to take a break. I will always be black and I’ll always be a black woman. That’s my experience until I die.” 

Inclusion in the community goes beyond race and skin color. Christina Ledford, a sophomore at USD and one of the presidents of ADA, explains how her disability affects how she feels in the USD community. 

“As a white woman I obviously have an immense amount of privilege, especially going to USD,” Ledford said. However, Ledford has a learning disability. “I can be perceived as being welcomed, but I don’t necessarily feel welcomed.” 

As a result, many people feel the need to stay within their smaller communities to feel safe and accepted at USD. However, this has its limitations. 

“USD does need a lot more work I think with kind of recognizing diversity and kind of really doing more initiative for that because, I mean, if you think about like the UFMC or the Commons in general, it’s just literally one floor on the fourth floor that SLP and that’s kind of all we have to kind of share amongst all the BIPOC students,” Bautista said. “Even though we’re such a small minority on campus compared to the norm of students that are on campus, I think just having that small space on the fourth floor. Like, even though we do have it, I’m super grateful for having that space, but I don’t know. It just feels weird to be all crammed up there.” 

Sara Gardener, a junior at USD and one of the presidents of ADA, expresses the importance of having the entire campus feel like a safe space rather than just having a safe space within the campus. 

“It’s good to have those spaces, but when you’re in classes when you’re in,  whatever it is, if you’re in your dorm setting or whatever you don’t always have those people around,” Gardener stated. “So the overall community has to be welcoming and that’s where I think USD is lacking.”

Unanimously, all of the student leaders interviewed believed that although USD is on the right track, it most definitely is not doing enough in terms of diversity. 

“I don’t know too much about USD’s efforts in diversity,” Bautista said. “And maybe that does show that they do need to do a little bit more work.” 

For Rhonda Papp, junior and President of the American Indian Student Organization (AISO), it goes beyond informing the students what they are planning on doing; it requires concrete action. 

“The system at USD almost seems against promoting the Native community on campus,” Papp said. “First of all, they could create a Tribal Office and Native community space. With the rise of spaces and buildings on campus, why don’t we have a gathering place for Natives already? With that, they could have a safe space to study, gather, and get the help they need from the Office of the Tribal Liaison because of how unique Native issues can be. It has already been brought to the attention of university that some students don’t feel comfortable at the counseling center because the counselors simply don’t understand their issues.” 

Although Papp’s criticisms are from a Native American perspective, the lack of BIPOC counselors is a concern echoed by many others. It goes to show that Papp’s initiatives aren’t just limited to the Indigenous community. “There are many things that USD can do to welcome the Native community more, but also all underrepresented communities,” she stated. 

However, this wasn’t just an administration issue; the overall community is also at fault. Although USD has mandated diversity training, Brittany Le shares her hesitation on the effectiveness of those courses.

“If they don’t have that genuine drive to learn more about what’s happening, they will just skip to those courses and they will continue their lives and live the way they’ve been nurtured growing up. I acknowledge that like people do come from different backgrounds and they were raised differently. So I can’t really judge other people for what they believe is right, what they believe is wrong because who am I to say what’s right and what’s wrong as well,” Le said. “It’s just I don’t think that USD’s efforts have really penetrated into the minds of those students who don’t really have that genuine drive to make the campus a more inclusive and more welcoming place.” 

Money also plays an important role in the critiques students have towards USD’s diversity efforts in regards to disability. 

“I know that they’ve been in situations where they know that they could do more, but they are being held back whether that’s by donors or other white folks who don’t want to talk about racism or the financial like burdens that it puts on them to make things accessible,” Fanisee Bias, a junior at USD and one of the presidents of ADA, said. “They’re like, ‘Well, we don’t have that money, you’re going to have to wait five years to get an elevator in Guadalupe Hall’ like genuinely and I’ve been, from this facilities person, I’ve literally been told, like not to use the phrase ‘I’m oppressed’ or ‘being discriminated against because of the ableist structure of the buildings.’” For someone like Bias who uses two canes due to a physical disability, elevators are vital for her and others who are physically disabled to get around campus. 

Accommodations aren’t just limited to physical disabilities; they also encapsulate learning and mental disabilities too. 

“The actual like center [Disability and Learning Difference Learning Resource Center], it’s not accommodating, which is ironic,” Ledford stated. “They have us fill out these forms to have extra time on our tests and we have to bring them back every single time we have the test for every single class. So if you get them signed by a professor every single time and bring them back to the center.”

However, she believes that there are solutions. 

“Doing this all virtually has, I think kind of opened their eyes to the other possibilities of being more accessible in that way. And maybe submitting the forums on a Google form online, a virtual setting and not like placing all the responsibility on the student,” Ledford said. “Like we have so many other things to worry about and focus on and for students who have a difficult time focusing or remembering things. Even doing that task, remembering to get it signed a week before the test and bringing it back to the center is like difficult in itself.”

She also commented on the lack of Braille or ASL learning options at USD. 

“Someone in ADA had talked to the language department about having ASL, I think this is in a previous year. And they said that it wasn’t a language,” Ledford said. “The fact that every other San Diego university or college offers ASL and USD doesn’t just speak for itself.”

Ultimately to Sara Gardner, improving diversity efforts toward disability, means that the community and the administration need to “fully understand that it is not, it is not to accommodate. It is to change the system that sees people with disabilities as the issue rather than the environment. And so to be fully accommodating would not require, force people with disabilities to advocate and like beg for their accommodations or to have basic human-like basic human rights on campus.” 

Dr. Richard Miller, Interim Vice Provost for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion aims to help USD’s diversity efforts on an administration level. He describes the purpose of his job as “to provide the institution an updated, kind of unbiased assessment coming from the outside” and it’s not his first time engaging in such a role. 

“I’ve had over 43 years in higher education and I’ve been in a number of different positions from Dean to department head to Vice Provost to Vice President and 13 plus years as a Chief Diversity officer in a major University in the Midwest,” Miller said. 

His position is a temporary one but he hopes to aid the university in permanently hiring someone else to take his place. He is currently working on establishing what he refers to as “units” which are academic and non-academic initiatives that strive to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

Miller is also working on pushing specific initiatives and recommendations for the administration which range from personnel to the student body. These include hiring more faculty of color, increasing students of color, retaining those students and faculty of color, anti-racist training on campus within the university faculty and employees, observing how the effect that implicit bias has on hiring new staff, and creating programs such as post-doctoral programs for minorities and President’s award to work in regards to diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

To improve diversity efforts, Miller stated that it’s important for the university to first define what diversity means to them. “Diversity means different things to different people as you know. It can mean social economy diversity, racial diversity, sexual orientation diversity, even as it relates to disabilities diversity,” Miller said. “The university has to define what it means by diversity in terms of who oversees the role and responsibility.” 

Another area that USD needs to improve upon is the way that it communicates these diversity efforts. 

“Part of the problem is that not everyone knows what’s going on, what initiatives are underway, and I think that’s a challenge that we’re addressing right now,” Dr. Miller said. 

But a bigger issue that Dr. Miller says must be addressed is changing the way that the university and its students communicate with each other. 

“You have to be comfortable with the individuals that you’re dealing with in order to be open-minded and free to express your concerns without being intimidated or fearful,” Dr. Miller said. “I know a lot of white faculty and white students feel uncomfortable about delving into issues of race, but the terminology nowadays is that it’s okay to be uncomfortable about being uncomfortable.”

This communication is vitally important in regard to the way that students feel about the university as a whole. When universities aren’t fully transparent about how concrete ways they are approaching hate crimes toward minorities, donors, and other issues that affect students, it creates a rift between the students and faculty. “You’re leaving students out there to speculate and sometimes the thinking is ‘Well, they don’t care,’” Miller said. 

However, the students have to be just as involved in this process too. 

“Students have to understand that this is their university,” Miller said. “You’re part of this university. You’re going to take that with you, no matter where you go, after you graduate.”

The first step in improving communications is recognizing, acknowledging, and understanding the experiences that minorities talk about. For Austin Peters, junior and co-president of POI, it means finding common ground. 

“I may look different, talk differently, or do things differently, but I guarantee that we can find something in common and become good friends. I will be open to whatever you have to say,” Peters said. “In return, I hope that you are open and value the ideas and knowledge that I and other minority students have learned. We bring experiential knowledge that differs from anyone else, and if this knowledge can be valued and represented, then we can all move forward together as a thriving community.” 

For Sierra, it also involves understanding where these criticisms against the greater community and institution come from. 

“I, as a student, desperately do not want systemic racism and all of these things that impinge upon me to be true,” Sierra said. “The students are not sitting around being unnecessarily hypercritical like these students are, you know, looking at the world and looking at the way that they’ve been treated by this institution by professors by students by their peers and telling you about it. This is not like something that they made up.”

To Sierra, she and many others are vocal about these issues because they “don’t want their siblings or their children or their grandchildren to have to keep doing this over and over again.”

However, it’s not enough to just learn about minorities and their struggles. Sally Ryu, a junior at USD and co-president of ASA, argued that one needs to be sensitive about the language they use to talk about these people and issues that are just as important. 

“It’s really, really important, like it’s crucial, for all students to really listen to the other’s perspective and be mature in the words that they use,” Ryu said. “It’s really important to project that idea and really implement that and just basically spread awareness and listen to others.” 

Ultimately, students and faculty of color believe there is a lot of work that the USD community and administration can do to improve the quality of education and experience minority students get from USD.  

“If you take the most vulnerable person in your population and you change your policies and you change what you fight for it to make sure that that person is better off, then everyone’s better off,” Sierra said.