Ursinus's Inclusion and Diversity Attempts

Ursinus Conference Addresses Gender, Race, and Class

In her article “Gender, Class and Race Addressed at Conference” Ursinus Grizzly editor Lora Hart covers an Ursinus symposium held to discuss how colleges should “work towards curriculum that deals with gender, class, and race.” Hart writes that scholar Peggy McIntosh from Wellesley College came to inform Ursinus of her three-step process for integrating class, gender, and race into college curriculum. The overall message of the article was that Ursinus should change from a “traditional curriculum” to a more diverse curriculum that includes historically underepresented groups. In doing this, Ursinus will not hold a singular course responsible for discussing women, race, and class. It is important to note that Hart, does not define race in the article. However, she states that Ursinus wants to further its curriculum away from the “traditional curriculum” and towards “adapted real-world” teachings. "Traditional curriculum” presumably refers to a course of study that does not deal with race critically. This lack aligns with Dorothy Roberts’s observation that race is a taken-for-granted category of governance. Robert’s states, “Race is not a biological category that is politically charged. It is a political category that has been disguised as a biological one” (Fatal Invention, 4). The article's observation that Ursinus's curriculum in 1988 was not inclusive or too “traditional” likely means that it excluded women, the working class, and people of color. 

Black History Month at Ursinus

This article written by Jen Stritch discusses the celebration of Black History Month on Ursinus’s Campus in February of 1991. The main goal of Black History Month is to devote time to public exercises to emphasize how African Americans have influenced history. The student activity committee planned multiple events including the display of black people in history in all facets of life, an African American art gallery, lectures, and presentations. Students were able to share these experiences together and learn about diversity. Understanding the oppression and hardships that black people have faced because “they have been sorted into a social group based on invented biological demarcations,” (Roberts, 4) is key when learning about Black History on campus. If students are able to realize that race is a political system put in place to control a minority group, it makes the accomplishments of African Americans even more outstanding. In celebrating Black History Month in this manner, it can be inferred that African American students felt prouder and more comfortable on the Ursinus Campus. The article states that part of liberal education is to learn about different people and their cultures. The student body saw many positive impacts in celebrating Black History Month, the most important being a stronger sensitivity and awareness towards minority groups and diverse cultures that have contributed to the United States.  

Diversity Meeting at Ursinus 

The grizzly article by Salia Zoudane covers a diversity forum during which Ursinus students and staff discussed the racial incidents that have occurred on campus. An example of an incident that had occurred on campus was when racial slurs were written in snow. This happened on December of 2017. This source provides insight that there is an issue of racial  divide on campus that should be discussed during this time at Ursinus College. Salia details a call for more dialogue on diversity via an open forum, the creation of a club for students of different complexions,meaning people with different skin tones and people of color to work through their differences and grow together. Relating this back to Ebony and Ivy that we read in class, it stated, "In the first two centuries, Darmouth graduated fewer than twenty Native Americans; it had produced that many white alumni within five years of its founding --- or its first three graduating classes." (Ebony and Ivy 114). This shows that there wasn't much diversity going on during this time and it was mainly predominantly white people. She also mentions student government town halls for conversations to move the school’s diversity efforts This article allows us to look back in time and see there is a need on campus for students to have these outlets provided to them to work past some issues that are occurring on campus regarding race and this goes hand in hand with the time period of the issues we studied in class that shows Ursinus is not exempt.

Ursinus Board Discusses Campus Diversity

The March 1, 2012 article titled “Board meets on Diversity Reports” 'focuses on reports about diversity by Ursinus’s Faculty Committee on Diversity (FCD), Campus Priorities and Planning Committee (Committee (CPPC), and Presidential Committee on Race and Equality (PCRE). These reports review the latest draft of the strategic plan to improve the diversity at Ursinus. The committees behind each of the three reports observed and made recommendations for the state of diversity at Ursinus directly to the president. On February 17, 2012, President Fong shared the three reports via email with the entire campus before the Board of Trustees’ retreat. In the note attached to the documents, Fong stated that he shared the reports with the community “so that students and staff, as well as faculty, have a common background to the discussion of diversity as it is treated in the strategic plan draft.” The Teagle Home Team found that most of the campus were white students compared to people of color such as African American, Asian, Latino, and Hispanic, and that most professors were white men. This domination by white men puts women of color at a severe disadvantage. The authors of Presumed Incompetence discuss this problem in detail. More specifically, they pinpoint the issues that women of color confront just to be in academia. They write, “female students of color must overcome [many obstacles] to enter the professorial ranks, including lack of mentoring or encouragement, the need to counter negative stereotypes, and the presumption that they were admitted to competitive academic programs or hired as faculty only because of their race and gender” (Harris and Gonzalez 8). To address such problems at Ursinus, the FCD recommended hiring a “Chief Diversity Officer/Special Assistant to the president for Diversity,” or CDO/SA. To fit this position, candidates should know the best practices of ‘diversity work’ and current literature about diversity.

Sonia Sanchez: Poet for Peace

Kathleen Bowers’ article “Poet for Peace” discusses Sonia Sanchez’s work to organize and unite for peace and racial justice. With her poetic voice, Sanchez brings light to harsh topics such as racism, sexism, the war on drugs, and the racial superiority that white people claim over non-white peoples. Sanchez explains how African Americans, Native Americans, Latinos, Asians, gays, women, and men all are equal and entitled to the same rights as every other American. In order to understand Sanchez's claim of equality we must first understand Charles Mill's description of the racial contract. Mill's states, “White supremacy should be thought of as itself a political system; the methodological claim-as a political system, white supremacy can illuminatingly be theorized as based on a "contract" between whites, a Racial Contract” (Mills, 2). The "Racial Contract" enables us to engage with mainstream Western political theory to bring in race. Sanchez wants to stop innocent people from dying like they did during past protests, wars, and slavery. She wants to do better for activists such as Martin Luther King, Malcom X, and Nelson Mandela, who gave their lives to ensure that everyone receives the same rights. She wants others to do better and resist and never let toxic systems such as racism, and sexism bringing harm to the American people again. Other dehumanizing issues that Sanchez addressed are Apartheid, for-profit prisons, extreme materialism, environmental pollution, starvation, and children addicted to crack, sold into pornography, and killed in El Salvador. All of these topics have one common theme: human harm. Sanchez’s goal is for her audience to learn from the past so that humans do not repeat past mistakes, stop hurting those around them, and thus make the world a better place.