In view of the recent incident involving Justin Zimmerman and the racial slur directed at him, I cannot help but notice that the University is sending mixed signals. University administrators say that they want this to be a campus where everyone feels respected and supported. However, I see very little action to back up these sentiments.
Take for example, the Living-Learning Communities (particularly the Parker-Adams program). These communities are purposefully small so that students get to know each other and interact with each other on a level that students who live in larger dorms (such as Ridgecrest) do not experience. In these smaller dorms, students become like a family because they see each other and interact constantly. I lived in Parker-Adams my freshman year, and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The friendships I made there are still strong today.
While I was there, I saw a group of roughly 85 students accomplish in many ways what the University wishes to accomplish all across campus. We all came from different backgrounds and we were a very diverse group, yet we did not let those differences interfere with our friendships. We all hung out together in and out of the dorm and we would all go eat together on and off campus. It did not matter if we were black or white; we were all friends who lived together. Living-Learning Communities such as Parker-Adams are all-inclusive communities which bring students from all walks of life together. Unfortunately, at the end of this semester, Parker-Adams will be torn down.
The LLC program will continue — it is being moved to Harris Hall, where it will be one of the programs in that dorm — but the community aspect that has made it a success will not be as strong in Harris as it was in Parker-Adams. It is not the program, but the size and structure of the program that builds this all inclusive type of community. I know the economic reasoning behind this, but I do not accept it — to me, it is worth it to have more of these small, integrated communities where students closely interact.
Parker-Adams, along with Byrd and Wilson Halls, are being torn down in order to build three new sorority houses; this is where the message of the University administrators becomes blurred. The University is tearing down and essentially destroying programs that foster integrated, all-inclusive communities and replacing them with greek housing that is anything but integrated or all-inclusive (I say “destroying” because without the proper structure, these programs do not reach their full potential).
I do not think that anybody would deny that sororities and fraternities are segregated communities in which the members tend to be similar in many aspects of their lives. The message seems to be that if students want a close-knit community, then they must join a fraternity or sorority.
The dorms most freshmen live in are resort-style complexes where little interaction takes place between students who do not live in the same suite. This is unfair to students. It is also contradictory for the University to say it supports diversity and acceptance of all when it sends the message that only those who join a fraternity or sorority can enjoy the benefits of community living.
The University is destroying these integrated communities so they can make more room for segregated communities. It is a shame that in 2011, the words “integrated” and “segregated” communities have to be used when describing housing on a college campus, but that is what it boils down to.
Friday’s incident directly indicated that within some individuals, a 1960s worldview has not yet been eradicated. However, the University’s apparent hypocrisy in 2011, with regards to housing, implies that some groups are more deserving of a close-knit community than others. Bettering race relations is something that we all have to be willing to work to achieve. It starts by taking an initiative and then it becomes a reality only through persistence. It also requires all of us, whether we are students or administrators, to turn our well-intended messages into actions and tangible results.
Jeff Elrod is a sophomore majoring in political science and a SGA senator.
