The organizers of October’s Not Isolated March engaged in heated debate with students over campus race and greek relations Wednesday at “Operation Not Isolated: The Conversation.”

The event, held by the Social Workers Association for Cultural Awareness, was a follow-up event to October’s rally.

At the start of the meeting, SWACA president Adrienne McCollum asked for a show of hands from participants in the Not Isolated March. A handful of people in the room raised their hands.

McCollum then asked students attending the event in order to receive extra credit points for their classes to raise their hands, while also asking members of the greek community to raise their hands also. The majority of the audience identified as both.

Cameron Smith, SWACA co-vice president, opened the conversation by asking everyone if they felt that UA’s campus was inclusive.

The room was silent for several moments before Jacqueline Prisock, a white 30-year-old nursing major, said she feels like the minority in many of her classes because she’s so much older than everyone.

“Campus is not inclusive – but it’s like that everywhere you go,” she said. “There are cliques everywhere.”

McCollum responded to the audience’s silence against commenting on race relations.

“There are 28 white organizations on this campus that work with this Machine to run the campus,” said Adrienne McCollum, SWACA president.  “Who really feels like everything is OK here? Who feels like everyone is welcome to join whatever organization they want? If you don’t care, why are you here?”

When a comment was made that race on campus isn’t a greek issue, senior visual journalism major Tori Luna disagreed.

Luna, who is white, said she was in a sorority her freshman year and joined a Facebook group supporting Kendra Key, a black woman running for SGA president at the time.

“The sorority president pulled me aside and told me I had to get out of that Facebook group because it was against what we stood for,” said Luna, who is no longer a member of the sorority. “I’m not saying all greeks are racist, but when you choose to be a part of something that is racist, it’s ignorance.”

Gertudrudis Hunter, a graduate student in social work, echoed Luna’s sentiments.

“These students that scream n—er at black students are the same students that march into the stadium and cheer on black football players to bring home a championship,” Hunter said. “You can say you’re against racism, but you’re still supporting that organization unless you step away from it.”

Luna spoke up again, saying that she believed the conversation had taken an anti-greek turn and that’s not what she believed SWACA wanted the dialogue to be about.

SWACA Vice President Brittany Ward stopped the conversation to ask students if anyone felt uncomfortable with the discussion. Several white students raised their hands.

“My grandpa always told me that a hit dog will holler,” Ward said. “So if you feel offended about something, maybe you are guilty. Would you let me in your sorority? I’m black. I’m not a size 6. Would you let me in? Hell no.”

McCollum said SWACA chose to host the open dialogue after seeing the turn out of the Not Isolated March, and was expecting a similar turn out at Wednesday’s event.

“We think the march was very successful,” McCollum said. “I was expecting more people who had participated in the march. I expected more people from the unrepresented, minority groups.”

When asked if SWACA would hold more open dialogues in the future, McCollum was unsure.

“I’m not a quitter, but I’m not going to have events for people to get extra credit,” she said.

Though McCollum expressed frustration with the motives of some of the audience, one audience member said she found the conversation interesting and enlightening.

“I just came here for sociology extra credit. I knew that the biggest problem was everyone is divided,” said Hannah Ward, a UA student.

Ward, a member of the greek community, said she was unaware of the dissatisfaction on campus regarding race relations. After hearing what other sides of campus had to say, she said she would like to be more involved.

“There’s no communication here between greeks and non-greeks,” Ward said. “I’d love to go support other organizations, and I’m sure there are non-greeks out there that would like to support our philanthropies.”