For Kishi Animashaun Ducre, the issue of identity solidarity on campus is oftentimes framed as an exclusively African-American issue.

Ducre, an assistant professor of African-American studies, has been teaching about segregation since 2006. In one course, she asks students to document the way in which the Syracuse University campus creates boundaries for students.

“Our neighborhoods and where we come from are segregated, and we come to a space where we maintain those same boundaries, and the university physically itself maintains these types of boundaries and don’t necessarily challenge them,” Ducre said.

Students, professors and faculty members alike agreed multiple factors contributed to people staying within their affinity groups, including race, gender, class, program of study, sexual orientation and housing. They also noted that the university has taken a number of steps to address the issue. But they all agreed the only way for people to interact with different groups is to leave their comfort zones.

Race is usually viewed as one of the main ways people separate themselves by group identity on campus. In the case of African-American students, Ducre said that because these students are unsure of how they will be accepted on campus, their natural inclination is to stick together.

“It’s just racial solidarity in what can potentially be a hostile environment for them,” she said.

Student groups could be doing a better job of working together to plan events and other programming, said James Duah-Agyeman, chief diversity officer of the Division of Student Affairs and director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs. The Office of Multicultural Affairs, for example, hosts celebratory months for different cultural groups and encourages people of different backgrounds to attend.

“We have different student groups, and these student groups seem to be along certain ethnic, racial, cultural lines,” said Duah-Agyeman, “and so when they plan activities and events, it always seems to attract the same groups of people from the same backgrounds.”

Separation by race can also be seen in support groups on campus, said Staci Weber, a graduate student studying higher education. Weber is writing her dissertation on first-generation college students and how they use college preparation programs.

Students who participate in the Higher Education Opportunity Program or the Student Support Services Program tend to be predominantly of color and sometimes of lower-income, she said. These students are required to participate in a summer start program prior to beginning college, during which many of them make their first college friends, Weber said.

Socioeconomic class has also played a role in creating barriers between students. But dialogue is key for students of different classes to understand one another, she said.

“The dialogues and the more conversations, than the more people from upper-class backgrounds are going to realize, ‘Wow, I carry with me a lot of privileges that I didn’t know about,’” she said.

Others stressed that within separate groups on campus, different types of diversity exists.

For example, Chase Catalano, director of the LGBT Resource Center, said being a lesbian student is different from being a gay or transgender student.

“I also think we have a false notion of the idea that there is one community,” Catalano said. “I think there’s lots of communities within identity groups.”

Because SU has achieved success in bringing diversity to campus, different groups on campus are more likely to speak about the ways in which they feel excluded or marginalized on campus because they are now “at least one of the few,” Catalano said.

Catalano said it takes the involvement of historically dominant groups to address the issues minority groups face.

“Sometimes I think the difficult part of the buy-in is that people feel blamed for having privilege,” he said. “So how do you get people to let go of the guilt and move to action?”

The university has been able to achieve diversity on campus through a number of initiatives, said Thomas Wolfe, senior vice president and dean of student affairs. For example, last summer, the Division of Student Affairs created the Council on Diversity and Inclusion to discuss strategies to address diversity on campus. The university also has the Haudenosaunee Promise Scholarship Program for first-year and transfer American Indian students, which was created under Chancellor Nancy Cantor.

“I think that Syracuse is at a crossroads moment,” Wolfe said. “I think we have been very successful in making more diverse our student body.”

Wolfe explained that the university wants to preserve the affinity groups but find a way to bring these people together. He pointed to the long-standing tradition of dialogue circles at the university.

As a residential adviser for first-year students, Nabil Khan, a sophomore chemical engineering major, is required to undergo training on how to have open dialogue and discussion about sensitive topics.

But Khan, who is also president of the Muslim Students Association, said he has always been comfortable with diverse groups, having grown up in New York City.

He said he sees a lack of education as a part of the reason why people struggle to understand different groups.

“There’s nothing that’s mandated for students to take in terms of having an open dialogue about race and ethnicity right off the bat,” Kahn said.

Ducre, the African-American studies professor, said people need to make an effort to promote this kind of dialogue.

Said Ducre: “People are coming from segregated neighborhoods. Unless Syracuse wants to make it a priority to work and push and open spaces, it’s not going to happen organically.”

Published on March 27, 2013 at 2:18 am

Contact Madina: matoure@syr.edu