May 1, 2008
Celebrating four decades of diversity
Back in 1968, the UW was a very white university. Then a group of mostly African American students formed the Black Student Union and began agitating for change. Before the year was out, the University had begun recruiting faculty and students of color, had created a program to support underrepresented students and had begun work to establish a Black Studies Program. This spring, the Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity is celebrating 40 years of diversity efforts at the University with a number of events, including a dinner, a photography exhibit and a community celebration.
Plans for the commemoration really started when an oral history of early diversity efforts at the UW was completed last year. “We realized that it would be the 40th anniversary this year, and the idea took off from there,” said Sheila Edwards Lange, vice president for minority affairs and vice provost for diversity.
The oral history, a one-hour video produced by UWTV, is available for viewing online (http://www.washington.edu/diversity/40Y/). Titled In Pursuit of Social Justice, it includes excerpts from interviews with 27 of the people who were involved in the movement in 1968. And according to Charlie Hinckley, the video’s producer, the full interviews will also be available online soon.
The video was a long time in coming, said Emile Pitre, a BSU member in 1968 and now associate vice president for minority affairs. It began with conversations he had with E.J. Brisker, who was the first president of the BSU, and picked up steam in 2004 when then-Vice President for Student Affairs Ernest Morris became interested. Pitre worked with others to locate interviewees and find funding for the project. (Read Pitre’s account of the events of 1968 <a href=http://uwnews.org/uweek/uweekarticle.asp?cachecommand=create&articleID=41464>here</a>.)
The video, through the interviews and photos of the time, tells in detail how the relatively small group in the BSU managed to have such a big effect on the University. Collectively, that group will be honored at the annual Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) dinner, set for Wednesday, May 7, in the HUB. They will be receiving the Charles E. Odegaard Award, named after the president whose office they occupied in pursuit of their goals, and also the president who helped make those goals a reality.
On Tuesday, May 20, the anniversary of the 1968 sit-in in President Odegaard’s office, there will be a Community Celebration of Diversity from noon to 5 p.m. on Red Square. In addition to the usual music and food, there will be displays by academic departments and student groups.
“We will have representatives of about 75 academic departments,” Lange said. “They’ll be talking about their history with diversity. And student organizations will be telling about how they formed and what they’ve done.”
At 3:30 p.m. there will be a formal program honoring the 900 plus EOP students who have made the Dean’s List this year. President Mark Emmert will speak, and joining him will be King County Council member Larry Gosset, who is another 1968 BSU member and co-chair of the 40 Year Celebration Community Advisory Committee.
There will also be two panels that day in the Walker Ames Room in Kane Hall. In the first, beginning at noon, all five of the people who have served as vice president for minority affairs — Samuel Kelly, Herman Lujan, Myron Apilado, Rusty Barcelo and Lange — will speak.
“Each person will talk about what was going on in their era, what they think their legacy is, and what they see in the future for minority affairs,” Lange said.
The second panel, at 1:30 p.m., will bring back student leaders from different eras, and they will answer the same three questions.
The celebration has also includes a photography exhibit in Odegaard Library on the Black Panthers. That exhibit continues through May 30.
Lange, who was only 5 and among the first group of students to integrate the public schools in her native Mississippi in 1968, said the UW is “way ahead” of many other institutions in diversity efforts because of having a vice president in charge from the beginning.
“When I talk to my peers across the country, they’re amazed at our budget, at the size of our staff, at the commitment of our Board of Regents,” she said. “We also have a president and a provost who have made diversity a priority.”
Which isn’t to say there aren’t still challenges. “We’d like find ways to better address questions of the classroom climate,” Lange said. “With the hiring of Luis Fraga, associate vice provost for faculty advancement, we now have the structure to do that.
“We’d also like to encourage more collaborative research around issues affecting people of color and make a better case for why diversity is important for everyone.”
But for now, the Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity is taking time to look back and celebrate all that’s been accomplished, thanks to a small group that got organized 40 years ago.
