University must diversify its portfolio

From its description, you might think the over 300 page SCUnity report released Tuesday, covered in the Voice’s feature this week, was the fruit of exhaustive labor by dedicated Georgetown administrators. In fact, it’s the result of 15 months worth of research and compilation by a group of Georgetown students led by Brian Kesten (COL `10). Kesten, his Vice-Director Brian Cook (COL `10), and the rest of the SCUnity commission performed incredibly thorough research detailing the current state of discrimination and segregation at Georgetown. In light of the initiative these students took and their troubling findings, Georgetown should now use its resources to act in keeping with the spirit of the report and make students more aware of diversity issues and help fight discrimination on campus.
As the commission suggests, the University needs to integrate the question of diversity into the curriculum of various classes offered. In addition, the University should redesign its general requirements to allow students to incorporate more courses with diversity and cross-cultural focuses into their educational experience at Georgetown. Diversity awareness must extend beyond NSO week and into the classroom. What’s more, it must extend into University residences; RA training should, as the commission suggests, focus more on inclusiveness than discipline.
The University should also increase its financial aid so that Georgetown is an option for more students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. While the commission does not suggest this initiative, its findings reveal a disconcerting fact that unequivocally highlights the need for increased financial aid: 20 percent of all Georgetown students come from America’s wealthiest tax bracket, families with incomes of $300,000 a year or higher.
Finally, the University should use its resources to promote cross-campus events, in particular those sponsored by diverse clubs and community service orgnaizations. Currently, only a small minority of the student body actively engages the issue of diversity on campus. One of the best chances the University has of engaging the rest of the student body is by integrating something that already interests them—such as a club or a specific cause—with a group or activity they typically would not encounter. Kesten and his crew have already done some of the heaviest lifting. Now it’s the University’s turn.