A new student-led coalition called Washington University For Undergraduate Socio-Economic Diversity hopes to raise socioeconomic awareness and diversity on campus.

At its first meeting yesterday, the group (WU/FUSED) elected seniors Chase Sackett, speaker of Student Union (SU) Senate, and Fernando Cutz, senior class president, as its co-chairs.

Sackett called this new initiative a “young effort.” It is a topic he had thought about throughout college, yet never acted upon.

“We started looking into it at the end of last spring and I contacted Fernando [Cutz], who was at the time co-president of Connect4,” Sackett said.

The students who showed up at the first WU/FUSED meeting represented not only student groups focused on socioeconomic diversity issues, such as Alliance of Students Against Poverty, TRIO and Connect4, but also other student groups like Bear Buddies and Controversy N’ Coffee. Students not specifically affiliated with any student group were also at the meeting due to their interest in helping this cause.

Cutz described WU/FUSED as an initiative of students who care about socioeconomic diversity issues, but he said he hopes faculty and staff of the school administration will eventually join the coalition as well.

Naomi Daradar, coordinator for student involvement/multicultural leadership, is one staff member who is already involved and working with WU/FUSED.

“When you think of diversity, you automatically go to race. We barely ever look at some of the other aspects of diversity, one being class and socioeconomic diversity,” Daradar said. “These students are passionate about it, and they are going to get something done about it. And clearly, it’s the beginning of the process, but it looks really, really bright.”

Currently, the University ranks last in the list of the top 26 universities ranked by U.S. News & World Report for the percentage of undergraduates who receive Pell Grants, which many experts claim is the best indicator of economic diversity on campus.

Pell grants are provided based on financial need and are most often given to families with incomes less than $20,000, though higher income families may qualify if they meet certain other criteria.

Only 7 percent of undergraduates at the University receive Pell Grants, compared to over 30 percent for the University of California, Los Angeles and University of California, Berkeley, which top the list. There is a large gap between the top two schools and the third-ranked Columbia University, which stands at 17 percent.

The University has already begun to tackle this issue of socioeconomic diversity on campus. In an e-mail sent out this past April, Chancellor Mark Wrighton revealed five broad goals stemming from the Plan for Excellence and embraced by the board of trustees. Two of these goals included strengthening diversity and enhancing the financial resources of the University, especially through financial aid for students at all levels.

“We were very fortunate to find out that this was an issue that became important to the Board of Trustees almost at the same time, so we made sure that not only will it be coming from the top but it will also come from the bottom,” Cutz said. “We’ve encountered a lot of support for what we’re doing.”

At the same time, Sackett and Cutz recognize that the goals of WU/FUSED would not be something that could be accomplished in a semester or even a year, but hope this will be continue to be a top priority long after they have graduated.

“I think that there will always be some red tape. People are very used to the status quo and are very comfortable staying with the status quo,” Cutz said.

“Anytime we want the administrators, especially those who are higher up, to change the status quo, we have to show them that we’re serious, that we have a lot of support and that we have a good cause.”

“I think in this case we’re going to be able to do all three,” he added.

Sackett said he is extremely pleased overall with how the meeting went yesterday.

“I really think we can make a huge impact on Wash. U. this year,” he said.

1 Comments

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  On September 15, 2009 at 1:12 pm m said

  Would’ve been nice if this committee had taken a look at the newly appointed board members: all men, all big business.

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