Campus Week of Dialogue, hosted this year by the new student group Connect4, comes at a crucial time.
In response to an incident last year in which a racially-derogatory word was allegedly written into the dust on a student’s car, Connect4 has created a weeklong agenda of discussions and activities that will go from Sept. 14 to Sept. 20.
The mission to connect students and members of the greater St. Louis community will be based on the principles of diversity, dialogue, understanding and change, and will address such issues as racial, gender, sexual and ability biases.
Connect4 seeks to remedy the signs of segregation that many students see on campus, posing the question, “Why are all the [blank] students sitting together in the DUC?”
Sophomore Lauren Harmon said that for minorities, “it’s a matter of being outside your comfort zone. There’s a feeling of a need to create a connection, because there are so few of you that there’s a need to stick together.”
Between the lines of majority and minority, racial pressure is felt as well.
“I was intimidated and am still intimidated by the black community,” sophomore Reva Clemens, who identifies herself as a multiracial person of African-American, Caucasian and Native American background, said.
As a year-old union between the former Student Diversity Initiative and the Campus Week of Dialogue—created by former President Bill Clinton as a product of his One America Initiative—Connect4 is a new student group on campus.
However, in the short time since its founding, Connect4 has created links between major and diverse groups such as the Jewish Student Union, Ashoka, the Social Justice Center and the Asian American Association.
Although connections between student groups have been made, senior Cambrie Nelson, co-president of Connect4, emphasizes that “we don’t just want to reach out to groups; we want to reach out to people.”
The same desire for personal connection is what inspired Connect4 Co-President and junior Fernando Cutz to create the Student Diversity Initiative.
After witnessing a drunken student berate his roommate with anti-Semitic remarks during his freshman year, Cutz was motivated to investigate the issue of prejudice on campus.
By the time of the conception of the Student Diversity Initiative, made up of representatives from major student groups on campus, the University had accumulated six different news stories on hate-related crimes.
When Nelson approached Cutz about merging their similarly-minded groups together, the result was the culmination of two student groups with the same goal: “to connect, not just to affect.”
This year, Connect4 hopes to connect with students through a series of workshops, presentations, discussions and action planning. Coffee Talk, a dialogue-based event, will mix discussion with video clips about race, gender, sexuality and disability.
A talent show titled “Show Me What You Got” will feature cultural entertainment groups, such as WUStyle, WUSauce and Ashoka. Town Hall, a more traditional forum, will combine presentations with dialogue and action planning. Finally, a party called Step One will bring participants together in a celebratory manner.
“It’s great that we have a diverse student body, but it is most important to Wash. U. to unite diversity, as opposed to simply enhancing it,” Cutz said.
