As a coalition of affinity groups representing Black, Latine, and Asian students at WashU, we are deeply disappointed by the substantial decline in students of color enrolling at WashU.

The Center for Diversity and Inclusion (CDI) celebrated its 10th anniversary during the month of September through a plethora of events and collaborative initiatives, marking a decade of fostering community and belonging for the multiple identity-centered groups on campus.

The Student Union Senate calls on the University to extend the First Year Startup Grant administered by the Financial Aid office for a second year, as a means of easing laundry costs for students receiving financial aid and providing a comprehensive support system in and out of the classroom. 

It is embarrassing that Washington University currently offers zero dedicated buildings for students of diverse racial, socioeconomic and demographic backgrounds: Turning over fraternity houses to underrepresented students is a necessary first step to reverse this trend.

When a college student says they have Saturday night plans, going to a lecture isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. When I filed into the Clopton Auditorium on Washington University’s Medical Campus just before 7 p.m. on Saturday, however, that’s exactly what I was doing.

Coming to a university like Washington University means meeting people of all kinds of different identities, experiences and lives. Coupled with this is the need to mature. But what buttresses all of this is the fear of exclusion.

Over the course of the past month, a member of our physics department has taken to the columns of Student Life to opine on the place of diversity and women in physics. His polemic engendered quite the furor, and, in such light, we recognized the need to make clear to the Washington University community and beyond our explicit goals for rectifying the department’s lack of diversity.

Despite concerns about the intent of the event, the Day of Discovery and Dialogue, which was designed to open a discussion at Washington University about issues of diversity and inclusion, was hosted on the medical school campus last Wednesday and on Danforth Campus last Thursday.

To what end are we filling out the Campus Climate Survey? The stunningly non-communicative email accompanying the survey link gave no hints as to what the Mosaic Project’s Assessment and Benchmarking Group hopes to learn from the data collected, or how said data will be applied.