Diversity committee needs clear direction

By Editorial

It was around this time last year that the Santa Clara community was forced to confront diversity-related issues in a more direct way than it had before in recent memory.

The controversy surrounding a theme party and the highly offensive photos from the party that were posted on Facebook highlighted the need for not only more diversity on this campus, but also more direct efforts to confront stereotypes, ignorance and racism.

University officials made various assurances to tackle these issues, even promising to create a "special assistant for inclusive excellence" that would report directly to Provost Lucia Gilbert.

This was eventually changed, as Gilbert announced that she would instead create a diversity committee of current staff members, who would work on these issues in addition to their existing job duties.

From the beginning, this seemed like the kind of administrative tactic that may only result in more bureaucracy and empty promises.

Today, the committee's accomplishments seem to be vague at best, and nonexistent at worst. In an e-mail Gilbert recently sent out, she claimed that two recent events were part of the committee's diversity initiative.

The first event, Robert Sapolsky's speech, had already taken place weeks earlier.

The second, the Tunnel of Oppression, was a highly successful event that was planned, lead and staffed entirely by students. For Gilbert to take credit for the tunnel without mentioning the students' work is unwarranted and wrong.

In the future, we hope to see the committee working to achieve tangible successes for diversity at Santa Clara. Anything else is just a waste of all of our time.