Meeting with Locatelli to talk about diversity
By Natasha Lindstrom
Today a select group of 20 university representatives -- students, faculty, staff and administrators -- will join University President Paul Locatelli, S.J., in a closed-door meeting discussing the "south of the border" party, its impact and the university's response.
"The meeting is about fostering leadership for change," Provost Lucia Gilbert said. "It's a chance for students and administrators and faculty and staff to get together and brainstorm, a way to further build on things."
Several athletes and Multicultural Center staff members are among the representatives that will meet in the Executive Conference Room on the second floor of St. Joseph's Hall today at 3 p.m. to engage in open discussion directed by a facilitator.
"This setting will challenge us to listen to one another and to examine what has worked well, what has not worked well and what we may do going forward to foster a campus climate of not just acceptance and tolerance, but genuine respect and sensitivity," Gilbert said in an e-mail invitation to the meeting.
Aldo Billingslea, a professor and chair of the theatre and dance department, has been central to organizing the meeting, Gilbert said.
Billingslea, however, declined to comment on the meeting beforehand, stating in an e-mail that he wants to preserve the participants' anonymity to ensure an "open and honest discussion."
MCC Director Bernice Aguas said the Campus Climate Committee, a group of about 20 students, staff and faculty that has met weekly since the theme party controversy erupted early February, originally proposed a public gathering that could involve speakers, a video and follow-up discussion.
"Originally we had requested if we could have a whole community gathering event inviting all the school's population to go," Aguas said. "The administration did not accept that request."
Instead, the committee proposed a smaller closed meeting to express different perspectives, engage in discussion and move forward.
Aguas, who will be at today's meeting, expects the group's discourse to make a valuable contribution to the university community.
"It's definitely important that Fr. Locatelli hears the views and perspectives of other students so that maybe the administration can step up and do more progressive changes to improve the campus climate," Aguas said. "Everyone can learn something from it, including Fr. Locatelli."
Student interest in meeting with upper administrators to discuss the "south of the border" party and its impact was also expressed at the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee meeting that Billingslea attended March 11, SAAC President Molly Hagen said.
Hagen, a senior on the varsity crew team, said Billingslea gave a presentation on offensive theme parties at the SAAC meeting, where he discussed the "south of the border" party and presented videos of what Hagen described as some "even more extreme" examples of offensive theme parties at other schools.
"It was a very somber mood," Hagen said of the March 11 meeting. "And it was a pretty shocking presentation."
At the SAAC meeting, student-athletes proposed that students engage in an open dialogue about the event and its impact with the upper administration, Hagen said.
"We wanted to look to the future, and how to change the campus climate so that nothing like that or close to that ever happens again," said Hagen, who was invited to today's closed-door meeting but cannot attend because of an athletic conflict.
"Our school as a community has something to learn from what's happened and I think that's the point of this meeting," Hagen said. "The school wants to move forward and see what they can do in the future."
The meeting represents one form of university response to the "south of the border" off-campus party that drew national coverage and instigated a 250-student silent march in February, led by students outraged over photos of the partygoers' costumes posted on Facebook.
Contact Natasha Lindstrom at (408) 554-4546 or nlindstrom@scu.edu