The Unity RLC: facilitating diversity?

By Tatiana Sanchez

While Unity technically may be known for its diversity, students on campus know Unity for housing mostly students of color.

When prospective students look at Santa Clara's housing Web site to learn about Residential Learning Communities, the description for Unity reads, "A four-year Residential Learning Community open to all undergraduates who seek a deeper understanding and appreciation of diversity as a catalyst for social and civic engagement."

When reading the description of Unity as an incoming freshman, its emphasis on the celebration of diversity sold me.

It is easy to see the lack of diversity at Santa Clara.

After all, 52 percent of students are Caucasian, and students of color find Unity to be a source of comfort and community where they can more easily fit in.

Unity gives students of different ethnic backgrounds a place to live where they aren't constantly reminded that they are in the vast minority at Santa Clara.

The Unity community was just what I needed to adapt to college life, and I met great friends, adjusted well to dorm life and found a comfortable home to call my own.

I share this sentiment with junior Crystal Urbano, who lived in Unity for two years and said, "I loved living in Unity. I loved the people I lived with. They were all very friendly and welcoming. If I had to go back and do it all over again, I would."

And yet, while Unity strives to embrace diversity, it also has a negative impact on our small minority community.

Unity is great because it houses students in a campus community where being a minority isn't so clearly emphasized, but it also segregates them from the rest of Santa Clara, and thus keeps them from being exposed to students from different cultures, outlooks and lifestyles.

These students know little or nothing of life in other residence halls, and can become trapped in the unique lifestyle that Unity perpetuates.

Unity greatly helps minority students find a space where they belong at Santa Clara, but in the end, damages these students by providing them with a false sense of security.

When asked if she feels there is a negative aspect to Unity, Urbano said, "I love Unity, but I feel that all the diversity is just concentrated in Unity."

"Although Unity is the face of diversity on campus and gets the fame for being the most diverse, it just appears that way, because in reality most of the students living in Unity are of the same minority backgrounds."

Being a minority student myself, I understand the challenges a student of color must face at Santa Clara.

I've experienced firsthand the pressure and loneliness felt in a population of students lacking much diversity.

Surrounding myself with friends of the same ethnicity seems to be instinctual for me, and I know it gives me the comfort and sense of belonging that I otherwise would not have found at Santa Clara.

I know this is the case for most minority students.

Alicia Nguyen, director of the Multicultural Center, feels it is because of these challenges that places such as Unity and the MCC exist.

They are safe spaces where students of diverse backgrounds can feel more at home and less like outsiders.

When asked how she feels about the sentiment that Unity seeks to embrace diversity, but is conversely a form of segregation, Nguyen disagreed, stating that, "Unity is a great space. I understand why it's there."

However, the more I think about my subconscious tendency to choose friends of color at Santa Clara, the more I ask myself why I, and so many other students of color, feel the need to spend time with other minority students and unconsciously block out the rest of Santa Clara.

This attitude represents a serious problem that needs addressing.

Regardless of whether or not you notice it, racial segregation exists everywhere at Santa Clara. Racial cliques exist in Greek life, at parties and in Unity.

The question that we should all be asking ourselves is this: Why are we still dealing with issues of race in 2008, especially in spite of the higher education we are privileged to be receiving?

Why does an RLC like Unity even exist?

Sure, embracing diversity is a great way to get students to broaden their horizons, but let's be real and think about what Unity is really about. It consists of a group of minority students living in the same building who all end up spending most of their time together, whether that is in the residence hall, in class or at parties.

And why is it that when I walk into Benson for dinner, I can spot countless racial cliques sitting together?

It's time to start thinking outside of the box, to stop being so closed-minded and afraid to try new things and start genuinely immersing ourselves in different cultures and lifestyles.

Ignorance can do us no good. While Unity exists to combat this ignorance, it is, in fact, perpetuating it.

So let's stop letting our ethnic backgrounds solely dictate who we are, what we do, who we socialize with and where we go.

Tatiana Sanchez is a junior English major.