Collegiate Times

The Racial Task Force implementation team is not the only program hoping for a change in faculty and student diversity at Virginia Tech.

The Black Student Alliance is one organization that is bringing the culture of African Americans into the mainstream campus community. In a meeting of its executive board, the students discussed the diversity of the faculty at Tech.

"There are not that many black faculty members, and the ones that are here are usually behind closed doors," said Lauren Purdie, vice president of Internal Affairs.

As Purdie said, the issue of "behind closed doors" is in reference to the fact that it would seem that minority faculty members have little to no visible roles on campus.

"It's not an issue of across disciplines; it's more an issue of visibility. You don't need to know that you have a class with whoever, you need to know that you will see them on campus at some point," said Mary Grace Campos, faculty adviser to the BSA.

There is also the issue of faculty members not wanting to step on people's toes.

"Black faculty members are so afraid of offending anybody. ... When it comes to race they have to watch everything they say," Purdie said.

But not all professors have this feeling toward their teaching experiences at Tech.

"I feel like I've been given free rein. I don't feel that there are any restrictions against me," associate professor Paula Seniors said. "I feel that the departments, both Africana Studies and sociology, have been very open to what I teach. I've just had a very good experience here in terms of teaching."

Seniors also weighed in on the problem of faculty visibility.

"I guess that's an important thing if (students) are not seeing the black faculty, or not taking classes with the black faculty," Seniors said. "I mean you have Nikki Giovanni in the literature department, you have Fred D'Aguiar, you have all of these scholars. ... They should come to us as well as we should go to them. It should be a two-way street of them coming to us and us going to them."

There are some issues, however, that the BSA and the Racial Task Force agree upon.

Each One Reach One is a program designed to connect upperclassmen with freshmen on campus as a way of creating relationships within the Tech community among minority students.

"There are issues in every aspect (of diversity) with the students, faculty, alumni involvement and retention," said Destiny Jackson, BSA president and a junior architecture major.

"There are programs that really help with bringing in students, like Gateway," Jackson said. "Gateway brings minority students to campus after they receive their acceptance letters. They stay with other minority students and really get a feel for campus. I know that was the first time that all of us (in the BSA) had gotten together at the beginning of the year."

But there is a perceived roadblock for the potential success of Gateway and Each One Reach One programs, which bring minority students on campus together with upperclassmen to address the issues that they face in succeeding in college. Gateway is open to all students who are offered admission to the university, but is designed for underrepresented students.

"The university needs to support these programs more. I mean Gateway gets shorter every year," said James Sample, vice president of External Affairs for the BSA. "The funding for these programs is horrible."

The executive board also touched upon the problems of getting people other than minority students involved in the programs that the BSA puts on.

"We need to support each other's events, and not just the black sororities and fraternities, and not for just events like our comedy shows and concerts, but our cultural and informational events," Jackson said.

There are still some hints of prejudice on campus for organizations directed by underrepresented groups on campus that make the BSA hesitant.

"I've talked to people who don't think it's fair that we have black organizations. ... Some people just aren't accepting of it," said Ramla Brown, BSA director of speakers.

Brittney Davis, BSA director of communication, said the Commission of Student Affairs should be doing more.

"I mean we are all there together; we should be setting up events together," Davis said.