While proposed changes to the Coed Fraternity Sorority system have dominated campus discussion of the steering committee's recommendations, hidden in the folds of the report is the establishment of a new committee that would investigate a World Cultures Initiative.
"We decided that there was a serious need to address some of the multicultural issues on campus, and to spread discussion of these issues through campus social and academic life," Trustee Susan Dentzer '77, co-chair of the steering committee, said..
The World Cultures Initiative would also help increase social connections among students of different backgrounds, she said.
Students at a fireside chat this Monday were critical of the vagueness of the world cultures proposal, since the report gives no specific vision for the program.
The committee did not make concrete plans since members thought "that required a level of expertise we didn't really have," Hillary Miller '02, a member of the steering committee said.
According to Denzter although there is increasing diversity on campus, this has not meant that the College has found the best way of incorporating multiculturalism.
"Minority students said that they were too often put into a teaching role," Dentzer said. "They were expected to educate and enlighten others."
"This task is simultaneously difficult, time-consuming and exhausting," she said, adding that it was time for the College to take institutional responsibility.
"The World Cultures Initiative would represent a commitment by the College in form of permanent staffing, funding and space to continuously provide enriching programming," the recommendations report states.
The new committee suggested by the recommendations would be charged with formulating "an appropriate program to promote cultural understanding."
The report does contain some guidelines for the new committee in designing its educative program -- one key suggestion is that programming should be aimed at the entire community, not just minority groups, Miller said.
According to Denzter the offices of both the College president and the dean of the College are working on the creation of a World Cultures Initiative task force on a preliminary basis.
The task force's final status, like other recommendations in the steering committee report, are currently under review by the Board of Trustees.
