Diverse Student Group Lists Demands for Chancellor, Including Donald Trump Apology

A diverse group of student leaders from UW-Milwaukee’s cultural centers has formed a coalition to address the racial climate on campus, outlining a series of demands they want administrators to meet, ranging from an immediate public apology for allowing Donald Trump to have a Town Hall at UWM to preservation of the campus cultural centers in lieu of budget cuts.

Student leaders call it a powerful, underrepresented community, and they want their voices heard. So far, they don’t feel they are. Students from this coalition have said that the administration doesn’t follow words with actions. They want all other students, faculty and staff to be trained in cultural competency to adequately prosper in a school with more diverse students than other UW schools.

Student leaders organized a meeting on May 4 to present their demands to Chancellor Mark Mone and other top administrators. Mone said it would take him and his administration at least a week to 10 days to complete a written response given that it was nearing the end of the semester. But one of the final demands students had was that they receive a written response by May 10.  That didn’t happen.

Miela Fetaw, Maya McCarthy-Neal and Marina Johnson approached Mone on Wednesday to follow up on his progress since they hadn’t heard from him yet. Fetaw said Mone told them they should expect an answer “in a day or so.”

Then, on Thursday, Fetaw received an email from Associate Vice Chancellor, Jim Hill, saying the administrators are coordinating the draft of the response and hope to have it to the student coalition by the middle of next week. Hill said, “If we run into delays, we will get back to you early next week.”

Student leaders said that UWM is not inclusive, that they don’t feel supported by the administration and that they fear that the only places they do feel safe will be underfunded and understaffed. They said that the student body, students of color and all marginalized students on campus need to see a strong display of solidarity from Mone.

“Honestly, I am kinda afraid, you know? Like what if I’m speaking Spanish and some guy says ‘Oh you’re not American, you have to go,’ what am I gonna do if that happens to me on campus?” Oscar Hernandez, a member of YES!, said.

The chancellor pledged to make things better.

“We want to do a better job at helping address and take care of any issues regarding diversity,” Mone said. “I’m committed to that.”

Students suggested creating a campaign or a policy on campus to demonstrate that as a university, UWM is against hate and bias and will not tolerate it.

You could tell the students were prepared for this meeting. Their demeanor was very serious, they stuck to their agenda and spoke with confidence. The topic of hate crimes is very prevalent throughout the UW System, and students said this was only one of the many times they’d brought their concerns to the administration in regards to the safety of students of color.

The officials present at the meeting were Mone, Vice Chancellors and cabinet members Joan Prince, Tom Luljak, Michael Laliberte, Provost Johannes Britz, Hill, Professor Robert Smith and Dean of students Tim Gordon. Mone and the administrators let the students speak first and then they responded after.

Luljak said, “I truly applaud you for coming forward today with these concerns. This is a demonstration of your commitment to making the University a better place. We take this very, very seriously, and you’ve got my commitment…”

Before this meeting took place, student leaders persistently asked people in the Union to take a survey they had created. Their table was open for approximately six hours and reached over 350 responses. By doing this, it allowed them to create a concise, strategic agenda to spearhead main points they wanted to present to the Mone.

The survey asked about students’ concerns and negative experiences at UWM. It asked students how they identify, if they felt administration was doing anything to address concerns of phobias, hate and discrimination, their personal experiences and what suggestions they might have to generate change.

Student leader McCarthy-Neal said that it wasn’t hard to get feedback from students and that a lot of students had the same apprehensions in regards to the commitment of the chancellor and his cabinet.

“It was about the actions following through. A lot of students are feeling like you know the issues, and the problem is not understanding what’s going on here, it’s taking action,” McCarthy-Neal said.

In midst of the conversation, Fetaw said, “I want to add that as students of color we’re not pointing the fingers or casting blame…keeping in mind that racism and segregation started before we set foot on this campus and will exist after we leave this campus.”

According to the UWM Office of Assessment and Institutional Research in fall of 2015, 16 percent of African-American applicants were enrolled at UWM. Students who identified as African Americans ranked the lowest percentage among other students who identify otherwise. As a comparison, that same year, 37 percent of white students who applied were enrolled for the 2015 fall semester.

Retention is also an issue. In 2014, 329 African-American students were enrolled for their first fall semester, but only 197 enrolled for a second fall semester within the UW System, making that a retention of about 60 percent. About 19 percent (38 African-American students) were enrolled within UW System but did not stay at UWM.

However, UWM is a diverse school compared to others in the UW System. Although Madison has a lot of international students and Asian-American students, even Madison has fewer African-American and Hispanic students than Milwaukee, despite Madison being a much larger school.

The student group’s first demand was that students of color be publicly and consistently prioritized by assembling a team of administrators, including Mone, to overlook the implementation of their demands. Students said a lot of trust issues ride on the premise of whether or not Mone will publicly apologize about letting Trump on campus for a Fox News Town Hall event.

“As a Muslim woman, I feel that the chancellor and his administration lack understanding of how Muslims feel on campus,” Sagal Dalmar, student leader said. “One incident in particular was regarding the chancellor allowing Donald Trump to come to campus. Why would you allow someone to come to our campus that continues to belittle and berate a whole group of people on the bases of false pretenses?”

In a statement to the UWM community at the time, Mone had written, “As a public university, we allow outside entities to lease our facilities, and we do not restrict their use based on the content of any individual or entity’s message. Such openness is consistent with our commitment to free speech and academic freedom. UWM does not endorse or promote any political candidates. We do encourage all students, faculty members, and staff to educate themselves about all candidates and to participate in our nation’s political process.”

The student group would also like to see effective consequences for incidents of hate. Fetaw said that before this meeting she was completely unaware that a hate bias form existed on UWM’s webpage. She suggested that the reporting process should be more transparent and accessible for students.

Prince, the Vice Chancellor for Global Inclusion and Engagement, had the first opportunity to respond to the students, and she said, “I agree with you. I think every student needs to know what the hate bias form is. They need to know there is one. They need to know you can fill it out. They need to know what happens once you fill it out, and I think a lot of that comes from….things are on the web; Just ‘cause you put something on the web doesn’t mean someone knows it’s there.”

Next on their list was to require cultural competency on campus. Students said they’d like to follow suit with Chancellor Rebecca Blank of UW-Madison as she agreed to begin training for administration. The training at UW-Madison will be similar to its training for freshmen and transfer students but will mainly focus on administration.

“Cultural diversity is different from cultural competency. People can take African dance and satisfy cultural diversity, but they learn nothing about how to interact with people of different cultures, and I think that shifting this requirement to do more of that teaching,” McCarthy-Neal said. “I think this will help students on campus to get more experience interacting with people of different cultures and understand different cultures in a critical way.”

Students of color have also said how important the cultural centers are and accordingly another demand was to protect and develop centers such as African American Students Association, Black Student Union, YES! and the Roberto Hernandez Center. For many, they provide a safe space, a place where they supported and celebrated for who they are.

“We could all tell you a million reason why those centers are important to us. They’ve made a difference in our lives, and we need to know they’re secure. We need to know that they’re going to be fully funded and fully staffed,” McCarthy-Neal said.

Lastly, on the agenda was the need to implement a five-year plan to improve recruitment, retention for students of color and also increase the representation with staff and faculty of color.

Jamaal Abdul-Alim, a UWM alum, studied the retention rate of African American students back in 2013. What he found was that only 19 percent graduate within six years.

Fetaw said this is “kind of disheartening and very baffling considering that we do have the largest population of black students in the UW System.”

UWM is a very diverse school compared to most in the UW system, but yet some students of color aren’t feeling supported. According to the University of Wisconsin System Student Reports and Statistics, in Fall of 2015-2016 the headcount of students at UWM who identified as African American was 2,043; of Hispanic/Latino, 2,224;American Indian, 105; two or more races at 1,615; and Asian-American was 1,650; Hawaiian/Pacific Islander was 26; international students were 1,615; white students tallied 18,415; and those who marked unknown were at 126.

Meanwhile, to be a diverse university is different from being an inclusive one. UWM does have higher numbers of different races other than white, in comparison to other colleges in the UW System. But that doesn’t mean it has resolved how to successfully function as a diverse school.

What student leaders such as Fetaw are looking to improve is the cultural education, awareness and support from other students, faculty and staff on what it means to be an all-inclusive school, to not just promote cultural diversity but cultural competency as well.

The best way to describe the difference between diversity and inclusivity is in the words of Vernā Myers, a nationally recognized expert on diversity and inclusion within law firms, law departments and law schools: “Diversity is being invited to the party; Inclusion is being asked to dance.”

Smith, Vice Chancellor of Global Inclusion and Engagement mentioned how these are difficult times in a unique way, and he has compassion for students in college right now.

“It is a particularly pronounced moment, and we live in a particularly racialized region both geographically and also politically. So, you are absolutely right to bring to us and to bring to our awareness the challenges you’re facing…I hear you. We hear you loud and clear. It’s a difficult moment.”

Students are staying hopeful about the meeting. They said a lot of commitment was made and they would like to believe that Mone and his cabinet will be proactive and not just reactionary.

Dalmar and Fetaw said, “…a lot was left up in the air,” and that the board members “said a lot of things we expected them to say.”