Views differ on campus’s integration

Jennifer Anukem knows about diversity.

She is on Student Government Board, serves as the… Jennifer Anukem knows about diversity.

She is on Student Government Board, serves as the political action chair of the Black Action Society and, in her spare time, works for programs that promote African heritage among people of all racial backgrounds.

As a student leader constantly in touch with the campus pulse, Anukem also knows about race relations at the University.

“From my perspective, race relations at the University of Pittsburgh have improved over the past few years,” she said. “But in my opinion, race relations in the city of Pittsburgh are slow to improve.”

She regularly interacts with students who have a distinct interest in promoting and appreciating diversity at Pitt; however, she sees room for improvement regarding the city as a whole.

“The city is having a hard time maintaining black professionals,” she said. “There seem to be many African-Americans in the lower or middle sector, but when it comes to the fields of law or business, my areas of interest, it is difficult to find black professionals. This is discouraging to a student such as myself.”

Different student organizations across campus work together to promote diversity; groups like Black Action Society collaborate with organizations from Hillel to the Korean Student Association.

Still, Anukem doesn’t think that the University is doing enough for the black community.

“As a whole, many organizations on campus do their best to bridge the gap in race relations on campus. But in some ways it seems like the University has taken a step backwards in facilitating minority retention and achievement,” she said.

Anukem said that she has seen funding cut from programs that “have proven to be effective in helping minorities achieve academically.”

She points to groups like Impact, a minority engineering program, and the University Challenge for Excellence Program.

“My understanding is that these programs were geared toward minorities whom, due to their socioeconomic conditions, may not have had the prior classroom experiences necessary to excel at Pitt,” she said. “What message does the University community send to students by completely cutting their funding?”

She is also displeased with the levels of integration in her departments of study.

“Three years ago when I set foot on Pitt’s campus, I could point to a few professors of color in my departments of study. Those numbers have plummeted,” she said.

Larry Davis, an executive administrator in the Office of the Provost, helped spur enormous change in the late 1960s, participating in marches and protests that advanced civil rights.

His generation had hope for an America completely void of segregation. He’s starting to lose confidence.

“I thought race relations would have made more progress by now,” he said. “We didn’t think there would be regressions or turning back of the clock. I am disappointed that race relations aren’t improving.

“I’m also disappointed with the level of racial interactions,” he said. “Interracial marriages and relations are still a big deal these days. I honestly thought things would be better than this.”

According to the 2006 University Fact Book, Pitt is 75 percent white, 7.6 percent African-American, 6.1 percent International, 4.3 percent Asian, 1.3 percent Hispanic and .3 percent American Indian. The rest of the student body, 5.4 percent, is of unknown racial background.

Although Pitt is three-fourths white, students from various ethnicities on campus see improvement in interracial relationships.

David Tyson, a junior at Pitt, describes his mixed heritage as “a powerful index of alcoholism.”

Tyson – who is part Irish, German, Native American and black – sees improvement regarding interracial relationships on campus.

“By the nature of any city, you will have some interracial relationships,” he said. “But this is one of the few places in Pittsburgh I believe different races mingle together well. This is a blue-collar town, and if you are black it’s hard to get a job, so some resentment may trickle down to local students that come here.”

Some students were familiar with being a part of the white majority in high school and encountered the same here at Pitt.

Megan Ellis attended a predominately white high school, where she was a part of the majority.

Ellis, a sophomore and active in Pitt’s Jumpstart program, isn’t as optimistic about race relations on campus.

“Jumpstart introduced me to a lot of diversity, and my own group of friends is rather diverse,” she said. “But I see the separation of different races around campus, especially in the cafeterias. I see a lot of cliques, and I don’t understand it.”

Jumpstart is a non-profit organization that provides early education in low-income areas.

Casey Lightbourn, a black junior majoring in neuroscience, doesn’t see the voluntary segregation other students perceive.

“Pitt is a pretty diverse school with little racial seclusion,” he said. “Everything seems to be melted into one big pot and it is a rather enjoyable environment.”

Student opinion varies from one person to the next, but most agree any segregation on campus is voluntary.

For activists like Davis, however, today’s campus is far from the vision they had decades ago.

Despite this, hope remains.

“African-Americans are facing less discrimination than they have in the past,” Davis said. “Blacks are participating more than they did, they are assuming more leadership positions. Things are getting better.”