Pitt’s diversity questioned by professor, students

Black students make up nearly 10 percent of Pitt’s student population – a proportion that has… Black students make up nearly 10 percent of Pitt’s student population – a proportion that has increased since the fall of 2001, when they made up 7.9 percent of the population, according to Pitt’s Fact Book.

But members of Pitt’s community still can’t agree whether or not Pitt is diverse.

Those who believe that Pitt is striving to create an increasingly diverse campus include Jack Daniel, the dean of students, and Justine Hand, the Pitt Program Council director. Daniel and Hand point to the trend on campus of bringing in more freshmen with diverse backgrounds and bringing in programs that cater to diversity.

Chancellor Mark Nordenberg brought in more black freshmen in the last two years than ever before, according to Daniel.

Daniel also named prominent black officials at Pitt, such as Jeannette South-Paul, chairman of the family medicine department, Stephen B. Thomas, a researcher on minority health, and Robert Hill, vice chancellor for Public Affairs.

Hand, who believes Pitt is “very diverse,” mentioned the hip-hop venue at PPC’s Fall Fest and a Spanish foreign film that was presented to students as indicators of her council’s contributions to diversity in the last few weeks.

Hand also pointed out that she is working closely with the Black Action Society to organize events. BAS President Vanessa Gerideau has criticized PPC for charging students too much for events, but Hand pointed out that both the concert and film were offered free of charge.

Gerideau and Vernell A. Lillie, of the Africana Studies department, do not believe Pitt has made great strides. Both questioned the amount of money spent on diversity, compared to that spent on other programs, and both viewed Pitt’s diversity with respect to how far Pitt has come since the 1960s.

Lillie said the programs she provides for students, particularly her Kuntu Repertory Theatre productions, create a special understanding of black people from all around the world, but that Pitt doesn’t seem to appreciate her activities.

“I don’t think Pitt does understand,” Lillie said, referring to her work and her department’s contribution to black culture.

As director of Kuntu Theatre, Lillie said she needs $133,000 a year to maintain it, but she added that she must get most of it from her “own pocket.”

For what Africana Studies offers in terms of theatre, literature and history, Lillie said she believes Pitt “should invest a lot of money in being the top [university to offer Africana Studies] in the country.”

According to Lillie, other universities she has been to focus more on creating diversity. She said she is disappointed that not only has Africana Studies not developed into what it could be since coming here in 1969, but that other departments and schools with large numbers of black students enrolled, such as the schools of Social Work and Education, have “shrunk” in recent years.

Departments such as the English department are given more attention and funding, according to Lillie. If Africana Studies doesn’t offer the same things as the English department, Lillie said, “I don’t know what August Wilson and Toni Morrison are doing there.”

Lillie also resented that a student who helped her manage Kuntu Theatre could no longer work with her. “I had a student taken from me,” Lillie said, describing how Pitt decided “to remove the student’s position.”

Daniel declined to comment on Lillie’s remarks.

Gerideau, along with fellow chairperson Charis Jones, commented on the amount of money that PPC gets from the student activities fee, while the student government organizations must divide their share of the fee. PPC receives around 30 percent of the student fee, while the student government organizations must serve thousands of students with the remaining funds, they said.

Gerideau and Jones both pointed out that their organization, BAS, was not allowed to use the Petersen Events Center when they requested its use for a presentation.

“They spent all that money on [the Pete], and who is it for?” Gerideau asked. She added that BAS was told, “‘Student organizations cannot use it.'”

Jones added that, as the Pete went up last year, so did tuition.

In addition to commenting on how Pitt’s money could contribute to diversity, Jones asked, “Why doesn’t Pitt have a multicultural department? Other universities do.”

Black students make up the largest minority population of Pitt students, followed by Asian students, who made up 4.4 percent of Pitt students in 2001, according to the Fact Book.

For students like F. Jay Ver and Jamila Marr, Pitt is neither actively supportive nor unsupportive of diversity. Ver is the president of the Asian Students Association and Marr is the president of the Muslim Students Association. Both feel their organizations provide diversity and create understanding of culture for students who seek a place to identify with others.

Ver said Pitt has come a long way in recognizing diversity in the last decade, and he cited his organization’s privilege of governance status as an example. Governance status allows a student organization to receive more funding from the student government board when its student body is significantly larger than other organizations.

The ASA has about 500 members, as does BAS, which also has governance status.

Ver sees diversity as not only a responsibility for the University to take on, but for students to take on as well. “Student apathy” is partly to blame for any lack of diversity on campus, he said.

Marr, who shares the same proactive perspective on diversity that Ver mentioned, said that being black and Muslim does not mean she only associates with people of either group. Marr spoke about the satisfaction she gets from mixing with many people of differing races and religions, such as white, Catholic, Baptist or Muslim.

“Most people have a one-track mind, so a mixture of people is cool,” Marr said.

Marr takes that philosophy into her organization. Marr networked with BAS and Pitt’s multicultural sorority to create presentations on Islamic culture, as well presentations focusing on Muslims and non-Muslims interacting peacefully.