Millions of dollars as well as countless hours of manpower are spent each year to increase diversity at Tufts. This has resulted in the creation of a slew of student groups based on ethnicity. These groups attempt to share their culture with the community, and while they often are successful, many feel that there is, at times, a lack of cross-cultural involvement.
The lags in intermingling between racial groups makes Tufts more of a mosaic of cultural expression than the melting pot that diversity proponents envision.
"The administration does a good job with recruiting students and trying to promote the image of racial harmony, but whether they sustain it is a completely other question," Pan-African Alliance member Carl Jackson said.
Campus groups noted that student involvement in other cultural clubs is low, whether through attendance of events and activities or through the joining the organizations that plan these programs. For example, Arab Students Association (ASA) Co-President Dina Karam said that there is a demonstrated lack of interest from students outside the Arab community in her organization, whose "main mission is to educate people about Arab culture."
"At least from the Arab point of view, most of the events we host only attract Arabs, which kind of defeats the entire purpose of their being an Arab cultural club," she said. "Even at the Shisha night, which was supposed to appeal to a wide range of people, we did not get as much diversity as we had hoped for. We wanted the majority of students to be American, not Arab."
While ASA is one group that is finding it difficult to attract wide-spread student interest in its programming, a number of other campus groups have found a diverse market within the community. Many of these are arts and performing organizations, which use their medium to cut across racial boundaries.
"Music has a unique role on campus. People can really enjoy it whether or not they have any background in it," said Rael Nelson-James, president of Essence, Tufts' all-female a cappella group dedicated to singing music of the African Diaspora. "Musical groups have a unique opportunity to try to unite people behind something that is an experience rooted in the senses rather than something rooted in something more cerebral."
Essence prides itself on the fact that three of the 14 members are not African American. The group's website explains "When it was first founded, Essence was intended, or perceived to be, only for women of color. But now we are proud to be one of the most diverse incarnations of Essence ever." Junior Betsaida Garcia, one of the three non-African-American members of Essence, said that race is a non-issue for the group. "Those of us who are not African American are drawn there because of the music," she said.
Garcia said that the group's disinterest in ethnic background helps them attract the most talented singers. "I think it helps for other groups to see that it is all about music," she said. "I think that if Essence were all African American, people would think that they couldn't audition because they weren't black. Even when I auditioned, there were other people who weren't black, and it showed me [Essence] was very open."
Other cultural performance groups that work to attract students regardless of any ethnic affiliation have experienced some difficulties. "At Sprit of Color, we do not say we're just one color, but people sometimes assume they can't do it because they're white," said Larissa Johnson, treasurer of Spirit of Color Performing Arts Troupe.
The group was formed in 1996 when students felt that the dance troupe Sarabande was not making enough efforts to include students of color. Spirit of Color, which Johnson said is one of the most diverse groups on campus, has no ethnic affiliation, and performs dances from a variety of cultures.
"Most semesters we try to have at least four culture dances. We try to have it varied so it's not all hip hop or jazz," Johnson said. Sprit of Color's show last week featured two Indian dances - traditional folk dance and one that was a modern mix of eastern and western style - as well as numbers in step dancing and African American tradition.
However, Johnson did say that, for other groups that do not have as central a focus as Spirit of Color does with the arts, diversifying membership can be troublesome.
"I don't want to say that people don't make an effort to blend together, but when it comes to joining a group that seems like it's based only in ethnicity it's very hard to other people to join," she said.
Nelson-James said, however, that in the end, race or ethnic backgrounds are not the determining factor in students' decisions to participate in or attend events. "Groups have good turnout at events not because they think these events are for people like me, they go because they feel it will be a great event," Nelson-James said. "A dynamic speaker is a dynamic speaker."
The existence of the varying ethnic organizations on campus furthers a principle that the University tries to reflect in all aspects of campus life: diversity. The purpose of establishing a diverse campus, in theory, is to celebrate peoples' variant backgrounds and heritages.
"[The University seeks diversity] for all the best reasons, to provide an environment that reflects the world around us," said Mel Bernstein, Vice President for Arts, Sciences, and Engineering, who is responsible for many of the diversity programs on campus.
