UVM, St. Mike´s hold forums, lively debate
Burlington Free Press
Thursday, April 23, 1998
by Molly Walsh and Mike Donoghue

Two colleges Wednesday answered President Clinton´s call to examine race relations and open dialogues to improve tolerance in their communities.

About 500 people participated in a town meeting at St. Michael´s College on Wednesday night, praising and condemning the school´s efforts to accommodate diversity. At the University of Vermont, 50 people attended one of a series of forums being led by federal civil rights workers to address racially charged incidents on campus.

Opening a dialogue

Although some praised St. Michael´s College for taking the lead in hosting the national dialogue, others said the college isn´t working hard enough.

Ralph Guillette, a retired salesman from Essex, said he can´t help notice during breakfasts in the student cafeteria that African Americans sit by themselves in one section, Asian students in an other and the ´rich, white, Catholic students" in a third area.

"I say, why?"

Jen Scola, president-elect of the student government, said while the college might not be as diverse as some would like, it does sponsor many events to increase awareness.

"We encourage diversity," she said.

The first hour of the town meeting focused on comments from a nine-member panel, be fore the microphones were opened to the crowd for more than an hour and a half.

The key to improving relations might have come from Darren Beers, one of two students on the panel.

"You can´t understand another race unless you have face to face communication," said Beers, who noted he was one of three African- Americans among 700 students in his high school in Maine.

UVM´s soul-searching

The federal Department of Education visited UVM as part of a five-year initiative to work in partnership with federally funded institutions to ensure that equal opportunity and high-quality education are available to all students.

Dozens of colleges and universities will take part in the initiative. Donna Russell, an officer with the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights in Boston, described the decision to visit UVM as a "proactive" step taken after study of race-related controversies at Vermont´s state university.

Race has been a thorny issue at UVM for more than a decade inspiring protests, hunger strikes and building takeovers by critics who say the administration has not acted strongly to recruit people of color and punish racism.

Recently, the Acacia fraternity on campus has been at the center of a controversy over an alleged racial incident involving pledges and a member of UVM´s minority community.

Anger and tears surfaced at the forum. At one point, UVM research process analyst Judy Ashley accused the Student Government Association of displaying racist behavior during a meeting Tuesday.

Students of color at that meeting asked the Student Government Association to support their bid to seek funding for clubs such as The New Black Leaders and the Asian American Student Union directly from the UVM administration. Such clubs are funded from the association´s budget.

Yelling will not promote dialogue, said sophomore Marguerite Barrett, a student government senator, who was upset with the course of Tuesday´s meeting.

"I sat at the (SGA) meeting and I felt attacked," Barret said. "I felt I was racist because I was white...I look at....(student of color) and want to learn from them. When I look into their eyes, I feel them hating me...I hope you can realize we really do care."

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