Break down walls, don't write on them

A few weeks ago, students on the first and second floors of McKean and Baldwin in Fisher-Hassenfeld College House were greeted with offensive drawings and graffiti -- including words such as "fag" and "Jew" -- written on the walls of their hallway.

How could something like this happen here? After all, we have the opportunity to meet and learn from people of a variety of races and backgrounds. Which, theoretically, should breed tolerance. But if we still fall victim to offensive vandalism on campus, can we say we've benefited from our diversity at all?

Web surfers can easily find out that 41.4 percent of those accepted for the Class of 2008 -- the most recent data available -- were black, Hispanic, Asian or Native American. And these figures don't even begin to tell of the student body's wide range of socioeconomic and ideological backgrounds.

Well, congratulations to us. We've surpassed the national minority percentage of 31.1 percent. We're obviously diverse. But is it doing us any good?

We have more than 60 cultural and support groups on campus, and this is a valuable first step in reaping the benefits of Penn's diversity. We have developed an environment where our differences are preserved instead of ignored so we can share them with the student body.

But does that happen? Have we been so concerned with maintaining our individual identities that we have let them divide us? For instance, how many of us can say we have attended cultural events held by groups we don't belong to?

Not many, myself included.

It can be intimidating to enter an environment where you don't know many people or understand the traditions taking place.

So how can we encourage students to learn from each other and still feel comfortable?

The answer is simple: student-sponsored interfaith and intercultural events.

If students won't take individual initiative to experience new traditions, then our campus groups should hold events solely for this purpose. Students could then be surrounded by familiar faces while also taking the time to meet new ones.

Luckily, our campus isn't totally devoid of things like this.

The United Minorities Council sponsors two major events on campus each year: Unity Week in the fall and Celebration of Cultures, which will take place in early April. In Celebration of Cultures, the 17 constituent groups of the UMC hold a festival on College Green to share their traditions with the Penn Community.

Hillel President and College senior Jenna Statfeld is also currently working with leaders from several of Penn's student groups to create what she calls an "inter-community network" on campus.

"I think there's a lot of merit to putting faces to names of groups," Statfeld said. "There's currently a listserv that we started ... for every group to send each other events that are going on. ... There's no forum for anything like that."

The UMC's events and the inter-community network are steps in the right direction. It is important that students take advantage of them.

But the true responsibility for changing the way we experience our diverse campus doesn't lie with umbrella organizations. This responsibility falls on the individual groups around campus and the students who run them.

ALLIES and the Chinese Students Association could throw a Chinese New Year Party together. Yofi! and Onda Latina could teach each other their respective traditional dances. The exact types of events students choose to hold doesn't matter. What matters is that otherwise unaffiliated student groups get together in a friendly and inviting environment to experience new cultures and meet new people.

And, just maybe, if we take the time to learn from each other instead of letting our differences divide us, we can start breaking down walls instead of writing on them.

Liz Hoffman is a sophomore political science major from New York, N.Y. New York Minute appears on Mondays.

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