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Mars Hill and UNC-A Students Stage Forum on Minority Issues
by Rebecca Roa
Black student groups from Mars Hill College and The University of North Carolina at Asheville met together recently to discuss the challenge of encouraging and keeping racial diversity on the two campuses.
The first annual forum, Bridging the Gap: a Race Dialogue on Isolation or Unity, took place at UNC-A on April 11, moderated jointly by UNC-A's Black Student Association and MHC's Ladies of Distinction. An audience of about 50 students and staff from the two schools attended. The forum drew the UNC-A Chancellor Anne Ponder and several top officials and included a 12-member panel of faculty and students from both colleges.
African American students make up 14.6 percent of traditional, full-time students at Mars Hill but only 12 percent if part time adult ACCESS students are included. There is only one African American on the full-time academic faculty.
Only 2.5 percent of UNC-A's part-time and full-time students are African American, but there are nine individuals (4.5 percent) in teaching positions.
During the discussion, UNC-A students reminded administrators that minority
numbers at UNC-A are not only low --they have actually been declining even as the rest of the student body has been increasing. From 1996 to 2002, the percentage of African Americans dropped from 3.8 percent to 2.1. It rose again during the next two years but recently fell back.
UNCA Sociology Professor Jim Pitts remarked that, "For each of our campuses, we can get a better sense of what institutional policy has been by asking how many, or what percentage, of our population (speaking of African Americans in particular) would remain, if the athletes weren't recruited."
Pitts, an African American who said he won his own entry to academic life through basketball scholarships, concluded, "…the policy is - the coaches produce those numbers."
In fact, although Mars Hill has one of the highest percentages of African American students in Western North Carolina, a large number come to play football. Without the Division II football team, the numbers would likely be closer to 2.5 percent, like UNC-A, which doesn't have a football team.
In her opening remarks, Chancellor Ponder affirmed her commitment to increasing the number of minority students and supporting them. This included $1,000 scholarships to be available next fall to African-American, Latino, and students from outside the South who meet academic standards and agree to participate in at least two qualifying campus organizations.
When the panelists were asked about existing administrative policy on diversity, Mars Hill Associate Professor of Business Paul Smith said, "I am not aware of a policy at Mars Hill. Either it doesn't exist, or it's my own ignorance." Other Mars Hill staff and students nodded in agreement.
Mars Hill Sophomore and panelist Ollin Dunford said people often make blanket statements about diversity that mean "bring in people 'who don't look like me.'" But at Mars Hill, he said, "It's not so much about bringing them in. It's how can we make people feel welcome, make them feel at home. It's about bringing diversity and keeping diversity."
Co-moderator Jasmine Young felt that one of the biggest issues at Mars Hill is the lack of interaction among the students already there. "We (The Ladies of Distinction) just had an event called the Legends Ball, where we invited all the female organizations on campus," she said, "and it was a very good turn out. What I've come to realize, you have to reach out to them. How are they supposed to realize that we want diversity, if we all hang with each other?"
The idea for the forum grew out of conversations between President of Mars Hill's Ladies of Distinction Jasmine Young and her friends in UNC-A's Black Student Association, Co-President Brandon Farrar and Volunteer Coordinator Tiffanie Tatum.
Both Farrar and Tatum requested that the second forum be held next year at Mars Hill.
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