In recent years, Chico State has been ranked among top universities for its academic reputation. But if it were ranked on diversity, it would likely be on the opposite end of the list.
Minority enrollment in the California State University system is "topping 53 percent -- more than twice the national average for four-year public universities," according to the CSU Office of Community Service Learning facts for the 2003-2004 school year.
But Chico State doesn't follow the trend.
In the last three years, Chico State's student body has been composed of 60 percent white students, leaving about 40 percent of its students to find a way to make Chico State feel like their home.
From a minority perspective
While some minority students feel unwelcome and uncomfortable at Chico State, some say it's all about getting involved.
Nhu Huynh, a junior who is Vietnamese, said when she came to Chico State she was very surprised to see it was a mostly white campus. She grew up in Oroville, a city she said is very diverse. Because of its physical closeness to Chico, she thought it would also be diverse.
When Huynh, 20, noticed she was the only Vietnamese student -- and that most students were white -- in her first college class, she said she tried not to think about it. She said she walked from class to class thinking she was special, thinking about all the good things Chico State had to offer and not about race.
Huynh has been at Chico State for two years now, has a diverse circle of friends, and said she doesn't have time to think about being a minority because she's busy with school, work and extracurricular activities. Huynh interns at the Associated Students Recycling office and recently joined the Southeast Asian Students Association.
"Being involved doesn't make you feel like an outsider," Huynh said, "it makes you feel like you belong, like you're a part of the university."
Unlike Huynh, junior Ulises Cerda didn't grow up in a diverse city. Cerda, who is Hispanic and grew up in Chico, said that being a minority wasn't an issue until he got to fifth grade.
Cerda, 22, first went to Chapman Elementary School, located in Chapman Town, a more diverse area of Chico. In fifth grade his family moved and he transferred to Neal Dow Elementary School, a predominantly white school, where he said he couldn't relate to anyone.
Cerda then moved on to Chico Junior High School, where he said things were a little better, but he noticed one thing:
"All minorities know and hang out with each other," Cerda said.
This is also true at Chico State, he said.
There is really no relation between white students and minorities, Cerda said, unless there has to be or students feel comfortable with them.
When Cerda moved on to college, he said that even though he grew up in a primarily white city, he went through culture shock.
"I thought it would be diverse," Cerda said, "but it wasn't."
He said that in high school he took honors and advanced-placement courses, and in many cases he was the only minority, or among the two or three who were in the class. He said that this situation made him open up to white students, and others, and this experience helped him in college.
"You get over it because it's not beneficial for you to stay away," Cerda said. "In the end, after you put yourself out there, you realize that the camaraderie between yourself and a white person is the same as between you and someone of your own ethnicity."
As easy as this sounds, Cerda did have a little help. He is a member of Nu Alpha Kappa, a Latino-based fraternity, which he said is his home away from home. He said it helps to "stick to people who can relate to your background."
What the administration says
Joe Wills, university director of public affairs, said he will never know what it's like to be a minority, but he tries as much as he can to understand what minority students feel.
"Chico is wonderful. Chico is friendly," Wills said. "But Chico can also be unwelcoming."
Students have told him plenty of stories about incidents that make them feel uncomfortable in Chico. He said that is why the university is trying to do things to increase awareness.
Chico State President Paul Zingg said that diversity is among his top five priorities. He said as far as diversity goes, his "ultimate goal is to make faculty, staff and students diverse."
Zingg said his first order of business concerning diversity is to familiarize himself with the university's situation. He said he has met with several groups who have expressed their concerns, and he has made it clear to them that diversity concerns him too.
Zingg said it is important to have diversity on this campus to prepare students to live and work in an increasingly diverse society.
He said diversity isn't just race and ethnicity but also includes gender and ideas.
Zingg said the university recently hired Phyllis Fernlund, a woman, to be the new dean of the college of communication and education and has made Byron Jackson, an African-American, the new dean of the college of behavioral and social sciences.
Zingg said these appointments are statements, and people are going to notice.
He said his office will sponsor speakers that are diverse in who they are, what they think and what they do. He said that through speakers and events, the university is going to try to educate students and the community so that minorities feel welcome and comfortable the whole time they are here.
Wills said programs, such as Building Bridges, are trying to educate the campus and community.
Building Bridges was created in the summer of 1999 after a series of hate crimes caused Wills and others to think that students and the community needed to be educated on understanding and respecting others.
Building Bridges sponsors speakers like Dolores Huerta, events like Conversations on Diversity and multicultural mixers with the Associated Students, Wills said.
But Cerda said he thinks the university doesn't do enough. Every year Cerda's fraternity, with help from other groups, organizes a high-school conference, the main focus of which is to promote higher education among Hispanic families. He said the conference is usually a success, but there is one problem.
"It's sad that we had to approach (the administration). They were willing to help, but we had to go to them," Cerda said.
But whether it's an event put on by the university or by a student organization, Wills said these events can't do it alone. He said creating diversity at Chico State, and keeping it, is a lifetime of work.
"A lot of things are built brick by brick," Wills said. "This is one of them and everyone can do a little bit to help lay down a brick."
Zingg agrees with Wills. He said that this is something that everyone has to work on. He said he's working on making it happen and hopes minority students understand how important they are.
"Students who bring us diversity enrich us," Zingg said. "They make us more interesting and teach us new things."
Missing out
Maagic Collins, an African-American sophomore, was born in South Central Los Angeles, which he said gave him a powerful sense of community through parades and festivals. Later, Collins moved to the Bay Area, where he learned to value diversity.
Collins, 20, said the importance of diversity isn't so much to make students comfortable, but to educate students and prepare them for the real world.
Collins said he had some of the best discussions and learning experiences in high school because of the diverse perspectives that other students and professors had. He said he thinks Chico State students are missing out on this.
But Collins said he thinks Chico State has the potential to be diverse. He was recently targeted in a hate crime in which his friends' car was vandalized with racial slurs, and the university responded with a rally. The turnout for the rally was good, making Collins think Chico State is ready for diversity.
Collins is a member of the Business Resource Center and of Men of Honor, which he said helped him deal with the incident.
"I didn't know how to react to it," Collins said. "They helped me use the momentum that it created to start a dialogue about it."
Collins said it is important not to tolerate people but to understand them. He said tolerating someone is just sharing space with them, and that doesn't help.
"The only thing that separates us is the environment we grew up in," Collins said. "We need to respect and understand each other in order to move ahead."
Gitzel Vargas can be reached at gvargas@orion-online.net
Be the first to comment on this article!