Student orgs correct to ask for additional funds
The Campus Women's Center would like to respond to Tuesday's Daily Cardinal staff opinion ('High budget requests hurt relations between students, orgs,' Oct. 2, 2001) which stated, 'student organizations often propose inflated budgets' and the Multicultural Student Coalition and Asian and Pacific American Council are guilty of this trespass in their budget requests to the Student Services Finance Committee. The staff opinion validates both groups as valuable to the campus community but says 'throwing money' at diversity problems does not solve them.
Neither does a lack of funding.
Student organizations are faced with the responsibility of providing the best services possible for students that the administration does not. The administration has many responsibilities regarding campus climate it has failed to meet, but even if it had met them, student organizations would still need to address this issue on a student level. The Campus Women's Center and other student organizations have the opportunity and responsibility to educate students regarding campus climate. Should students be forced to wait for the administration to change everything for them? No, the administration will only make changes if pressured, and the support of all student organizations and all students is needed.
Do not judge the budget requests of MCSC and APAC without understanding their services and needs. The opinion questions how a camcorder benefits the campus at large; what about documenting campus attitudes regarding diversity? What about the educational benefits of recording the overt racism experienced by students of color'for example, the blatant racism behind common Halloween costumes? It questions how desk chairs benefit students; what about making students feel comfortable and safe on a campus where they may not always feel welcomed? Before putting student organizations on the defensive, understand the need behind their budget; they are not put together on whims.
The main issue is whether student organizations will actually receive the amount of funding they need in order to serve and educate students or will they be forced to make do with inadequate funds. Student organizations have a responsibility to campus, but they also provide many services, which means they have a need to ask for support.
Closed minds of students apparent since attackMadison has long
garnered a national reputation as one of the most 'liberal'
campuses in the country. I use liberal in quotes because, while the
campus may be liberal in one sense, political lean, it most
certainly is not in another, that being open-mindedness.
The campus' high-brow closed-mindedness is time and again
displayed, though not often in such a flagrant way as with the
criticism that came after the anti-war protest of Sept. 20. Heaven
help anyone who may try to disagree and face an incessant,
bickering barrage of reasons why they are wrong and stupid for even
disagreeing.
The low-brow closed-mindedness of the campus, however, rarely earns
mention. Prejudice, while assumed non-existent on this 'liberal'
and enlightened campus, still rears its head disturbingly often.
Though we've heard little of anti-Arab and -Muslim sentiment since
the attacks, its kin still flourishes. Walking home from my
friend's apartment last Friday night, I overheard not one, but two
incidents with such comments. I was walking up Park Street behind a
small group of people who were talking to passengers in a car
rolling slowly past. Suddenly, the car sped away, and the passenger
yelled, 'Fuck you, you Asian bitch!' Always heartening. Then, as I
walked down University Avenue in front of another group of people,
I saw two cop cars pull up near Burger King. A guy in the group
began to talk about all the 'messed up fights and shit' that always
go on there, and how he'd like to step in and break them up if it
weren't for the 'black guy with the Tek-9 who'd shoot me.'
Eloquently put.
It seems if there's one thing that we all should have come out of
the attacks with, it's a renewed sense of brother- and sisterhood.
America is great'not only because of its diversity of people, but
also its diversity of opinions and beliefs. Because of the enormous
variety of ideas possessed by America's population, we can pick and
choose the best aspects of all of these ideas, thus coming up with
a superior solution to any problem that may arise. This is the
foundation of democracy. Just as any democracy should, by
definition, listen to all of its constituent groups, so should its
people.
