Every student complains about his or her classes at one point. Now, thanks to the Provost's Office, a Student Focus Group series allows students to express concerns directly to UW-Madison administrators.
Working as an intimate forum to gauge students' experiences, the Student Focus Group series commenced Thursday at Memorial Union.
The goal of the series, as Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Bernice Durand explained, is to help UW-Madison sense how students feel about the campus' climate. The gathering of students at the session were invited to share anecdotes and general trends observed while attending the university.
Free to discuss any issue at hand, the students soon concentrated on diversity.
Mega Nopija Khalidi, a UW-Madison senior of Muslim faith, told of a teaching assistant who singled her out and then argued the meaning of \jihad"" with her in class soon after Sept. 11, 2001.
""No one was there to defend what I was saying,"" she said.
Durand and fellow host Mo Noonan Bischof, Assistant to the Provost, inquired what means students thought would be most effective in reversing the diversity pitfalls they mentioned.
""What can the university do to help improve the climate?"" Durand asked.
Several students among the group agreed the issue of white privilege must be addressed in order to help UW-Madison truly be a diverse and tolerant school.
""You can't make huge strides on this campus until white students get involved,"" said UW-Madison senior Lauren Biedron.
Biedron also said it was critical that UW-Madison students learn about white privilege early in their university careers.
""Maybe SOAR should be overhauled,"" she said, speaking of ways to increase student awareness of white privilege. ""I can't think of how else you can reach everyone.""
Durand concluded the session by stressing, ""If you're in a class, you need to reach out.""
Durand also expressed desire for more students to attend the upcoming forums to be held at Memorial Union, Monday and Tuesday of the next two weeks. Students are requested to register first by e-mailing Bischof at mabischof@wisc.edu.
