The College Fix

Unanimous vote after failed negotiation over cost of dance show

Diversity-oriented student groups received more than $85,000 from the University of Oregon Student Senate earlier this month, with three-quarters going to black student groups — even though black students are only 2 percent of the student body.

The governing body, which controls about $4 million that comes from mandatory student fees, used much of its budget surplus to pay the full requested amounts from the five requesting groups.

The Black Student Union got $45,000 to host a dance show, the largest requested amount. The African Students Association, which promotes “cultural awareness about Africa and its people,” was granted $20,000 for its Africa Night.

Senators were reluctant to give the BSU its full request, asking if it could lower the cost of the show, but the union’s representatives won them over. The Senate approved the full request unanimously, according to the Daily Emerald.

UO has even fewer students identified as African American than whose ethnicity is “unknown,” according to the university’s fall 2016 statistics.

The university’s LGBTQ association received $15,000 – also unanimously – to host Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, an elderly black transgender rights activist who has accused gay rights activists of “whitewashing” the movement.

ROAR, the school’s Radical Organizing Activist Resource Center, received $4,000 for an anti-racism event.

We’re good at ‘inclusivity’ and pronouns

Five organizations requested surplus funds, Student Senate President Lauren Young told The College Fix in a phone interview.

Each student pays about $234 three times a year to fund the senate, a body of 23 elected and appointed representatives, and student group requests.

The vast majority of funding requests are approved, Young said: “I can’t think of a request that was ever voted down.” A spokesperson for the campus College Republicans told The Fix that its recent $500 funding request had been granted, though it rarely asks for money because of the amount of paperwork required.

Young said that supporting student groups helps improve the climate for “minorities” and “marginalized” students on campus.

MORE: Mandatory student fees could become optional in Minnesota

“Something unique about the University of Oregon is that we are very strong about inclusivity, which is a good word. Not diversity, but inclusivity,” she emphasized, meaning that UO makes minorities feel included.

“We learn when we come to the university how to use proper pronouns [to respect everyone’s gender identity], how to address people, not to assume whether someone’s a girl versus a guy,” said Young.

Creating a culture of awareness is important, she said: “The Student Senate fulfills its role very well.”

‘We were very surprised’ to get twice as much

While the Black Student Union and the LGBTQ association did not respond to multiple requests for comment, Ellen Bakira, a member of the African Students Association, told The Fix she was excited for her group’s upcoming Africa Night.

About 500 to 600 students attend Africa Night each year, which has been held the past eight years, Bakira said in a phone interview.

She didn’t expect the Senate to award her group its full requested amount, which was twice as much as previous years. $20,000 “for Africa Night is not normal. We were very surprised we even got that much.”

Since most of the African Students Association’s members are graduating this year, it requested more funding than usual to make the event special.

“Africa Night is a good chance for people to come and see the fashion we see have, the kind of food we have, the performances we have, the dancing – it’s a good chance to learn a new perspective and try new things,” said Bakira.

“We want to show them the other side of Africa,” not the stereotypes people have about the continent’s people, she said. “People have a hard time embracing the positive.”

Putting ‘colonialism and imperialism’ in context

ROAR member Augustine Beard said the radical group requested $4,000 to bring an independent filmmaker to campus to talk about “indigenous communities in North America and the effect of imperialism and militarism on these communities.”

He declined to identify the filmmaker, who will “bring a different angle to the conversation about race that contextualizes it in colonialism and imperialism.”

The UO Multicultural Center will also co-sponsor the event, he said. The center did not respond to a request for comment.

Formerly known as the “Survival Center,”  ROAR fights against the “exploitation of capitalism, colonialism, imperialism and all forms of greed and domination” and considers its members “advocates for a safer space and intersectionality.”

MORE: Wisconsin students could opt out of paying for liberal campus programs

Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter

IMAGES: African Students Association/Facebook

Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter