Dear Uncle Ezra - Questions for Thursday, May 25, 2000

Uncle Ezra,
I have a peeve to get in the air:
        I was reading around, and I noticed (although this is a peeve in general, not just aimed at Cornell University) something. I am an Asian American, so it may bias me and not in any racist sense do I say this: Why is it that, when there are instances where institutions want to parade around the fact that they are "diversified," they include Asian Americans as minorities? And then, when there is a plethora of things that benefits minorities - ESPECIALLY affirmative action, but including things such as scholarships and grants, Asian Americans are not included in the minority soup? I find that as a great injustice to Asians.
        It's almost like how Giuliani likes to say that homeless people are part of the NYC population in order to add representation in the House of Representatives, but then when things are looked into to be improved or whatnot, homeless people are overlooked.
        Anyway, I'm not saying this in any racist way, I just wanted to vent out my frustration as an Asian American that it seems really unfair--

                                    "Asians are only counted as minorities

                                                         when it's useful"

Dear Reader,
Your peeve is well-founded.  In some respects, it takes personal experience as a member of any particular minority population to fully sense any existing dominant culture injustice, and I am very glad to have you bring this to everyone's attention.  However, I want to assure you that at this university, the paradox you raise has not eluded the admissions and financial aid administrators, who work assiduously towards developing a more equitable system for maintaining and supporting the diversity goals we have before us.  I know this to be true, and know, too, that the effort goes above and beyond any individual agenda:  It's a university-wide high priority.
        American colleges are fully entitled -- and honest -- in counting any non-caucasian student as a demographic minority.  The "parading around" aspect you felt and noted in your letter may be a result of your own heightened perception.  It might also be a result of a more subtle and actually quite positive aspect of university admissions recruitment policies that I'd like to tell you about.
        Allow me to give an example concerning other minorities.  Cornell administrators are frustrated by the slow progress we have made in recruiting black (African-American, West Indian, African, people of color) students to our undergraduate colleges.  The population we *have* been able to attract wavers around 5 percent.  Nobody at Cornell is satisfied with that, and faculty, staff, alumni, and students are continually -- and rightfully -- demanding that we do better.  This is a major problem, because being in such a small minority population makes the common experience of black students here to be sometimes, (but not always) marginalizing, lacking in community, isolating, and even alienating.
        We need to have greater numbers of black minority students to successfully address these pressing problems, but it is difficult to recruit first-year students when they hear about these conditions. So, it's a maddeningly slow process to achieve the critical mass needed for black students to really thrive here.  Students tend to think that the administration is not trying hard enough, but that's simply not the case.
        In the case of Asians, we are doing much better, for lots of reasons. We put forth similar efforts, also on a long-term basis and we are heading toward a stable undergraduate community that constitutes 15-20 percent of the undergraduate student body.  This is good for everyone.
        One hard, cold reality of independent financial aid donors is that they tend to provide scholarship grants on the basis of their own personal biases.  After all, they are giving their own money, and they usually feel entirely justified in supporting their pet causes.  Or in supporting students who look -- and need -- like *they* did when they were starting out.  People understandably like to help their "own kind" with their private funds.
        No university can really change that bias, but every university can help its own diversity agenda by using its resources to locate and take advantage of scholarship funds which will help to accomplish its diversity goals.
        That is one reason why, perhaps, the outside scholarships offered exclusively for particular underrepresented minorities are better researched, identified, advertised, and utilized at one institution than are all the scholarship offers in existence.  Here at Cornell, our financial aid office's resources for finding outside grant aid is limited, and priority may be given to finding grant money to help underrepresented minorities come to Cornell.  The Asian population is not, statistically speaking, classified as an underrepresented minority here.
        This explanation of some of the limitations, complexities, and subtleties of the institutional experience of identifying and locating scholarship funds is not meant in any way to dilute your argument about the critical issue you raised in your letter.  By pointing out the inherent paradox of counting a minority for public relations purposes, and then discounting that same minority in the hunt for scholarship opportunities, you are making a crucial argument, one very much needing to be addressed, resolved, and rectified.
        Your unique vantage point made it possible for you to see and articulate this problem.  Rather than just grousing about it and, feeling resentful, carrying it around inside you, you've now brought it to public attention through "Ask Uncle Ezra," which is a great first step.
        I suggest that you continue to keep this issue in the forefront. You could write a similar letter to the Chronicle of Higher Education (Senior Editor for student life is Ben Gose, 202-466-1076; ben.gose@chronicle.com), or take your concern in person to someone at the Financial Aid Office here (203 Day Hall, 255-5145), or the Undergraduate Admissions Office (221 Day Hall, 255-3316).  Larry Lamphere LL47@cornell.edu, 255-4833), an Arts and Sciences College admissions officer, has lots of experience with minority issues and would be happy to speak with you about your concerns.
        Because these administrators share your concerns, and, because, as you pointed out, this is by no means a problem exclusive to Cornell, they can help direct you to other institutions and to people who can help you to keep this issue alive.  By so doing, you can help to unravel this paradox and be part of the group who works to "level the learning field" at universities for all minorities.
        Thanks again for your articulate and persuasive letter.

Uncle Ezra

DUE,
I did not see the pigs head on a stick as I was not on the slope for Slope Day (05/16/00 Q04). However, it seems a just literary reference to Lord of the Flies, where in the absense of authority, the children run amuck and cause destruction to both themselves and those around them. I'm not sure if the frat meant it as sociological commentary or just thought that a pig's head on a stick was just "totally awesome man". However, the obvious parallels between Lord of the Flies and Slope Day make their choice of a pig's head all the more compelling. In truth, if we compare the lawless behavior of children in Lord of the Flies to students on Slope Day, perhaps the fantasy world on that island would be a moral haven and refuge from the drunken debauchery which prevails among those who choose to spend their last day of class in a drunken, half-dead stupor. Perhaps, deep inside, they truly crave the common sense authority that members of a mainstream society have and yet they have been denied by this godless institution where apparently "adult" students behave within a supposed institution of higher-learning as if it was merely high school with no rules. A severed head of a pig on the end of a stick is far less disheartening and deplorable than the image of humans being carted away on stretchers due to their self-destructive tendencies. I would
hope that, in the future, readers of DUE and other students at Cornell
would see past some silly fraternity idiocy and be more disgusted by the deplorable self-poisoning and immorality occuring around the fraternity's fitting choice of symbolism for the grand tradition of Slope Day.

Unsigned

Dear Literate,
Thanks for weighing in with your opinion, which is thought-provoking. Associate Dean of Students Catherine Holmes says she's heard a number of complaints about the pig's head over the years, but this year, people who find it to be a repugnant tradition have been more vocal. The Slope Day immorality which the pig's head, in your analysis, represents is also an ongoing controversial issue.
Slope Day happens because thousands of students make it happen, regardless of administrative policy, which aims (with much student help) to maximize safe alternatives and minimize harm. If you'd like to see Slope Day changed, keep on voicing your views and get involved with Slope Day and Slopefest planning next year, if you're still on campus.

Uncle Ezra

Dear Uncle Ezra,
I am an alumni member of "that frat" which carried that severed pig's head to the slope (05/16/00 Q04).  Zeta Psi traditionally has a BBQ to celebrate the coming of slope day in which we roast a pig. This tradition is older than most of the crybaby liberals who have nothing better to do than to whine about anything they find disturbing (i.e. non politically correct).  Give it a rest already!  Let us be crazy, especially since it is not at the expense of anyone else.  We are not going to give up a tradition that began before these whiners began puberty, especially when we are physically assaulted on the slope by these radical activists who claim that their ability to have a good time is ruined by the pig's head.  I think being assaulted is more likely to interfere with a person's ability to enjoy slope day. What can I do to protect myself from such lunatics?  This kind of thinking has even pervaded the minds of our school's faculty and administration, who are doing anything possible to try to discourage joining the Greek system and curtail our ability to have a good time.
        Oh well, boo hoo crybabies!  The world is such a tough place! See you on the slope next year.

                                                                        B.

Dear B.,
I'm not sure what you are "asking" Uncle Ezra.  To agree with you? That's not really possible, given the far-flung dimensions of your many opinions.  I certainly sympathize with the defense of one's institutional traditions.  You might do well to recognize that dissent is intricately woven into the fabric of university life.  Therefore, we can hardly demean others for defending the slain pig's rights (as opposed to your fraternal rites).  Nor can we, in all fairness, summarily dismiss the gut reaction many people have to the unexpected sight of dismembered and bloody body parts.
        But then I imagine the pure *shock value* of parading the pig's head has something to do with your fraternal enjoyment of this tradition.  When the reaction you elicit exceeds expectations, it falls to you to accept the anti-pig's head outcry.
        To protect yourself from the people who wish to do away with your public slope day "severed pig's head" ritual, try confining the ritual a little more discreetly to those kindred spirits who actually enjoy celebrating it with you.  That way, you can have your pig's head and maximize your own Slope Day fun too.

Uncle Ezra