MU student panel discusses diversity

Students gathered Thursday night at MU’s Gaines-Oldham Black Culture Center to discuss diversity and the social climate at MU. The goal was to start an informative dialogue among different student groups.

“A lot of times we hear the administrators, but we don’t actually hear the students themselves speak,” said Travis Gregory of Collegiate 100, which sponsored the event.

Collegiate 100 is a campus organization of black males that promotes awareness and social activism.

Jesse Berrios, the vice president of the Hispanic and Latin Students Organization at MU, was one of the seven panelists that spoke at the forum.

“The idea that four years of college will make people more accepting doesn’t work,” he said. “People leave here as racist as the day they came in.”

Other panel members represented the MU Residence Hall Association, the United Ambassadors, the Legion of Black Collegians, the Native American Student Organization the College Republicans and the College Democrats.

In his closing statement Berrios said, “We have a race problem on this campus, and this problem isn’t going to get solved until the majority and minority agree that there’s a problem.”

Berrios said a required diversity component is essential for all students for the problem to be solved.