A paramount summit on race and culture on campus concluded that institutional racism, faculty accountability for their in-class conduct, and safety and comfort on campus are three of the priorities SF State needs to address.

The summit, an all-day event that brought an estimated 400 students, faculty and administrators together to voice their complaints about racial and cultural insensitivities, drafted a tentative list of 10 priorities.

“I was not naïve, but hopeful that the classroom climate had improved more than what these comments would indicate,” said the mediator, Kenneth Monetiro, psychology professor and university dean of the office of human relations, in response to the racist experiences students voiced at the Summit. “Some of their (students’) comments were frighteningly similar to those we experienced three decades ago as we were only just desegregating major universities.”

The all-day summit was hosted by SF State President Robert Corrigan, Jim Edwards, Chair of the Academic Senate, and Natalie Batista, president of the Associated Students, Inc., in an attempt to address concerns of racial relations on campus, said a preliminary report from the Summit on Race and Culture.

“I surely wish there were more faculty here — students are here, administration is here,” said Corrigan of the 400 people present. “I know it’s tough on a Friday but I would’ve liked to see more faculty.”

The opening of the summit was marked by expressive poetry read by Batista as she addressed the crowd about the severity of racial tensions on campus.

Of those present, many stood in line to voice their experiences and opinions in the five microphones set up around Jack Adams Hall. All were encouraged to speak openly about their experiences with racism, and over 250 questions, comments and concerns were made to Montiero.

Topics ranged from requesting a yield sign on Font Blvd. to the sharing of racially-charged incidences.

After a two-hour comments session, the audience was broken into work groups, where they selected the 10 most important issues mentioned during the open-mike session.

Of these issues, several students expressed frustration with some of the music that is played at Malcolm X Plaza.

“They (the “N” and “B” words) are not a part of hip-hop culture. It’s very disrespectful to those who created hip-hop culture,” said Asa Randolph, liberal studies and black studies student. “Until you are followed around in stores, stopped by the police, you won’t understand what it means to be black.”

“We are getting sincere and straight-forward feedback on what they say we need to change on campus,” said Monteiro.

After reconvening to share the group’s top 10 choices, people separated in to small groups and discussed what they felt needed to be prioritized for a progressive campus environment. After about an hour of brainstorming of possible resolutions, all groups reunited at Jack Adams Hall to present their outlined resolutions to the rest of the audience.

The list of campus priorities, which can be viewed at xpress.sfsu.edu, included making steps to increase multicultural awareness and university accountability, as well as creating a safe campus environment.

Historically, this is the first-ever top 10 list of racial and cultural issues that have become priorities on campus. Three surveys attempted to examine race relations at SF State in 1989, 1996 and in 2002-2003. These surveys concluded that there was a need for racial and cultural awareness, according to the Public Research Institute located at SF State.

Some administrators and faculty hoped this summit would progress social issues on campus.

“I’m impressed with the level of real participation… The willingness to speak honestly and civility, said Robert Corrigan, SF State president. “I think we are learning something.”

While some viewed this summit as a stride towards more awareness of diversity on campus, others were less optimistic.

“It’s a good environment but I don’t think any change is going to happen until something bad occurs,” said Leana Darden, computer science student.

“It was nice to see President Corrigan, it’s my second year here, I’ve never seen him before,” said Erica Botz, undeclared major student with a minor in global peace studies. “I just hope a lot of these things get enforced.”

Sociology professor Chris Bettinger said that in general, people superficially listen to other people’s opinions without understanding their experiences, which, in turn prevents open communication.

“We tolerate the speech, but we don’t really hear it, we’re supposed to allow that speech but we don’t grapple with it,” he said.

“They (students) should have a closer relationship among themselves and with their leadership so that they can increase their ability to work on difficult issues in the future,” said Monteiro. “Following through is a community effort.”

Additional reporting by Christian Soderholm.

Summit Priorities

1.More outreach and retention of faculty, staff and students of color. The result of numerous comments about under-representation of African American, Latino and Native American faculty, staff and students.

2. Promotion of cultural awareness through cultural-sensitivity training addressing all the “isms”: homophobia, sexism, ageism, racism and classism among others.

3. Faculty accountability for classroom conduct. This is in response to numerous students of color who gave testimonials of offensive and derogatory remaris in their classes.

4. Safety and comfort in the classroom and campus environment. This issue was anchored in a number of strong comments about the safety of women on campus as well as another comment regarding selling alcohol on campus as a risk.

5. Black equity issues for students and faculty. This referred to a variety of issues concering African Americans including: restaurants, graduation promotion and providing culturally relevant vendor options.

6. Examine institutional racism. An attempt to capture the range of issues that addressed the need for systematic and institutional change. It included a request for a university self-study, annual summits and creating a model for a national accrediting process to set and maintain standards of cultural sensitivity.

7. University-wide accountability to multicultural diversity. This included a request for reoccurring summits.

8. Student multi-cultural curriculum requirements in general education courses.

9. Misconduct of language policy. Though no policy was proposed, this issue was brought up from numerous complaints of the “N” word referring to African Americans, the “B” word referring to women and the “F” word for gays.

10. Understanding of the unique issues experienced by international students, including visa status, getting classes, cultural misunderstandings, etc.