When asked whether Boston College offers a welcoming community to students of color, a panel of BC students answered with a resounding "No." It was to discuss questions like this that students and faculty gathered Monday night in Merkert Hall for a panel discussion hosted by FACES entitled " The Black Student Experience at BC." FACES is a student-run organization at Boston College focused on educating the BC community and fostering dialogue about issues of race and systems of power and privilege. The "Real World: Boston College" panel discussion was one of a series of events hosted by the Black History Month Committee and a FACES Hall Talk. The Hall Talk program seeks to engage students on issues of race in an informal setting, whether in a residence hall or an academic classroom, by facilitating dialogue.
Kevin Harvey, co-president of FACES and A&S '10, introduced the panelists and asked a series of questions before the panelists fielded questions from the audience. The panelists answered questions based on their own unique experiences at BC and came from a diverse range of years, schools, and backgrounds. The panelists included Jasmin Walters, A&S '12, Warith Taha, A&S '09, Pascale Pierre, A&S '09, Kadeem Massiah, CSOM '12, Earl Edwards, A&S '10, Amber Shackelford, CSOM '11, and Malika Hodge, A&S '10. "It is important to hear about the issues from the student perspective," Harvey said. "We often hear professors say certain things when it really has to come from students."
Other opportunities for communication on issues of race at BC are offered through FACES. Dialogues on Race (DOR) is a new program through FACES run in partnership with the Office of Residential Life, the Office of AHANA Student Programs (OASP), and the Office for Institutional Diversity (OID). DOR is an opportunity for upperclassmen students to discuss their experiences with race at BC through six weekly small-group meetings. FACES has a similar program for first-year students: Facing Forward. FACES' Web site describes its mission as, "Through discussions, social interactions, and academic forums, FACES stimulates dialogue and facilitates the elimination of structured inequality, discrimination, and racial polarization. These conversations and experiences will challenge individuals to address their own preconceived notions, and those within and beyond Boston College."
To the question of whether BC offers a welcoming community to students of color, the panelists said no. "Coming into college, I was so determined to not hang out with black people," Walters said. "Back home I have a diverse group of friends. I actually had an experience in a Mod where I got kicked out because I was black. I do have a few Caucasian friends [at BC], and I've spoken to them about [the race issue], and it's funny how we feel intimidated to reach out to them because they feel the same way. It's the same on both sides."
"My first week at BC, I felt the divide," Edwards said. "The first thing my friends asked me was, 'What sport do you play?' 'What team are you on?' People assumed I wasn't here for my academic integrity. Right off the bat, I'm coming off to them as being someone less than."
Harvey presented the panelists with the fact that about 26 percent of the student population at BC identifies as AHANA. To the question of whether the panelists feel supported and represented at BC academically, they said no.
"For example, I'm in CSOM, and I know maybe two black females in CSOM," Shackelford said. "It reflects the make-up of the real corporate world where it's mostly white men."
"I came here as a theater major, and I decided to drop the major because I didn't feel I was going to be able to act to my full ability here because they just stopped typecasting last year," Walters said. "I know other theater majors that are African-American who are seniors now and have never had a part on main stage." The panelists also mentioned the lack of black professors at BC as negatively affecting the quality of faculty mentorship for some students. "If we had more faculty who were black helping us, it would be more effective," Pierre said.
"I feel like there's a need for our black men to start taking positions of leadership. As a freshman, I'm looking for an older brother or a community of young men around me, and I have none," Massiah said. "We need more professors, faculty, and staff that we can identify with. We need somebody to help us, guide us, and tell us what to do. We all need to be strengthened together."
The panelists agreed that along with open and honest dialogue, action is also necessary in order to affect change. "I feel like when you're talking about the 'lack of' it can go on and on," Hodge said. "What are we going to do from that point? We need to start making changes and stop sitting outside of it all the time."
"The conversation is important, but now it's time for some action, too," Massiah said. "Barack Obama knew that he had to be the change he wanted to see. He wasn't sure people were going to take him seriously because of the color of his skin, but he saw what needed to be done, and he did it. Let's not complain about the burden. Let's say it's an opportunity for us to make change and take action."
"I think some of the responsibility needs to be placed on BC as an institution," Taha said.
"If we took the time to talk about racial problems and racial tension and put it in the classrooms then we could actually make change very fast without putting so much pressure on clubs and student leaders on campus," Edwards said. "It's something that the faculty members and administrators should take part in more."
Gabriel Verdaguer, assistant director of the Office for First Year Experience, said that of the 223 orientation leader applications for this summer, only seven students self-identified as African-American. "I graduated from BC, so I understand things are complicated in many ways," Verdaguer said. "But if that number doesn't change in the next couple of years while I'm here, I'm quitting because I'd consider that a failure."
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