Diversity at Trinity:
Student-Life Initiatives
Diversity at Trinity:
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Trinity has invested significant resources to support the enhancement of diversity in student life. In 1997, the Office of Multicultural Affairs was established to promote diversity and to support cultural and social life for minority students on campus. Also that year, a major expansion and renovation of Umoja House was completed, resulting in improved meeting space, study facilities, and social areas for African-American students - spaces and facilities that these students have used not only as a place in which to explore and celebrate their own culture and identities but also into which they have welcomed other members of the Trinity community. That same year, the gay pride flag flew at Trinity for the first time, during BGLAAD Week. Our Commencement speaker in 1997 was Myrlie Evers-Williams, who at the time was chairman of the NAACP. A multicultural faculty advisory board was formed in January 1998 to assist the Office of Multicultural Affairs in implementing programs and developing goals. Last year Trinity opened its field house for the display of the 352 panels of the AIDS quilt, bringing Trinity and the Greater Hartford community together to commemorate those who lived and died with AIDS. We sponsored a debate on affirmative action between John Brittain and Ward Connerly. Our multicultural orientation program for first-year students (the P.R.I.D.E. program -- Promoting Respect for Inclusive Diversity in Education) has been revived and expanded. Last year, students of color represented 32% of our Resident Advisers, and this year the number is up 46%; if we add in gay/lesbian and international students, the number climbs to 60% of the RA staff.
Over the past several years Trinity has hosted some of the nation's most eminent leaders and citizens, many of whom are passionate, effective advocates for change; they have lectured on campus and, as often as their schedules would permit, engaged students in one-on-one and small group discussion. They have inspired us all to remember that each of us is capable of making a difference. Martin Luther King, III, Ed Bradley, Tony Kushner, Spike Lee, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Angela Davis, Maya Angelou, Tito Puente, Jesse Jackson, and Kweisi Mfume have shared their experiences, talents, and insights with us. And we celebrated the myriad contributions and achievements of women at a special convocation and related events in the fall of 1998. Through the Presidential Fellows program, we have expanded our dialogues of understanding to engage international figures such as former Chinese Minister of Culture Wang Meng, former member of the Israeli Knesset Lova Eliav, and Director of Culture for Trinidad and Tobago Hollis Liverpool.