During a diversity roundtable led by the LSU Student Government student directors for diversity, discussion focused on several minority issues relating to campus, such as the Kappa Alpha Order’s Old South Ball, racism in Tigerland and gender neutral bathrooms.
The event, which took place Oct. 8, brought student organization leaders together in the LSU Student Union to learn about different social issues on and off campus.
Organizations in attendance included the Black Student Union, Spectrum and the Native American Student Organization, among others.
Jessica Dejan-Moore and John Lewis, director and assistant director of diversity for SG, respectively, led the meeting, which provided students with information regarding activism, on-campus support and issues involving minorities at LSU.
“We do plan on continuing this conversation,” Dejan-Moore said during the meeting. “This [meeting], I just wanted everyone to meet each other and just talk about what is going on on campus. This will be a continuous thing.”
The students broke into groups discussing what it is like to be a minority at a predominately white institution. Students considered questions such as “Do you feel connected or ‘at home’ on campus?” and “Do you feel that LSU treats all students fairly?”
Destinee Merida, president of the Black Student Union, presented the summary of her table’s discussion.
“Being a minority at a PWI is like being at home but being treated like a stepchild or a distant cousin,” Merida said.
Ethan Guerra, a representative from Spectrum who also spoke at the Student Senate when it voted on gender neutral bathroom legislation, said every campus minority faces distinctive day-to-day struggles.
“We all deal with different issues,” Guerra said. “Sometimes people understand our issues to some level but not really how to fix them. It’s kind of frustrating, but I’ve learned to be patient.”
When discussing how to correctly handle on-campus social activism, Lewis mentioned the Suspect:Vague demonstration held last semester after students felt LSUPD sent out a vague description endangering any student matching the depiction.
Support systems were also a main point for the meeting, as Lewis and Dejan-Moore listed several LSU departments catering to minority students, including LSUPD, the Office of Diversity and SG.
SG president Andrew Mahtook spoke on SG’s commitment to minority students and how organizations can receive funding.
“Student Government obviously strives to represent all students,” Mahtook said. “This year we’re really making a big push to be inclusive of all students like our constitution says.”
Dejan-Moore said the purpose of this meeting was to pave the way for future discussions about minority issues at LSU. She said she hopes it will open the way for more collaboration among minority organizations.
“We rarely collaborate,” Dejan-Moore said. “We really do need to start working with each other and talking to each other more. We see each other’s names and faces all the time, but we never actually talk to each other.”